I was so scared coming into this class after reading his reviews before, but I can honestly say I didn't agree with most of them. I really liked Hou, he was the first Econ teacher that kept me awake during an entire lecture. He's sarcastic in a funny way not in the arrogant sense. True he gets off topic occasionally but its more of a breather between notes. He explains everything once with words, then with graphs, and then with numbers so you get a full picture of what he is describing. Just make sure you read the book along with the lectures. The class is probably one of the harder classes I've taken but overall I really came out with a better understanding and appreciation of economics.

I have no idea why there are so many complaints about Professor Hou. He is, by far, one of the best professors of economics I've had here at UCLA. All you need to do is attend lectures and do the study guides over and over. His midterm exams and final are pretty similar to the study guide. As long as you study your lecture notes and understand the study guide, you will do fine. As for people's complaints about his "ramblings", he does go on a tangent occasionally, but in general, he stays on topic and teaches the course very well. Many of the concepts that I learned from the class was EXTREMELY helpful when I took Econ 101. He's an effective, albeit challenging, professor. You will not be able to "cram" the night before his tests.

I have no idea why everyone is complaining. I can't say I love his class but I like it a lot. Out of my four classes, it is BY FAR my easiest class. All I do is go to lectures and maybe take one page of notes and listen to his stories which are a nice thing to hear instead of a strait hour and a half of econ material. I have done well on the tests eventhough I never even opened the textbook and only studied my notes for 20 mins max (that should tell you the tests aren't too hard). And no, I'm not an econ major so I don't some natural talent at this. I'm just an engineering major getting a GE over with. All I can say is Hou is definatly one of the better profs I've had here so far and compared to my physics/math/engineering classes I also take, this class is a breeze.

If you can take this class with ANY other teacher at ANY other time then DO IT! Hou talks about everything but the material during lecture and if you hope to learn anything in his class then you need to read the book and pray for a good TA. The lectures can only be described as painful. Hou is definately the worst professor I've ever had.