Terrible. Not much more needs to be said. If you have to take him, good luck.
My advice: do EVERY SINGLE Gauchospace problem, print out lecture slides, go to CLAS, do the handouts on the CLAS websites before you attempt practice tests. Textbook was USELESS. The best way to succeed is to study & practice every Gauchospace problem & understand the concepts. Go to office hours & ask questions. Open office hours & CLAS drop ins!
2 midterms (25% each) then a final (50%). you have to work for your grade but there's a set curve which helps. my advice: CLAS, practice midterms!! try to understand the concept. It's do-able!!!
Tough class. Hartman's a decent prof, but people like to complain when they don't spend the 10+ hrs of high effort per week required to get an A in this class.
An embaressment to UCSBs' econ program. His lectures in the class are pointless as I could read the slides and interpret it better by myself. Section attendance helps alot and will save your grade. His goal is to weed out people of Econ and does so by acting like the tyrant of Econ and making MC questions where TAs would guess incorrect.
honestly wasnt that hard. he's an ok teacher i definitely did not pay attention in class but I did do a bunch of the problem sets and CLAS work problems and that helped me out the most. his lecture slides are online so they're good for review.
Given the time constraints of the lectures I think he does a decent job. The reality is you have to spend a lot of time working on your own or seeking outside assistance through CLAS or other means. It's just not easy material, so I don't think ripping on the guy is quite fair. You definitely want to peruse the CLAS 10A website materials .
LOL good luck, have fun
10A is set up to fail you. The department designed it this way. Hartman runs 10A, writes the tests, and is a terrible teacher. Ditto about his lectures, they aren't helpful at all. The tests are made up of trick questions and are really difficult. Go to CLAS! Transfers beware! You need a solid B in order to get into the major. It's not easy.
Hartman is dry when he teaches as he just reiterates what's already on the slides. There are two things that'll help you pass this class: Do all of the practice problems all of the time, and go to CLAS. The rest is useless. Also get ready for some tricky exams. Midterms are 6-7 questions and the final is 10. Put in the work and you'll survive.
Just avoid him he is all about slides and won't bother to answer your questions in class since he has only 50 minutes to go through over 30 slides. Go to CLAS instead and your sections. Stick real close to your TAs and CLAS mentors they will help you pass not this slide show fanatic, and if you really want to attend class go to Slaters classes.
I recently graduated with an Economics/Accounting degree. I saved Hartman's class for my last quarter. I had never had him for a class before this. He is my least favorite econ professor at that school. His lectures do not help at all. You need to study the practice tests. Hartman is not friendly and a difficult person to get along with.
For his 10A class and it was mediocre imo. He reads off the slides so that's pretty useless. It's like a robot repeating what is already on there. Doesn't really go much in-depth about the materials either but then again all lower div econ classes sucks. Office hours are a joke. I went to clarify a concept and he tried to get rid of me ASAP!
Hartman is a pretty good teacher. He is very clear in lectures and makes sure to reinforce old ideas that show up later in the course. The exams are designed to be tricky and you will need to understand the ideas well to succeed in the course. There are not that many topics and they are all related and can be solved with similar methods.
Hartman is very methodical and slow in the way he teaches, which is nice when he is teaching complicated concepts. I found his lectures extremely helpful. Go to class even though the slides are online! Pay attention to all of the graphs because they always pop up on tests. Also, sign up for CLAS. Good luck econ majors!
Overall, it is an interesting class because his lectures are relevant to the real-world. However, his lectures have nothing to do with the test, so it's irrelevant. He posts past tests online which is basically your only resource. If you do and understand the past exams, the class is extremely easy. He's a decent lecturer, but a terrible teacher.
I took this class twice with two different teachers. Hartman was better at explaining the content. Class is still extremely hard but he walks through the slides and explains very well.
Professor Hartman was amazing. His lectures were clear and straight forward. He is knowledgeable about the subject and helpful in OH. He expects you to understand the concepts behind the problems & if you want to do well on the final make sure you take him seriously when he says that. CLAS is good for basics but that's not enough if you want an A
The lectures are so boring and dull it was really difficult to pay attention. I feel like I did not learn much from this class and felt that I could not disagree with the premise that was being presented. He loved to talk about himself but he would take 15 minutes to explain a story that could have been told in 5. Only take as a last resort.
After I finished my EconMath degree from UCSB, I have to say that hartman indeed is the good professor among all others. if you really his lecture dry and boring wait until you try some other upper professor. his lecture is very consistence, clear, dry by economics's nature. if you are seeking someone who is better "teacher", he is the one .
Hartman is not a good professor. His lecture is reading off the slides.... a great professor can explain material from their own knowledge of it, and explain it in simple ways that makes it easier to understand. Hartman simply reads from the slides and doesn't add any additional or alternative explanations. Not a good professorwould not recommend.
Hartman is like the nicest professor I ever had in UCSB. he is super clear and helpful and he put all past exams and lecture slides on gauchospace. If you do your work you can definitely get an A!
Every time he says "irregardless," my ears bleed. They've been bleeding profusely throughout the quarter. He pretty much just says what's on the powerpoint in a different way. TAs are more articulate at explaining concepts, like always. The material isn't that bad, just study the concepts. The math is just derivatives and algebra.
Not as the others said, I really liked his lectures. He always takes interesting example from real life (Vegas, Gambling, ...) and illustrate well what he teaches. As a basic finance class, you will not learn how to earn millions! He publishes all tests he gave for the last 5 years. Do it all, you will rock all tests!