I think Professor Kripalani has improved and refined her course compared to some of the more dated comments on this forum.

Before diving into the pros and cons of taking Intermediate Micro with Kripalani versus Troyan or Westerfield, I want to emphasize that you should not take this course if you aren’t extremely comfortable with long and elaborate algebra. The issue with this course isn’t that the material is inherently difficult—it's that if you haven’t taken a course beyond Calc II, a physics class, or you generally don’t consider yourself a “math person,” the pace at which she expects you to manipulate variables can feel overwhelming.

Many people confuse the difficulty of the class with the reality that some students are simply more prepared and have much stronger math backgrounds. That said, Kripalani consistently has a higher A rate and average GPA than every other Intermediate Micro professor, with a surprisingly high A+ rate as well

Due to the wide variation in students' math backgrounds and abilities, the exam scores have a notably large spread and standard deviation. If I recall correctly, around 30% of students get an A, while another 30% fail altogether.

To summarize: if you’re comfortable with math, this course will feel incredibly easy. If you’re not, you’ll likely be very stressed throughout the semester, but with some hard work, you’ll probably still end up with at least a B+, thanks to the generous grading curve and extra credit opportunities.

One misconception I'd like to clear up that other reviews haven't mentioned is that the actual math background needed for this class isn't expansive - everyone has it as long as they've taken Calc I. The real issue is that her exams contain more questions than can comfortably be completed in the given time. I vividly remember the first exam where time ran out, and almost no one had finished. Exams typically consist of about seven multi-part problems (a through d), which can feel like completing 10-12 lecture quizzes in just 75 minutes. On the first exam, I struggled but quickly adapted my pace and performed well on subsequent exams. My primarily and only complaint for this course remains the overly fast pace and unnecessarily extensive algebra required on the exams.

In one sentence, I can summarize everything you learn in this course: you have a mathematical function representing a firm's total cost or total profit, and to maximize profit or minimize cost, you simply take a partial derivative and set it equal to zero. There are a few algebraic setup steps afterward, but often there's so much math it fills more than a page. This makes algebraic mistakes common when you have to solve 8-10 problems plus several bizarre graphing questions in one exam. The entire course involves nothing but simple differentiation and complex algebra. It'd honestly be more appropriate to rename this class as "Partial Derivatives and Algebraic Manipulation for Profit-Maximizing Firms." I genuinely learned nothing about economics.

With this context, it's easier to understand why the course is controversial. It's not inherently hard, but some students aren’t comfortable enough with math to properly pace themselves during exams. Those who move quickly find it easy. It's definitely a questionable way to weed students out of an econ degree.

Dr. Kripalani is fully aware of the pacing issue she creates. And as such, you get to drop an exam (you take 4 exams, but only 3 count if you sit for the final). Many students secure their A early and skip the final. The final is tough only b/c there are so many scenarios and math setups to memorize. However, I heard you get double time on the final, which should alleviate pacing concerns for many. Exams count for 25% each (75% total), and there are numerous extra credit opportunities. If you complete most extra credit assignments and miss just a few lecture quizzes, homework assignments, and PACE assignments, your homework category could exceed 25%, adding an extra 1-2 points to your final grade. If diligent, missing nothing and completing all homework accurately, you could gain up to 3-4 percentage point boost on your final grade. Additionally, she applies about a 3.5-point curve at the end of the course and around 3-3.5% curves to some midterms, so even with high 70s to low 80s on all exams, you could still earn you an A.

Overall, Dr. Kripalani’s section is likely the easiest to get an A in. She’s an engaging lecturer, highly responsive, and supportive. Still, you'll feel stressed knowing her exams are dense and algebraically intensive. There's no textbook, and everything runs through Teams and Gradescope, which is inconvenient, but there's plenty of practice material closely aligned with the exams.

THIS IS A HARD CLASS. There's a reason why it's known as the econ weeder class. You can't go into it expecting to put in minimal effort and pass. However, Kripalani is definitely the best prof to take this class with. She explains things in class and is really really helpful in office hours too. You can email her or message her over Teams and she responds to questions very quickly. She encourages students to submit regrade requests after exams and is very generous with them. Make sure you go to every single lecture, take notes, and do all the practice problems and extra credit. #tCFS25

Professor Kripalani was nice. She is really responsive on Teams for DMs at basically anytime from 6am to 9pm for any kinds of questions. For the course content itself, I believe it's probably the hardest 3010 course content among all the profs afaik but if you put one hour per day to go over and review the content it wasn't even hard. It's basically all about the process of using calculus and algebra to deal with economic questions, so make sure you are familiar with calc1. Once you fully understand the core process of dealing with different kinds of question (basically 6-8 kinds of questions for each unit) you will be fine but it certainly takes time. Please spend a whole week or even more to prepare for all 3 midterms (like at least 2-3 hrs per day will be appropriate) in order to make sure you can get 90 or more on midterms. Personally speaking the course content itself is not that hard to understand and to master it. She would sometimes give extra credits on both exams and assignments which is a huge plus for our grade. For the 25% non-exam section of the entire score, I scored 111/100 and this is all due to the help of extra credit, and I could even do better. As a result, many people ended with A/A-/B+ for this course, which wasn't that bad.

However it's a super time consuming course and I wouldn't recommend taking this course if you overloaded the credits like I do. The grade components are 3 exams (one to be dropped among midterm 1-3 and the finals) that weighs 25% each and the remaining 25% for non-exam categories (where you can easily score more than a 100 if you put effort in assignments). I personally would suggest people to make as much effort for the first three midterms because you can easily earn something around 90 if you reviewed appropriately. For this semester, the final was he!l hard (thankfully she curved the scores hard) and it's on May 1st so we gonna wrap up as all the content within one semester within limited time, so it's not worth it if you simply think you can lay off for a midterm and try to take the final instead. DO NOT THINK ABOUT TAKING THE FINAL UNLESS U WANNA CHALLENGE URSELF. Also, after the midterm exam 3, there'll be one more unit that will come up in the finals but not in any of the midterms fo think about it. The assignments are designed that you can drop 1 HWs and 2 LQs, so if you done all assignments and 3 prior exams as well as all the extra credits she gave well, you can just quit this course before a week the course ended (while she go on for unit 4 and assign 1HWs and 2LQs) if you figured out that you can secure a satisfied grade letter for your total grade after calculation. For all the four tests, there won't be any new course content before the exam and she will spend one lecture reviewing all important questions: THESE ARE IMPORTANT AND CAN SHOW UP ON EXAMS

Anyway the all slides questions, lq, HW, and especially the lecture before the exam are all important for test prep so make sure to lock ur a$$ in before the tests and try not get an A secured without taking the finals. This is certainly doable and wasn't even that hard (I wish I could know this before I go to this course. Reviewing the finals and see all the 3 prior exams were easy peasy was a huge regret for me as I didn't lock in in the early 50% of the semester).

She also made improvements btw. Y'all see that people complaining that she won't post slides before? From this semester on she not only did but also post recored lectures. To sum up she's good and can't be wrong if you plan to take ECON 3010 but make sure you can plenty of time dedicated to this course. If you find yourself overloaded then just drop this course and take it another time.

This course is not an easy class, and you should expect to be putting in a lot of time into it. However, Kripalani cares so much about her students and is easily accessible through email or office hours. You cannot skip class and expect to do well on the exams, however, discussions were unhelpful to me as my TA was terrible, so I stopped going halfway through the semester and just did the problems on my own. I hired a tutor for the first half of the semester, but eventually did not need the extra help by the 2nd midterm. There are 3 midterms and a final, and one gets dropped, so I did not have to take the final, which was relieving. This course is laid out very clearly and organized, so if you put in the work, the course gets easier as you go. Kripalani is a great instructor, and I felt I learned a ton in this semester. if you are prepared for a challenging class, take 3010 with Kripalani.

Professor Kripalani’s class was not quite what I expected when I enrolled in Microeconomics 3010. Previously, I had seen notes from Professor Santugini’s version of the course and was anticipating a more concept-to-example structure. In contrast, Professor Kripalani’s teaching style placed a stronger emphasis on application rather than foundational theory, so I would recommend having some prior exposure to microeconomics before taking this class.

The homework assignments were quite challenging—often more difficult than the exams—and required a good amount of time and effort to complete. Attending office hours was extremely helpful and probably the best strategy for keeping up with the coursework.

I scored above 90% on all three midterm exams, so I was exempt from taking the final. For exam preparation, I highly recommend reviewing the presentation slides carefully and completing all the extra weekly practice problems provided. I personally found these much more helpful than the discussion section materials, which felt more difficult than the exams themselves.

There were a few opportunities for extra credit at the end of the semester, which helped offset any points lost from homework or lecture quizzes. Among the exams, I found Exam 1 to be the hardest and Exam 2 the easiest.

Overall, don’t stress too much—if you stay consistent, make use of the resources provided, and put in the effort, you’ll do well in the course.

This class has no business being as hard as it is, but due to a complete lack of clear topic explanation, especially conceptually, this class becomes an abstract algebra class with a veneer of "econ". Lectures are perhaps the weakest I've ever attended. Classes are disorganized, rushed attempts at example problems often mistakenly copied from an answer key. Students' questions are often related to conceptual misunderstandings which she is unable to clarify and is painstakingly unconfident in answering. There is also zero enthusiasm, real world extension, or energy for any topic whatsoever. If you are someone who thrives with any one of a good lecturer, a confident professor, or even just an energetic professor, avoid this class at all costs or prepare for disappointment.
Microsoft Teams is poorly managed and is very time consuming to navigate. Gradescope grades take forever to get back. Homeworks and Lecture Quizzes are terrible representations of what we do in class, and despite efforts to "make us think one step further", they instead waste time with concepts you'll never see again. Discussion time is often wasted by the TA's confusion about her methods versus the alternative "logical" approach. Exams and especially the final often draw the hardest questions that we often get one example of at the end of a lecture that we either half finish or go at light speed through, and exams basically determine your grade.
Due to all of these factors, this class is a complete waste of potential by way of poor class structure as most required classes are, but just take it with friends and find humor in how bad lectures are.

I think Professor Kripalani does a really great job with the structuring of the course. You take 4 exams and one gets dropped, so you are allowed to do bad on an exam and sort of have a learning curve, which I found to be vital in a class that takes a lot of trial and error like this one. My advice though, is to try and start off strong, because it is easier to do well on the unit based tests then it is to do well on a cumulative final. The final I took yesterday was so comprehensive, it felt impossible to receive an A on, unless you are spending every minute of your time leading up to the exam reviewing every detail from previous lectures and doing every type of practice problem she provides (which is pretty difficult to do in an already very busy time). I think the best way to do well in the course is to take her advice extremely literally: do every practice problem you can, do all of the extra credit problems, go to office hours, re-do problems over and over again. All of this advice led me from failing my first test to getting an A on the second. She is a great teacher, but it does not save you from the reality that the course is probably one of the most difficult in the major.

This class is one of the hardest classes I have taken, and this class is one of the classes that really pushed my limits. This class requires a serious time commitment both in terms of the homework, and classwork, but also the amount of time that needs to be done for extra credit and extra assignments to prepare for the exams and such. The class work is compromised of homework every week, lecture quizzes every class, and also extra credit and extra practice problems. If you are taking this class, I recommend that you do all the extra practice problems and just try to practice as much as you can for this class. This class relies heavily on partial credit to do well, and my grade was saved by partial credit. Try to do as much practice as you can, but the class is difficult. If you are someone who tries to have one way to solve a problem, this class will kick your butt as it is going to give problems that you will have to figure out what approach to take and graphing that is quite annoying. Kripalani is a good professor but I feel that she was not great in giving a great way in determining how to solve your problems in terms of the approach. She is a good lecturer though.

The content of this class is difficult, but Professor Kripalani was very helpful, available, and really cares about the success of her students. The class uses 3 exams, each worth 25% (there are four, but you get to drop one), and 25% of weekly homework, lecture quizes (daily homework), and professional development things (resume, linkedin, etc). There are many opportunities for extra credit. I went into this class worried that I was going to really struggle and need tutoring, but Professor Kripalani had office hours every day and was super welcoming and helpful. In addition to the examples in class and the discussion questions, she posts weekly extra practice problems, with videos of her going through how to do each one, that were very helpful in preparing for the exams. I ended with an A in this class.

If you have to take Intermediate Econ for your major or minor, definitely take it with Professor Kripalani. The class is tough—you need a solid grip on simplifying algebraic expressions and basic calculus (mainly derivatives). I highly recommend brushing up on your math skills over summer or winter break before taking it. It'll save you a lot of stress.

That being said, Professor Kripalani is amazing. She’s super good at explaining things and really takes the time to help you understand the material. Her office hours were honestly the reason I did well—go to them as much as you can! She’s so nice and welcoming, and she makes a hard class feel manageable.

You get one drop (even the final if you want), and she gives partial credit and has “double jeopardy” rules on exams, which is seriously a lifesaver. Also, having a study group to work on homework and quizzes with makes a big difference.

Only downside: the TAs aren’t super helpful, so don't count on them too much - there office hours are decent but I never went to discussions because they made the concepts seem more confusing. But overall, I went into the class thinking I was going to get a C+ after the first week because it felt so hard, and I ended up with an A thanks to Professor Kripalani’s support.