Reviews for John Ham
Average Rating:| Anonymous Course: ECON326 Grade Expected: A+ April 22, 2012, 4:58 pm | Looking at the reviews and the average GPA on OurUMD, I was hesitant in joining this ECON326 class. Even during the first class, Professor Ham told the class that this would be a challenging course. However, going to all his lectures AND the discussions, this class was one of the easiest classes offered by the economics department. Professor Ham DOES make numerous mistakes in the lectures, however he is very approachable and open to any and all corrections. Another thing that helped me in this class was the TA Robert Kulick. He is by far one of the best TAs because, he too, was very approachable and clear. All in all, I rated this class a 4 out of 5 due to the mistakes the Professor makes in his lectures. However, compared to the other professor I heard that this one was a lot easier. Good luck. |
| Anonymous Course: ECON326 Grade Expected: A June 5, 2011, 7:14 pm | Professor Ham is a funny guy but he tends to make a lot of mistakes during his lectures and also forgets that most people don't already know the subtle bits and pieces of his lectures that he just bulldozes through. Overall, this class is more than doable if you have Naomi as your TA because her grading scale is ridiculously forgiving. I had heard horror stories about her before but I found her to be friendly and practically do your problem sets with you. |
| Anonymous Course: ECON326 Grade Expected: A June 2, 2011, 5:52 pm | He is a piece of shit! Seriously! I can't understand why He can earn the highest salary in Economics Department!!!!! Always make simple mistakes in class, I mean ALWAYS!!! And he is really really bad at writing! Maybe he is good at sucking the dean's ball, so that he can teach at Maryland! Don't take his class! Or you will regret! |
| agaybaby Course: ECON326 Grade Expected: B May 20, 2011, 5:53 am | I get the impression that he is a good guy, and that he knows what he is talking about. However, his teaching style is extremely disorganized, I thought. I would review notes for the exam and have no clue what I wrote down sometimes. He went on tangents often, writing down formulas or graphs that weren't totally necessary. He really hates noise in the class and would often disrupt class to tell people to quiet down, which was actually more disruptive than whatever the kids were doing usually. Makes multiple mistakes on the board and may take a few tries to get it right, but I don't fault him for it. Class material isn't so bad, there's only a little calculus usage, but the final topic is kind of rough (perfect competition). Format was 10% quizzes (10, drop lowest 2), 15% problem sets (5, drop 1), 20% midterm 1, 20% midterm 2, 35% final. Exams were fair, the questions pretty much came right from the problem sets, just with different numbers/more parts. Midterms were ~8 questions spread out over 2 parts with ~4 questions each. Final was 6 questions: 4 problems and a B/C section, choose 1 question from each. Sometimes the wording is kind of vague/tricky, so make sure to read it carefully. Same with the problem sets. I had no problem with Naomi (I thought she helped me understand more than Ham did.) Working with a PS group I never got below a 93% on the problem sets. She does take off points for little things though so make sure you're overly thorough. |
| Anonymous Course: ECON326 Grade Expected: May 20, 2010, 3:48 pm | I personally found Professor Ham's lectures to be extremely clear and concise. He explained the concepts in simplest terms, and did not deviate from the course topics like many other economics professors tend to do. As a previous reviewer said, he is very very anal about noise and cell phones in class. However, if you can simply pay attention in his lectures and ask questions when a topic is unclear, you should be able to get an A in the class. (Or in the case of the spring 2010 semester, a B due to TA Naomi Utgoff's absurdly unfair grading scheme) |
| Anonymous Course: ECON326 Grade Expected: A May 16, 2010, 11:31 am | Professor ham is really smart and gets flustered in front of a class. But honestly hes a good teacher. Most teachers cannot teach by only using the chalkboard. He never relied on power points and he's teaching style is very clear. If you go to every lecture and take notes you'll be fine. |
| Anonymous Course: ECON326 Grade Expected: C May 12, 2010, 12:03 pm | Professor Ham is clueless. He has no idea what he is doing, routinely makes simple math mistakes, and spends most of the class saying "cool" or "any questions?" instead of actually teaching Microeconomics. He refused to teach when anyone even whispered in the class and caused more of a disruption by awkwardly saying "okay guys" than the whispering students did. I have no idea how he makes $250,000 a year. It is a shame and a travesty that students' hard-earned tuition money actually goes to this guy. As for the TA, Naomi Utgoff is by far the most unfair grading TA I have ever had. She was unreasonable and ridiculous with most of the grading, taking major points off for minor mistakes. Overall, this is the worst class I have taken at UMD and the ECON department should be ashamed. |
| billcosby Course: ECON326 Grade Expected: A December 18, 2009, 6:35 pm | Very good professor. Class not necessary but his instruction was very clear and straightforward so I needed to study minimally for an A in the class. |