This class is the first class that I took after being accepted into the entrepreneurship minor and it did not disappoint! The class is very informative and professor Borman talks about his own experiences a lot, which I thought was super interesting and fun to listen to. It shows that he is passionate about what he does and is coming from an industry expert perspective to lecture. I found it super easy to engage in the class material if you’ve done the pre-lecture readings assigned. The midterms and final can be stressful because there are no practice exams posted so I didn’t know what to expect. But really, this is not one of those courses where even if you show up to every single lecture you still have no clue on the exam. All exam questions came straight from the lectures and the readings. In my opinion, in-person attendance > zoom for this class 100%. The exams are such a time crunch tho, especially the midterms, so definitely know the materials well. Also, I’d recommend taking notes on a doc where you can control-F to find keywords during exams, since the exams are super time constrained you don’t have time to flip through all the notes. Finally, since this is a finance and accounting-related course, having taken mgmt 1a and 1b did help me a lot in the first half of the course.

Professor Casey openly provides students with professional development help which help them acquire internships. He is strict on that students must attend class in person but offers an open zoom for those who face emergencies. Casey Borman is well networked, has plenty of experience in investing as an Angel investor and invites colleagues as guest lecturers which are always valuable. After taking this class, I feel more equipped with skills to begin an entrepreneurial venture.

My thoughts below

Easiness: The class and homework was very doable. Professor Borman emphasizes attending class, engaging with the lecture slides, taking notes, and participating (iclicker). I believe this is most important to being successful in the course. I rated easiness to be neutral because the test does require studying, remembering the lectures, and working fast on the exam. I think the tests are manageable if you do the things mentioned above.

Workload: The workload was completely manageable. There were weekly assigned readings, and four 1-page single spaced written assignments (over the entire course) that connected real world events to course content.

Clarity: The class was very straightforward. Although some topics might feel abstract due to the nature of an ethics course, Professor Borman maintained a well-structured approach using the textbook and lecture slides.

Helpfulness: Professor Borman was consistently available during weekly office hours and was a great resource both academically and professionally. During the fall quarter when I was interviewing, he was very helpful in answering my technical finance/ accounting questions.

Additional: This class is great if you are looking to fulfill the CPA requirements. Professor Borman does a good job blending accounting and ethics concepts that accounting / non-accounting students can understand.

Overall I though Professor Borman was a solid professor, he seems like he really wants to help students and while the material is pretty dry he does well of relating it to the real world. The tests are pretty challenging and time consuming but as long as you read, take good notes and do the suggested practice problems you should be fine.

First of all, his lecture is very dry and he just reads off from the slide. Do not expect him to teach you every details of accounting in the class. Basically, you have to teach yourself by memorizing all the concepts in the text book and do all the problems in the book. Hes exams made absolute no sense to me since most of his questions required to write an short essay. Even the simple questions like calculations or entering journal entry, he made it impossible to get a full credit because you have write your own statement to justify your answer. If he didn't like your explanation of the answer, you will get only a partial credit even though your answer is correct. His grading scheme is not clear and fair since most of the test questions were asking you to write an answer that would result in subjective grading. I wouldn't recommend any of his classes he teaches in UCLA.

As long as you read the text book, you should at least get a B. Slides go over key points of book but there will be specific things he doesn't go over that will show up in exams, so read the book. Work load isn't much, unless you read the book, then its a lot of reading. Do the practice midterms, I didn't even bother with practice problems from book. Class has 2 quizzes, final, and 1 memo project that doesn't take too much time. He is nice and helpful as long as you reach out. If you don't like reading and prefer doing intense journal entries and calculations then you should probably take Ravetch.

I thought the class was difficult but doable if you really put in the work. There's a memo project assigned right after the midterm that the professor warns will take you about 40 hours. It took me just under that, so trust him when he says it. It's a lot. If I didn't go to office hours I would've been completely lost and confused with the memo since that's kinda the only way to know what he expects. That said, he is super nice and honest in office hours and I feel like I learned a lot of relevant information about finance and investing.

I haven't received a grade yet in this class (still waiting for it to be posted). The class has been fine overall. Sure, the slides and his presentations aren't the most engaging ones. However, he gives a disclaimer at the beginning of the class that since this is a very straightforward and dry topic, we students cannot expect much of an engagement during class. He really appreciates it if students go for OH because he really cares about us and so is willing to re-explain concepts. But yes, his quizzes are very very time-constrained and so you will definitely not finish the test. He knows that his tests are super long so he does curve the class sufficiently. Also, the tests are open book so that is a major blessing. His slides are useful in the sense you know what are the topics that are important and will be on the test (and you know what exactly to read in the book) but the content of his slides is a copy paste from the textbook. He basically follows the book word to word - this has its own advantages and disadvantages. Overall, I would recommend this class if you are willing to read a textbook and are good at extracting information from your laptop during a time-constrained test because you can definitely do well on the test if you attend his lectures (to catch the minute details that won't be in the books but he will definitely ask on the test) and read the chapters at least once. Also GO TO HIS OH!! HE LOVES THAT!!

Classic case of great person but not-so-great professor. He is very accessible outside of class as he will even allow you to make appointments if you can't make it to his office hours. However given that this was his second year teaching, he has a lot to improve, particularly on transferring knowledge into his students. It would also be great to have a clear grading structure as his graders often graded many students' exams pretty unfairly. I've heard he's at least better than Ravetch so there you go.

Casey is helpful and approachable most of the time, you can easily make an appointment with him or simply go to his OH. His lecture is super boring, basically just reads off the slides, which come from the textbook almost word for word. Exams are really time-consuming (except for the first midterm, it was alright) and difficult, but I guess that's part of the reason why it's open book; yet it barely helps as you would not even have time to look anything up if you wish to finish the exam. In order to do well in this class, I think you need to have all the basic concepts memorized to save time in the exam and do LOTS of practices from the book assignment to get familiar with the materials even though he does not assign any. There's also a Memo assignment which I would highly recommend you to go to his OH to get his opinions on your draft b/c the neither instruction nor the rubric is clear and it's heavily based on his perspective on the project instead of the accurateness of your work even though you follow the textbook closely. (btw, the line before the memo is due is INSANE, come early) Finally, Casey is a nice guy but not good at teaching.