Paul Dickinson - McGill University, Montreal, QC

Professor: Paul Dickinson

Department: Economics

College: McGill University, Montreal, QC

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: ECON208
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

When visiting his office hours on strategies to improve for the final I was told to "work harder", and was not given any constructive suggestions. He doesn't care about his students and blames the overwhelming failure of the class on laziness instead of his own teachings.

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: ECON208AND209
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Lectures are dull and you don't need to go if you read the book and look at the slides. He reuses his old exam questions and pulls half of them from the study guide, so it's easy to do well if you know that, but frustrating if you don't because even if you work hard and know the material you won't do as well as if you'd just memorized old exams.

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: ECON208
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Took ECON 208 in Fall 2016. His lectures are unbearably boring, but the grading criteria is crystal clear. I stopped going to class after a few weeks, and just studied the textbook and did practice Q's on MyEcon Lab (which I highly recommend!) He posted the slides of material that wasn't in the textbook. Aced the midterm, got A.

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: ECON306
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Where to start. I've always heard he's got a bad rep for being a terrible lecturer. He seems like a nice person in emails. BUT, his class is extremely DISORGANIZED, they're all over the place: in the text, not in the text.. there's no clear line to really follow. And his mumbling made it worse. Textbook is good enough, explains so much better.

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: ECON209
• Grade Received: C
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

If Econ is not your major you better show up to every class, don't except help outside of class from him. I did a deferred final and everything was theory, so all the problems I had practiced for were for nothing. On 100 questions, only 1 was a math-related problem. Do past midterms and past exams in order to prep, exams are very theory heavy.

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: ECON306
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

If people on here actually went to his lectures & listened instead of being upset they didn't get an A cramming the day before (especially for the basic intro econ courses), they would see he's actually a thorough lecturer, his exam criteria is clear and predictable, & this prof is pretty witty with his underhanded sense of humour in every lecture.

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: ECON208
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

Not planning on taking any classes with him again.

Rating # 8

Overview:

• Course: ECON208
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Does a great job at boring you. Asks for questions in lecture, expressly not via email, then dismisses questions like they're all dumb. Very lazy professor to a couple of points, like making you seat yourself around people with different versions of the exam and using old typo-ridden questions on both midterm and exam.

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: ECON208209
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

He's honestly the worst Prof I've ever had in my life. The most dull lecturer imaginable, which is why nobody shows up, and absolutely ruthless with grading. He's quite possibly the pettiest and most narcissistic person that can't possibly wrap his head around the fact that he's just not a proficient prof.

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: ECON209
• Grade Received: Not sure yet
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

His lectures go off on unprecedented tangents and have led to his class size being almost halved since the start of the semester. People just use slides and conference sheets. His midterm was like the Pearl Harbor attack and hit everyone out of nowhere with weirdly-phrased questions; average was 55 for the midterm. Legit getting a tutor finals.

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: ECON208
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

I can see why people find him intimidating, but I really enjoyed his class. He makes an effort to inherently dry material interesting through real-world examples and his lectures correspond fluently to the material in the textbook. He is up front about what is expected and points out what makes a student successful in his class.

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: ECON209
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

Multiple choice questions are hard, but if you do the study guide you get a feel for them, and some of the exam questions are directly lifted from the study guide. A lot of people don't go to class, but if you go and pay attention it really helps for the readings and makes them a good review tool.

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: ECO209
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

He's a great teacher and does well explaining concepts in lectures. HOWEVER, he will literally make the most simple concepts into the most difficult questions on his brutal MC exams, and will not give you adequate practice questions that reflect the difficulty of his exams prior. Unless you love the feeling of stress, would not recommend.

Rating # 14

Overview:

• Course: ECON306
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

I did quite poorly on the midterm, but ended up with an A. Beware that questions are all qualitative and while the questions seem intuitive he's looking for VERY specific facts from the slides/class. You MUST know all his slides. Book is alright, but is in no way sufficient. The questions are all fair/easy, but you must be thorough to an extreme.

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: ECON306
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

It's really unclear how to get an A in this class. It's closer to sociology than economics, so an economics student will probably struggle with the large amount of writing required. The professor is good, but not great, and can be somewhat boring in his lectures. That being said, one-to-one he is hilarious and insightful. Textbook is a must.

Rating # 16

Overview:

• Course: ECON306
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

If you actually go to class and listen to his lectures, he's a really clear and witty lecturer, and makes the material really easy to understand. His lecture slides can be a bit confusing, so it's important to attend class, but with a bit of effort (not cramming like a lot of people do for his classes), his exams are beyond fair.

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: ECON306
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

His teaching style is as straightforward as it gets. It's a textbook course. However there is a lot of dense material to memorize, which is the trade-off. If you're the type that doesn't go to university to make friends and connect with professors intimately and be inspired, then this is the perfect "Get In , Get The Job Done, Get Out" course.

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: ECON306
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Very straightforward and by-the book. No frills. It's the type of class that you can skip and teach yourself from the textbook and slides, which I recommend you do because he's not a very engaging lecturer, neither is he that much of a likable person, bully vibes from him, but he is very clear in his course structure, which is all that matters.

Rating # 19

Overview:

• Course: ECON208
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Doesn't answer questions properly.

Rating # 20

Overview:

• Course: ECON306
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

He is very "what you see is what you get." He's not out to trick you really, everything is in the textbook, his midterms and exams are very straightforward. He's avalible if you have any questions and will always stop to answer questions.