Michael Urmann

This is a useless review because Dr. Urmann says he will not be teaching at SFSU in the future. However, in the off chance that he does come back and teach I figured I should let you know my 2 cents. Urmann is a clear speaker with a well organized class. His lectures are primarily done via overhead projector and are layed out very logically. Dr. Urmann has a bias for Keynesian economics and often calls supply-side theory "controversial", while never putting that same label on the theories of Keynes. So be warned of the slight bias in lecture. The online quizes he gives are open book and usually have an hour time limit. The student that had trouble with them didn't effeciently use the tools he was given. If you look up a keyword for a quiz question on google the answer generally appears. I recv'd A's on all of my quizes but never read the book past the second chapter. I also recv'd an A in the class, based mainly on the grade padding I gave myself with the online open book quizes. His tests are hard and there are four of them that are worth more and more points as the semester progresses. They are graded on a curve with the top 35% of scores getting a's and b's. If someone throws the curve way off he will adjust that peron out of the curve, so one brainiac student can not ruin the class for everyone. The bottom line on this guy is the class is easy, the quizzes are extremely easy (if you know the tricks to ace them), and the tests are very very hard (study a lot get a good grade, study a little and you will get a C or a B, don't study at all and you will fail badly).

a online quiz is given weekly. the quizzes are straight from the book which he downloads from the books website. the pre exams are fairly hard and have nothing/little to do with final exam. most of the class usually gets at least half of the pre test wrong. if he realizes that a question which he downloaded for pre exam has no relavence to the material and everyone gets it wrong, he would just say "oh well losing a point is really little" there is no make ups or extra credit. when the website he post the quizzes on is down and you miss the deadline its your fault. the person who gave this teacher an A is one of the few who attends class everyday and kiss *ss

This is hands down the single best professor I have ever had. At the onset of this course I expected the information to be incredibly dry and uninteresting, he absolutely made it come to life with a fervor of vibrancy that nearly makes me want to be an economist! His style of no homework, one online quiz a week, not only fosters a serious sense of friendly competition and offeres instant score feedback, but also in my opinion is THE way to truely educate someone. Its a constant check and balance system for yourself that dosnt require self motivation to engage. Great course and a great professor. I hope he teaches micro so I can take it with him also. One word of warning though, make sure you DO understand what he is teaching (he indeed does a wonderful job of explaining theories also), but everything is compilative.. if you slack, you will probably need to dig yourself out of a hole.