ECON 3720

Ariel clearly tries to help students succeed, but as has been abundantly noted, the material is very difficult. Nevertheless, the curve is generous--I got a 62 on the first exam and ended up with a B+ in the class. The text is unclear but you have to read it to understand the theoretical aspect of the course: the lectures can be convoluted at times.

The Econ department is notorious for having unhelpful TAs and this class is no exception.

This class is required for a lot of econ majors. I definitely recommend taking it with professor Reshef, he is very enthusiastic about the subject matter, and makes what could be an extremely boring and dry class, pretty entertaining.

This course is challenging yet fun. You get to learn how to use stat software like stata (which presumably could be very useful for future relevant jobs, like economic consulting etc.)
I highly recommend Phai as TA! She's very efficient during discussion session. Often I feel she clarified things that were not so clear to me during lecture.

For those who are not heavy into math, it may take time to adjust to Professor Reshef's way of teaching, which involves a lot of proofs. You have a problem set every other week or so, but they aren't too bad because you are allowed to work in groups. Definitely need to study for the midterm and final to do well.

Considering the class is supposed to be hard, it wasn't too bad. Homeworks were a pain, but if you went to Phai's office hours they were doable. Practice midterms and finals were very very helpful. Professor Reshef is enthusiastic and very smart, but class was kind of pointless since he spent a lot of time doing proofs that were not in the homeworks or on the tests.

Do not be intimidated by the way Reshef describes his class, he told us on the first day it would be the hardest class you have this semester but it wasn't that tough. Just make sure you read the lecture notes and chapters in the book, that will allow you to do well on the homeworks due roughly every week. You will have questions on the homework, but if you go to TA's or Reshef's office hours, they will gladly help and you can easily get the homeworks done. Midterm and Final was ok, make sure you understand the concepts and problems that were outlined in the homework and in his lecture notes (other than the proofs, which will not show up on exams), as he really likes to replicate homework questions on exams.

While I was taking this class, I thought I was going to fail and that it was the hardest class I've ever taken, but after getting by with a B+ after putting in relatively little extra effort, it almost feels like a joke. There are weekly homeworks, mostly from the book, but they can be done with up to two other people and are usually rather easy to get full credit on, albeit they sometimes take a while to do. The midterm and the final both seem somewhat easy given how hard the word around places like here makes them out to be, but they are graded very harshly. That said, the average on the midterm was a 61, which I got, but as aforementioned I ended up with a decent grade. Reshef is a rather enjoyable professor, if slightly arrogant, and does show how economists apply regression analysis to their research (although you will hate Stata by the time the class is over), but all of his lectures basically come from his lecture notes, which are all posted online. In fact, basically all I ever did to study for the exams was go through the lecture notes. Long story short, this is a tough class, but if you have to take it, take it with Reshef.

This is a difficult class but if you have to take it, take it with Reshef. He makes lecture interesting because he is passionate about the subject and his use of Stata (a statistics software that you get to use all semester) gives the material a lot of application. Although he spends a lot of time on proofs, there were none on the midterm or final and almost all of the questions looked like ones from the homework. Join a study group and do the homeworks and you will be fine.

reshefs class was difficult with a lot of work, but the amount of time you put into the class really reflects your grade. and his tests were difficult but very fair. anything he says more than once is probably important. his homeworks take forever but if you take the time to do it, it helps because he uses some of those questions on the test

Optional Discussion sections, interesting and essential stuff to learn for statisticians, Reshef is occasionally entertaining (often through no intent of his own) and puts a lot of weight on group homework sets.