Prof. Hirsch was probably one of the hardest professors I've had so far. I did well on his Midterm, but then did horribly on the final. He really does test you on absolutely everything in the book, even if he didn't really talk about it in lecture. I think the only way you can do well in this class is if you're capable of memorizing his exact wording that he uses to explain concepts in his book. If you try to reword something, you'll probably end up receiving 0 points for it. The only reason I did well on the midterm was because I was lucky to have studied the same concepts that he chose to test us on (which seemed to be a pretty random selection to me).

I would not recommend this professor. His tests are difficult and in the end I don't think I learned as much as I could've if a different prof. had taught the class. Also, he embarrasses his students during class if you give an incorrect answer and he has a policy that if you are at all late to class you shouldn't come (even if you have a good reason for it). I find that all very unfortunate because I think law and economics could be a very interesting subject.

I enjoyed this class. I liked the subject, and Hirsch was interesting.

I know people had difficulty with the midterm, but I don't really know why. I thought, based on the actual exam (well, more importantly, my answers) that I had done poorly on the midterm. For some reason though, people who thought they had done well had actually done worse. It's kind of hard to figure out what he wants for the answers, but I gather the trick is to be concise and thorough.

He also uses a curve which is nice, given the low scores on the midterm. He seemed pretty reasonable when he talked about how he decided the cut off for the letter grades, but of course I don't know what the ultimate distribution is so I can't say for sure.

Some comments:
-Sit up front!! You can't hear him if you don't. Plus it makes it easier to participate.

-Participate once every class if you can. Pretty easy to do if you do a bit of the reading. Makes it so he won't randomly call on you, plus you get participation credit.

-I didn't read most of the articles or cases assigned, only the text book. If I had time, I tried to note the basics of each case, but I certainly didn't read the whole thing. However, no guarantees that he won't ask questions about the articles in future courses, so this isn't really advice.

-Read the textbook! He wrote it! It's more in depth than his lectures, but covers the same material. I learnt right out of the textbook. I don't even think I read through my lecture notes before the final.

I don't know what to think of this professor, exactly.

The material for the class is interesting, and is definitely a nice break from the regular math-based economic classes. It is probably a good class to take if you are interested in pursuing a career in law.

The professor's lectures are interesting, although many times it is scattered. It is a good idea to attend lecture although you may get really fed up with his relatively random way of lecturing within two weeks.

The midterm was actually not too bad if you read the book through at least TWICE and memorize key terms that he mentions in class and make sure to take note of his favorite economists. It is definitely beneficial to you if you enjoy memorizing, and it's a good idea to get study groups together. Professor Hirsch is a really nice guy who is willing to take time (in office hours) to explain different concepts to you and give you some (although obscure) hints about the exam.

About the final: Similar format to the midterm, except that it focuses on material after the midterm, with the addition of a few more definitions and an additional essay and some general questions about the class. Not that bad, except that he apparently wants people to memorize every aspect of his book (a question was actually on a FOOTNOTE that is found in his book!) and limits answers to essay questions to 500 words, which is a relatively low limit since some of his questions are detailed and require explainations. PREPARE WELL IN ADVANCE FOR IT! He gave us a review sheet to study from, but almost none of the questions were on the exam.

Overall, a nice professor who has scattered lectures. Take him if you like memorizing facts...the class, although interesting, is also all about regurgitation.

I found the subject material of Econ 172 fascinating and Prof. Hirsch to be a very engaging lecturer who asks questions of students in class randomly. This meant we had to do our reading, of course, and he was obviously disappointed during the start of the quarter when we obviously didn't--his face even reddened once.

Before our mid-term, he didn't give us an outline or anything at all for us to know what to expect. When asked in class, he simply said the mid-term will "reward those who did their reading." And it basically required you to have done ALL the readings: Define 5 or 10 terms, Answer 2(?) essay questions from the couple offered.

The Final was slightly better because he gave us a list of key terms and review essay questions. I think there were 30-40 review questions so we had to know everything in the readings and lectures, anyway. After our disasterous mid-term grades, I'm sure many of us had never studied so hard for a final.

In terms of grades, Prof. Hirsch doesn't scale the exam grades. He does the final grades in the course on the old-fashioned bell curve. He told me he doesn't believe in grade inflation and I can admire that on an idealistic plane, but my GPA is still hurting from it. There were a few As and Fs, and most people got Cs. I'm just thankful I was in the middle--how could I survive with a D in my major?