Villegas, Dan  

I tried extremely hard in this class, I attended every lecture, got almost a hundred percent on all the i clicker tests and did decent on the aplia home works. If i did not teach myself the material, I would have had even less idea what was going on than I already did. This teacher is extremely awful at relaying the information at hand, all he does is read off the slides that we all have in front of us that we paid way too much from. He never answered anyone's questions, and just made you feel stupid when ever you opened your mouth to speak. I studied extremely hard for his final, going over every aplia assignment, his notes, the book and this review questions which I took pictures of during class. And yet I left the final in tears, it was extremely difficult, he made basic economics into advanced econ and expected you to just know everything. He even admitted to one student who asked a question about one of the test questions that we never went over this but you should know it if you did the reading... wtf come on... So if your in this class, it doesn't seem awful, but once you sit down for the final, you will understand why we all hate this man... good luck to all, you will need it.

the instructor retired from teaching and was not that good at economics.

can we hold it down here? can we hold it down? Dan Villegas can teach you all about economics. i now know about opportunity cost. no midterms. 50% final. DO ALL THE ONLINE HOMEWORK, go to every class and get 5/5 on all 15 or so of the i clicker quizzes. perhaps a solid B on the very difficut final could earn you an A. can we hold it down here? yes we can dan. we can hold it down.

HATED HIM

Villegas is a terrible teacher. He is very rude and careless. He goes very quickly through the information and doesn't like to answer many questions in class. He requires you to use two books and buy access to a website to do all of your homework on - this class ends up being pretty expensive. Lectures seem all over the place. Quiz every class. Final is 50% of your grade and it is a terrible exam. Memorization is key for this class. I thought that overall he was a jerk and I hated being in the class. Try to take another class to satisfy this GE, because you will regret it if you get in this guy's class.

horrible teacher. it's a huge lecture class and half the class he repeats "thank you... thank you... can we keep it down.. thank you" just shut up already. he's an extremely dry and boring and does not present the information in a way that'll help you remember it. by hour #2 you're mind is drifting to anywhere except this class... there's an inclass quiz each class, so you have to come every class. then the final exam is 50% of your grade, which is BS if you ask me. also, this guy is the greediest professor i've ever had. he makes it so there's no way to avoid buying the book... you can't borrow from a friend cuz there's a required online portion which costs the same amount. and he does this cuz he edited the book and just feels the need to make college kids spend more then they already have to, to put an extra buck in his pocket.... in case you haven't caught my drift, AVOID this guy... he's a jerk

One testto rule them all, one test to find them, one test to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them.

he makes you buy the slides he puts up in lecture for $40, when they're not even filled out completely. he puts you to sleep. one out of each two lecture he's telling the class to be quiet when no one's talking. you have no midterms, just one final that covers the ENTIRE book, and is worth 50% of your grade. he has the most monotone, "put you to sleep" voice on the planet. need i say more?

This is a teacher that everyone should avoid, especially if you already dislike economics. If you do by the time you get out of this class you will dislike it even more. He is terrible at teaching this subject and prefers not to answer your question. He forces you to buy an expensive paperback book with the online program that he of course edited. And if you want to get his slides on paper that will cost you another $40 bucks. And the final is worth 50% of your grade. Wish I knew all of this before I took the class. Avoid taking him!

Make sure you have 200 dollars to spend on this silly class. He continually tells people to be quiet when there isnt anyone talking. Make sure you do all the homeworks, which are extremely easy and also make sure you eiher give someone you clicker or go to class everyday. The final is ridiculous.

I really don't know why everyone is complaining about the final. Everyone who failed it probably just didn't feel the need to put in the time and study. If you want REAL advice on how to do well in this class, read this one. Yes, there is a final and yes, it is worth 50% of your grade. But I came out with an 88 on the final, and not because I am just naturally good at Econ. I am absolutely horrible at math, and this is a math/graph based class. I am also not a very good test taker at all. The material was very fuzzy in my mind for most of the quarter. However, the week before the test, I put A LOT of effort into studying, and I finally felt like I understood the concepts. You'll do fine on the final if you: 1: Buy the course notes (it's lame because they cost 40 bucks but they saved my life) ***2. Make note-cards for every definition/equation (try to keep up with this, because writing them all the week of the test would be exhausting) 3. Go through the notes completely once through the week before the test. This seems like a lot of work, but it's not so bad. Do this and you'll be fine. Like I said, Econ was extremely hard for me but I did ok. The other half of your grade is pretty easy, so you should have no problem going into the final with an A.

This class was incredibly boring and the only reason i went to class is because i had to take the quizzes with my iclicker...which was 30 bucks. The book was really expensive because it was a compilation of other books he put together ( that he didnt use the next quarter so i couldnt sell it back). We also had to pay to get onto a website to do hw. That was about 50 bucks. This class was just a way too expensive to take as a GE and he didnt know how to lecture to non econ/business students. I highly recommend not taking this class.

The class itself is not that bad however, he makes you spend a lot of money for the class. You have to buy an iclicker and an online account ,which comes out to about 250-300 dollars together. One bit of advice I would give is have someone buy the notes copy it and split the bill so it is cheaper. Also the entire grade is easy quizees, online homework ,and a final so it isn't that hard.

This class is WAY more expensive than it needs to be; the book was about $120 used, the iClicker was $40 and the lecture notes were also $40 (don't buy them, its an utter rip-off). That's just way to much to spend on a GE. The course itself is pretty easy, just read and pay attention in lecture and you're good to go. The grading scheme is probably my biggest gripe with this god-forsaken class: homework (which is really easy) is worth 30%, in-class clicker quizzes are worth 20%, and then the 75 question (and really easy) final exam is worth 50%. Dan is an okay professor, just a little hard of hearing. He is also really freaked out about posting stuff online, which is kind of annoying. The review sessions are really helpful to prepare for the final, so go to those if you get the chance. If you are decent with math and graphs this course should be piece of cake, if not you may be in for a frustrating quarter

Way to expensive, in class stuff is really easy, probly could have gotten an A if I read the material. Villegas is way to boring, tells stories about why you should stop talking.

Villegas is a decent professor but this class is way too expensive. If I had to do it over again, I would buy the class notes but not the textbook. The only thing is, if you don't buy the textbook brand new, you still have to buy access to the online resource he uses for homework which is about 70 bucks. You don't learn anything more from the textbook than you would in lecture and he changes the books every quarter so you won't even be able to sell it back!

Students should know first off that you have to spend an additional $100+ on buying an iclicker, course notes, and aplia (since he doesn\'t use blackboard). I feel like this class was a huge waste of my time. I don\'t understand why we had to buy course notes I mean that\'s what notebooks are for right? It didn\'t even help too much. There is a quiz everyday but it\'s such a joke because it\'s basically a class quiz. Before the final, I had an A in the class but failed the final and ended up with a C. This guy is really smart, don\'t get me wrong, he\'s just not a good teacher. He doesn\'t understand where students are having problems. If you can, avoid this class.

A terrible teacher, the lectures are the most dry things ever, it was a very expensive class, he doesn\'t explain things well. I could go on forever. Bottom line, I read all these reviews and thought he couldn\'t be to bad, he is. Avoid him at all costs.

\"Can I get you guys to hold it down over there?\"... You get to hear that a million times a day if you take this guy. He\'s a pretty horrible, boring teacher. Here are some things you might want to know about him and the course: 1) He makes you spend about $200 on this class. You need to buy an iclicker ($40), course notes ($70), a book ($70), and aplia (the website you do your homework on, $30). I honestly think he makes money off making you buy the notes. I never understood why he couldn\'t put them online. 2) Speaking of notes, they\'re long. He puts a lot of words on each slide and if you don\'t get the chance to write stuff down he tells you to look it up in the book. It might be easiest if you fill in the blanks before class so that you can follow along. 3) Your grade consists of in-class clicker quizzes (20%), weekly internet assignments which take a very long time (30%), and the final exam (50%). You can talk to your neighbors and use notes and the book on the quizzes but the other two totally suck. What most people do is do good on the hw and quizzes, get a C on the final, and a B in the class. Unfortunately I totally bombed the final and got a C. What can I say? I hate econ, and Villegas definitely added to this hatred. 4) It helps a TON if you have friends in this class. They keep you awake. I don\'t know what I would\'ve done in this class if I didn\'t have my friends! 5) Probably the best advice I could give you is keep up with the reading and make sure you understand the hw. It\'ll make studying for the final a lot easier. Hope this helps!

Villegas is a very smart person but is completely incapable of realizing that not everyone follows exactly what he says the first time he says it. My biggest annoyance with him was his inability to actually teach rather than just run through the notes at lightning-fast speed. The class is also outrageously expensive by any standards. The daily quizzes are a complete roller coaster difficulty-wise; sometimes they\'re incredibly easy and other times you are left clueless. My best advice is to invest focus in the homework and quizzes so that you can enter the final (which is 50% of your grade) with as high of a grade as you can. Avoid this professor at all costs.

Often quite ignorant. Needs to take a remedial course on basic instruction.

Don\'t bother going to his office hours, he\'ll make you feel even dumber. Class wouldn\'t be so bad if he didn\'t rub things in your face all the time.

93% overall grade and he still had the nerve to give me an A-, seeing as the cut-off isn\'t quite that low; what a dick. Anyways prepare to drop $200+ on this class on stuff you\'re only gonna use for a quarter and living through 2 hours of dry boring lectures. The in-class i-clicker quizzes (which you have every lecture) aren\'t so bad, but sometimes they will leave your head spinning. The final exam is 50% of your grade (which is ridiculous) and consists of 70 multiple choice questions (concepts which you have to remember from your own memory), so as long as you take good notes and study your course notes you should be fine. Start studying early, and because this is the only actual exam in the class, you will have a pretty hard time if you aren\'t focused. Also, if it wasn\'t for my friends in the class, I would have fallen asleep every lecture. They really knew how to keep it exciting. Bottom line, this class sucks, his grading scheme is ridiculous, and if you have to take this class take it with a different instructor if possible. Oh, and count the number of times he says \"thank you\" and \"can you guys keep it down over there?\" during every lecture. Annoying indeed.

I have disliked teachers through the years but Villegas is the first one I\'ve actually hated. You have to drop over $200 on the class for the book,iclicker, online aplia homework, and the course notes which you NEED to get if you hope to follow any of what hes talking about in this class. He never impressed me and I felt like he was a an awful instructor. He often times got caught confusing himself and when any of the students in class would try to correct him he would be extremely rude and try and play off that he was right. If you have to take this class I would suggest taking it credit/no credit. That way you just have to try and survive the lectures. I was taking Ochem and Physics during this quarter and I dreaded going to Econ way more than either of those classes.

This class isn\'t terrible, but he doesn\'t actually teach, he lets his slides do it all. Don\'t take the class if you like to get extra help or attention or if you can\'t drop $250 on all the supplies you need. There\'s daily quizzes that are straight out of the reading and are really easy, and weekly homeworks. No midterm, just a final worth 50% of your grade.

Everyone is ripping this guy on here. He is pretty bad, you just go through slides everyday. But if you read (or just bring the textbook to class) the inclass quizzes are pretty easy I only missed 1 every once in a while. The HW can be done in groups and is easy to get 95-100% everytime if you work together and have your coursenotes and textbook in front of you. Take pictures of the inclass quiz questions up on the projector (a lot of ppl do) because that is just about where every final multiple choice question comes from. This guy is a pretty dry teacher that thinks he knows everything, but if you go to class and read a little bit you can get an A, I did.

Mr. Villegas is very attractrive, but he\'s handsomeness distracts me from the topic at hand.

He is a jerk, and just reads slides all class.

This guy thinks he\'s teaching some high level course, when in reality it is a GE Econ course that contains nothing that we will need in our futures. He doesn\'t grade on a curve. He doesn\'t care if you are right or wrong, his way is the only way. This pointless class gave me the first C of my life. I hope this idiot doesn\'t have tenure, because he should be fired.

HORRIBLE TEACHER! DO NOT TAKE HIM!

This course is incredibly dry as-is, but Dr. Villegas made the course ten times more unbearable the his reading directly off slides, monotone delivery, and condescending way of handling student questions. He only knows how to present the information one way: as it\'s written on the slide. So when a student would ask a question, his response would be to point at the slide and say \"well, it\'s all right up there\", restate the information, and slip a comment in about how they would understand it if they were doing the required reading. This was incredibly frustrating, and made the lecture feel like a giant waste of time. The only reason I went to every lecture was because of the mandatory iClicker (you\'ll need to buy that) quizzes, which were 20% of the grade, each class, but a student with less integrity might have easily handed their clicker off to a friend, and taken turns attending lecture. The homework in the class (30%) is easy, and you can work on it with friends, but you\'d better make sure to do well - the rest of your grade is the final. There are no study guides, just a few classes for \"review\", which was just as useless as the lectures all quarter. The final is rough if you don\'t prepare early. It\'s slightly less rough if you do. Bottom line - lazy teacher, terrible course. Wait a quarter, save your money and time, and take someone or something else.

Okay, this class is one of the boringest things EVER. taking this class as a freshmen first quarter made it a living hell. If all my professors were like this, I would just quit school. Overall, he\'s an okay guy, I never talked to him during office hours or anything. But his final? Seriously, 50% of your grade? Also, I wasted about $300 on this class and I don\'t even think i\'m going to pass. (just took final today). Overall, made economics boring and there is so much covered in this class... 18 chapters?.. and these chapters are short.. economics itself is a you get it or you don\'t concept, and i feel like with his monotonic lectures, it makes it worst. online homework was hard and tedious, in class quiz were bearable, final was hard... avoid at all cost!!! buying the course notes was the dumbest thing i have ever done because it was expensive, and it is basically print outs of power points, which i could have done by my own printer. DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS.

Professor does not care about students at all. You can ask a question in class and he\'d either talk down on you or tell you to ask him during office hours. He is not helpful in office hours at all. He tells you the same thing he\'d say in class. 50% final. You spend a shitload of money for this class. Expect to drop at least $250. He does not present the material well either. Average on our final was a D with a low 33 and high 88. But he doesn\'t curve so come into the final with the highest grade you possibly can. There is a quiz every lecture that\'s open notes and partners. Homework is on a website you have to pay $35 for and the questions are pretty hard. I averaged a C on the hw and an A on the quizzes.

This professor is unbelievably LAZY! All he does is flip through slides during lectures. His homework is all online based, thus he has no actual grading of the homework to preform (site does it for him). Similarly he has in-class quiz questions all throughout lectures which are submitted through an iclicker, again allowing him to DO NOTHING. His final is 50% of your grade, not surprising seeing as he doesn't want to have to grade any other test himself. THIS CLASS IS EXPENSIVE, FRUSTRATING, AND NOT EASY. My best advice: AVOID IT!

This class was everything a solid respectable university class should be. It was difficult, but Villegas routinely made it crystal clear what was expected and never threw any curve balls. He was also very helpful if you had questions (would even respond to e-mails about hw questions). So take him if you really want to learn basic econ (which every responsible citizen should know at least the basic about) but don't expect a cakewalk.

This teacher is a scam. DO NOT BUY THE EXPENSIVE AND CONFUSING NOTES!! more harm than help trying to decipher those stupid graphs.

Honestly, I had an open mind coming into Econ, i thought it would be really interesting to learn. But then i got... this guy. So before I completely bash him im gonna let u know how this class goes. Three things make up your grade in class quizzes, aplia hw, and the final. Honestly, that didnt seem too bad at first glance. But once you get in, the first day you find out that you need to buy the textbook, which is about $100 then his stupid study guide.. which is essentially a copy of his powerpoint and thats another $50. After that you have to go buy a clicker or get an online clicker.. which is even more money. On top of that, u have you pay to get aplia, which is the program you do your homework on. That is another $40 if i recall correctly. Overall, i spent about $200 for this class. Only to find out most of it was unnecessary. His lectures were god forsakenly dreadful. Everytime someone asked a question he would use circular logic and no one would understand him. He did try to reiterate things, but he just was not very good at it. The only reason people went to class was because he had quizzes that were spread out throughout his lecture. Which were kinda helpful when studying for the final. I'm sure he's a very smart professor and knew his stuff, but he was just not good at conveying it. Also, it didn't help that the class had over 200 students in it. But he can't help that. Either way, I would say that he was not a very good teacher, he was bad at explaining and most of what i learned in this class, which helped me get by with barely a C, was done through my own reading. His homework was not too much, and his final is cummulative so it was fairly difficult. If you are taking him for this class, i suggest taking your own reading notes and make sure you pay attention to the equations and key definitions. Good Luck to those who have to take this guy...

Avoid at all costs. I went to every single lecture, and I still received a C. I actually felt as if I understood the basics of econ- until I took the final (which is worth 55% of your grade!). It is ridiculous to base how much someone has learned on one test that is ALL multiple choice. Villegas didn't clarify any student difficulties, and was very rude and arrogant whenever someone asked a question. You may come out of the class knowing some econ, but it will bring down your gpa and self esteem.

HORRIBLE TEACHER! Most expensive class ever! I had a difficult time paying attention in the class, and I know he was responsible for that! Ya the material is hard to grasp but how he lectured and presented the material made it 10 times worse. Studying for the final was near impossible, mainly because all i could do was think about how it's worth 50% of your grade! I'd wait as long as you can to take this class, or take it a JC...

I would avoid this guy, but I know he is often the only prof available for this intro econ class. so get ready to shell out the $$. Lets see, $60 course notes, plus a textbook, plus a subscription to the homework service, plus an iclicker... and then after you spend your money you spend every lecture listening to him talk and talk and talk in a monotone voice about so many acronyms you start to forget your own name. And weekly homework assignments online that are worth 40% of the grade. And then a ridiculously specific final that is worth 50% of the grade. after all that, the in class iclicker quizzes (which we probably spent 40 mins the first day trying to figure out because there was a "malfunction." If you are taking this for a GE, get out while you can, take something else. I recommend Soc 218. If you are taking this because its required.... just grin and bear it... it's only 10 weeks.

Dan Villegas is the worst teacher I have had at Cal Poly. He is arrogant, rude, and just flat out lazy. He doesn't grade anything himself because Aplia grades the homework, computer keeps track of iclicker quizzes, and the final is all multiple choice. Apparently anybody who can read off of slides and provide minimal explanation is qualified to teach this course at Cal Poly. This guy should not be allowed to teach at Cal Poly and its a shame that our tax dollars pay this guys salary.

A NUT-LESS MONKEY COULD DO THIS MAN'S JOB. That's not a joke. If you taught a chimp how to preform simple commands on a computer (which is possible); the chimp could do just about everything Dan Villegas did this quarter. I have to give it to the guy though since I'm a lazy piece of shit too and would love to have the world's easiest job. He barely even answers questions when they are asked in class. He also makes you spend $300 on a course thats a bigger joke than the polyrating reviews for Neil Fleishon. If you haven't read them please do because I almost cried I laughed so hard.

He pretty much sucks as a teacher. He doesn't do anything helpful, makes you pay like $300 bucks for the class, he barely teachers, and if he says something that is obviously wrong and is called out for it he starts babbling on about something else that has nothing to do with anything related to the question. His final is stupid, its worth 50% of your grade and it takes about 30min to hand it out to everyone because he calls people up alphabetically so if your last name is towards the end of the alphabet like mine you get way less time on the final then everyone else. Overall he is a shitty shitty teacher who has some sort of god complex and tends to think he is better than the students.

If you want a teacher who likes to help you and actually care about his students, don't take a class with him. I took this class thinking I would do fine but I was dead wrong. He expects all his students to be economics majors who fully comprehend the material. You have to drop over $250 dollars for his class which is annoying. You have homework and quizzes which are nothing alike and a final that is 50% of your grade. I studied for hours prepping for his final and it was incredibly difficult. One person got 32% on the final while the high was a 90%. He doesn't curve your test and is incredibly mean if you ask a question. My recommendation is unless you are really good at economics and cost is not an issue avoid him at all costs. He is an incredibly rude, arrogant and egotistical person who is a pathetic excuse to be considered a professor.

This guy sucks...flat out. Unfortunately however, for Econ 201 its either him or some other guy who I hear is bad too. So you just kinda have to suck it up and get it over with. You do the exact same thing in class everyday, go through a long, boring powerpoint. He belittles people who ask questions and almost scoffs at them for even asking. He is a dick and the class is hard because the final is 50% of your grade and there is no midterms so the final is entirely cumulative. This class was awful but like I said you just kinda have to suck it up and do it.

Villegas really knows his stuff and overall explained things pretty well. You definitely need to do the reading before the class though. If you don't, you probably won't know what's going on during lecture! But as long as you do the reading beforehand, his lectures definitely help you understand the different concepts. This professor can be intimidating, but is overall pretty nice. My only real complaint about the class was that there were no midterms...only a final. However, in the end, I got a B on the final and a B in the class, so it wasn't too big of a deal.

Let me start off by saying, that although I did get a D in the class, even if I had gotten a B, my review would say the same thing. This teacher is terrible. The class is expensive, but I do understand that aplia was pretty necessary to the course and so was the book. Other than that, the course notes were way over priced. This guy's lecture is not helpful at all. And, the final is 50% of your grade. So, I worked hard, got good grades on all the quizzes, never missed a day of class, and did overall really well on the HW. Went into the final with a B. Studied two weeks ahead of the final and made 700 flashcards because I'd heard how difficult it was. Ended up failing the final. I calculated my grade when I got my final grade back, and saw that I'd made a C-. Barely, but it was still a C-. Grades come out, and it says I have a D+. I email the teacher inquiring about my grade. And in a very condescending way he says I have a 69.96 which is not a 70. That should say enough about this guy. It was not possible for me to avoid him, but if it possible for you, please do so.

This professors presence at Cal Poly brings the whole schools reputation down many levels.

He is a hainus teacher. Not only are his lectures incredibly boring, but if you raise your hand to ask a question he won't answer you on the spot, but make you go up to him during the five minute break. His homework assignments are nothing like the final exam. I would not take this teacher if you have a choice, especially if you care about your GPA.

Kiss your GPA goodbye.

this guy is the laziest piece of shit ever. as you know, you have to pay over $200 for all of the course material which sucks really badly. he basically just stands at the front of the room feeling so powerful but he doesn't do anything. he reads the powerpoint slides that he bought (he didn't even make those himself) and that's it. when you ask a question he makes you feel stupid and basically he is all around bad. that being said, the class was pretty easy, but every lecture i wanted to shoot myself. avoid him if you can.

Let me start off by saying that I'm in no way the type of person who comes on here to rant just because I dislike a professor. I felt I had to let everyone in on the cold, hard facts about this particular man. HOLY. CRAP. This guy is beyond ridiculous in every single way. DO NOT TAKE HIM. This is why: The class is very expensive (around $200 for things that weren't even necessary for the course), there are daily quizzes that count towards attendance, there are weekly homework assignments that take quite a while to complete if you're struggling with the material, there is no midterm to evaluate what you do or do not know, he does not clarify things if you need help or don't understand something, and--here's the clencher--the final is worth 50% OF YOUR GRADE AND HE DOES NOT CURVE IT! Really? Yes, really. I have always been a very good student, and have never gotten anything lower than a C in my life. This guy gave me my first D. I FAILED the crazy final that had over 80 questions that took me the full 3 hours to complete. And I thought I knew the material well enough. NOPE! BOTTOM LINE: if you are at all apprehensive about taking Econ 201, do not take this guy. Spare yourself the agony.

Try to take this class with the other teacher. Villegas charges about $200 for the course between the online course, textbook, and notes that he wrote and requires you to buy! You have iclicker quizzes every class so you can't ever miss it. Only one test, the final, which is ridiculously difficult. He was very rude to students who had questions and wouldn't take questions after of class. Personally I don't think he is cut out to be a teacher or work with students.

It's hard to consider Villegas a professor. He literally doesn't teach at all just reads off boring power point slides and forces you to attend because of daily i-clicker quizzes. The class really wouldn't be so bad if the final wasn't worth 50%....absolutely awful.

First off, this class is the worst. The final is 50% of your grade AND it's the hardest thing ever. DON'T TAKE THIS CLASS!!!! The only reason why you always have to go to class is to do those stupid iClicker questions. He rambles on through his lectures like everyone knows what he is talking about. Unless you are an All-Star at economics and know just about everything about it, don't take it. He gives you long weekly assignments that are online, by the way you have to buy them (pay for your homework..wtf?), and they are just as hard as the test. Overall, this class was terrible, expensive, and not worth it. I can't stress enough how terrible this class is. Not time consuming, but a true GPA killer.

This class bent me over and made me its bitch. AVOID AT ALL COSTS

Wanna know what it feels like to get butt raped? Take the final in this class and your have a general idea. I thought I had a good grasp on this class...now I just have a loose butthole.

They say, 200$. Yes, you have to pay for the clicker, but really you don't have to get the book or the course notes. the course notes are strictly optional. I came into this class knowing microecon bot not macroecon(so, half the material). i did buy all the materials, but in all honesty, i read the book for a grand total of about 30 minutes. so even if youve never seen the material, you could get by without the book. going to class and using the coursenotes (which are literally slides from class) was all i needed. LECTURES: a lot of people say his lectures are crap, but hell. i hardly read the book, went to class every day, and learned a decent amount from just lectures and coursenotes. i'd imagine i would learn even more if i read the book as well. PERSONALITY: some say he's a jerk, but let's be honest here: if he was completely passive, you'd learn nothing. being proven wrong is a good way to learn what is right. i guess if you can afford a bit of embarrassment you should be fine in his class. FINAL THOUGHTS: people say the final is hard, but honestly it didn't seem that difficult. I guess i'll find out when grades are posted.

Here it is plain and simple: this class is pretty difficult, but the professor is even worse than the subject. Econ itself is somewhat interesting, but Villegas is just not a good teacher (yet a VERY cocky guy) and sucks at explaining the material. You do spend a lot of money on this class, and if you want to do somewhat well you have to put a LOT of effort into doing reading before class or really paying attention during lectures, although it is still hard to follow even if you have read. The final is 50% of your grade which is a ton, but it is nice that there are no midterms, just Aplia homework (40%) and in class quizzes (10%). It's easy to do well on the quizzes because you can work with those around you, but Aplia is somewhat difficult, so I DEFINITELY suggest that you compare your answers with others in the class!!!! You want to go into the final with the HIGHEST grade possible! I studied a ton for the final and felt like I understood the material pretty well, but you have to understand it as you go along instead of cramming last minute (somewhat guilty!). I got a high C on the final and a B in the class, so it is not impossible to do well, you just have to work hard. It is too bad that so many students have to suffer through this professor, because this class would be so much better if he actually cared about his students and could explain an idea clearly and rationally. I did come out of the class feeling that I learned a lot about economy, but that was thanks to my own work and little to the professor's.

This class was very hard. I tried so hard by making flashcards, attending a couple of his office hours, taking notes on every chapter, and attending class. I went in to the final with a B and came out failing. I can honestly say that I've given it my all, and the fact that the final was 50% of your grade ruined my chances of a high GPA. If you can, aviod Villegas at all costs.

Probably the most unpleasant class I've taken at Poly so far. Teacher's lectures consist of monotonously reading off power point slides and constantly picking on the few students he knows the name of asking if they understand or asking them to restate what was discussed. He explains things multiple times the same way, and spends excessive time going over things the class clearly understands (when 100% gets a quiz question right, he can spend 5-10 minutes explaining the question). For someone who prides himself on showing the course contract at the start of every lecture and "using time wisely," his teaching methods are flawed and are not in line with this credo and his 2 hour lectures could easily be done in under an hour with no loss of content. The quizzes in class (10% of grade) are pretty straight forward and he drops 3 of them (so you can miss 3 classes). The homework (40% of grade) is easy if you do the practice assignments (I did a quite few of them while drinking and kept 90-100% on them). The final (50% of grade) is uncurved and the amount of knowledge expected of the student on it is quite excessive for an intro class. If you are a calm test taker and can keep a few of the key equations straight you will be okay. Class is passable without too much issue. I cut 3 classes (3 quizzes), didn't go to any of the 3 review sessions and went over the course notes before the final to hold a B- (went into the final with a 90%). I could see this class being insanely overwhelming as a freshman, but for me, it was just a time sink lecture that is passable with minimal effort. He asks for your name when he calls on you. So, if you don't want to get picked on, don't raise your hand and stay as anonymous as possible.

What to start with.....there are no midterms to evaluate yourselves with, in-class quizzes with the iclicker are 10% of your grade, online homework is 40%, and the final is 50%. I had a B in the class. Final brought me down to a C-...my only C I've even gotten close too. The man can not explain concepts well and I was at a huge disadvantage not taking economics before. He also makes you spend a lot of money on the book (don't get 5th edition unless he tells you so, when I went in, he said he didn't even look at the 5th which is the one you are told to buy), $60 for course notes he didn't even write, an iclicker you should buy used, and $40 more on Aplia which is required to do the homework. If you want to save time, money, and your GPA, either take a different professor or another ECON course.

This professor is a dumbass. He just sits there like an idiot and reads off his PowerPoint slides which he doesn't even know what they mean. $89 for book, $50 for Aplia program, $45 for iclicker and $60 for stupid ass notes with nonsense garbage clearly written by a true teacher! You have a better chance of reading the book yourself than trying to understand this pussy. His final is worth 50% of overall grade and only about 10 of the question on final are about things he went over in class! No midterms so there is no way to know if you actually understand the fucken material!! His Aplia hw and iclicker quizzes are nothing like the final! Went in with a B and after final ended up with a D. I think my high school teacher should be called a professor cuz she knew and explained shit better than this dutchbag!

No, he isn't the best of presenter but I'm mostly here to complain about the class itself. The arrangement and composition of this class is terribly flawed and should be dealt with immediately. The iClicker you use for in-class quizzes is $35+, the Course Notes book [which is a copy of all of the slides] is $40, you are required to pay $40 for the Aplia website in which you complete your weekly assigned homework, and then it is advisable that you buy the textbook [which I got for a little over $5 on Amazon, the edition doesn't matter]. The grading scale consists of the following: In-class quizzes (10%), Aplia homework (40%), final exam (50%). There are NO midterms for this class and it has its disadvantages and advantages. The readings weren't too long and weren't too difficult to understand so I legitimately did all of them. The in-class quizzes could be tricky at times but for the most part they were ok. I found the online homework difficult at times and it would appear that some of the content on the website wouldn't be covered in class. And I didn't find the final exam to be as difficult as everyone perceived it to be but I was obviously stumped on several questions due my final grade. My major concerns with this class are that it is too expensive for a one-time GE class and that something, whether it be the final or our final grades, should definitely be curved. The least, the VERY least he could do, is make the class curved or make an A an 85% or something in order to compensate us for how expensive the class is and how heavily the final exam weighs in on our grades. But that will probably never happen. If you have to take this class and you don't know anyone who has taken it before, be prepared to spend at least $130 on this class. I can only make the best of wishes for everyone who takes this class. You'll need it.

In a nutshell, this class was very painful. When Professor Villegas presented the syllabus at the beginning of the quarter, I was completely shocked; no tests, no midterms, and a final worth 50% of our grade. The other half was based on our scores on i>clicker quizzes in class and homework on Aplia, both of which were collaborative. Not to mention the fact that we had to purchase access to Aplia and buy Villegas' course notes, plus the i>clicker, which amounted to over $100. My greatest piece of advice to you is to find friends in the class and work on homework and quiz questions together, but also practice doing problems on your own because Villegas won't give you that opportunity. Also, be prepared to be called on randomly in class at the most inconvenient moments, if you have a smaller class. Villegas does not do a good job explaining material when you ask a question, as he tends to focus primarily on the information in his powerpoint, and he often assumes that no one understands the more basic concepts. When preparing for the final, work with other students and do practice problems as much as you can. I personally studied for at least 12 to 14 hours during finals week for this class alone. You will have to know specific formulas for most of the test questions, so focus on those, but don't forget to learn concepts. The final is not easy (I went into the final with an A and came out with a B-), so all I can say is prepare and get through it, and expect that your GPA will drop after taking this course. If you can avoid it, do not take this class.

the problem with this class. things were pretty easy to understand but here's the clincher. if the dv related everything to sex, for example, the opportunity cost of having sex versus not having sex instead of practice the piano instead of working, the class would be 100x more interesting and kids would actually pay attention and even get good grades!

Villegas lectures are some of the most pointless lectures I've ever had. The entire reason to go to the class was for the little quizzes which are done in class -- I would learn more about the subject if I skipped class and read the material on my own time. Villegas presents the material purely by PowerPoint and it really doesn't stand by itself well. The class is not necessarily hard if you put in the time to do the homework and study for the final, but the material is presented in such a terrible manner that I regret having the class. The final kick to this class is just that it is simultaneously a very expensive class. Between the iClicker, the course notes, and the textbook, this class literally constitutes 90% of my book budget that quarter.

Ok i am in the large lecture class right now. This is the second time im taking this class. It has not gotten easier. Villegas's class is 40 percent weekly homework, 10 percent inclass quizzes, and a 50 percent final. He does not offer extra credit. Besides the fact you have to go to class for the quizzes, it would be better to go and study on your own or bug him in office hours. In class he does not know how to answer questions. He often sidesteps your questions and says he will "talk about it later" or tell you that you have problems understanding the material.He does not teach you in class but just read from the powerpoints which are in your course notes. The homework is not very closely related to the class. It is on the program aplia which has economic questions but they are unlike the questions he asks in class. The best thing to do is take it week by week and study on your own and go to office hours to ask him to clarify on everything that happened in class. Find a study partner for aplia homework.

Fairly easy class but the fact that the final is 50 percent of the grade is bullshit in my opinion. He has a slide shown at the beginning of each class saying we should use our time efficiently but he can't follow his own rule. Loves to hear his own voice which gets really annoying after about the fourth week. Can't answer a students question in a simple way and rarely understands what the student is even asking. Just do the reading and bring a set of headphones to class to drown out his voice and you'll be ok.

It's not right that Villegas seems to be the only prof teaching this course as it is required for many majors. The required text is quite straightforward and helpful, pretty interesting as well, but don't expect Villegas to connect with the readings. His explanation of concepts and his overuse of never-ending convoluted graphs confuses and at times even contradicts the material from the readings. If you ask a question to clarify, he will go off on an extremely long tangent, rarely coming to a conclusion that is simpler than his original explanation. Perhaps, it was just his teaching style that didn't work with me, but the class just didn't seem fair or helpful in any way. He makes you pay about $200 in materials for the class, if you don't already have an iclicker. The final is also 50% of your grade and you are expected to remember every equation. Good luck if you have to take this class, because you'll probably get this guy anyway. Just don't rely on him to actually teach you anything.

Dan Villegas sucked dick!!! he was so bad.. never take this class. i wanted to cry every class because he was so boring. i went into final with a B and got a D in the class. what the fuck dan. he also is annoying to listen to and he just does powerpoints the whole time. Dont take it. do community college if you have to. avoiddd!!!!!!!!

Hmm.. where to start? First of all, Villagas has been the only professor teaching this class for a while which sucks because I was already discouraged by reading all of his horrible reviews. 50% of your grade is the cumulative final, which is completely unfair if you ask me. He gives out no study guide for the final and you're expected to remember everything. 10% of the grade is the iClicker quizes given in class and the last 40% is the online homework. I went into the final with a B and ended up with a D. This was probably the worst class I've taken at Poly. If you can, don't take this class.

Econ is not supposed to be a difficult class, especially a basic survey course. Somehow, Villegas managed to make this class extremely boring and extremely difficult. There is no lecturing happening, you would be better off not attending lecture if he didn't do the daily i-clicker quizzes. Not only is the final 50% of your grade, but in the end, you have to teach yourself everything because during class, he doesn't even teach, he reads off of the same powerpoint slides that are in the 90$ course notes book that you are required to buy at the beginning of the quarter. At the beginning of the quarter I knew I was not going to get the A that I wanted, but still put at least 20 or so hours studying for the final, ended up with a 66.7% on it, which obviously shows how much you learn. Avoid this class at all costs if you can, it is a huge waste of time and huge waste of money.

Take this class CR/NC. As long as you put a solid hour to an hour and a half into the online homework every sunday night, as well as sit next to the person in the class that answers every quiz question, you will pad your grade enough throughout the quarter so that you won't fail the class after failing the final. Because you will fail the final. You also have to spend about $200 on this class, buying the book, i>clicker, course notes, and aplia subscription. You can't buy the course notes used and I have some you can buy for $20. They are $40 new. The company shipped them to our entire lecture last quarter but they had some graphs that weren't filled in completely. So they sent a new copy to everyone and I kept a bunch of the duds that people got rid of. Villegas fills the graphs in during class so it is not even an issue. contact me cljp28@hotmail.com

This guy is by far the biggest piece of shit ive ever met. He makes you buy his lecture notes and doesnt teach you anything at all durining class. He makes you take quizes everyday in the begening of class so you have to read before class and teach yourself. Than his class consist of stupid kids asking the dumbest questions that he doesnt even answere. I had an A going into the final and then I studied so much for the final and it droped my grade to a C. I hate you Dan Villegas and if I ever get a chance im going to rezone the property in which you live on to be a non conforming use so you have to pay for conforming use permits you jewish bastard.

Ok where to begin. This class and this teacher sucked. I originally took this class my freshman year and received a D. I retook it and ended up with a B and this is how. (1) get the text book and read it the night before each lecture so all of the material is fresh in your mind. This book is the only thing that will teach you, the teacher will not teach you ANYTHING. Write down the definitions of the key concepts that are located at the beginning of the course notes. This will help you A LOT during the iclicker quizzes which are mostly based off of those key concepts at the beginning of each chapter in the course notes. (2) go to class to answer the quizzes that happen EVERYDAY. I know it sucks (i had it at 8am) but in order to even come close to passing you have to have as high of a grade as possible going into the final, so every quiz counts. (3) DO THE PRACTICE HOMEWORK. It tells you the answer and the actual homework is almost exactly like the practice homework. Do it and you will do well on the homework. (4) Study your ass off for the final. Again it sucks but if you want to pass or even think about getting a good grade you have to. The final is 50% of you grade and consists of 80 multiple choice questions. Some of them are really easy and some are questions that involve you to use multiple equations and concepts to figure out the answer. (5) memorize as many equations as you can. He'll say some BS like "you only need to know a few equations" WRONG know every single one that ever comes up in the book or course notes. Overall this class was boring, the teacher sucked and hasn't changed in the last 5 years despite sucking at his job. He doesn't teach you and you have to pay $200+ for the class. Good luck

This guy is not a good teacher at all, let alone a professor. My high school teacher did a better job at explaining these concepts. For some reason, he makes everything in the book way more complicated than it needs to be. And on top of that, his grading policy is ridiculous. I dont know if he is too lazy to grade a midterm or what, but he weights half of your grade on the final, which is super stressful. Trying to study for all of that material sucks. Basically, avoid this class at all costs. You would think an Economics teacher would know how to keep things affordable, but it was my most expensive class of the quarter, and its only a GE. You need to purchase course notes, the aplia software for homework, a textbook, AND and I clicker. Like I said earlier, avoid this class at all costs.

Hello future ECON 201 students of Professor Villegas. He will be using the same course notes textbook for spring as he did in winter 2012. The course notes cost about $62 and I would be glad to sell mine for $50. If interested please email me at Apmorris@calpoly.edu

DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS!! I got placed into it as a freshman, first quarter. Switch out if you want to do good in college. This class will ruin your GPA and you will have to dig yourself out of this hole the rest of your college years. If you like throwing away money on pointless course notes written by this awful professor, then go right ahead but my advice is to stay away and NEVER EVER take his class, I read these reviews too and thought, oh he cant be that bad. WRONG!! You will do worse than planned and you will hate him, guaranteed. Stay away from him at all cost!!! You can go into the final with an amazing grade, thinking that all your hard work throughout the quarter will pay off, but the final is full of tricks and extremely hard problems that you will get wrong. Don't ever take this class!

take this class. I took this first quarter freshman year and it is definitely a gpa booster. This class will give you a strong start. Villegas even provided course notes for a small fee. I read the negative reviews and they were all WRONG!! You will do better than you expect on the final. The final is straight forward and simple. If you don't do well in this class you might as well transfer to western washington university.

Villegas wrote the one below me. Listen to all of the other reviews.

I passed the class, but only cause I "tried" to understand what he was saying. OMG, the worst professor I have ever taken here at Cal Poly. I really don't give to much crap to him for the iclicker or notes nor the online course cause they helped me pass the class. Yeah it's $200 but whatever I will be making more money than him in a year to pay it back. Point being, he is a Powerpoint Lecturer (the worst kind), cannot answer student questions to save his life, and ignores all students that have a problem learning in his class. Don't bother going to his office hours, better to go to someone else that actually knows what they are talking about. As for the Final (and only big quiz you take) write down all the formulas and you will be fine for passing. If you are reading this Dan, then F you. I am glad I passed your class cause that means I am ready for the real world and I will meet and beat all people like you that don't know what the hell they are talking about but claim to do so. (Incompetence) Lastly, AVOID This Class at all COSTS!!! -IF66

seriously.. over $300 in course materials?? The only reason I am still registered for this is because I don't have enough units for the quarter..

Boring lectures, it helps to make a friend to help keep you awake during class. His lecture comes entirely off of his powerpoint which he also makes you buy in a spiral bound book. He doesn't explain the concepts very well for people who are new to econ. There is weekly online homework that is usually pretty easy. His tests are horrible. Overall, study hard, and get a study buddy who understands the material more than you and you'll get a decent grade.

1) Cost $200 2) He cannot teach for his life. you probably learned and understood more when you took it in high school. 3) final makes up about half your grade. and its HARD. 4) You will have to do a ton of homework every week 5) AVOID! or take CR/NC

Avoid taking this class if possible! The final is worth 50% of your grade, no midterm, no study guide, no curving, and no rounding. When students would ask him questions during lecture, he made them look/feel dumb for asking it and usually didn't even answer the question. The class is expensive and difficult.

This class is a joke. Dan Villegas is a joke. You pay more than $200 dollars to be taught by a book, bored to tears, and then get a C (at best) on the final. Please don't take this class. It is a waste of time, money, and brain cells. I regret taking Econ 201 from the first day of class. And as for the people who are stuck taking this class, do your homework, go to the study sessions, and don't let the bad grade you will inevitably get bring you down.

This class is horrible. Dan Villegas makes you pay more than $200 dollars in course materials (textbook, online homework, and HIS lecture slides in book form). His lectures just go through a powerpoint and you do iclicker questions every 5 minutes. Online homework due every sunday. In class quizzes 10%, online homework 40%, and the final is 50% of your grade. The final is not easy: it is 80 multiple choice questions and he gives very minimal preparation for it. Take pictures of the iclicker questions and memorize how to do every graph problem you come across).

Worst teacher of all times!!!! If you plan on taking this class you might as well play in the freeway... it is horrific! Boring as could be, and he does not care if you have a question, he answers in the most round about way, just reaffirming your ideas of him literally not knowing anything about Econ with out looking at his power point! Ps he doesn't believe in rounding no matter what! Dumbest class I have ever taken at poly by far!!!!

The only reason I got an A in this class was because I took pictures of every single quiz question, and then I reviewed ALL OF THEM before the final. Have someone who naturally understands economics sit next to you during lectures so that you can score well on the quizzes (you are allowed to work together). Luckily, Villegas drops your three lowest quiz scores. Go over your homework answers with friends because that counts as 40% of your grade. I feel bad for you if you get this class, but don't let it ruin your GPA! You can do it!

Villegas isn't a great professor, but he isn't nearly as bad as his Polyratings would suggest. After the initial shock of having to pay so much money in course materials, things went pretty smoothly. My biggest issue with the course is that everything is dumbed down. Somehow, curved lines, calculus, and numbers ending with a digit other than 0 are just too scary to be incorporated into the material where they might have made it at least somewhat interesting. Villegas also belabors points ad nauseam if even one person in the class gets an in-class quiz question wrong. He also gets extremely defensive if you point out something that's unclear on his slides (contact him by e-mail about these things instead). In any case, I showed up to class drunk every other day and pulled an A in the class. You can too if you pay attention to your homework scores (40% of your grade). I really do feel Dr. Villegas wants his students to learn. His willingness to meet for review sessions outside of class is testament to this. So... it's not a great class, but don't let the low Polyrating fool you too badly.

Villegas can not teach. Everyday in class someone would ask a simple question and he would take 15 to 20 minutes attempting to answer it. After the students question was failed to be answered another student would raise their hand and explain the problem in a mere 2 minutes. Simply put, we did not need a professor for this class. The cost of the supplies needed for the class was absurd, the teacher did no display the material in a logical way, and to top it all off this is a freaking GE........so don't take this class.

Try to avoid this class if you can. He makes you spend around 150-200$ on course materials. My friends and I just shared everything we could. He quizzes you every class, so make sure to go or give your I clicker to a friend. Do the online homework (most of which you can google) Final: I have never felt more blindsided by a test in my life. It's RIDICULOUS. And that was with studying since two days in advance and all day the day of. The questions were like the in class quizzes so take pictures of those with your phone to study. The questions were weirdly specific and full of tricks. He also let us use our phones as "calculators". Even with my iPhone as a tool, I still think I did horribly. It took me almost the entire 3 hours.

Villegas' is a very boring, very easy class. It is true he does little with respect to actually lecturing or presenting the material, however, if you know how to read the material should be completely self explanatory. The final is not nearly as hard as people say it is. If you actually put in a small amount of time to memorize the concepts it will be a breeze. That being said, everything about this class will FORCE you to sleep.

This man has a tendency to ramble on whenever a student asks a question and ends up not answering the question at all. Bi-weekly quizzes and homework due online, in class worksheets, midterm and final. Oh and a journal of what we did in class that day (this counts as your participation so DO NOT skip class) Also, this course is ridiculously expensive. Runs about $250-$300 dollars for online and in-class material. If you are mathematically/graph/chart/data/number oriented, you can probably get by with self-teaching. Otherwise, you might struggle with this course. Passing this class is possible, but it is not an easy A or even an easy B. I highly suggest taking this CR/NC.

This is a terrible class. Not only will you have to sit through mind-numbing lectures that consist of pages and pages and pages and pages... of powerpoint, but you will have to buy the textbook, an online package, a clicker, AND his printed notes. It was honestly ridiculous. There are daily in-class quizzes, so going to lectures is a must and other than that there is one cumulative final at the end. NO MIDTERMS, TESTS, etc. So studying at the end is nearly impossible if econ doesn't naturally click for you.

Professer Villegas is a good teacher. His class is simple and to the point, but the concepts are hard to grasp. He has daily chapter readings and then spends the entire class period going over the concepts on his powerpoint presentations. The last few minutes each of class you take a 5 question multiple choice quizzes. Also, he posts your grades on a web-site so you can anoymously check your grades. My difficulty with this class was the multiple choice. It kills, if you are not gifted in this area I would take another teacher. It also makes it hard that these quizzes count for 50% 0f your grade and then a multiple choice final (about 60 questions) is the other 50%. It was not an easy test, you have to know definations and equations backwards and forwards. I thought I did and got an F on the final. Good Luck.

Thought it was a great class and great teacher until the final; it is all or nothing. I had an A- going into the final and ended up with a C+. That is horrible that your grade is determined by one test.

He lectures with powerpoint which makes taking notes very easy. He tries to learn every student's name. Overall, he is very approachable and he does answer your questions during class or during office hours. But his lectures were boring. The class was 33% daily quizzes (you can drop your 2 lowest scores), 33% 2 midterms, and 33% final. I thought I had done well on the first midterm and came out with a low D. After that I re-focused my time and came out with an 80% on the second midterm. So if you work hard and look over his powerpoint presentations, you'll do much well! Trust me!

Nothing he does is outstanding. He has powerpoint lectures memorized and he reads them off the projector. His final was incredibly tough. A very nice professor, but he is also very tricky and anything but straightforward. I can't wholeheartedly reccommend him because his ability to convey economic concepts is sub par

Professor Villegas gives you quiz's everday on top of two midterms. The second midterm is during dead week. His final is impossible, the average on it was a 67%. Do not take Villegas if you want to pass with a descent grade, you'll be lucky to get a C.

A really great teacher. He does give daily quizzes but they are multiple choice 5 questions and if you pay attention you will do well. No joke though, the final was a killer. I though he was a great teacher and really anjoyed his apporchability and the fact that he took the time to learn everyones names. Two midterms, daily quizzes, and a hard final. DO some studying, know your terms and formulas, and you really can learn soemthing from this guy.

You take quizes every class period. No midterm, but you have a final. All I have to say is that I got all As and two Bs on the quizes (ten questions) but I got a B- in the class. Basically his final was unexpectedly hard. The quizes were easy, I went into the final with an A. He does power point presentations (provided by the book) also the final was provided by the book.

There was no homework for this class. He assigns a new chapter to be read every day, then lectures on it and then tests you on the concepts. If you don't understand the concepts after reading alone or after his incredibly confusing lectures, you're pretty much screwed. Going into the second half of the quarter I got my act together and actually began doing the reading-spending 2 hours per chapter reading and going to his office hours EVERY day before class to go over the questions with him and I still barely got a C on the final. His questions are so confusing that even if you know the subject matter you still can't even think of what the answers to his questions are. I left every class very discouraged due to the fact that I tried so hard to do well in the class and that it just didn't make a difference to my grade. I guarantee with the amount of studying I did in that class, with any other teacher's tests I would have pulled an A in the class. I totally do not reccommend him-stay away!

Basically my main man Mr Villegas tries to make this class as painless as possible. I rocked a B in the class which i thought was right about what i deserved. I never read outside of class and i hardly studied at all for the tests. There are a few things that do lick about his class though, first off you have a freking quiz EVERY time you meet in class. Enviromental freaks would surely nominate Villegas for a public canning considering you go through about 6 rain forests worth of scantrons. Also Villegas will not curve anything there was only 1 A in the class and 8 ppl flunked i think those numbers may show that his class is a little too tuff but hey if i can get a B anyone can. Just pay attention NEVER miss class that way you will get to drop your 2 lowest quiz scores. Good luck.

At first I wasnt happy about signing up for this teacher. He has daily quizes which count for a third of the class so you must attend daily. This actually saved me though. It makes you learn the material and helps your grade in the end. His tests were difficult because he uses a lot of e. none of the above questions and theres always a good chance that its right so dont be afraid to mark it. He always notices when people are struggling and will help you along. I got a B without buying a textbook but there were a lot of d's and f's on our final... Id take him again.

Don't get me wrong, this guy knows his economics. the only problem is that he has trouble sharing his knowledge with the class. his notes and powerpoint presentations are out-dated and filled with errors which his students are constantly correcting for him. he has daily quizes which are very in depth quizzes that you wont pass if you aren't paying attention the whole class period. his two midterms and final are unbelievably and unreasonably hard. even if you have read through the text and know it like the back of your hand the best you will come out with is a "C". don't ask me how that's just the way he does it. it's like he needs to prove to himself that he knows more economics than the students. if you want to pass your econ class dont take this guy unless you know someone who has the old midterms and quizzez cause i dont think he has changed is material since 1989.

this guy is probably one of the worst teachers i have ever had. it made the transition from highschool to college horrible. talking to him, is like talking to a brick wall--i got nowhere, i would tell him that i didn't understand the material, and he would freak out and tell me that i should know it, that was it. one day the whole class had a hard time understanding a graph, and he became upset and told us that we needed to learn basic math skills and that he wouldn't help us learn how--we should already know how to understand them! besides his awful teacher-student relationships, he has a light speech impedement, which can get kind of distracting at times. other than that, he assigns a chapter of reading everyday, which isn't too bad, gives a quiz everyday, which count as a third of your grade, gives two midterms, and an impossible final. his midterms and final are ok if you know the material like the back of your hand, have memorized all of it, and if you can study everyday up until the actual tests. overall, you probably have figured out that i do not suggest this teacher. get someone else if you can and stay away from this guy!

I really liked this guy. I thought he presented the material very clearly and the material is all based on pretty simple concepts. I thought he was a very good teacher. Ididn't see any problem with him. Its all about the quizzes. you better do well on those. You can't miss any classes cuz u will fall very far behind. Thats the only problem. Go to class everyday and pay attention and u will be fine.

Good luck with this guy.

FUCK YOU!!!!!!!!!!

Overall the class is based off of three things:the final which is 50% of your grade and a real ball buster, then the homework and in class quizzes which account for the other half. I had a B going into the final so I thought I had a decent grasp of the topics. I did my studying from the homework we did and this reassured it. Too bad the final ripped me to shreds. I dont know anyone who did well on the final, there is no way less than half of our class failed that test. Dont take him unless you think you can pull an A on the final because you already know the material.

In no college class should someone get solid A's on both midterms, yet still have a B in the class. Professor Villegas has a B.S. participation policy, similar to one of a middle school class. 20% of your final grade is participation and even if you show up every class and occasionally raise your hand, you can still end up with a C in this section. He calls on the same 10 people and if you aren't one of these 10 your grade suffers. We must do online HW twice a week and just by studying all the practice problems online, managing A's on the midterms isn't too bad at all. He pulls from the practice problems and just uses different wording and numbers. Pulling an A/B isn't difficult, he just makes it way tougher than it should be. Would definitely avoid him!

Dan Villegas is a much better professor than his polyratings suggest. He assigns two online quizzes and homework assignments per week that are grade boosters if you don't slack on them. If you do the homework and practice quizzes before you take the actual quiz, you basically get a free A on the quiz. Although I was originally against the class participation system, it's not very difficult to score high on it. All you have to do is show up to office hours once a week and make an active effort to answer questions in class (you can't only raise your hand for the easy ones). I would definitely suggest taking this professor.

This class was a sick joke that made me despise Economics.

The most BS grading policy. I was only .1% away from a 70% and he wouldn't round it up! The participation points are total BS as well. He mainly calls on thesame students over and over again.

Good and nice guy, meh teacher. His tests and quizzes are pretty easy, but overall the structure of his class is unorganized and bad. I don't like how participation is such a huge chunk of your grade and it also makes the class more of a discussion and the students asking/answering questions than learning the material.

Seriously weird class. Make sure to get full credit on Homework and Quizzes if possible. I think that there are practice tests online, so take them before doing then online Quizzes, doing well will really boost your grades. Midterms are 20 questions and decently easy if you study his questions (he words them weirdly).Participation grade makes no sense but go with it, easy boost.Will reword your questions back to you, thinking that he is answering them in a clever way. Final was really hard, was not ready for that

Would not recommend. Didn't learn anything by attending his "lectures". His class consisted of a very odd participation component that was 20% of your grade so you had to show up to almost every class. Midterms were easy but the final was a lot harder. Not really helpful in office hours.

This class was the only class I dreaded going to this quarter (even more than Bus 100). The fact that participation is a thing sucks because there are always those students who will know every answer to every question and it makes it hard to get full credit on something that should not be hard. The midterms were okay but they're only 20 qs each so missing one q already docks out 5%. His final was pretty reasonable and he didn't throw any curveballs.

Worst professor I've ever had. I took 5 classes during the quarter and this is the only one that gave me a grade that didn't reflect all the effort I placed in homework and studying. You're partially graded on class participation, which makes no sense in a class of easily 200 people. You could go to office hours, but the professor often isn't there, or preoccupied helping other students suffering from his inadequate lectures. You're forced to buy an extremely overpriced looseleaf textbook and access to an online lab; the online lab is half the reason I hate the class. Every homework question is phrased poorly, making you second guess an obvious answer. If you don't provide the exact answer that the lab was programmed to expect, you miss points. You're occasionally asked questions that the reading in the book fails miserably to prepare you for. If I had more time on my hands, I would petition for him to be fired.

Quizes and Tests are exactly the same as homework. Homework load is easily manageable and he is very approachable. Would recommend!!

Not the best teacher in terms of clarification, but go to class regularly to review his questions he puts up on the powerpoints. If you don't get the material take a picture of the question and answer. His midterms and final reflected these questions, as well as the ones on the homework and study plan questions on myeconlab. Go to class during every review day and just take pictures of the questions he puts up because something like that will most likely be on the exam. He let us do the first midterm in groups. A lot of the people complaining about him never went to class or actually tried to understand the material. The quiz and homework questions come straight from the study plan questions so just do it with other people and you'll be fine. Not a bad class if you're not lazy

Professor Villegas gets a bad rap on Polyratings. Going into the quarter I was really nervous about taking his class because everyone on here pretty much hates him — but he really isn’t that bad at all. Class structure is 2 midterms, a final, and weekly online quizzes/homework. Go to all the lectures!! You get out early a few times which is cool. All tests were pretty straightforward and similar to the questions in class. He does a good job of teaching the material. Only downside is that he makes it pretty intimidating to ask/answer questions in class and sometimes roasts kids for asking simple questions. There is no participation grade; I guess he used to do that and it sucked but not anymore. Dude knows his stuff and teaches a fair class. Don’t trip about the bad rating.

Don't trip about this class. Danny V done improved over the years. My mans gave us a group midterm bless his soul. Ain't gonna say he the greatest professor on the block, but he isn't the worst. Do the practice questions on MyEconLab and use the study plan for the quizzes and homeworks, it will save your ass. You're welcome for that last tip G

Someone said that he has never taught a lecture before this quarter (Fall 2016). It was obvious... he doesn't understand how to explain things to people who don't think like economists, so i think that's why a lot of people didn't like his teaching style. I understood it, but I knew a lot of people who just did not understand it because of the the way he taught. He also makes you by this online MyEcon Lab thing and it helps a lot, until the midterms and finals when you're completely blindsided by his questions. The first midterm was a group midterm that everyone got 100% on, and then it was down hill from there. The lectures are not very helpful, watch Khan Academy and you'll be fine. But if you screw up on the homework by not entering a number correctly or filling out the graph, he will say that it's your fault for not reading the directions etc etc... so don't screw up

Come up with a list of everything required and/or expected of a decent teacher. Villegas did not fulfill any of them.

Ohhh DV. Good ole DV was actually the worst. I had his class in the silo from 4:10-6:00, and most people would never show up. He would lecture on his slides and do practice problems all class. Whenever anyone had a question, he would spend most of his time patronizing them instead of actually helping. I would not recommend him if you want a capable teacher. the worst...

He is extremely by the book and boring, his tests are decently hard and he does NOT round up grades. I found him slightly approachable during office hours but otherwise not the most helpful/supportive professor you'll ever have. However, he did let us take the first midterm in groups so the class average was 99% on the first midterm. Despite that, I still got a B in the class even with going to every lecture.

not that this review is gonna matter since hes retiring after this quarter, but imma give my two cents anyways. Damn, this man is boring af. Not that econ is an exciting topic but damn the way he lectures makes it even worse. he talks like an old decrepit man whos about to fall over from eating too many peach pies. That being said, his class is prty chill. u do this thing called myeconlab which is nice-it basically makes his class seem lik an online class. however if ur not good at teacching urself econ, take someone else, bc he cant teach for shit. fuck econ!!!

I didn't realize he was a bad professor until I had an other econ professor. He isn't able to see other people's perspective when teaching, and he can only see his perspective on the content he "teaches". He simply reads from the slides and goes so slow that it takes two hours to go through one chapter. You're forced to learn everything on your own, and there's a reason only 20 of the 75 in the class showed up on a day to day basis. Would not recommend.

Just an average professor. He is retired now, so I need not tell the assignment details of the class. Unhelpful during office hours if I didn't understand the material after the first time. Average during class, reads of slides, and asks some questions. Finished with a B- and was only a point from a B.

This guy is an average teacher, but the class is really easy. The midterms are a joke, so just study for the final and you'll get an A. If you can get another teacher, try, but he is not the worse professor in the world.

Gravy class for your USCP requirement. Basically you write a couple essays and a paper. In class true false quizes that are easy. Nice guy that does his best to make a boring class not such a snooze. Recomended class.

Beside the fact that this class counts for 3 classes as a business major, this teacher is one of the best I have had. He is so nice to everyone in class, has this amazing ability to memorize practically all 120 students names, and really makes you feel comfortable. I actually looked forward to going to his lectures because he is just such a nice guy.

Dr. Villegas makes the class of more than 100 students somewhat interesting. He is capable of managing all the students work in small groups, and he tries his best to remember students' names. I liked his assignments. there were options for the essays, and which final project you would like to do (also with a partner). the first exam is a little hard, but that is the only exam of the quarter. then you have to write two out of three essays and you get to pick which two you want. he is also very interesting when it comes to computer problems. he gives lots of quizes, which in average are not hard, you just gotta read his assignments. the blackboard website was very helpful. he always had examples posted, grades, and announcements which kept me updated with the course. I highly recommend Dr. Villegas!

Dr. Villegas was a very nice person to have for a HUGE-sized class this summer quarter. He obviously cares about the subject and is very careful to emphasize the sensitive nature of talking about racial issues. His lectures were fairly interesting. However, I really didn't feel like I gained much from the (almost daily) quizes. Also, I really didn't agree with the grades my group received on our essays or that I received on my final essay. I have seen several examples of inconsistant grading on the essays, and was never able to figure out exactly what he wanted. The focus on group work was also pretty disapointing to me, I would much rather have done everything on my own. Overall, Dan is a decent teacher, but not a great one. It isn't that hard to get a decent grade in his class, but I wouldn't expect this to be one of the best classes you take at Poly.

Not much really, although he does have some sort of speech impedement that gets in the way. He doesn't say the "th" in bathroom, he says "bafroom", and not "i think", it's "I fink". the same with the word "other", which is said like "uvr". He's boring, but easy as balls.

BORING BORING BORING!! This class is easy, but a complete joke. Villegas tries to tie in obsure economic graphs to poverty and discrimination. What a snore.

Great class, easy B. He is fair and upfront. Great for fufilling your Cultural Pluralism requirement.

Dr. Villegas is great. There will be a community service paper but its not that bad. I feel like he really respects his students unlike some cocky prof. Definately a good pick for Econ courses

Easy class, the quizzes are right from the readings, and he grades really easy on the essay's (except for the final paper). Oh and this quarter the grades on the final essay were a full grade higher if you did the service paper, so be sure to do that one. I got an A and did very little work. Oh and class gets out after the 9th week, and there is no final. Great guy, highly recommend him.

Villegas had some strong points, some weak points. The class is extremely easy - you'd have to TRY to get a C here. There are no midterms, no final. Over the course of the quarter you write four essays (each two pages, double spaced, with no need for ANY research) and one 5-7 page (double spaced) paper, the latter done with a partner. The longer paper is either a research paper with essentially anything qualifying as acceptable subject matter, or a write up on your experiences doing 10 hrs worth of community service (Note: the community service is easy, and they basically set you up with an agency.) Class participation is 20% of your grade, and we had a class of 130 students, split into about 35 groups for participation recording purposes. You can imagine the repetive, boring nightmare that "class discussions" became. That sort of requirement simply does not work in a class that large, and anyway Villegas didn't ask very provocative questions. I feel this class could have been far more than it was - could have been really really fun/interesting, but it just turned out to be an easy A. Which I guess I'm ok with.

Take this class if you want to get your Econ requirements out of the way. Dr. Villegas is a good teacher and is very considerate to his students. There are quizzes based on the reading and lecture, so as long as you go to class, you should have no problem getting atleast a B. The topics covered are interesting and actually apply to real life. Do the community service option if you can because it is easy and also worthwhile. Dr. Villegas is very understanding and tries his best to make the class fun.

This class is cake if you go. Read before class if you are not a good m/c person. Otherwise, you can easily get at least an 8/10 on the pop quizzes just by paying attention in class. Quizzes aren't that often, but you don't know when he will give them, so you have to go to class. There's not midterm or final, so you don't have to take notes. There are 4 very easy short 2 pg. essays, which only 2 random essays will be graded. Follow his format and you'll get an A on these papers and his service paper. Do the service project, not the research paper. It's actually reall fun, you'll see. Participate in class b/c it's 20% of your grade, which makes or breaks you in the end! I hated this part. Not everyone always has something to say, but oh well.

Read the book, and sit through the lecture and you'll do well on the quizes. Not too much work and no final. If you have any questions he is very helpful in his office hours. I would reccomend him.

Villegas was a super nice guy, but the course was structured poorly. The content and discussions were interresting, but class participation is key. Talk every class as much as possible, doesn't even matter what you say as long as your group gets the points. Very unfair the way this work, but not much can be done about it. Easy to get a B, A must be lucky. I did just as well if not better on the quizes when I didn't read, but you still should. This class will leave you very confused. He won't tell you how you are doing on essays until end of quarter. Go to office hours and go over tests, he likes that, towards the end he will have you sign in. Community service was a good experience, recomend this. Include graphs and as many concepts as possible for essays an paper. Good Luck!

Wonderful class. I highly recommend anyone to take this. It really gets you involved in the topics and starts to expand your mind to other viewpoints. Villegas does a great job of presenting the material and letting us discuss it. It's important to be vocal- as he grades highly on participation. Also- do the community service. It's fun and educational.

Illllllllllllllllch. Dont do it, all I have to say. Did not learn one thing but how to lose my mind listening to morons jibber-jabber about how they think they can change the world. Villegas never has the balls to say someone just made the worst call while everyone in the room is baby-barfing.

Before entering this class, everyone whom i have talked to said "it's an easy A." Apparently they were very wrong. His syllabus seems easy enough, no homework, no midterms, and no final. 4 essays, each 2 page max, and only 3 will be graded. However we had a 10 point quiz every day and that can bite you in the a$$ if you are not good at T/F quizzes. The questions were ridiculous because some of them ask about minute details which you may have missed or skimmed while reading the 30+ pages of each chapter. Participation counts like heck and will even lower your grade because your final grade is compared to the smartest guy in the class. So sadly the participation point this past quarter was NOT out of 100 rather it was out of 118, and if you couldn't generate enough points you were screwed! Your whole grade is based on 1/3 participation, 1/3 essays, 1/3 final paper on your service project or research paper. Even if you follow the format of the service paper you may get a bad grade if you don't "impress" him. This was my favorite class until i found out what a bullsh*t grading system Villegas has!!!!! Btw, he does not list how he grades on his syllabus so you have no idea until you finally see in on Power.

I really enjoyed the subject material of the class. The class is made up of quizzes and papers they are all easy. The unfortunate thing about this class is that a large portion of the grade in this course is based on if you

Villegas is a good teacher- Econ is not the easiest subject to teach and he really does a good job. I took this class over the 5-week summer session and there was 3 essays which he randomly grades 2, quizes for the reading assignments every night, and community service and report or research paper. The quizes are out of the book and are a joke because they are worth 1/3 of your grade and missing a point here or there adds up quick! The grading for the essays really sucks because the highest grade he gave was in the low 90's, which is good for those are satisfied with a B and difficult for those that want/need an A. If a teacher isn't going to let anyone receive a 100, than fucking curve the class to the highest grade, it's a simple concept that reflects the job the teacher is doing of teaching. The essay questions really aren't the easiest to answer and even if you create a flawless paper, its left to his subjective grading and sometimes a score in the 80's when it was truly worth 90 to 100, well, you know what I'm saying. Good teacher, but grading strategy blows.

Villegas' ECON303 class was alright. He definitely did a good job at expressing all persons perspectives although in my opinion i just really did care for the subject. Grading system was alright, easy to get a B, hard to get an A or C which i guess is kinda good, kinda bad. Overall, its an alright class to take for the USCP requirement otherwise i definitely would not have.

Dr. Villegas is a good professor and I enjoyed this class. It's not very hard, but there is alot of reading and he gives true/false quizes, which can be really tough. There are also three small essays and one big essay, but they aren't too bad.

Dr. Villegas is a good professor and I can tell that he likes teaching and wants students to do well. This is an interesting course and it makes you examine your own views about poverty and welfare. I really appreciated the fact that he tried to learn everyone's names...he even goes so far as to take everyone's picture. We had some good class discussions and he is a good moderator. We had to write 3 short essays and one long essay. I would recommend this class to everyone.

magnificent professor, thorough and easy to level with. he's a genuinely nice man, and is considerate on every level. ECON303 is a very demanding course, expect to read cover-to-cover the textbook (500 pages) and expect 10-question quizzes on the reading material. you will write (3) 2-page essays and (1) research paper (either on 12 hours of community service or an econ topic of your choice). it's a lot of work, but Mr. Villegas keeps it enjoyable.

Villegas was an ok teacher. All you have to do is print out his slides and go to class. You take about 10 in class quizzes and they arent too hard. Definately do the community service and if you can do the friends outside program it is really easy. The papers you have to write are only 2 pages. It takes like 30 min and he grades them pretty easy.

Villegas is probably your typical poverty, immigration, descrimination econ professor. He lives in an idealistic bubble of how the world should be and doesn't like answers that would possibly burst this bubble. While that's all good and well, I like to participate in class by discussing possible ways of solving problems of poverty, discrimination, and immigration in the REAL world. You know, where everything isn't as it should be, and where we've got to acknowledge our limitations and then try to make improvements in society as best we can. He's a nice guy, but he'll try and reword your answers during class discussion to say what he thinks. It's really kind of annoying. He cuts you off a lot which is also irritating. The community service is cool, it's a lot of fun. He grades the 3 essays you do and the service or research paper (whichever you choose) pretty hard. It sucks that he basically will not give out A's the first couple essays no matter how hard you try, so don't spend more than two hours to a paper. Also, I think if you're capitalist justice, he'll be all over you for it, so pretend to be more towards the socialist side of things. Be all sympathetic and it'll all be ok. Yea, that sounds like Poly.

This course is not very difficult, but the reading quizzes keep you on your toes. However, it is pretty obvious to spot his views and just keep that in mind when writing the essays.

Villegas rocks! I am currently enrolled in his Econ 303 course. There are no exams or a final. Instead we have "surprise" quizes which consist of 10 multiple choice T/F questions. You can pretty much count on a quiz every other class (one a week). He is very straight forward and does not try to trick you. Quizes are given at the end of class and are based on the lecture he had just given. So go to class and pay attention. We have three (easy) 2 page papers and a research/service paper. Rather than writing a boring research paper he encourages his students to get involved in the community and write a paper on the experience. The key to his essays are to ANSWER THE QUESTION HE ASKS and you'll do fine. It's refreshing when you have a class in which you learn a great deal and don't have to kill yourself.

It's almost impossible to get an A grade in this class. Villegas is a great teacher if are more interrested in learning and discussing intellectual topics.

Villegas is a solid economics professor. The class grade is based on 3 essays, 4-6 quizzes, and a research or community service paper. The lectures are only good for the quizzes and the reading will help there as well. The essays rely on personal opinion and you have to connect your essays to some economic theory (which can be done by simply opening the book). The community service paper is an absolute joke as it can be completed in 1 solid hour of typing or less. Participate in class because my grade came out to be a 89.7% and he bumped me up to an A- (assuming it was because of my participation). Don't buy the course notes, they are not neccessary (serious). Good luck.

This is really a class that you get what you put into it. Attendance and doing the assigned readings are contribute to 1/3 of your grade. Another 1/3 is based on essays from in class movies that directly relate to the material. The final 1/3 is based on a community service project or research paper. I wouldn't say this class is an easy but if you take the time to do the work and apply the principles that are discussed in class you should get B. His grading is very fair and he makes it extremely clear on what he expects on his essays and paper.

This class was straightforward enough, but the grading is what gets you. With grading divided as a three-way split in quizzes, essays, and research/community service paper, you have to make sure that you do well in all three factions to get an A. Quizzes are easy, and even without reading the book you can get at least half of the questions if you have basic logic skills. The essay scores, however, while averaging a healthy B or B+ for the class, rarely gets scored above a 92. He didn't even justify his grading for the last two essays, and what could be improved upon. You can coast this class and likely get a B, but getting that solid A is pretty difficult. And... he's not a terribly exciting teacher to listen to either.

This class is a breeze if you just go and take the quizes. Don't bothering buying the book, you don't need it. Just buy his El Corral Book of notes and you will be fine. Everyday he lectures and then the last 15 min of class you have a quiz on what you just learned. If you go to class and follow along you will do fine on the quizzes. You are required to some community service and write a paper for your final--A big plus, no final! You class grade is 1/3 final paper, 1/3 average on quizes, and 1/3 average on three essays. The essays aren't hard, just make sure you use economic principles you learn in class on your paper. If you need to take an econ class take this one, it's pretty easy even though its boring.

The load for this class was very manageable because it is spread out. The grading is something like 33% Quizzes 33% papers 33% Service Paper or Research paper. You have the option of either doing 12 hours community service and writing a service paper (not a difficult paper, he has a list of questions that you answer in bullet points) or writing a research paper on a problem that you would like to solve. I did the 12 service hours in one shot by chaperoning the night at a homeless shelter. I thought that was the best deal since you only had to make one commute, and you got your service hours out of the way. Make sure to do the service early in the quarter when you have more free time! Villegas is very knowledgeable, and the classes were pretty interesting. The book is pretty good and I suggest reading it if you want a B or above. You could probably scrape by with a C on his quizzes because they are on the lecture material that he covers before the quiz, but he will definitely throw something in from the book. The accompanying lecture notes that he suggests you to buy are really not needed! I was anxious and not sure whether I should buy it or not because previous reviews said they weren't needed, believe it! I swear that it isn't necessary.

Villega's class wasn't difficult or intensive at all. For the major paper you can either do the research or community service option and I did the community service. I'd definitely recommend doing it early-middle in the quarter when you're not too busy. It's pretty easy since basically all you have to do is just stay up. I studied for a midterm the entire night. His grading for papers I didn't understand though. On papers I tried to put as much economic theory and examples as I could think of (basically tried to write well) I got a B. But I got the same grade on papers that I just blew off and bs'd. So I'm still not sure what separates an "A" paper from a "B" paper. Oh and he likes to talk...alot. It's weird how he'll ask for someone's answer, say it's wrong, then just restate it in his own words and say it's right. But whatever, decent teacher and I'd recommend him.

I think he was a good professor. The information was interesting. I dreaded volunteering at the homeless shelter, but afterwards I was so happy that I was able to experience something like that. If you take the 8 week session in summer school you have one less paper to write than the normal quarter.

This guy is a snake. Don't get me wrong, he's a nice guy, but he does not try to hide his political preferences at all and it shows in lecture and in his grading (especially in his grading of your essays!). The book he makes us read for this class may have been written by Hitler himself. It is VERY painful to read if you consider yourself even the slightest bit conservative. They should really re-title the class "Liberalism 101," or maybe "Sh*t on the White Male 101." I did not enjoy this class, and it's a shame the school makes it so desirable to take. I guess I can't complain too much since it's a public institution.

There is a subtle yet definite correlation between the information provided in the textbook required for this course and that of the Communist Manifesto. Villegas is very very very far left on the spectrum.. If his political preferences match yours you may do well in this course, but if not, don't say I didn't warn you!

The class is straightforward with three parts: the service/research paper, a few essays, and pop quizzes. The quizzes are the worst part. They're only 10 points but somehow have the same weight as a 100 point essay. I got A's and B+'s on my essays and service paper but ended up with a B- because of the pop quizzes. The book and the book with the slides are way overpriced and totally not worth it. Getting it used would have been better.

This professor is a joke. First of all, he makes you buy a textbook that was edited by guess who? Him. And wouldn't you know, the book is ONLY available at a single random website. I wonder how much money he makes a quarter off his students.. I took the summer course, 8 week session, and the course consisted of 3 papers (2 2-page essays which are graded based solely on his beliefs and opinions, despite what he tells you, and 1 7-page paper you write about from your 12-hours of required community service). There are also daily quizzes. (quizzes 33.3%, 7-page essay 33.3%, 2 2-page essays 33.3%). This guy claims to be all about fairness and promoting learning and discussion, but he is full of sh**. He has an enormous ego, is CONSTANTLY feeding his power trips, and hes not afraid to make you look like an idiot if what you said is ANYWHERE near against his beliefs or what he is trying to teach. Thank god I never talked, but I watched my classmates get burned by him day after day. DON'T BE FOOLED, his OCCASIONAL quizzes are literally everyday (minus maybe one or two out of the quarter). He claims that he gives quizzes when he feels the class hasn't done the reading or doesn't seem to understand it, but that is b/s. Our class has AVERAGED between and 8.5-9.5 on every single quiz, yet he still gives them every single day. Overall, incompetent hypocritical and horrendous teacher, but unfortunately many people are stuck with this guy. The textbook is a HUGE yawnfest, and is TERRIBLY written. Not a hard class, but DO THE READING, and don't go into this class thinking it will be interesting!

This teacher is a huge tool. I got an 89.93 in the class, talked every single day in an attempt to get on his good side, despite his dry, technical, boring lectures, and he still has the friggin nerve to give me a B+. Bottom line, he doesnt give a rats ass about his students. The class itself was easy. daily (twice a week) quizzes that only require common sense, 2 papers that are only 2 pages long and contain your values and opinions, and a 7-page essay on a community service paper (I struggled to squeeze everything in 7-pages, he asks you to include like 8 sections). The lectures are SOOO boring and he LOVES using graphs and charts. Most people are stuck with this guy as the only ECON 303 teacher. Don't stress signing up for this class, the time commitment is very minimal and you hardly have to use your brain. Unfortunately, if you are one of those people who came to college to learn or hear insightful, interesting lectures, you are barkin up the wrong tree with this guy.

....HORRIBLE TEACHER. he rambles on about the same topic/concepts to the point where you tune him out because he is just repeating himself but saying it differently. he is a horrible lecturer. the material sounds interesting, but the way he presents it is so boring you don't ever want to come to class. the class has quizzes, a research/comm serv paper and a final. one final...so you better not slack on the reading because it's a lot to take in. he has quizzes every day, which is the only incentive to go to the class. if you want to learn something DO NOT TAKE HIM.

This class was a cake walk. Granted, he is super boring and I dreaded sitting through the two hours twice a week but its really not that bad. iClicker quizzes (10% of grade) every class are super easy and you can work with the people around you. The rest of the grade is the community service paper (also not that hard) and the final which also wasn't too bad. Just come to class and stay awake and you'll do fine.

Professor Villegas did not lecture once during the entire quarter. He expected the class to already know and understand all of the material in the textbook, and literally did not teach us a single thing the entire quarter. His grading system is entirely unfair as well. There are no homework assignments, no midterms. Instead, it's 33.3% final, 33.3% research paper, and 33.3% participation. Literally, participation in class is worth as much as your final. This would be alright if he taught the course and used an iclicker so that everyone in class had an opportunity to answer questions, but since he's too dumb to be able to keep track of participation on his own, he makes you do it yourself. This leads to an unfair curve due to students inflating their own grades and talking just to hear their own voice. You leave his class more confused and less informed than when you entered the classroom.The paper is terrible in it's own regard too. You have a choice of either writing a research paper or doing 12 hours of community service and writing a paper about that experience, but won't be graded until the quarter is over anyway, so no one knows how they did in a third of the class. Going into the final exam 85% of our grade is completely unknown, so absolutely no one has any idea if they are going to be passing this class or stuck with this terrible terrible man again.

UGH. You will dread going to class. Participation is a joke, people will make up BS and ask dumb questions just to rack up points. He does favor students and tend to pick those who have their hand up more frequently than others. There are no study guides, no power points, nothing. Lecture is based on discussion of questions he gives you prior, but most of the questions are opinion based and WON'T be on the final at all. As stated, the final will be on principles of economics learned in PRIOR econ classes + some concepts from the book, meaning that it'll be barely ANYTHING discussed in class. The grade is made up of participation, 1 6-page essay at the end of the quarter, and your final. Other than that, participation is NECESSARY as you have to attend office hours once a week if you can't talk enough in class. When you ask a question, he'll direct it to other students to answer it and after they do, he implies that the answer is not enough and drags out the discussion for half an hour to look for another student who can answer it EXACTLY how he wants it when he can simply answer the question himself. Lecture is pointless yet you still have to go do you can try to get participation points. Majority of your grade will be unknown when you enter the final. No one knows if they will pass or not, which is really frustrated and puts a lot of weight on you. Also, the book is pointless and opinion based with no formulas or great examples to help you understand concepts. The chapters are arranged by him and can ONLY be bought from the bookstore. Oh & it's pricey too, $100+. I should have taken another Econ prof.

In Econ 303 with Dan Villegas your grade break down is this: 33.3% Research or Service paper, 33.3% participation, 33.3% final exam. With that being said, if you are shy or do not like talking in front of the class then DO NOT take this course. You must read the material and raise your hand a ton to earn even an 85% in participation. The final exam is very difficult because you do not have a study guide or any prior test with him to compare. However, if you did sign up for this professor already....I am here to give you hope. YOU CAN DO IT! I am very shy, but really learned to be aggressive and raise my hand. I landed a high B in the class and am very proud.

Villegas is such a nice guy but the way he graded this quarter was unfair in my opinion. He split grading in 3rds, participation, 1 essay, and 1 final. The final was pretty difficult as the class average was a 73%. I studied incredibly long and thorough i believed and still only got an 83%. I have a feeling most of the class got C's because of the final. No quizzes, and no homework except for reading the book which you will spend the whole class discussing your personal opinions. But when it comes to the final the material has absolutely nothing to do with any personal opinion (it is all facts and data that no one even remembers).

Basically, this class is annoying, boring, and had so much potential that wasn't reached. 1. Grade breakdown is lame, everyone exaggerates their participation grade because otherwise, you will fail 2. He never lectured, only presented a topic like "let's talk about the wage gap and why do you think there is one" and it's literally 2 hours (or entire class time) of everyone sharing personal opinions, not to mention everyone repeating answers. Useless to attend 3. He always expected us to recall ECON 221 and 222 which I took freshman year so that was whack 4. He's a cool guy but doesn't use this great class subject to its full potential. You can pass the class although what's on the tests are mostly based on previous econ prequisites. I am just sad that my life was wasted because I really wanted to learn and I definitely did not do that here.

He is incompetent and knows nothing of economics. He won't answer your questions directly or admit to not understanding the material you need clarification on. His lectures are a waste of time and money. He taught a concept wrong in lecture, then tested it, and wouldn't changes midterm grades even after admitting he taught it wrong. If you can do one thing during your time at Cal Poly, NEVER TAKE A CLASS TAUGHT BY DAN VILLEGAS!!!

This professor is rude and arrogant. He has a god complex and refuses to take any criticism about his methods. I went in to speak with him about some concerns I was having about the corse and he verbaly and with hand motion through my concerns aside and said and I quote, "I do not care about what you are saying so I am not going to think about it". By far the most disrespectful thing a professor has ever said to me. I have a disability that was causing me to struggle with the reading which was all I wanted to talk to him about but he wouldn't here it. All he was concerned about was telling me that I am a horrible student. His lectures are extremely boring and mostly opinion based regarding the reading. there is no new information presented. During the class discussions, if you do not have the same opinions as the rest of the class you feel like you cant speak because you will be labeled as an arrogant trump supporter and know body will want to here anything you have to say so you just sit there listening until he gives you a break an hour into the class. During the break I would always leave because I felt extremely uncomfortable in the room not being able to share my opinion without repercussions. Stay away from this professor at all costs.

I understand Professor Villegas's idea that the grade you earn is the reflection of the work you put in...However, he makes it extremely difficult. Provides long articles each lecture that is expected to been read before the day of lecture and lectures about the power points that aren't even used when he constructs his midterm or final. Majority of the questions on the midterm and final are based on the assigned readings, which can go up to 30 pages long per class! Creating it to be very time consuming and dreadful. This is my first quarter here at Cal Poly as a transfer student. Since I was a newbie and heard about polyratings.com, I made the mistake of reading feedback early in his teaching career which is nothing compared to what it is currently. I'm currently in his class now and a little more than half the class failed the midterm and he disagrees that his teaching style is the issue but rather on the students. I would not recommend this professor.

Professor Villegas did not teach this class well at all. The material he required us to read were stimulating and added to the subject, but that is not dependent on him or his teaching abilities. What is actually dependent on his teaching abilities is how he reviews the reading material and teaches us new concepts in class, as well as the midterm and final that he writes and gives us. He does not go over the material adequately in class. It is not conducive to actually learning the material, but rather, merely encourages memorizing. The same goes for the midterm (25 questions) and final (50 questions) - they both depend only on how much of the reading material you have memorized and can regurgitate. And they determine 50% of our total grade. 75 questions determine 50% of our entire grade. And when we asked Professor Villegas on how he expected us to study for the final by rereading all 28 articles given to us in class, some of which ran up to 80 pages long, he stated that he does not expect us to. Rather, we should have read the material so comprehensively the first time around that we can only skim over the articles and feel ready for the final. He told us to merely skim material, some of which that we read 10 weeks ago, for a final that covers 50% of our grade. And the sad thing is, we can't do anything else but skim over the material before we are spending so much time studying for our other classes that we can't just sit down and reread all the articles. And he refuses to curve our midterm, despite the fact that our average was a D+. Below passing. It is not that every single student in my class did not prepare enough; to have every single person in a classroom of 40-45 students believe that a class, which is necessary to their major, to be so unimportant that they just "blow off studying" and therefore average a D+ is impossible. I can say with certainty that the majority of the class did indeed study for the midterm, yet as a whole still got only a D+ average. At what point does it stop reflecting on the students and start reflecting on the teacher? We tried to talk to him about why he refuses to curve and to try and get him to see our point of view, but he refused to and instead got "riled up" by the discussion, to put it in his words. He does not accept criticism well and will disdainfully shut you down very quickly if you do not agree with him. All in all, I would never recommend taking this class with Professor Villegas. Not even to my worst enemy.

This guy is complete trash and shouldn't be allowed to teach at a university. He has allowed half of his class to fail his midterm at the expense of preserving his "educational philosophy." The course material itself is interesting, but class lectures are centered around discussing OUR personal opinions on what was covered. He doesn't prepare students for his exams whatsoever, and expects you to memorize the assigned reading for each day of the class. This wouldn't be a problem, except that each reading is extremely long and time consuming. He doesn't provide a framework to help us navigate through the articles, and focuses on the minute details that are irrelevant to actually understanding economics. CAL POLY MUST FIRE DAN VILLEGAS.

READ THIS ONE, I'LL SUM IT UP PERFECTLY: ECON 303 with Villegas is not a hard class. However, it is hard to get a good grade. I know that doesn't make sense but keep reading. There are 4 components of your grade: 6 HW assignments weighted 20% (relatively easy), midterm exam weighted 20%, service paper (you stay overnight somewhere and write about it) weighted 30%, final exam 30%. The midterm is composed of 25 questions which means that each question is worth 0.8% of your grade - the questions are based on enormously long PDF files paired with bland PowerPoints. I'm talking 25-40 pages of dry material per PDF. The class average on this midterm was a 68% and he neglected to curve it (that's his ideology, we have to "work hard for our grades"). I was one of a handful of students that led an argument in class against Villegas the lecture before the final claiming that the way he conducts 'assessment' (seeing how well students know the material) is flawed. Basing one question off of a 30 page PDF is ridiculous and is not 'learning,' in my opinion. The final is composed of 50 questions which means that each question is 0.6% of your grade - also based entirely on 25-40 page PDFs and bland PowerPoints. I counted the other day, there are 28 assigned readings. Some are as short as a few pages, one of them is over 80 pages. Will you pass this class just fine and get a C/B? Absolutely. Is it hard to get an A? Read 600+ pages of PDF (that Villegas didn't write), answer 75 questions about it (worth half your grade!) and get back to me on that one. Cheers.

This guy is terrible. Lots of reading and just one question essentially per reading. His powerpoints aren't even related to the readings sometimes and he doesn't tell us what to read beforehand so we end up reading things (80%) that he doesn't even cover in class (only covers like 20% of the reading). The midterm was hard and he somehow thinks making the final be cumulative is a fantastic idea, which only adds to the unnecessary large load of readings to "read" before the final. The class grilled him the class before the final after he said he would be fine with handing out everyone Fs if that's what actually happened and it led to him getting his feelings hurt. Also he's insanely inconsistent in grading any papers which is where the rest of the points are coming from.

There are so many things wrong with his class. He's pretty chill and will let you turn in some assignments late as long as its not like a week late but he doesn't care for his students. He assigns usually 40-60pgs of reading for each class. Requires you to remember everything for the midterm and final exam. No study guide which is usually fine with me but when there is like over 700pgs of reading, I really don't know what is important anymore. His lectures relate to the readings by topic only. His slides don't reinforce the readings. His class is really all about discussion about your opinions and not really about the reading even though his exam is very objective. Last class we spent 20+ minutes arguing about how his class was unfair. Our midterm average was a 68% but he justified it by saying "there are some students who got A's" but the highest score was a 92% and i think only a couple of students got an A... When the average is BELOW PASSING then there is a problem with the professor and not the students but he absolutely does not see that. He's a hardcore capitalist and refuses to curve because he believes that what you get is what you deserve. He even said, AND I QUOTE, "i'm sorry if you guys are nervous or scared going into the final exam but that's not a concern of mine". Essentially, he is chill but stubborn, does not care for his students, does not understand that students who want to do well in his class also wants to do well in their OTHER classes, and generally would not recommend this class unless you enjoy discussion classes and also have photographic memory.

He is a mild, plain, dry, meh, indifferent, unconcerned, disinterested, detached professor. I mean, he is pleasant, he says good morning, good afternoon, and all that etc. I am not butthurt to the degree others are and did not find him rude or disrespectful, or anything like that. Ya gotta be an adult sometime and deal with challenges! As for the work, holy cow, the reading! So much reading! 80 pages the 2nd week and 2 readings per week after that (each is 30, so 2x30= 60 pages). Too much! Not impossible, but you will lose many hours. I'm trying not to be a whiner, be tough, be an adult, but it seems unreasonable to accomplish what he asks. 1 or 2 questions from each reading will be on the (scantron) exams. No study guide provided. He told us, "Make your own study guide." So you have to read and summarize the main ideas of each reading and pray you are correct. 25 question midterm, 50 question final. 4 essays of 2 page MAX (not min) each. Syllabus provides guidance for these. Your first one will be rough, but he writes feedback on it and you also go see him during office hour to sharpen your essay. After that, the next 3 should get better. He does not provide feedback on these later ones, just scores. Choice of writing a research paper or volunteer for a 12 hour overnight shift at a homeless shelter and a report you write about it (6 page max, template provided in syllabus). I did the overnight and it was easy. You are expected to recall all the econ that you have already studied in previous classes. That's fair, so bring it! If you forgot like me, go to the lib and on the 3rd floor are the econ textbooks. Brush up! My GPA dropped owing to how poorly I performed on the exams. YOURS WILL TOO! Guaranteed! The "smart guy" in class even got low grades and he studied hard! Tons of other people also studied and got even lower grades. Truth! Avoid him if you need your GPA to be high or you need time for other classes. I learned very little from his class.

Prof. Villegas is an excellent instructor- he has taken a subject (Economics of Poverty...) which may easily be abused by professors to spread their own political philosophy, but carefully offered a variety of perspectives without maligning any views. The lack of midterms and finals makes this a far more comfortable course than most- you have time to deal with complex issues and put your ideas together in essays assigned as homework rather than a timed exam. He's a nice guy too.

pretty solid teacher. a bit boring though. but what econ class isn't a bit boring?

The class was set up with three midterms and no final. Not having a final was the greatest thing about the class. Villegas tries to be a nice guy in class but his lack of teaching skills hurts our learning. He has a hard time relating the material to the student. He can only see the material one way and if you don't understand it, he can't help you get it. The class also had homework for each chapter. The homework was problems out of an economics workbook and the problems were very difficult. Villegas wanted us to have the reading done before each class and we had a possible quiz everyday we came to class. The quizes were multiple choice, very hard, and asked questions in confusing ways. We usually did not have enough time to complete the quizes comfortably. The quizes were very tedious and were very specific. We read one chapter for every day we came to class. This was very hard to keep up with because the chapters were very long and boring. The chapters were very detailed, specific, and hard to understand. Also, the textbook was outrageously expensive - $200, and the workbook was another $40. In office hours Villegas had trouble relating the material to me and he wasn't very helpful. He tried, and I tried, but he couldn't get me to understand the material clearly. I would ask a question and he would give me the same answer over and over, in the same way, eventhough I wasn't getting it. He was as helpful as talking to a brick wall. His tests were very, very difficult. He does not give any partial credit, which is complete bullshit in a class with lots of mathematical calculations. If you worked through the problems with the right methodology but messed up on one number calculation, you would get zero credit for the whole problem. It is absolutely crazy! The first test was a written test and went along with the homework for the most part. If you studied the homework, you did alright on the exam. The second test was switched to a multiple choice format because the students complained about the lack of partial credit on a written exam with lots of calculations. The second test had nothing to do with the homework and was very disconnected from the material we learned in class. We later found out that Villegas used a test bank to get questions for the test and this was a major reason we hadn't seen this material before. Another bullshit move. The third exam was another multiple choice test, but we didn't have homework for the last chapters and hence nothing to study for the exam except the power point notes. This test was hard and still had questions on it that were odd. With the no partial credit policy, most students did poorly on the exams. Villegas' teaching did not prepare us for the exams. His teaching consisted of reading word for word off of the power point presentations that had multiple errors in each class period. He went through the notes too quickly and we hardly ever went over anything on the whiteboard. Once in a long while, when he brought whiteboard pens we would do a problem. But even then, he would get a little confused about the material and make the class confused. He was also not prepared for most class periods. His class was one of the worst I've had at Poly and he is one of the worst professors I've had at Poly.

Villegas creates a very comfortable environment in his classroom. There is a lot of class discussion, students are encouraged to participate, he provokes creativity rather than regirgitation. Your grade is equally weighted among three things: class participation, a research paper and the final. Take this course if you can.

THe course itself is interesting and the content is understandable. Its just that the grading system is unfair. If you like the luck of the draw than you are okay. The class is graded on three things so 33% of your grade. Participation method does not accurately desplay your contributions. Students grade that and sometimes forget your name or forget to give you credit......

It's tough to decide whether to recommend Villegas or not for a few reasons. He is a great professor as far as knowledge and learning and all that other wonderful shit that some people care about. He grades 1/3 particiaption, 1/3 final, and 1/3 a paper that is due at the end. His class isn't too boring, and I would say that you will learn quite a bit. Having said that, the reason why I would not recommend him is because of his wacked out hard core grading. He just grades really hard, and his class is completely subjective, so it's impossible to predict your grade. The other thing, is that the final and the paper are due on the last day of class, so 2/3 rds of your grade isnt even calculated until AFTER the course is over. Talk about anxiety. You have no idea what your grade will be till you see it on mustang info. So if your a risk taker with your grade, than take him. But if you are the anal type that watches every point, you'll hate this class. But you'll learn a lot!! So it's a trade off.

Unbelievable. I can't believe the incompetence of this teacher. His material was grossly outdated with no really inquisitive or astonishingly new information. The information presented was obsolete which, honestly, rendered the purpose of the class useless. Every time I went to his office hours it always seems like he wanted to dance around the questions or possibly it was just that he was so inept that he couldn't register what I was asking. Take this class because it fulfills requirements but certainly don't take it because you feel you'll be enlightened by the professor's insight.

If you take Villegas for this class, be prepared to pareticipate avery day. if you miss class a lot, don't take him for any class. Villegas is obsessed with participation, and this is reflected in the final grade where participation counts as 33.3%...Also the grade is divided in 3 parts participation 33.3%, exams 33.3% and a stupid paper and presentation 33.3%...The paper is tupid because, basically, you have to go to class do a 30 min presentation on a philosopher and than he does a 1.5 hour presentation on the same person, basically resttaing what you just talked about.In addition, the participation pts are graded on a curve, so if you participate a couple of times in the quarter, you're basically going to do reallyu bad( i.e the reason why I got a C)because people that like to talk in class will gets way more pts. And, the best advice I can give is going to class because he does not say this at the begining of the quarter, but THE FINAL IS ON THE PRESENTATIONS AND TECHNICAL INFO THAT HE PRESENTS..AND IT IS IN ESSAY FORMAT, and not on any of the reading.

Dr. Villegas is an excellent teacher. It is rare to find someone who is generally concerned for his students and finds such satisfaction from teaching. This is a very involved class where participation is key, but use his office hours wisely because they are very helpful. His tests are somewhat difficult but he does offer assignments to improve your grade. Other reviews were bringing Villegas down because there is a lot of work in the class. This still does not mean itsm tough. Go to class, pay attention, do the reading, and use his office hours and you will come out with a good grade. Very good teacher and very smart person, nothing else you can ask for.

The quarter is not even over yet, but I seriously feel like ripping my hair out. This guy is simply not a good instructor, and combined with that smug arrogant attitude, I would pay just to fight this guy