ECON 3010

Zirkle's class isn't as bad as previous courseforum recommendations make it out to be. Mr. Zirkle isn't the best teacher on the planet, or even necessarily a good one. He is a pretty decent guy though. He does a lot better teaching the first test material than the rest of the class. However, his office hours are extremely useful, especially the ones right before the tests. He doesn't write the test questions until the day before so if you go to his office hours before the test you can usually figure out which questions he is going to ask. He also is better answering questions when not overwhelmed with a class in front of him. If you have a good TA you're golden. Selcen Cakir is a great TA who helps her students and understands the difficulty of the material. I would do the practice problems until you understand them because that is where the tests come from. Lecture can be pretty useless but sometimes its worth going just because Zirkle will occasionally do practice problems. There's also clicker questions which are a free 5% of your grade if you actually go to class. Long review made short: Zirkle's class really isn't that bad (though its not great), go to office hours and do the practice problems until you understand them and you'll be riding the average (a B) for the class at the very least. That's a pretty decent grade since this class is a weed out and none of the teachers are the best.

Isn't as bad as people say. If you do all the practice problems until you understand them you should have a pretty good idea of what will be on the tests

Zirkle is completely useless; he purposefully makes everything more difficult than it needs to be, and he has a hard time teaching even the most basic concepts during lecture. I would not recommend taking this class with him, but if you have to focus on the questions in the book and work with your TA. Selcen is a great TA who sympathizes with her students and also will spend as much time helping you as need be.

I would highly discourage anyone from taking Zirkle for intermediate micro if it can be avoided. He is definitely a good guy, but does not present the course material in an effective manner. It's easier to learn from the book than the professor, but even the book he uses can be confusing.

This class really was not as hard as people made it seem. If you read the textbook and do practice problems, you should do fine on the midterms. The final was ridiculously hard because Zirkle put really hard problems on their and it was a lot of information to know at one time. Overall the class wasn't too bad.

The class is fairly straightforward. The concepts in 3010 were a review of ECON 2010, but the problems were a bit harder. Hardly any homework and optional discussion sections. Not a hard class, but the lectures are a snooze.

Probably one of the worst teachers I have ever had. The tests are completely random. You could get an A based on pure luck of studying the right random material or an F even if you studied nonstop. His lectures are impossible to follow. The TA's are horrible. Hes hard to reach in office hourse becuase he has very few hours. Even if you do the reading every night and do all the practice problems you could do horribly on the test becuase you are given very little partial credit and some of the questions he asks are the material that you wouldnt study becuase you think it isnt very important. I do not recomend this class at all.

Terrible teacher. His classes are messy and too fast to follow, often makes numerical mistakes that needs to be pointed out by students. Exams are tricky (he seems to do this on purpose) and is often based on obscure stuff he briefly covered in class. The curve helps, but I would suggest to avoid him at all costs.

My personal take on Zirkle is that he is a very good teacher. He knows his stuff and can explain it well. A lot of people consider this a hard class but if you do the readings and keep up on the assigned but non-mandatory homework, you'll be fine. The best way to study for his two midterms is the homework, a lot of the problems are very similar. He talks softly so sit near the front and while he knows econ, he struggles with basic arithmatic so be sure to pay attention while he solves problems on the board cause he may just come up with a completely wrong number.

Zirkle is an incredibly nice guy but a very poor teacher. Most of his exam questions are straight out of left field. Avoid if possible. If unavoidable, take very careful notes in lectures and go over his practice problems several times before exams.