Kept me awake and engaged with his humor. Very knowledgeable in the material and always makes things crystal clear. As others have said, do all the textbook practice problems to be prepared for those curveballs he might throw at you in the midterm/final. That will definitely make or break your grade.
Harmon is a great lecturer. He explains the accounting concepts very clearly and is able to make them relatable, so as to make the lectures much less dry than they could be. He bases his tests solely off of the reading and homework, so if read the book and use the study tools it provides, you will not be surprised by anything on his tests.
Great personality, open door policy and very cooperative when you have problems with anything. Sometimes makes an appearance as the most interesting person in the room and lives up to that impression 90% of the time. 1st Prof I meet whose Workload is considerable, yet never appears pointless or like he makes you work for the sake of working. #lad
Read the book and do all of the practice problems in the back of each chapter. HIGHLY recommend that.
I've had a good experience with Professor Harmon being my 3B instructor. He's a funny guy and an easy-going person. Both midterms& the final were fair. In order to get a good grade in this class, read the book thoroughly and do EVERY problem in the back of the chapters. That way, you'll be ready for the curveballs he may throw at you. Good luck.
First off that average grade of an A is wrong. Now that is not to say that Harmon is bad. He's great at keeping your attention, he's very quirky. He does big examples in class that are very useful. Definitely pay attention in class! The class is tough but Harmon is fair, & his tests are straightforward. Do the practice problems in the book & Wiley!
Lecture is useless, extremely monotonic, and manages to make accounting even more boring. He writes his tests the night before so its unpredictable. Still, it makes you work harder and that got me an A in the class by getting the highest score on the final. Don't give up and you should be fine.
He was very clear, and fair. I've heard interesting reviews about him during the year, but this class was so easy. Curved like all the classes but if you pay attention in class, and do the hw this class is cake. Easiest upper division accounting class I've taken
Avoid Harmon and his SBP class. The only SBP class that assigns homework. Try to make everyone participate, have to tell ethical Dilemma, just a bunch of philosophy on ethics, no answers just questions, and he always seems angry and irritated. No study during lecture policy too
Course wasn't difficult, but the readings and homework require some time(2-5 hrs). How to do well: read the text over and over, take practice MC test on Wiley before quizzes, be punctual with homework(find HW partner), master examples he goes over in class, do additional problems for practice. Non-cumulative(post midterm material is more difficult)
DON'T DO IT!!!! GREAT INFO BUT WILL DRAIN YOU OF ALL BRAINPOWER AND ENERGY!!!!!!!!! DO NOT TAKE 139 WITH HARMON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
First half of the class is pretty easy, explains the subject reasonably well and midterm isn't too bad. Second half of the class...good god, doesnt explain homeworks properly before assigning, contradicts textbook 50% of the time, has multiple wrong answers on the homework for the most confusing part of the class (which is 50% of final).
I liked Harmon in 3B and 136A, but this class was a mess-- disorganized and hard to follow during class, unapproachable and aloof outside of class. What he taught in class was often different from what the book said. Worse still, independent googling of these discrepancies often resulted in a third answer as unhelpful as the rest. Take at own risk.
Does not really summarize or explain anything. Has a habit of just "dumping" information with no regard for discerning any sense of priority. Going to his class is like being self taught without any guidance.
He's friendlier in class than in office hours. A little too sarcastic for my taste.
While the class material and class in general was not difficult, he himself was very rude and not approachable. Section is mandatory for this class and there is a very easy TA graded project that you work on throughout the quarter. Made tests seem more difficult more stressful than they were because of all of the procedures to prevent cheating.
He knows what he's teaching, so it's not that he's a bad professor, he just makes his tests so hard now! My friend took the class last quarter and said it was mainly mc. That is no longer the case. He has about 20 T/F and about 12 short answers. Great guy, funny, not hard to look at...I just wish he was an easier test-maker/grader.
Professor Harmon is one of my favorite teachers at UCSB. His tests can be tricky but as long as you go to lecture and do the Wileyplus you can get at least a B+. He gets a lot of his short answer problems directly from the homework and also tells stories in class to keep it interesting. Would definitely recommend Harmon.
Had an A- before the final. Got a 96 on the final. Get a B+ in the class. He tells me I needed 20 points more to get to the next highest grade (A-). I lost less than 20 points on the final. Had I gotten 100% on the final I still would have ended up with a lower grade than before. WORST PROFESSOR IN THE ECON DEPARTMENT. Also, what person below said.
Honestly can say I liked him till I got my grade back. Asked him IN CLASS before the final if grading will be on points like the syllabus, he said yes... He then, after grading the final he decided to make take-home, decided grades were too high and curved everyone DOWN! So pissed Goodbye A because of his inconsistencies
Love Harmon! NOt too hard of a class pretty straight forward
Great Professor. Fairly easy class as long as you put in time. Multiple Choice counts for a big chunk of test. The best way to do well in that is simply read the chapters throughly. Working out part of test is just like class examples.
Simply reading off slides during lecture isn't effective in teaching accounting. WileyPlus homework didn't help much in preparing for the midterm. Don't recommend this Professor.
Really great professor. He's funny and enthusiastic about teaching. His tests are fair and lets you know what's going to be one them beforehand. Wileyplus hw due every lecture are easy points as well as the weekly assignments for section.