ECON 41
Probability and Statistics for Economists
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Enforced requisites: Mathematics 31A, 31B, with grades of C or better. Not open to students with credit for former Statistics 11. Introduction to theory and practice of mathematical statistics with emphasis on its use in economics. Introduction of basic statistical concepts such as random variables, probability distributions, estimation, confidence intervals, and hypothesis testing. Letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
HORRIBLE! Avoid him, what most people say here about him is true. 1) He gets confused by his own problems and stares at them trying to figure out how to do them; he usually just ends up skipping them because he doesn't know how to actually do them. 2) He does a few problems in class and doesn't explain what he's doing or why, and then on the test he puts a similar problem except you have to do it a bit differently, but you don't know that. 3) He doesn't actually teach, the stuff he teaches in class doesn't help on the sample problems. 4) He puts the sample problems/answers out only a few days before the tests/final, I'm sure he does it on purpose In conclusion: GO BACK TO CSU POMONA!
HORRIBLE! Avoid him, what most people say here about him is true. 1) He gets confused by his own problems and stares at them trying to figure out how to do them; he usually just ends up skipping them because he doesn't know how to actually do them. 2) He does a few problems in class and doesn't explain what he's doing or why, and then on the test he puts a similar problem except you have to do it a bit differently, but you don't know that. 3) He doesn't actually teach, the stuff he teaches in class doesn't help on the sample problems. 4) He puts the sample problems/answers out only a few days before the tests/final, I'm sure he does it on purpose In conclusion: GO BACK TO CSU POMONA!
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Most Helpful Review
This class is tricky to rate. I got an A-, so it's hard to be that negative. Midterm was super easy. Homeworks, while time consuming, were pretty straightforward. The final was hard. Like really hard (read the other comments). As a professor Buchinsky is moderately entertaining and tends to keep class from being that boring. He doesn't cover half of what's on the syllabus and did an extremely poor job of preparing us for Econ 103.
This class is tricky to rate. I got an A-, so it's hard to be that negative. Midterm was super easy. Homeworks, while time consuming, were pretty straightforward. The final was hard. Like really hard (read the other comments). As a professor Buchinsky is moderately entertaining and tends to keep class from being that boring. He doesn't cover half of what's on the syllabus and did an extremely poor job of preparing us for Econ 103.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2021 - Overall, I think this was a good class. The professor was a bit dry, but the lectures were very clear. The class did get a bit overwhelming, but if you stay on top of your work it isn't too bad. There is weekly homework that takes about 1-3 hours and is good practice. Both his midterm and final exam are difficult, but I was able to do well because of the practice materials he provided. He gives you a practice midterm and two practice finals, both of which were similar in the topics/difficulty of the real exams. The final exam is cumulative, although there was a surprising emphasis of the latter half of the course on the final exam, in particular on the concept of expectations. There were two versions of exams (because of time zones) and you had to take the same version of both exam (so if you took the morning midterm, you had to take the morning final). The said class was curved such that the top 25% got an A, the next 35% got a B, the next 25% got a C, and the last 15% got a D or worse. I think he was slightly more generous than this and if people do well, he isn't afraid to curve down. In addition, both versions of the class (those who took morning exams vs those who took evening exams) were curved separately in case the tests were of different difficulty. There are two grading schemes: 1) 10% HW, 30% Midterm, 60% Final 2) 10% HW, 90% Final He will curve you in both grading schemes and then whichever one you have the higher grade in, is your final grade. The medians for the midterms were: 77% for morning, 83% for evening The means for the midterms were: 76% for morning, 79% for evening The medians for the finals were: 83% for morning, 82% for evening The means for the final were: 81% for morning, 79% for evening I would recommend taking this class, it took me a lot of effort to do well, but it was doable and he was a fair professor.
Spring 2021 - Overall, I think this was a good class. The professor was a bit dry, but the lectures were very clear. The class did get a bit overwhelming, but if you stay on top of your work it isn't too bad. There is weekly homework that takes about 1-3 hours and is good practice. Both his midterm and final exam are difficult, but I was able to do well because of the practice materials he provided. He gives you a practice midterm and two practice finals, both of which were similar in the topics/difficulty of the real exams. The final exam is cumulative, although there was a surprising emphasis of the latter half of the course on the final exam, in particular on the concept of expectations. There were two versions of exams (because of time zones) and you had to take the same version of both exam (so if you took the morning midterm, you had to take the morning final). The said class was curved such that the top 25% got an A, the next 35% got a B, the next 25% got a C, and the last 15% got a D or worse. I think he was slightly more generous than this and if people do well, he isn't afraid to curve down. In addition, both versions of the class (those who took morning exams vs those who took evening exams) were curved separately in case the tests were of different difficulty. There are two grading schemes: 1) 10% HW, 30% Midterm, 60% Final 2) 10% HW, 90% Final He will curve you in both grading schemes and then whichever one you have the higher grade in, is your final grade. The medians for the midterms were: 77% for morning, 83% for evening The means for the midterms were: 76% for morning, 79% for evening The medians for the finals were: 83% for morning, 82% for evening The means for the final were: 81% for morning, 79% for evening I would recommend taking this class, it took me a lot of effort to do well, but it was doable and he was a fair professor.
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