ECON325 | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Haoran Wang ECON325 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/10/2024	Harry has overall very bad teaching skills. He is a PhD candidate and assumes that we should basically all know this material already. His discussions are very fast-paced and hard to follow, and often are out of synch or don't use the same terminology as Professor Stevens - making them even more confusing. He laughed when he told me that we would have new material two days before the exam.
L Stevens ECON325 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/21/2023	In my opinion, this is without a doubt the hardest class in the B.S. curriculum. I learned a lot, but I had to spend a significant amount of time on this class to do well. Things I didn't like: - We were constantly reminded of how challenging the course was. Low exam averages were frequently brought up. The average for the first midterm was a 55, and the professor responded by saying the class would only get harder from there. - Not being able to get help on the problem sets made the class unnecessarily hard. Practice problems also didn't come with answers and were posted just a few days before exams, leaving no time to ask TAs for help. - Exam questions were vague and more difficult than in-class examples/p-set questions. - Almost impossible to finish the exams within the time limit. - Content taught in TA sessions were equally as important as lecture content, but the TAs didn't teach nearly as well as the professor did. This is to be expected, but it seemed unfair to test us on concepts that a TA stumbled through in discussion. Things I liked: - Luminita is a great lecturer. She is engaging and knowledgeable. If you attend lecture and make an effort to truly understand what she's talking about, you are setting yourself up for success. - She was responsive to student concerns. After receiving feedback following the first midterm, she restructured the course. Exam averages improved significantly after this. - Course structure forces you to learn a lot. - Lots of partial credit given on exams. - Curves up to a B+ average.
L Stevens ECON325 Anonymous 12/13/2022	Very very good professor, but the material is extremely challenging. She also has certain policies (i.e. can't get help on the problem sets) that unnecessarily make the class more challenging. This class simply takes a lot of time if you want to do well and/or understand the material, but she is a high-quality professor
Alka Gandhi ECON325 Anonymous 05/20/2022	Her lectures are rather good, goes over everything with great detail. However her grading is nonsensically rigid, to the point where you seem to loose the point of the assignment in the first place. Instead of grading for understanding of the content she seems to grade on arbitrary standards, which aren’t necessarily made clear prior.
Alka Gandhi ECON325 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/20/2022	Professor Gandhi is definitely kind and reasonable. I found a lot of her lectures genuinely interesting. The material is challenging but not impossible. It definitely took a lot of work to get an A-. I'd advise attending every lecture and actually following what she says because specific things she mentions in class are always on the exams. Other than the specific stuff she mentions, most of the material is in the textbook. The TAs are helpful if you actually use them as a resource and reach out often. The discussions are also actually helpful even if people don't attend them. In the discussions, they go over problem set and exam answers and the same questions are on the final. She doesn't give extra credit and is quite strict with deadlines and grades. Definitely not an easy class but doable with a lot of dedication.
L Stevens ECON325 Anonymous 05/13/2021	ECON325 is considered one of if not the hardest course in the ECON B.S. curriculum. Luminita does a fantastic job covering the concepts and math behind various topics. The TA's were also extremely helpful and would clear up any areas where there may have been confusion. The homework's are representative of the topics discussed in class and were not too difficult. The exam averages for this class are low. This is because you have to do a lot of math and provide a lot of explanations which take a long time. Unfortunately many students would not finish the exams entirely due to the time constraint. However, the class is curved so don't be alarmed by the low averages. Overall great class definitely take ECON325 with her if you have the chance.
L Stevens ECON325 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/23/2020	She is good at teaching, but her exams are very unclear. The descriptions are very vague and general. You will be very confused what she is asking in the problem and that's why you lose many unexpected points in your answer. In general, don't recommend at all.
L Stevens ECON325 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/07/2020	Luminita is a very good lecturer and organized teacher. There are 5 p-sets over the course of the class which are decently challenging but doable. There are two midterms and a final exam. This course is very hard and challenging, but you learn a lot.
L Stevens ECON325 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/30/2018	Econ 325 is a very hard course, however, Lumnita is a fantastic lecturer and I leave her class feeling like I genuinely learned something new. Tests are hard but the class is curved overall.
Sadik Aruoba ECON325 Expecting an A+ jjjnmk 11/13/2015	Aruoba is clearly knowledable about the topic that he's teaching, but makes the class kind of difficult. Problem sets aren't really a problem, they're pretty easy, and very doable. It's the tests where he really gets you. The class requires a little bit more math and optimization than a lot of people in ECON are comfortable with, so that's something to watch out for. If you understand the math, you'll probably be fine. I had a 75% average in exams for the semester, and that ended up being an A+. His grading policy is set up so that an average student will come out with a B.
Sadik Aruoba ECON325 Expecting an A TerpLegacy 02/24/2015	Profesor Aruoba is not an easy Professor by any means. He will make you work for your grade. That said, he curves and the average student walks away with a B. The average on midterm one was 38, on midterm two 36 and the final around a 50 so you can see how large the curve is. He is approachable during office hours and will answer any questions you may have. Problem sets took time but were graded loosely. Exams were difficult. You really need to know your stuff or you will get steamrolled. I also found his exams to be too long for the amount of time we had. Good professor overall. Very knowledgeable and brings current real world economic events into the classroom. Discussion sections are mandatory but I found them very useful. I just didn't like the fact that we had several discussions that were actual lectures taught by the TA's. In a nutshell: tough professor, tough exams, lots of optimization functions, lots of reading plus required articles that the professor provides, very challenging exams and problem sets. Hopefully you will learn. The kid that posted a review below and said this class was easy is either a genius or the professor's teaching style has changed dramatically since then.
Allan Drazen ECON325 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/20/2014	He was honestly the most boring professor I can think of other than Professor Binns. I never went to class, didn't learn anything, and wouldn't recommend this teacher for anyone.
Allan Drazen ECON325 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/29/2013	I had him this past semester. I can honestly tell you I did not learn a single thing in this class. My final grade was a 55%, which was curved at least 32% to a B+. The TA's are not really helpful, and the models used are completely different from anything an economics student would have seen before this class. ECON201 really does not help with this class at all either.
Allan Drazen ECON325 Expecting a C- Anonymous 05/16/2013	This guy. I dont even have words for how bad he really is. Reads right off of the slides in a dry monotone voice. you can tell he just really doesnt care for macroeconomics very much which makes it harder on his students to grasp concepts when he doesnt present them with any energetic or constructive explanations or feedback. tests are extremely difficult with averages being around 50% sometimes lower. Just ridiculous im paying for this guy to speak the book information to me.
Allan Drazen ECON325 Anonymous 02/07/2013	i would give him zero stars if i could. he reads right off the powerpoints and doesnt teach you anything else. if you have trouble sleeping take his course. professor chugh is a 100 times better professor. he explains the information better and is available to you. drazen will brush you off to his TA's. every other economoics course i took the professor explained the information well. you are stuck taking him since he is the only one teaching it. if you can wait take it in the summer or if you know the material well take it in the winter. he is being paid just to read the powerpoints verbatim. any questions you ask him will get an obvious NO or I dont know.
Sadik Aruoba ECON325 Anonymous 05/23/2012	He basically lectures off of his slides and base his exams on the slides/previous exams. You don't really have to read the book. His lectures are extremely boring and makes discussion sections mandatory. Participation and 5 problem sets counts as 15% of your grade. The problem sets were difficult but as long as you put a decent amount of effort in it, you will receive full credit. The first exam that we had was extremely unfair because he barely went over the materials so the class average was a 36%..After the first exam, he wrote the next exam and the final similar to exams from previous years...but nonetheless, they were still difficult. As a result, the averages for the second exam was a 56 and the final was a 52. The best part about his grading policy is that if you score around average, you will get a B. If you score above average, you will push your grade up to an A-. That was what happened to me...i got a 47, 70, and 63 for all the exams and received perfect scores on all of my problem sets..I ended up with an A-. His curve is HUGE! If you can put up with his boring lectures and challenging exams, you should consider taking this class.
Allan Drazen ECON325 Expecting a C Anonymous 05/18/2011	I had Professor Drazen for ECON325 this semester, but the funny this was, he did not teach my class. All of his material were pulled directly from those of Professor Sanjay Chugh. In lecture, Professor Drazen was Professor Chugh's mouthpiece - he literally read off Professor Chugh's slides and did little in gauging whether his students understood the material. There were only four grades in my class: two problem sets, one midterm and one final. This is absolutely absurd because by having so little grades, tremendous pressure is placed on each assignment and there is little to no chance of redeeming your grade if you do poorly on one assignment. Quite predictably, the problem sets were pulled from those of Professor Chugh. The problems were long and tough, so students resorted to consulting Professor Chugh's website for help. While I'm sure Professor Drazen is a very smart man and he understands Economics well, he is not fit to teach. It blows my mind that the university pays him $200,000 a year to read his colleague's slides. If this is how the professional world works, then shame on anyone who allows this. Never have I ever had a professor that cared so little about his students. Perhaps this was the reason why no one showed up to class.
Allan Drazen ECON325 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/12/2010	Professor Drazen is the most boring teacher I have had at UMD. If you are having trouble sleeping, I recommend attending his lectures. By reading off powerpoint slides which he posted online, students had no reason to listen to him while in lecture or attend lecture at all for that matter. The entire course consisted of 4 grades, with 40% based on the final exam which seems unfair. Being an ECON major, I am extremely dissapointed at how little Professor Drazen seemed to care about his students
Allan Drazen ECON325 Expecting a B JSlotkin517 05/18/2009	Great Professor. Very easy to understand and follow his logic. You have to go to class though unless you really like cramming for exams from the book because he writes all of his notes on the chalkboard. 2 Midterms, 5 Problem Sets, 1 Cumulative Final Exam.
Sadik Aruoba ECON325 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/29/2008	Class was really easy. You could probably not go to a single class and get an A if you understand the models. Lectures can be sleepy at times, but Aruoba really does know what he's talking about. Homework sets optional and generally easy. Course requires some basic algebra and partial differentiation - we used the same math for each derivation but some people still didn't get it, which really hurt their test scores. If you get the math, you should get an A.

Haoran Wang
ECON325

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/10/2024

Harry has overall very bad teaching skills. He is a PhD candidate and assumes that we should basically all know this material already. His discussions are very fast-paced and hard to follow, and often are out of synch or don't use the same terminology as Professor Stevens - making them even more confusing. He laughed when he told me that we would have new material two days before the exam.

L Stevens
ECON325

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/21/2023

In my opinion, this is without a doubt the hardest class in the B.S. curriculum. I learned a lot, but I had to spend a significant amount of time on this class to do well. Things I didn't like: - We were constantly reminded of how challenging the course was. Low exam averages were frequently brought up. The average for the first midterm was a 55, and the professor responded by saying the class would only get harder from there. - Not being able to get help on the problem sets made the class unnecessarily hard. Practice problems also didn't come with answers and were posted just a few days before exams, leaving no time to ask TAs for help. - Exam questions were vague and more difficult than in-class examples/p-set questions. - Almost impossible to finish the exams within the time limit. - Content taught in TA sessions were equally as important as lecture content, but the TAs didn't teach nearly as well as the professor did. This is to be expected, but it seemed unfair to test us on concepts that a TA stumbled through in discussion. Things I liked: - Luminita is a great lecturer. She is engaging and knowledgeable. If you attend lecture and make an effort to truly understand what she's talking about, you are setting yourself up for success. - She was responsive to student concerns. After receiving feedback following the first midterm, she restructured the course. Exam averages improved significantly after this. - Course structure forces you to learn a lot. - Lots of partial credit given on exams. - Curves up to a B+ average.

L Stevens
ECON325

Anonymous
12/13/2022

Very very good professor, but the material is extremely challenging. She also has certain policies (i.e. can't get help on the problem sets) that unnecessarily make the class more challenging. This class simply takes a lot of time if you want to do well and/or understand the material, but she is a high-quality professor

Alka Gandhi
ECON325

Anonymous
05/20/2022

Her lectures are rather good, goes over everything with great detail. However her grading is nonsensically rigid, to the point where you seem to loose the point of the assignment in the first place. Instead of grading for understanding of the content she seems to grade on arbitrary standards, which aren’t necessarily made clear prior.

Alka Gandhi
ECON325

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/20/2022

Professor Gandhi is definitely kind and reasonable. I found a lot of her lectures genuinely interesting. The material is challenging but not impossible. It definitely took a lot of work to get an A-. I'd advise attending every lecture and actually following what she says because specific things she mentions in class are always on the exams. Other than the specific stuff she mentions, most of the material is in the textbook. The TAs are helpful if you actually use them as a resource and reach out often. The discussions are also actually helpful even if people don't attend them. In the discussions, they go over problem set and exam answers and the same questions are on the final. She doesn't give extra credit and is quite strict with deadlines and grades. Definitely not an easy class but doable with a lot of dedication.

L Stevens
ECON325

Anonymous
05/13/2021

ECON325 is considered one of if not the hardest course in the ECON B.S. curriculum. Luminita does a fantastic job covering the concepts and math behind various topics. The TA's were also extremely helpful and would clear up any areas where there may have been confusion. The homework's are representative of the topics discussed in class and were not too difficult. The exam averages for this class are low. This is because you have to do a lot of math and provide a lot of explanations which take a long time. Unfortunately many students would not finish the exams entirely due to the time constraint. However, the class is curved so don't be alarmed by the low averages. Overall great class definitely take ECON325 with her if you have the chance.

L Stevens
ECON325

Expecting an A
Anonymous
11/23/2020

She is good at teaching, but her exams are very unclear. The descriptions are very vague and general. You will be very confused what she is asking in the problem and that's why you lose many unexpected points in your answer. In general, don't recommend at all.

L Stevens
ECON325

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
05/07/2020

Luminita is a very good lecturer and organized teacher. There are 5 p-sets over the course of the class which are decently challenging but doable. There are two midterms and a final exam. This course is very hard and challenging, but you learn a lot.

L Stevens
ECON325

Expecting an A
Anonymous
11/30/2018

Econ 325 is a very hard course, however, Lumnita is a fantastic lecturer and I leave her class feeling like I genuinely learned something new. Tests are hard but the class is curved overall.

Sadik Aruoba
ECON325

Expecting an A+
jjjnmk
11/13/2015

Aruoba is clearly knowledable about the topic that he's teaching, but makes the class kind of difficult. Problem sets aren't really a problem, they're pretty easy, and very doable. It's the tests where he really gets you. The class requires a little bit more math and optimization than a lot of people in ECON are comfortable with, so that's something to watch out for. If you understand the math, you'll probably be fine. I had a 75% average in exams for the semester, and that ended up being an A+. His grading policy is set up so that an average student will come out with a B.

Sadik Aruoba
ECON325

Expecting an A
TerpLegacy
02/24/2015

Profesor Aruoba is not an easy Professor by any means. He will make you work for your grade. That said, he curves and the average student walks away with a B. The average on midterm one was 38, on midterm two 36 and the final around a 50 so you can see how large the curve is. He is approachable during office hours and will answer any questions you may have. Problem sets took time but were graded loosely. Exams were difficult. You really need to know your stuff or you will get steamrolled. I also found his exams to be too long for the amount of time we had. Good professor overall. Very knowledgeable and brings current real world economic events into the classroom. Discussion sections are mandatory but I found them very useful. I just didn't like the fact that we had several discussions that were actual lectures taught by the TA's. In a nutshell: tough professor, tough exams, lots of optimization functions, lots of reading plus required articles that the professor provides, very challenging exams and problem sets. Hopefully you will learn. The kid that posted a review below and said this class was easy is either a genius or the professor's teaching style has changed dramatically since then.

Allan Drazen
ECON325

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/20/2014

He was honestly the most boring professor I can think of other than Professor Binns. I never went to class, didn't learn anything, and wouldn't recommend this teacher for anyone.

Allan Drazen
ECON325

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
05/29/2013

I had him this past semester. I can honestly tell you I did not learn a single thing in this class. My final grade was a 55%, which was curved at least 32% to a B+. The TA's are not really helpful, and the models used are completely different from anything an economics student would have seen before this class. ECON201 really does not help with this class at all either.

Allan Drazen
ECON325

Expecting a C-
Anonymous
05/16/2013

This guy. I dont even have words for how bad he really is. Reads right off of the slides in a dry monotone voice. you can tell he just really doesnt care for macroeconomics very much which makes it harder on his students to grasp concepts when he doesnt present them with any energetic or constructive explanations or feedback. tests are extremely difficult with averages being around 50% sometimes lower. Just ridiculous im paying for this guy to speak the book information to me.

Allan Drazen
ECON325

Anonymous
02/07/2013

i would give him zero stars if i could. he reads right off the powerpoints and doesnt teach you anything else. if you have trouble sleeping take his course. professor chugh is a 100 times better professor. he explains the information better and is available to you. drazen will brush you off to his TA's. every other economoics course i took the professor explained the information well. you are stuck taking him since he is the only one teaching it. if you can wait take it in the summer or if you know the material well take it in the winter. he is being paid just to read the powerpoints verbatim. any questions you ask him will get an obvious NO or I dont know.

Sadik Aruoba
ECON325

Anonymous
05/23/2012

He basically lectures off of his slides and base his exams on the slides/previous exams. You don't really have to read the book. His lectures are extremely boring and makes discussion sections mandatory. Participation and 5 problem sets counts as 15% of your grade. The problem sets were difficult but as long as you put a decent amount of effort in it, you will receive full credit. The first exam that we had was extremely unfair because he barely went over the materials so the class average was a 36%..After the first exam, he wrote the next exam and the final similar to exams from previous years...but nonetheless, they were still difficult. As a result, the averages for the second exam was a 56 and the final was a 52. The best part about his grading policy is that if you score around average, you will get a B. If you score above average, you will push your grade up to an A-. That was what happened to me...i got a 47, 70, and 63 for all the exams and received perfect scores on all of my problem sets..I ended up with an A-. His curve is HUGE! If you can put up with his boring lectures and challenging exams, you should consider taking this class.

Allan Drazen
ECON325

Expecting a C
Anonymous
05/18/2011

I had Professor Drazen for ECON325 this semester, but the funny this was, he did not teach my class. All of his material were pulled directly from those of Professor Sanjay Chugh. In lecture, Professor Drazen was Professor Chugh's mouthpiece - he literally read off Professor Chugh's slides and did little in gauging whether his students understood the material. There were only four grades in my class: two problem sets, one midterm and one final. This is absolutely absurd because by having so little grades, tremendous pressure is placed on each assignment and there is little to no chance of redeeming your grade if you do poorly on one assignment. Quite predictably, the problem sets were pulled from those of Professor Chugh. The problems were long and tough, so students resorted to consulting Professor Chugh's website for help. While I'm sure Professor Drazen is a very smart man and he understands Economics well, he is not fit to teach. It blows my mind that the university pays him $200,000 a year to read his colleague's slides. If this is how the professional world works, then shame on anyone who allows this. Never have I ever had a professor that cared so little about his students. Perhaps this was the reason why no one showed up to class.

Allan Drazen
ECON325

Expecting a B
Anonymous
05/12/2010

Professor Drazen is the most boring teacher I have had at UMD. If you are having trouble sleeping, I recommend attending his lectures. By reading off powerpoint slides which he posted online, students had no reason to listen to him while in lecture or attend lecture at all for that matter. The entire course consisted of 4 grades, with 40% based on the final exam which seems unfair. Being an ECON major, I am extremely dissapointed at how little Professor Drazen seemed to care about his students

Allan Drazen
ECON325

Expecting a B
JSlotkin517
05/18/2009

Great Professor. Very easy to understand and follow his logic. You have to go to class though unless you really like cramming for exams from the book because he writes all of his notes on the chalkboard. 2 Midterms, 5 Problem Sets, 1 Cumulative Final Exam.

Sadik Aruoba
ECON325

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/29/2008

Class was really easy. You could probably not go to a single class and get an A if you understand the models. Lectures can be sleepy at times, but Aruoba really does know what he's talking about. Homework sets optional and generally easy. Course requires some basic algebra and partial differentiation - we used the same math for each derivation but some people still didn't get it, which really hurt their test scores. If you get the math, you should get an A.

Reviews for ECON325