The best aspects of this course included the insightful textbook and the flexible professor whose teachings were always adjusted to match the needs of his students. The professor’s exams were also straightforward and fair. The worst aspects of this course included the ineffective lectures, material presentations, and the lack of correlation between what students learned in class and their actual exams. The professor wasn’t able to communicate the difficult content effectively and he was also inaccessible after class hours. The course would improve if the lectures were clearer and structured with more focus on concepts than techniques. Prospective students should know that this is a tough but interesting economics course that they can be successful in as long as they attend lectures consistently and keep up with the readings.

Students praised this course for providing a good background on international trade. Some students found the lectures were difficult to follow and the once-a-week class was too long. Students also complained of a disconnect between what was taught in lectures and what was expected on homework assignments. Suggestions for improvement included a desire for greater clarity in the instructor’s lecture notes and a desire to shorten the course or have it meet multiple times a week . Prospective students should know that the course had a lot reading. Students also found that the instructor frequently used graphs to illustrate points, so an ability to understand graphs was helpful.

The material presented in this course through lectures and readings was the best aspect of the class. However, most students gave the lecture and teaching style of the instructor a very poor rating. Much of the material covered in lectures did not seem relevant to the readings and there were discrepancies between information presented in lecture, in the reading and from the teaching assistants. Suggestions to improve the class included developing a better structure for the lectures and more consistency between the instructor’s expectations and the teaching assistant’s instructions. Prospective students should know that students said they wil need to do a good deal of independent study to understand the concepts and that this instructor was found to be difficult.