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Colin Caines ECON642 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/20/2025	Professor Caines teaches the foundations of macroeconomics from the New Keynesian/DSGE perspective, with a heavy emphasis on micro-founded concepts. This class is NOT EASY. If you aren't good with partial differentiation and basic multivariable calculus, you will struggle. It is much harder than an undergraduate-level course in intermediate macroeconomics, and in fact, I'd say on par with what is expected from first-year PhD candidates studying macroeconomics. The sheer amount of content covered and the complexity of topics discussed will consume an ungodly amount of your free time. Almost no one in class can fully comprehend the stuff he covers on the whiteboard on the first trial; furthermore, Caines' mathematical prowess does not help with comprehension, as he moves very fast. The exams are also very difficult. Prof. Caines puts too much content on the final exam to cover, given the allotted amount of time. A consequence of this is that I found myself scouring for points, which meant providing incomplete or inaccurate calculations/responses for questions, despite generally having a strong command of the content covered. If only there was less content on the final exam to cover, I would be able to thoroughly convey my understanding of the content. Perhaps Caines expects students to answer questions on the final exam by rote memory, which, unfortunately, is something I was generally unable to do. That being said, you will learn a lot. There is no better professor to take it with if you are considering a PhD in the future; it will be hard to find another professor who has an exceptionally strong command of macroeconomics as Caines does. The educational quality you will get out of this class is the reason I rate Caines a 4/5, despite initially considering a 3/5.