ECON 3720

I don't know how this class was in person, but online it was really hard. The lectures are prerecorded, and basically useless, because unless you sit down and spend 2 hours going through each 1 hour lecture, you won't really understand the math. The textbook was crucial, and if you actually want to learn the content I highly recommend just reading the textbook and googling topics you don't get. Office hours are likely where I'd go as well, and just learn the content there. Exams were 24 hour open note, so you have a lot of time to figure things out, which was definitely a big bonus. Econometrics is really a sub-field of applied statistics - if that's not your boat, I'd skip. Lab groups are hit or miss, so I'd take the class with a friend or two you can depend upon.

Hailing from London, Professor Colmer proves to be a charismatic lecturer. However, I may have a bit of an unpopular opinion on his teaching style. If you're looking for a more sparing experience in learning Econometrics - which I have heard is a tough walk in say, Michener's class - this is the right course for you. You'll learn the concepts well, and Colmer won't make it any harder than it needs to be, which was terrific; I managed to walk out of this class with a pretty decent grade. However, if your serious about statistics and learning regression, then I would take this course with someone else. Colmer will not teach Stata code, arguably the backbone in modern econometrics, and honestly I'm not quite sure if he even knew how to do any of it. Furthermore, some of the slides could be confusing at times, and when you would talk to him in OH/lecture, he would dive off into long, irrelevant tangents, sometimes circumventing your question entirely (this was a confusing course at times; you're going to need to ask questions). Otherwise, I found Colmer to be a really thoughtful guy; although, econometrics may not entirely be his thing.

The lectures for this course were pretty confusing to me and I felt very nervous going into the exams. However, they ended up being very fair and a lot of partial credit was given. I was confused mostly about the statistical proofs which seemed very extensive, but they weren't really necessary for the last two exams since they were mainly based on written explanations which I found pretty intuitive. The grading scale was also extremely forgiving so I wouldn't be too stressed about this course. Prof. Colmer was also very available for questions/concerns and I loved the slack aspect of this course.

agh, mixed feelings for prof Colmer. He is a nice guy and allows all midterms and final to be 24hrs, which is rarely seen in Econ dept, and he really wants the students to do well and get A+. The workload is also relatively easy compare to other teachers' 3720 -- there's only homework set every week that you could work with others, and the homework is judged based on your 'effort'. That being said, looking back I'm not even sure what I learned from econ3720. The lecture video every week only adds up to more than an hour, which means that compared to regular class hours we are actually getting an hour less per week. I really wonder what students were learning in person before this semester.

Professor Colmer is hands down the best professor to take this course with and one of my favorite professors I have had at UVA. Do not miss out on the opportunity to take a course with him! I was hesitant that this course would be very statistics-based (similar to Stat 2120) but I was proven wrong. This has been the most applicable economics course I have taken, as the main focus is on learning how to run regressions, interpret data and recognize errors in data collection. The skills learned in this course are useful in many fields in addition to economics, such as public policy and education.

The TA's grading standard is unpredictable. The problem sets are completion grade and I really put on efforts on the first several problem sets but I turned out to have only half point for the first two and have full point for the rest which I didn't really pay attention to. This totally depends on the TA's mood and the mysterious standard in his heart. Same for midterm and final. I was much more confident about my performance on the final than that of midterm but I ended up getting a lower score for final. Don't even know the reason because the professor has already left the campus after the grades are out so you are not able to review your final exam paper. Overall, this is a course that you can never predict your grade based on your self-evaluation.

Colmer is a gift from the Econ gods. It is quite possible that you will not understand a single thing that is happening in class, but if you buckle down, you can do it. GO TO OFFICE HOURS. They will save you. Find a good group. You get a cheat sheet for the exams. Tests are hard, but fair. This is one of those classes you'll appreciate after its over because it is actually really helpful. If you take this class, take it with Colmer

Colmer is a new professor so he and the class definitely had flaws, but overall he was very fair and the class was pretty manageable. The first half of the class before spring break is a lot of stat and proof heavy material which was incredibly hard to understand, but the second half was way more practical and interesting. Colmer' slides are very dense and he tends to read off them sometimes, but they become very useful when learning concepts for exams. The problem sets were kind of a pain since he never really taught us how to use STATA, but they were completion grades so it didn't matter much in the end. You get a cheat sheet for exams and I thought they were very fair -- it's way more critical thinking and less math than I anticipated. There wasn't much guidance on the Empirical project but it's not too hard to put together if you know how to run a regression and explain all of the potential analysis issues he talks about in class. Colmer is a cool guy that is always willing to help students, and has a perfect British humor that lightens up class a good deal. Overall, I expected way worse from Econometrics and I could only see him improving as he teaches the class more, so I'd reccomend taking it with Colmer to ease your stress.

Great Professor that really loves the difficult material and tries to make it interesting. Also he grades easy