Reviews for Anna Obizhaeva
Average Rating:| motariq1991 Course: BMGT343 Grade Expected: A- January 1, 2012, 12:22 am | Investments was one of the best courses I took in the business school. DO NOT BUY THE BOOK! It cost somewhere around $130 and we were never told to open it. Everything she teaches are from lecture slides which passes out in class and posts on ELMS. But, the book is a very good reference for future classes and work. One of the best advice I can give you is to team up with really hardworking and smart people. Because the homework is both numerical and intuition based. Lastly, start on the homework as soon as they are assigned because some of them can be very lengthy. |
| Anonymous Course: BMGT343 Grade Expected: December 25, 2011, 12:32 pm | Overall a brilliant professor who really knows her material. Her russian accent shouldn't be a problem if you would actually pay attention to class. She makes and prints out for you very useful slides, and she explains the material very well. Her lectures could be a little mroe engaging, but if you have the right attitude to learn, you shouldn't have too much reason to complain. |
| Anonymous Course: BMGT343 Grade Expected: A December 16, 2010, 6:03 pm | This is by far the worst class I have ever taken in my 3.5 years of college. It is a crucial class for finance majors, and it is so important to hire a professor who can teach it properly and thoroughly. Anna DOES NOT fit this criteria for multiple reasons. First off, she has an INCREDIBLY thick Russian accent which makes it very hard to understand her. This wouldn't be a problem if she actually knew how to teach. In addition to not being able to understand her, she also speaks in a very confusing manner. She cannot answer questions to save her life, and she has a terrible time explaining even the simplest concepts. She is not articulate AT ALL, so it is so easy to zone out in her class and be confused beyond belief. Secondly, she is unable to make the class interesting and engaging. It was a torture going to class and not being able to understand her. You might as well not go and just read the lecture slides. However, don't do that as she does draw out examples on the board which are useful to copy. All this being said, I still did very well in the class because I had a great group and we worked EXTREMELY hard on the homeworks, which take hours and hours and hours to complete because she is so terrible at explaining things. We basically taught ourselves everything with the lecture notes and book. We ended up getting As on everything because we worked so hard and taught ourselves. It's not due to any good work on her part. Third, when you go to visit her, she is unapproachable and distant. She isn't very good with emails either, so don't expect to get too much help from her outside of class. I know this all sounds awful, but I do have some plus points to say. The lecture slides are very straightforward. So go to class, try hard to understand her, and then before the exam, review all the lecture slides and you will be fine. For the homeworks, start IN ADVANCE!!! They take forever so get a good group of people to work with. Anna might be a phD from MIT and she might be a great person outside of the classroom, but I thought she was simply awful as a professor. Try as hard as you can to get someone else...I really don't know how these people reviewed her so well. I got an A, so I feel like what I'm saying holds a lot of weight. Plus a lot of other I spoke too feel the same way about her. |
| Anonymous Course: BMGT343 Grade Expected: A September 23, 2010, 9:52 am | She is very Smart and nice but she can not explain a topic to save her life. When students ask questions she would not understand what they meant and could not give them an answer back. Like I said very nice woman but not the best teacher out there. I don't know how everybody else rated her so high. |
| MusickVideo Course: BMGT343 Grade Expected: A May 29, 2010, 11:24 am | This is an absolutely crucial class for any Finance major, as it introduces many financial instruments that you should understand as you enter the professional world. Anna is great. She has a Russian accent that will take you a few class periods to get used to, but she is very clear in her explanations and knows how to make the most complicated ideas seem simple. She has a PhD in MIT and enjoys mathematics, so you should expect a more technical introduction to investments than you would with another professor. Class consists of a midterm (35%, 1 notesheet), cumulative final (40%, 2 note sheets), 3 problem sets (each 5%), and 2 case writeups (each 5%). Her exams test your understanding of the material, not how well you memorized how to do certain problems. You should prepare with the practice questions she gives out in class as well as your past problem sets. Also, don't wait until the last day to study for the midterm/final; there is a lot of material to go over. She will ask for student volunteers to present cases. This will be taken into account at the end of the semester in the form of extra credit. Also, if you participate a lot, that will help your grade in the end as well. Tips for success: go to class so you don't have to attempt to teach yourself the material (it's pretty difficult without her explanations), ask for help if you need it, and participate. |
| Anonymous Course: BMGT343 Grade Expected: A+ December 28, 2009, 8:30 pm | First of all this is not an easy class as it introduces many different topics that are essential in diversifying your knowledge of finance. Anna is an excellent teacher and really helps students to understand the vast concepts in finance. Exams are not easy but I guarantee if you go to every class, participate and work well in groups you will be successful and earn atleast a B. With that said Anna is very knowledgeable about the various subjects and is more than willing/available to assist students. Just go to class and pay attention and you will do fine....don't go and play on your laptop in class...that does not count |
| pookie Course: BMGT343 Grade Expected: A June 12, 2009, 10:55 am | Anna is awesome. Altohugh she has a Russian accent, shes pretty easy to understand and is clearly extremely intelligent about everything finance/investments. This class connects some of the topics introduced in finance and money and banking. I'd say she does a great job putting some big ideas together. The class is broken down to 2 exams (1 mid, 1 final), 5 problem sets/ cases, and "participation." I feel like the participation can make or break your grade b/c even though she doesn't say its worth any percent of your grade, if you volunteer to present or say something in class it could potentially bump you up...10% or so...the final was cumulative and harder than the midterm but there's definitely a huge curve. As an MIT grad, Anna knows what she's talking about and is more than willing to share what she knows. Take this class! I only wish she taught more classes. |
| Snoopy5215 Course: BMGT343 Grade Expected: A December 17, 2008, 7:58 pm | WOW, Anna is an EXCELLENT professor! I took her during her first semester teaching (Spring 2008) and I thought she had been teaching for years. Investments is a tough course, but she makes some of the most useful slides and is sure to explain them completely and in a way that students can understand. She has a Russian accent but its not distracting. Did I mention I loved this class? I think it was maybe 2 homeworks and 2 case studies, a midterm and a final. All were very challenging but if you went to class (which was enormously useful) and could pick up the concepts, all assignments/tests were manageable. She is very approachable and even printed out all the slides for us. :) Anna and Prof Hewer (International Finance) are my top two favorite professors that I learned the most from and had the most USEFUL lectures I have EVER gone too! I remember this stuff when I leave their classes! TAKE INVESTMENTS WITH ANNA! |