ECON 122
International Finance
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Requisite: course 102. Enforced corequisite: course 122L. Not open to students with credit for former course 120. Emphasis on interpretation of balance of payments and adjustment to national and international equilibria through changes in price levels, exchange rates, and national income. Other topics include making international payments, determination of exchange rates under various monetary standards, capital movements, exchange controls, and international monetary organization. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2020 - To be honest I'm not such why this class has such high reviews. I took this class in online format and the professor was super dry. It was just the most basic yet most boring type of econ class and is focused mainly on memorizing formulas and graph shifts (IS-LM, etc) rather than learning anything applicable to real life. Wasn't particularly difficult but also is definitely not easy (average for midterm was around 66%), so don't take it expecting to just breeze through. Having open-note exams was really helpful though, I don't think I could've gotten an A if the exams were irl.
Spring 2020 - To be honest I'm not such why this class has such high reviews. I took this class in online format and the professor was super dry. It was just the most basic yet most boring type of econ class and is focused mainly on memorizing formulas and graph shifts (IS-LM, etc) rather than learning anything applicable to real life. Wasn't particularly difficult but also is definitely not easy (average for midterm was around 66%), so don't take it expecting to just breeze through. Having open-note exams was really helpful though, I don't think I could've gotten an A if the exams were irl.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2021 - This class is tough, and there are no numbers; it's purely theory. Oleg is a nice guy but his slides and notetaking style is extremely difficult to follow. You have to be extremely in-tune with what he's saying in order to keep up, sometimes rewatching lecture videos multiple times. He gives very little time to introduce new material, and instead immediately jumps into the applications. He assigns multiple scientific papers that are very difficult to decipher, and will take hours to read. The problem sets are intensive, graded on correctness, and take a lot of time to complete, but they prepare you well for midterms. If you really enjoy developing the thought behind economics/finance, this class is for you - Oleg has a wealth of knowledge and is willing to accommodate you. For people looking to find an easy, low-effort elective, I'd avoid.
Winter 2021 - This class is tough, and there are no numbers; it's purely theory. Oleg is a nice guy but his slides and notetaking style is extremely difficult to follow. You have to be extremely in-tune with what he's saying in order to keep up, sometimes rewatching lecture videos multiple times. He gives very little time to introduce new material, and instead immediately jumps into the applications. He assigns multiple scientific papers that are very difficult to decipher, and will take hours to read. The problem sets are intensive, graded on correctness, and take a lot of time to complete, but they prepare you well for midterms. If you really enjoy developing the thought behind economics/finance, this class is for you - Oleg has a wealth of knowledge and is willing to accommodate you. For people looking to find an easy, low-effort elective, I'd avoid.
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Most Helpful Review
Krop is HORRIBLE. worst UCLA experience i have ever had in my 4 years for these reasons: 1. Krop is extremely smart, i am not going to deny that; but he has to be the worst teacher. He is smart, therefore the material he covers is difficult; and with his sub-par inadequate teaching, makes his class intolerable. 2. Lectures are bad. Talks way too fast, doesn't stop and spend time on important material, he just cruises through everything as if its insignificant...its not. 3. Unorganized. His slides are always out of order, tests CONSISTENTLY have mistakes and even ANSWER KEYS have mistakes. For a class that is 99% self-taught, this makes studying near impossible. 4. Graphs dont help at all, if anything they confuse students more. 5. Makes the most simplest, easy to understand, graphs and conclusions difficult and hard to understand. It took my study group 5 hours to understand one graph that he based his whole class on... 6. Tests are bogus. He pulls questions from information he spent less than 1 minute on. 7. Makes you feel stupid. If you ask a question in his office hours or in his class, it better be smart...otherwise he is just going to make you feel inept and lost. 8. He simply does not care and is lackluster professor. I took Econ 122, my midterm said Econ 192 as the class....The final he gave us said to choose 2 of the following 4 questions, 1 from each of the 2 sections. Then later on, the instructions for each section say to, "do all of the following questions"... I will never take Krop again. If you end up taking him please give him a horrible evaluation so he gets fired.
Krop is HORRIBLE. worst UCLA experience i have ever had in my 4 years for these reasons: 1. Krop is extremely smart, i am not going to deny that; but he has to be the worst teacher. He is smart, therefore the material he covers is difficult; and with his sub-par inadequate teaching, makes his class intolerable. 2. Lectures are bad. Talks way too fast, doesn't stop and spend time on important material, he just cruises through everything as if its insignificant...its not. 3. Unorganized. His slides are always out of order, tests CONSISTENTLY have mistakes and even ANSWER KEYS have mistakes. For a class that is 99% self-taught, this makes studying near impossible. 4. Graphs dont help at all, if anything they confuse students more. 5. Makes the most simplest, easy to understand, graphs and conclusions difficult and hard to understand. It took my study group 5 hours to understand one graph that he based his whole class on... 6. Tests are bogus. He pulls questions from information he spent less than 1 minute on. 7. Makes you feel stupid. If you ask a question in his office hours or in his class, it better be smart...otherwise he is just going to make you feel inept and lost. 8. He simply does not care and is lackluster professor. I took Econ 122, my midterm said Econ 192 as the class....The final he gave us said to choose 2 of the following 4 questions, 1 from each of the 2 sections. Then later on, the instructions for each section say to, "do all of the following questions"... I will never take Krop again. If you end up taking him please give him a horrible evaluation so he gets fired.
Most Helpful Review
Summer 2018 - Mcdevitt is incredibly clear in his material. He really knows his stuff, and his exams are very fair, but can be on the harder side. I can see how it can be time sensitive. The multiple choice is incredibly hard. It might even be harder than the free response, honestly because some multiple choice questions can go down to "g." Not just the simple "a, b, c, d," but it goes down to "g." BUT he's a good lecturer, so he does teach the things that he tests. It's a solid econ class, and you probably deserve the grade you get.
Summer 2018 - Mcdevitt is incredibly clear in his material. He really knows his stuff, and his exams are very fair, but can be on the harder side. I can see how it can be time sensitive. The multiple choice is incredibly hard. It might even be harder than the free response, honestly because some multiple choice questions can go down to "g." Not just the simple "a, b, c, d," but it goes down to "g." BUT he's a good lecturer, so he does teach the things that he tests. It's a solid econ class, and you probably deserve the grade you get.
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Most Helpful Review
Prof. Tornell is HORRIBLE. His lectures are completely incomprehensible, he requires you to subscribe to the Economist and the Wall Street Journal, and his tests are ridiculous. I got a B+ not understanding any of the class material because the curve was so bad. If at all possible, it would be better to wait until another professor is teaching this class. Even Swanson is better than this guy!
Prof. Tornell is HORRIBLE. His lectures are completely incomprehensible, he requires you to subscribe to the Economist and the Wall Street Journal, and his tests are ridiculous. I got a B+ not understanding any of the class material because the curve was so bad. If at all possible, it would be better to wait until another professor is teaching this class. Even Swanson is better than this guy!
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