this professor is really boring. He talks in circles from lectures to lectures (like repeats stuff a lot) and he doesnt give any reviews or practice stuff for midterms or final. He doesnt give explanations for the answers from midterms. The class is long and boring. Some of the stuff from midterm he had never talked about. 100 questions on final!

Birchenall is honestly not that bad. I got a B in the class after not doing well in other econ courses. His lectures are better than people say but he doesn't cover the math. The class isn't easy but if you go to section and do all the problem sets it you should be fine, as most of the math comes out of the problem sets.

The worst econ class at UCSB. Professor is terrible...does not know how to effectively teach. Talks in circles. Lectures are pointless and your grade solely depends on if you and your TA get along. DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS. You will regret it!

DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS. He just repeats what's in the book. Very heavily math based. Unless you love doing calculus on the Solow model and Cobb-Douglas Functions take this course. In all honesty, you will not apply any of this sh*t in the real world. Avg on midterm was 55. That say's a lot about teaching quality. F- . Horrible teacher, but nice guy

Nice guy but horrible teacher. He is confusing and unclear. Lectures are so boring and not helpful for preparing for the test.

He is a nice guy. Although the course is taught very "by the book" and subsequently conservative. Lectures are boring and redundant. The book is rather narrow for a subject that requires a more comprehensive analysis. Do the reading, do the HW and go to lecture if you want to make studying easier. Done deal.

He's adorable. And sooooo knowledgeable. My fave prof in the econ dept. Test are hard but fair.

I thought it would be pretty cool to take a class in econ. development, but he butchered and sucked the life out of any interesting topics. If you value your time don't go to lecture, the only good part about this class is the book... got an A from reading it. He seems like a nice guy but that only goes so far.

Hard class but he helps a lot in office hours. Midterm and final are easy if you understand the material and have a good grasp of calculus, Alegebra II.

Birchenall is a wonderful prof. He changed the book this quarter so that there is barely any math involved. He's helpful to students and his slides are very clear. You don't expect his tests to be that hard, but they are pretty challenging. Overall, I thought the class was very fair and he's been my fav econ prof(cuz we know most of them suck)

He is a good guy but the class is just crazy. No matter how good of a note taker you are or how well you do the problem sets, the midterma and final are ridiculous. I thought for sure I was going to fail but pulled a C+. He just wants everyone to get something out of the class.

If you like 101 then take this class, otherwise do not! He writes his tests to confuse you (he said that!) Also, doesn't show up to office hours on time or at all...

I completely agree with wat the guy said above. dont take this class if you want to learn about how developing countries economies grow. Its all****ty calc

This was by far the worst class I have ever taken. Unless you enjoy working the Solow model from Econ 101 to death, don't take this course. I went to all the lectures, took good notes, did all of the problem sets and I went into the final. I couldn't answer one quarter of the test. Somehow I pulled a B, but I thought for sure I was gonna fail.