2.1
Quality3.6
Difficulty20%
Would Retake93
Reviews20%
Would Retake
93
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
14
4
7
3
7
2
16
1
49
What Students Say
“Professor Steinberg is by far the best professor I have seen”
ECONUA - 5.0 rating“Guess he's terrible at making friends”
ECONUA1 - 1.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
20%
Textbook Required
33%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.59 avg changeRatings by Course
G3130
5.0
(1)ECONUA1008
5.0
(1)ECONUA
5.0
(1)ECONGA3002
5.0
(1)TRACKINGTHEUS
4.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
PRINCW110
5.0
MACRO001
5.0
MGT244
5.0
ECON02
5.0
MACRO101
4.3
Reviews (93)
I thought he was funny and reallly enjoyed his class! The subject can be confusing. The lectures are worth attending and even enjoyable, you learn something during class not just while studying. AND He grades his own tests!, so it is not just some TA skimming yours and a about hundred others.
Class was awful. lectures were impossible to follow and his jokes were not remotely close to funny. avoid this guy, he is really difficult to learn from. i am half way through my semester and do not feel as though i learned a single thing from this class
Dont take this guy. Disorganized ever.
Exams are very unfair and highly subjective. I have no idea how to study for them as the questions seemed to be pulled randomly from the off-the-cuff comments in lecture and recitation. His jokes are funny, if not horribly cheesy.
Professor was absolutely great! He explained everything you needed to know in class with crystal clear logic. He explained difficult concepts over and over again, and he curves his tests. Tests are T/F; his puns are corny. He writes jokes for the Federal Reserve comic book! Swell dude.
Very clear instructor. Grades fairly.
Class was very interesting and easier than I expected.
Difficult. His tests are hard to study for and he doesn't give a review for his exams. I don't think he should be teaching an intro class.
tests are mostly easy but sometimes have one to two unexpected questions, relatively unfair grading. doesn't explain material very clearly.
He's very funny. But not very clear on explaining material.
Smart guy but smartass. His tests are ridiculous and barely reflect what we learned in class. He pulled a lot of questions from the text, despite telling the class we needn't read what he didn't directly mention in lecture. And at 8 AM? Please.
good speaker and funny guy, keeps material interesting, doesn't assign aplia. but he's disorganized, unclear, and his tests are very unpredictable.. can't just read the book to get by. Exams are T/F questions (don't be misled, they're dang hard), and an essay... weird for an econ class
If you don't go to class, you're screwed for the tests. If you do go to class, you're fine. Always 1 or 2 tricky T/F questions, but essays are always a piece of cake. Grade essays fairly, but grading on T/F is debatable.
DO NOT TAKE HIS CLASS. His tests are all theoretical questions, barely relating to anything taught in lecture or contained in text. You can study all you want and not do well in class. You won't even want to go to class because he puts you to sleep with his useless graphs and writes no notes.
This guy is actually terrible. We spend half of his class listening to bad jokes, then the other half trying to figure out what those jokes meant.
No. Just no. If i have to hear one more terrible joke i may explode. guy can't teach either
I honestly think he's an easy professor, at least for me. His tests are all copied from what he taught in class. No need to think or anything like that. He likes to teach macroeconomic concepts in our MICRO class though. For me it was an easy A because I got what he taught.
Half the struggle with Ed Steinberg is figuring out exactly what we need to know for the exam. He distributes a page of vague, handwritten notes that may or may not include page references. And that can be scary, especially when you have a giant textbook of complex material, and other classes to study for. However, his exams seemed easy to me.
He started to teach us in the middle of the semester (our original professor left due to health issues) I didn't like his class in the beginning, but as I got used to it, I thought they were actually interesting. He could be vague sometimes and joke a lot in lectures, but going to his office hours helped. He loves to give TF questions.
I felt pretty bad for him because my class was so disrespectful. However, he was an extremely bad teacher. The previous reviews are all pretty accurate. I went to every single lecture and office hours and took notes. However, your grade depends on two tests and they're all true or false. In terms of content, I feel like I did not learn much.
Great guy
I recommend this professor to everyone who is taking Economics. Not only does he hint you the questions he will put on the midterm and final, he gives you review sheets with questions that do appear on the exam as well. He also spends a lot of time going over a topic if he sees that the class did not understand it well and he makes funny jokes.
The class is pretty easy, but your grade only depends on the midterm and final, and two quizzes so I rarely did any work or learned any material until I was preparing for the tests. His lectures were unfocused, and full of terrible jokes. He also doesn't use any visual aids, which made it difficult to pay attention.
I took this class because I was a bit interested in Economics. And now I'm an Econ major. Steinberg gives T/F questions and 3 response questions, but it should be easy because he hints all test questions in class. He spends 2-3 classes over 1 topic if sees worried looks. He cares. I never read the book, just went to all his classes and got an A.
Lectures are long. Boring. Highly tangential. He likes to give out a lot of handouts that are never referred back to again. If you took economics in high school, this class will be ridiculously easy though. The final had zero relevance to the class whatsoever, but I still managed an B+. Take this class with Lieberman instead - he is fantastic.
The Professor made awkward jokes about how ugly, fat, old and boring he was so many times that it created an uncomfortable environment to be in. Very disorganized. You'd never know if he is teaching or telling a joke story that takes 10 minutes of the time. I ended up teaching myself from the textbook to pass the exams. He is useless.
Extremely useless
terrible teacher. Useless, unorganized, unclear.
Do not take this professor. His lectures are long, full of tangents and jokes, and he only has 2 real grades: the final and the midterm. He has not been at office hours when he's supposed to, and if you ask for help outside of class he either criticizes you or won't respond. You're gonna have to do a lot of self teaching for this class.
The class started out okay, but it got progressively and significantly worse. He goes off on tangents and gives a lot of handouts that don't seem like they'd be relevant, but will pick one or two pieces of information to be on the tests. He uses TF questions and his quizzes are terrible. Doesn't communicate with the TAs very well.
Professor Steinberg is by far the best professor I have seen. No homework in this class and you will get an A pretty easily as long as you pay attention in class.
lecture is boring and test is hard!!! and he also never reply your email!!! never take his class!!!
The worst teacher I have ever had. Lectures are not clear, and goes off intangible. Is not organized. Will not help you whatsoever.
Try avoiding this professor at all cost, currently taking upper levels and getting A's managed to get a C in this class. Poor teaching capabilities. Just looking out.
I took Prof. Steinberg's Tracking the US Economy course in 2016 and have to say I don't understand a lot of the feedback I see here. He signposted very clearly - verbally, and with handout articles, which were the only course reading - what questions would be on the exam, to the point where I could have written the exam myself. Also, a funny guy.
I think he's really not as bad as people say, but I do wish he would actually write stuff out on the board rather than talking through these complex topics that really need to be visualized. But the main issue I had with this class is Aplia, which is the most pointless and frustrating thing I've ever had to do.
Professor Steinberg is the worst professor I have had. His lectures are very boring. 70% of the class is absent every lecture and those who show up are on their phones or laptops. His tests are extremely difficult. He asks questions based on stuff we haven't even learnt and each T or F is 6 marks so your grade drops a lot with each mistake. AVOID!
professor S is the worst teacher I have ever met.
His lectures are boring and make easy things difficult. He once invited a guest professor who didn't show up. Guess he's terrible at making friends.
Personally, I thought professor steinberg was a fine teacher. He explained the material, and truly wanted each of his students to understand him. However, he is a little boring. People who bash him on here don't have good grades because they don't want to pay attention in his class. It isn't that difficult.
I absolutely hated his Macroeconomics class. He couldn't have made the topic more boring, multiple times during class it was very hard to stay awake. He once told us a guest lecturer was going to come but never came. I went to all the classes, but he complicated things that could be very easy to understand if he were to make a visual.
I got 90 on midterm and did pretty well on final but got a C. He sucks.
Pay attention in class and you will be fine!
The MCQs on the unit tests are worth 6 points each. The professor also gives hard T or F questions that are confusing. Also, he questions you on the very very minor things that he talks in lectures.
Words can't describe how much this man is incapable of teaching a class. He does not explain anything he does and tends to always show you how to do something the wrong way to teach you the lesson. like...I would know what the right way is by knowing how to do it incorrectly?!? Terrible at explaining everything
The only good thing about his class is that there is no homework, which means that the grade is purely based on your exam results (midterm 40%, final 60%). If you fail your test, you won't pass for sure. For his lectures, boring boring boring!
Professor is so unclear with his lectures. Terrible layout, goes on ridiculous UNFUNNY tangents. The TA is a rock star, he's the only reason why I am passing.
The average midterm was 60%. DO NOT TAKE. In order to get a good grade in this class, you need to do his tests "his way".
The worst I've ever had. Your grade is based on 2 things: your midterm and final. There's no homework/quizzes and he doesn't take attendance. Our midterm consisted of 12 T/F questions and one short answer. His lectures are boring and he doesn't even try to make it interesting, my rec prof actually teaches and tries. Just self-study and attend rec.
Terrible course layout, bad grading scheme, and is very unclear in lectures. In love with the TA though and am learning a lot from him, so I just skip lectures all the same.
Terrible professor. Lectures are not engaging and he constantly goes off on tangents. For some reason he is incapable of using technology so there is no use of NYU Classes through him. Our only grades are our midterm and our final which were formatted terribly.
Professor Steinberg is a nice person but a terrible econ professor. He literally had no idea about what he was doing and his lecture is useless as a fry. There is no homework, no quizzes, no practice questions. No everything. The grade only depends on your midterm(40%) and final(60%). If you didn't do well in the exams you are doomed. Don't take!
4.00 major in Econ+CS here and this is likely the first class i'll get a B/C for. The grade proportion would've been fine if he actually tested materials you could study for. Problem is the textbook is the only resource you have (no slides) and he DOESN'T EVEN TEST CONCEPTS FROM THERE--only things he draws on the wonky board then promptly erases
Terrible. His lecture is the worst. You can't hear him clearly because his voice is small and there is no slides. He goes off topic all the time, and the exams are beyond the scope his said. But he is friendly though.
I honestly wish the TA taught the course solo. Such a natural ability to make things easy to understand and very charming. Instead, the professor's lectures were unstructured and unorganized. This was a very unfortunate intro to economics for me. Avoid this professor at all costs.
Edward is the least organized and helpful professor I've ever had. It really seems like he goes out of his way to not care. The class I took had a 40% midterm and 60% final, and it seemed he was just trying to spite by making the tests on the most obscure and least relevant. If you actually like econ, don't take this class.
Terrible. Absolutely terrible.
Horrible professor, wouldn't take again. Lectures suck and test format is garbage.
He is the worst. Poorly written exams, arbitrary grading.
Hes fine, hes really not that bad. Everyone complaining about him either didnt show up to class or dont know how to prepare for exams. His tests are fair and if you study the material and understand it youll obviously do well. If youre having trouble in this introductory economics class chances are you should switch to an easier major.
Read the book, know the principles, and you can answer his questions fine. May try to trick you but not difficult. Those who are thoroughly unhappy cannot learn for themselves.
Thank god I survived this guy with an A-. All the negative comments are accurate -- T A is a legend, will never forget
Not going to lie, SUPERRRR boring. I did learn a lot but the class was too lecture heavy. He would sometimes make jokes to brighten up the mood but rarely did it seem to work.... Got an A- thanks to the curve tho...
he is a disaster. doesn't teach anything, doesn't realize how horrible he is, gives really hard tests on materials he never covered and makes disgusting jokes.
The grades in only based on midterm and finals which are not easy exams. Mostly have to learn materials on your own as he doesn't know how to use technology to teach at all which is a disaster in an online course. You also need to identify when he's is teaching or when he is making cringy jokes. Take macro first if he is the only professor left.
Please avoid this at all costs. I regret taking this class so so bad. Lectures are dry and he has no slides or presentations. He is very accessible by email tho.
DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS! Please, for your own sake, choose any other prof. His lectures were dry, and online learning with him was horrible. Your grade is only based on your midterm and final (though he did offer an optional paper this semester), so if you mess up on one you're screwed. Save yourself the stress.
the other comments are true. just don't do it
Honest suggestion, run if you can. I gave up on economics after taking his course.
I mean he really wasn't that bad. I agree the grading could be better, but really all you have to do is attend his classes and take notes. You'll be just fine. I think he is a decent choice. And I did find some of his jokes funny...
Honestly, I think Dr. Steinberg is fine. I preferred how we were only graded by midterm and final since there wasn't a TON of work to do. As long as you attend his lectures, pay attention and take notes on his lectures, you will do well!
DO NOT TAKE THIS COURSE! He does not know how to use technology so he just talks without using any tools or slides. The materials that he covers in class do not come out on the exams, which are only midterm and final exams. His awful jokes about his past jobs just distract the class. If you do not want to hear another cough, then DO NOT TAKE IT!
I took his class for the first part of term. He doesn't like teaching and is very boring. Nothing he says has substance. He's accessible by email, but that's about it. Will give you random grades and unfair exams. Nothing's he says is on there. Nearly gave up econ until I switched professors and now feel like I'm learning something.
His online lectures were manageable, and his jokes are honestly pretty good imo. Gives out lecture notes before class, and only talks (doesnt write) during class. Doesnt give any homework except readings, and exams are manageable if you do all the reading and attend all lectures. Also offers an extra credit paper. Ofc, the curve also helps. ;)
He doesn't teach. He literally goes on lectures and rants, and doesn't teach vital materials he puts on the exams. Btw, there is only the midterm and final, so if you fail one, good luck lmao.
Just dont go to his lecture and read the textbook on your own and you will ace this class. His lecture doesnt relate to the exam at all( spending time on reading some Econ articles) and he is not willing to solve medium difficulty level questions in his office hour, only easy questions.
Terrible teacher, if you know nothing about economics and want to learn, don't take his class. He doesn't teach and doesn't have visual presentations.
I would not suggest Steinberg's class to anyone. Going in as a Business Studies minor, this class has made me question if I even want to pursue it. He doesn't use a board or projector during lecture which makes it incredibly boring and hard to follow. There are only 2 tests that count for your grade with no practice or assignments during the course
If you fail any of the tests say goodbye to your grade. His lectures are horrific. Stands and talks for an hour. No presentation. Recitations are the saving grace because it's when you'll really learn. You will fall asleep in his classes. The tests aren't too bad. The curve is very generous but beware you will not enjoy this class by any means.
Do. Not. Take. This. Trust. Me. Lectures are awful and boring. Talks super slow. Does not know how to use technology, no slides presentation, hard to follow (especially bc there are so many graphs). Making me question if I should continue pursuing econ as my major. 1 midterm and 1 final make up your grade. Recitation is your only hope for sucess.
The professor can speak English so well that it is a waste to not attend lectures. He explains concepts and graphs extremely clearly, with some corny jokes. Compared to other professors his class is concept-oriented. You won't pass just by being good at math. The textbook and recitation can help resolve doubts, but primarily rely on the lectures.
It might just have been that it was an 8am lecture, but this class was very lecture heavy, long and boring. Recitations saved my grades, because otherwise I wouldn't have learned. Truth be told, he does make jokes and makes you laugh, but it's a hard class. Also he only grades by a midterm and final...
definitely one of the worst professors i've ever had. RUN THE OTHER WAY. first of all, the grade depends on the midterm and final ONLY and the tests are based on what he covers in the lectures. his lectures are dry and boring, and he doesn't use any slideshows or visuals. if it weren't for the generous curve, i don't know how i would've survived
Tests are a bit tough - have to show up to class to understand the types of qs for the tests. He is not a great teacher. Would not rec.
Oh my god never, ever, under any circumstance, take him. Even if you went to lectures, he never said anything of substance and just talked in circles. Graded on a midterm, a final, and an optional 3 page paper that WILL save your grade (I think most people got As on it). He puts nothing on the course page, and is overall pretty disorganized.
His course is difficult and often crammed. The good part is you'll learn a lot. Tests are everything. 60 points on tests are True False. He's way more patient than he needs to be. Even though to some he's boring, I found his calmness to be a nice change.
I took his Intro to Macroeconomics class this summer and gosh. He only grades off a midterm, final, & optional paper. His lectures literally push me to my breaking point. He just stands there and speaks, occasionally, turning to his chalkboard to draw a graph or equation. If you care about your will to live, run as far away as possible.
Grades solely on midterm and final (40% and 60% respectively) with an optional paper only weighted 10%. His lectures were very boring, often ending up with him just rambling on about the same things every class. Although he doesn't take attendance, the tests are solely based off his lectures, so make sure you record them.
This professor will only grade you on things that he said during his lectures. There is no homework and therefore only grades on a midterm and final.
Despite what everyone says, he wasn't a bad guy overall. Would take again and recommend for people who like to be graded by only tests.
He is very knowledgeable but he doesnt do a good job teaching it in a digestible or interesting way. Doesnt use powerpoints. be sure to pay attention. Take good notes bc questions on the exam will be verbatim what he asks/says during lectures. Tests aren't hard but you have to self study because you'll be too bored to pay attention during class.
Horrible!! If I could give a 0 I most definitely would. The TWO (2!!) test you take during his class are all based on stuff he says so take notes!! This wouldnt be an issue if his lectures werent so god awful BORING?!? No presentation, doesnt follow the book, all you can do is somehow pay attention and pray for the curve to save your grade.
Boring Lecture, Many new concepts, don't teach as the book and the syllabus tells us. Only 2 tests matter, with only 30 problems to review and wrong exam scope. there is an optional paper, but to write as he teaches so slowly. Different from anything you can get online. Only choose him if u don't care for the grade and want to learn something new
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
20%
Textbook Required
33%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.59 avg changeRatings by Course
G3130
5.0
(1)ECONUA1008
5.0
(1)ECONUA
5.0
(1)ECONGA3002
5.0
(1)TRACKINGTHEUS
4.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
PRINCW110
5.0
MACRO001
5.0
MGT244
5.0
ECON02
5.0
MACRO101
4.3