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Patrick Convery
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Based on 47 Users
If I had the chance to go back and re-plan my schedule, I would not have taken Econ with Patrick Convery. I think that the material that was taught was interesting but his lectures are extremely boring (and pointless because he puts the lectures up online) and he just reads off the slides. There is no homework in his class but there are suggested reading assignments that no one really does (but I found them helpful because Convery was not helpful at all). There are 2 midterms each worth 25% of your grade and the final that's worth 50% of your grade. I didn't do that well on the fist midterm and when I went to go see him to talk about what I did wrong and to go over the concepts, he didn't really answer my questions and I found the other meetings I had with him were unhelpful. The TA's for this quarter were all very unhelpful and the only recommendations that Convery gave to me was to get a tutor (who cost $70/hour). He also purposefully said that he would make the second midterm and final harder so that there was a larger distribution in terms of grades amongst the class.
I would suggest not to take Econ 1 with Convery and spare yourself the tears and stress.
Econ is just a dry subject, so I can't really blame Convery for this class being terrible--I don't really know how you can teach Econ with pizzazz or make it seem engaging and fascinating. Convery is a very nice guy and more than willing to help you--he met with me outside of class, always emailed me back, and hooked me up with a tutor. But yeah--I had to get a tutor for this class, because I was doing that badly.
The lectures are dry and dull, and all of his slides go up online so you don't really have to go to class anyway. I think I would have done better if I had just worked out of the textbook and done example problems from there, because his slides don't really help you learn how to do the mathematical problems you later see on his exams. Convery is great about providing practice problems--he puts up problem sets for every chapter that is covered, as well as provides sample midterms and finals for you to work on (all with answers included). He holds review sessions before each test--which were of no use to me, but maybe some people got more out of them. It's really not Convery that makes this class bad--econ just sucks tbh.
Anyway, class is 25% midterm 1, 25% midterm 2, 50% final. He curves the class at the end of the quarter, so here's to hoping I end up on the right side of the curve because I could go one way or another. If possible, I would recommend you check out one of Convery's lectures and one of Sproul's and then decide whose class to take depending on who seems more engaging. I wish I had done that, maybe Sproul's style would have worked better for me.
Convery is extremely nice and is a genuinely nice guy. However, be prepared for 10 full weeks of him and his terrible TAs reading off of generic slides for an hour and a half 2x per week. Don't go to lecture, don't go to discussion. It's just rehashing a collection of slides that the textbook company provides to him. It's a snoozefest for the entire quarter, so be warned.
I really enjoyed taking this class! Professor Convery is very knowledgeable about the course material and ties it to real life examples as well. He records his lectures which is such a blessing. He's approachable and kind during office hours as well!
I suggest doing or at least looking at /all/ of the practice problems (not just the highlighted ones) on the free response and multiple choice questions that the TA's and Convery give out. Tests are extremely fair and straight forward. Excel projects don't take too much time.
Only slight complaint with that some of the practice questions have a fair amount of errors.
This was the most straight forward class I have taken as an econ major. Copy the slides (either in lecture or on your own), do the homework problems he highlights, know the practice exams inside and out, and take the tests. He even allows cheat sheets in the exam which is very helpful. The exams are very fair and mirror the type of questions you find on the practice exams and in the homework problems. The group projects in lab are graded on a credit/no credit basis so there's no need to stress if it is perfect or not, just put in effort with your group. I was worried about taking this class based on the reviews before, but Convery must have revamped the class because I thought it was a very useful class and not too demanding of my time. I highly recommend.
I took this class online, although I feel like the format shouldn't be that different on-ground:
Class Grade - 20% Lab, 20% Midterm 1, 20% Midterm 2, and 40% Final Exam. The labs are all excel-intensive labs that elaborate on some of the harder and most important concepts taught in class. Personally I really enjoyed all the labs, since even though they all took quite some time to complete, they were all really useful in terms of actual application of concepts learned in class. The labs are also group-based as well (with up to 4 people in a group) and graded mostly on your solution process and not actual accuracy, so if you get good group members (I fortunately did) and try your best on each one of the labs to show your calculation process, you can definitely get 100% even if some of your numbers are off.
The exams are all super fair and straight-forward; just like a previous review suggested, as long as you do ALL of the homework questions (highlighted AND unhighlighted), you're good on the exams. My TA Julian was also absolutely amazing - he provides his own set of practice problems that are very similar to the textbook problems and go over them in discussions, so you basically get extra practice before each exam. The textbook isn't required, however I found it pretty useful as a quick read before the exams to review all the topics.
Finally, Professor Convery is one of the nicest professors I've ever had - he replies to emails almost always within half a day of sending them, and I always felt more than welcome to come to his office hours and ask for help or just to chat. Definitely would take him again for any Econ class!
I liked this class. Easy, straightforward tests and relatively interesting lectures made me really enjoy this class. Convery seems really interested in the material and wants all students to do well. Homework counted as 20% and the midterms/final collectively counted as 80% of the grade.
If I had the chance to go back and re-plan my schedule, I would not have taken Econ with Patrick Convery. I think that the material that was taught was interesting but his lectures are extremely boring (and pointless because he puts the lectures up online) and he just reads off the slides. There is no homework in his class but there are suggested reading assignments that no one really does (but I found them helpful because Convery was not helpful at all). There are 2 midterms each worth 25% of your grade and the final that's worth 50% of your grade. I didn't do that well on the fist midterm and when I went to go see him to talk about what I did wrong and to go over the concepts, he didn't really answer my questions and I found the other meetings I had with him were unhelpful. The TA's for this quarter were all very unhelpful and the only recommendations that Convery gave to me was to get a tutor (who cost $70/hour). He also purposefully said that he would make the second midterm and final harder so that there was a larger distribution in terms of grades amongst the class.
I would suggest not to take Econ 1 with Convery and spare yourself the tears and stress.
Econ is just a dry subject, so I can't really blame Convery for this class being terrible--I don't really know how you can teach Econ with pizzazz or make it seem engaging and fascinating. Convery is a very nice guy and more than willing to help you--he met with me outside of class, always emailed me back, and hooked me up with a tutor. But yeah--I had to get a tutor for this class, because I was doing that badly.
The lectures are dry and dull, and all of his slides go up online so you don't really have to go to class anyway. I think I would have done better if I had just worked out of the textbook and done example problems from there, because his slides don't really help you learn how to do the mathematical problems you later see on his exams. Convery is great about providing practice problems--he puts up problem sets for every chapter that is covered, as well as provides sample midterms and finals for you to work on (all with answers included). He holds review sessions before each test--which were of no use to me, but maybe some people got more out of them. It's really not Convery that makes this class bad--econ just sucks tbh.
Anyway, class is 25% midterm 1, 25% midterm 2, 50% final. He curves the class at the end of the quarter, so here's to hoping I end up on the right side of the curve because I could go one way or another. If possible, I would recommend you check out one of Convery's lectures and one of Sproul's and then decide whose class to take depending on who seems more engaging. I wish I had done that, maybe Sproul's style would have worked better for me.
Convery is extremely nice and is a genuinely nice guy. However, be prepared for 10 full weeks of him and his terrible TAs reading off of generic slides for an hour and a half 2x per week. Don't go to lecture, don't go to discussion. It's just rehashing a collection of slides that the textbook company provides to him. It's a snoozefest for the entire quarter, so be warned.
I really enjoyed taking this class! Professor Convery is very knowledgeable about the course material and ties it to real life examples as well. He records his lectures which is such a blessing. He's approachable and kind during office hours as well!
I suggest doing or at least looking at /all/ of the practice problems (not just the highlighted ones) on the free response and multiple choice questions that the TA's and Convery give out. Tests are extremely fair and straight forward. Excel projects don't take too much time.
Only slight complaint with that some of the practice questions have a fair amount of errors.
This was the most straight forward class I have taken as an econ major. Copy the slides (either in lecture or on your own), do the homework problems he highlights, know the practice exams inside and out, and take the tests. He even allows cheat sheets in the exam which is very helpful. The exams are very fair and mirror the type of questions you find on the practice exams and in the homework problems. The group projects in lab are graded on a credit/no credit basis so there's no need to stress if it is perfect or not, just put in effort with your group. I was worried about taking this class based on the reviews before, but Convery must have revamped the class because I thought it was a very useful class and not too demanding of my time. I highly recommend.
I took this class online, although I feel like the format shouldn't be that different on-ground:
Class Grade - 20% Lab, 20% Midterm 1, 20% Midterm 2, and 40% Final Exam. The labs are all excel-intensive labs that elaborate on some of the harder and most important concepts taught in class. Personally I really enjoyed all the labs, since even though they all took quite some time to complete, they were all really useful in terms of actual application of concepts learned in class. The labs are also group-based as well (with up to 4 people in a group) and graded mostly on your solution process and not actual accuracy, so if you get good group members (I fortunately did) and try your best on each one of the labs to show your calculation process, you can definitely get 100% even if some of your numbers are off.
The exams are all super fair and straight-forward; just like a previous review suggested, as long as you do ALL of the homework questions (highlighted AND unhighlighted), you're good on the exams. My TA Julian was also absolutely amazing - he provides his own set of practice problems that are very similar to the textbook problems and go over them in discussions, so you basically get extra practice before each exam. The textbook isn't required, however I found it pretty useful as a quick read before the exams to review all the topics.
Finally, Professor Convery is one of the nicest professors I've ever had - he replies to emails almost always within half a day of sending them, and I always felt more than welcome to come to his office hours and ask for help or just to chat. Definitely would take him again for any Econ class!
I liked this class. Easy, straightforward tests and relatively interesting lectures made me really enjoy this class. Convery seems really interested in the material and wants all students to do well. Homework counted as 20% and the midterms/final collectively counted as 80% of the grade.