WORST ECON PROFESSOR AT THE SCHOOL! He does not know what you are being tested on, and everything he talk about in class is completely useless.

Econ 101 was so horrendous. Little to no practice problems for exams, and ones we got were either way to easy or not on the exams. Does not explain how to solve problems in lecture, and exams were nothing like lecture. I would avoid this class with him at all costs.

Structure of the class makes it extremely difficult to succeed. Very little review material, lecture is incredibly unhelpful as are the explanations for previous finals and the problem sets. I would avoid this class. Read the textbook if anything.

average for the midterm was a 50 in the class. prof is a terrible at lecturing, he is not engaging whatsoever because the material he goes over during lecture is absolutely useless to you. Section slides and old tests (which you are given two) are all you go on for this class. feels like the professor is oblivious to the needs of his students.

Absolutely the worst professor and class you can ever take at UCSB. I have never witnessed such lecture slides that are this completely useless. The lecture slides only have equations and useless graphs that won't be needed for exams. Reading the textbook does help a bit, but it's sometimes unclear when it comes to the math portions.

I am genuinely offended at how this course has played out. None of them (professor/TA's) care in the slightest about the education we've received... TA's cant even solve half the problems. And the questions they do attempt to solve are often riddled with errors. The econ department desperately needs to OPTIMIZE econ 101. More like algebra 101.....

Lectures were essentially useless. He goes on rambling about the most generic material that is irrelevant to what you will be tested on. Section slides, problem sets, and the 1 previous test you get are your best way to study. TA's don't even understand what is going on either.

this is the worst economics class I have taken at UCSB and he is the worst professor at UCSB. The class goes way too fast, the professor does not show helpful examples, don't bother asking the TAs for help most of them don't even know what the class is covering. the exams will be hard, unlike the textbook, lecture, or practice exams. AVOID IT!

Really bummed at Javier. I was fresh out of 10A when he scarred me out of taking this course. "You need to take 100b first, its very important for this class". That wasn't true. Everything is directly from 10A. Truly wish I had taken this course immediately after 10A... 100b seems to be much less related to 10A.

READ THE TEXTBOOK. Lectures are completely irrelevant to class. Section sucked on average, but section slides sometimes had similar questions to midterm/final. Book material and practice probs were the closest to exams. Godspeed, soldiers.

tests are unpredictable with few things to review. midterm was relatively easy. final was brutal.

just awful

Ima keep it honest with you guys, this guy is terrible. Brother has no idea how to lecture, and is allergic to giving us practice problems. Lectures were a joke, guy would spend an hour showing us a gdp chart that had no relevance within the course. stay away from this guy if you can.

He failed to provide us with any practice problems for the final exam. With only four short-answer questions in the final, and no opportunity for practice, I'm uncertain if I'll be able to succeed. This course is incredibly challenging.

His lectures are nothing related to the homework, and the office hour is only once a week with an overlap of 25 minutes with the section. The TAs doesn't have any office hours either. The contents of the class are mostly micro stuff from econ10a and econ100b. It makes me wonder why it's a "Macroeconomics" class. Avoid him if you can!

Professor Birchenall explains the concepts well in lecture and always recaps the previous lecture at the beginning of each class. His midterm and final were hard because they were all free response questions. His new testing format is planned to assess whether students get the main concepts or not.

The professor changed his grading to free response from multiple choice and it made this class a disaster. There were no previous tests to study, the study guide was useless, and when we got the right answer we would get an 8/10. That being said, I got a D- on the midterm and probably an F on the final and got a B+ so I don't know what to say.

Not an enjoyable class. He's a nice person but he can't teach at all and repeats slides word for word like Hartman. Average for midterm was 52/100 and final was 67 /100 because he wanted to "try a new format." Probably the worst Econ class I took since I don't even know how to study for this class but curve was huge it seems. Not recommended

He is a nice guy, but he is not a good professor. The midterm average is about 50/100. He just repeat the PPT. Would not recommend this professor. I will never take his class at all in the future.

His class is really boring and tough! He is like repeat the exactly the same examples from the textbook. so you don't need to go to the class, you just need to read the textbook at home. The average score of the midterm is 50/100, which means he is really not good at setting the question. Such a low average score proves his teaching is very poor.

He seems like a nice guy but he's not good at teaching and just repeat slides verbatim. The new format of midterm he just tested out contains question which sounds simple, but worded so vaguely you have to guess what he is talking about and even contradicted book at times(so who's right?). Would not recommend and awful job preparing students.

Honestly not a very enjoyable class. The homework is worth 30% and is fairly difficult (make sure to go to office hours for help). The midterm is very straightforward MC. The final free response is almost impossible so do not expect to leave feeling like you aced the test. The curve is massive for this class so don't worry too much.

LOL the easiest A I've gotten from the major. Just try and do well and the midterm (MC) and you should be alright. The free response on the final was iINCREDIBLY difficult but the curve in the end is very forgiving. I got a 25% on the first FRQ and an 85% on the second FRQ and still managed to do well in the class.

Birchenall is a pretty good professor. He gives HW that is fairly easy to get full points on. The midterm is all MC and the final is a mixture of MC and math. If you read the book, and study the lecture slides, it shouldn't be too bad.