Evaluation for Economics 123 and Economics 106M

Prof. Tornell is excellent! I took both Econ 123 and 106M with him. He is incredibly knowledgable of International Finance and Economics. He can use a simple frame to explain very difficult concepts.

106M is great for a student who wants to have a basic understanding of Finance, but 123 is certainly not for everyone. If you are very interested in economic forecasting by using algorithm, or you want to have your own portfolio before graduation, you should definitely take this class. But 123 does involve a lot of math and coding. If you are not comfortable with them, then this class is not for you.

Overall, I think prof. Tornell is great. His class is very practical and the materials are interesting.

Review is for Econ 123 & Econ 106M

I disagree with most of the evaluations below. Maybe it is because most of these comments are so old.

Prof Tornell is an excellent professor to take for International Economics. It is clear that he is insanely knowledgeable about International Economics. Contrary to some of the claims below, he definitely cares about his students. He is one of the few professors here at UCLA that makes a point to improve undergraduates.

***For 106M***
Material is very interesting and relatively simple PROVIDED you are interested and willing to learn. Do not expect to be able to learn the material from just going to lecture; a little bit of outside thinking is required. There is slightly more math and slightly less supervision than other Econ classes, but nothing crazy.

***For 123***
This class is definitely not for everyone. Some econ/programming experience/math is required. Expect about 6-10 hours of work per week for the homework assignments. However, the class is very fulfilling and unlike any other class at UCLA. You spend 3 hours each week learning how to make programs that will make money trading currencies in the real world. This is probably the only econ class where the things you learn are directly practical in life, and is definitely a class that will impress interviewers if you are looking at entering the financial industry. I also heard that the Professor uses this class to select some Research Assistants every year (great for those of you wanting to go into grad school).

It is also important to note that the grading for both classes is pretty generous. From what I can tell it is probably the most generous econ class out there (around B+ average). That said, this is probably because people work harder than average. I guess the important thing to take from this is that there does not seem to be a curve per-se, but instead everyone can get a good grade if they try.

To summarize: Take this class you actually want to learn something about international economics. Do not take this class if you want a boring easy-A econ class that doesn’t require any thinking.

ECON 123 Foreign Exchange Forecasting

This class is not for everyone.

The content explored by this class is very unconventional. It involves testing methods that have been written about in papers only recently.

Professor Tornell has an interesting sense of humor and is very quirky.

He is very insightful and very non-textbook in his approach, so you should take him if you wish to explore interesting ways of looking at the economy.

You should not take him if you:
1. Want an easy class
2. Want to be able to fall back on a textbook

His homeworks are difficult, and require a lot of thinking. Be prepared to put in more hours of study than a regular econ class.

Tornell definitely does not belong to the "better" group of econ professors at ucla, but he's a fine choice for people who are looking to take an elective econ class just to fulfill requirements since tests and grading are fair. In my opinion, going to class is necessary for an A since he does spend time explaining his lecture notes and I find it easier to understand and memorize materials that way.
Curve for mditerm: 41/50 is the A- cutoff, 30/50 is the B- cutoff. Not bad!

LECTURES: Incredibly boring, and he doesn't explain his what he's talking about thoroughly. He mainly goes off his slides, which he does post online before every lecture. It's definitely not necessary to go to all the lectures, though he did randomly take attendance some days. His accent (and annoying voice) can be a little hard to get used to, but there's professors with worse accents at UCLA. He was late/didn't show up to a couple lectures. He also schedules his office hours at random times like late at night, making it inconvenient for some if you don't live close to campus.
TESTS: Fair tests really, but as a whole the class does poorly on them (probably because he's a bad professor). However, his curve was very lenient. For example on the midterm, 31/45 was an A, and I believe a low 20s/45 was a B. Try to get a hold of an old test to study off of - he tends to repeat his questions.
OVERALL: Not the easiest Econ course you'll take, but also not the hardest grading wise. However, he is one of the worst professors I've had here. Fits perfectly in the Econ department.

Prof. Tornell is HORRIBLE. His lectures are completely incomprehensible, he requires you to subscribe to the Economist and the Wall Street Journal, and his tests are ridiculous. I got a B+ not understanding any of the class material because the curve was so bad. If at all possible, it would be better to wait until another professor is teaching this class. Even Swanson is better than this guy!