Bianchi is by far the worst professor I have had at Cal. He is extremely arrogant, does not care about his students, and straight up rude. His grading is easy and he doesnt teach/ test for anything beyond the surface. If you want to take it easy without mandatory attendance, go for it. For anything else that is worth your time, stay away

Dont think he knows what hes talking about since hes constantly making mistakes. His idea of teaching proofs is literally to memorize every step and he often goes on unnecessary tangents instead of focusing on more difficult concepts. For such a slow teacher, he is also very impatient with students and lacks basic empathy. Do not recommend.

Bianchi is a nice guy, but an awful professor. In class, he just wrote equations on the board. No explanations, no context, just equations and proofs. He's the worst professor I've had at Berkeley. Like said, he's a nice guy and was generous with the midterm grading (because the class did AWFUL) but he just can't teach.

Lots of equations and proofs but the his proofs are not clear. Exams are also not at all like the lectures or the stuff in the book. You get cheat sheets for the exams but honestly the best way to pass is to do practice exams.

Horrible at explaining concepts, handwriting sucks, makes you memorize countless proofs that he tests you on in his exams.

- He said he would grade generously in this course, he is such a funny guy, 5 stars for that (David E. Card gives by far better grades) - OH useless, take a nap instead - Arbitrary and non accurate grading - By "applied" he means proofs and theory, which he even does not know lol - He does not let you see the final exam, transparency goals

Tests you on unnecessary materials and reads from slides to lecture.

His teaching style is extremely dry and he's terrible at explaining the material conceptually . You'll be better off just reading the textbook and skipping lecture altogether. Cannot possibly recommend him, even though he's nice.

Spends a lot of time on proofs (20% of tests) instead of applied questions on the material (80% of tests). Nice guy, but lectures are extremely dry and I honestly have no clue what were doing half the time. Midterm this year was WAY too long. I get that there were cheaters last semester but making the midterm hard only punishes honest students

Tells us the midterm is going to be similar to past midterms, then gives us a midterm twice in long (22 pages) for 90 minutes. It doesnt help that he rambles on in class and lectures are extremely dry.

Unclear grading criteria--uses Gradescope but doesn't give accurate feedback on why points were deducted. Also doesn't listen to student feedback throughout the semester. We all wanted more clarity on how proofs were derived but he still kept going at his usual pace.

The professor had no recording for a non-mandatory course. His notes on the board were the same as his slides, making it almost no help for attending class. His exams were long and had a ton of small questions. Even the True False questions were based on calculation, and you would receive no credits for not having a correct explanation. RUN!!!

I don't like how he structure the midterm.

Terrible, had him for Econ 136 and 140. This is the single worst professor I've ever seen. I took a finance class with a different professor and realized that the topic can actually be taught well. Doesn't know a single thing he teaches, just reads off his notes (which he doesn't understand), no wonder he had no success in his financial career.

Does not explain concepts well, lecture slides often don't even have formulas, sometimes information (definitions of variables) contradicts. Pray your GSI knows their stuff-- mine cancelled almost every section last minute. Assignments are difficult but graded on completion. Worst midterm I have ever taken-- countless formulas and no sheet allowed.

Impossibly hard class with impossibly hard to follow lectures with impossibly hard problem sets. Does not post the solutions to the problem sets and does not help at all in office hours. Would never recommend this class to anyone

No Lecture Recording, No Lecture Slides, Lecture Notes written by students that don't know the content or how to use the software and the notes are always late, No GSI, No GSI Office Hours, No Discussions, Can't Teach Nuff Said

Easily the worst professors I've had. There were no lecture slides, recordings, GSIs, discussion, or office hour. All we had were scribe notes, which were full of errors (grammatical, mistakes in the formulas, etc.). Lectures were boring and disorganized. Curve is good though, since no one has any idea what's going on. Overall, not worth it at all.

lectures make you want to fall asleep. exams are hard. he is very smart but just doesnt know how to teach. his voice is very monotonic and shows no excitement or passion in his voice when talking about finance subjects. rude when you email him.

Don't take this guy. You're doing yourself a favor

Boring lectures that don't make sense. Practice exams nothing like the real exam. Don't take for your own sake.

Created my account just to rate Bianchi. Lots of thing's come to mind but the main point is that none of them are good. No point of even taking the class as there is no support at all. Midterm was fine but the final exam is clobber for 65% of your grade. There are three final practice exams he gives, none of which actually helped for the test.

Very hard exam. test on things never appear in problem set and past exam for 40 points

Avoid this class at all costs, it will kill any interest you might have in finance. I've had a 4.0 up until taking this class, and this one killed it. Midterm was hard and final was insanely hard. The culmination of micro, calculus, and even linear algebra you have to know for this class makes it ridiculous. Formula and proof heavy for no reason

He does not curve this class. I did well on the final and landed myself not even at a B. Furthermore, you must show up to class everyday because his lecture slides are actually useless

This is absolutely the worst class I have ever taken, bar none. GSI teach better than him. He is just like a machine, coming to class every day just to get paid. In fact, his class is a complete waste of time. It is better to read textbooks and study on your own. I scored in the top 25% in the final exam, but I only got a B+ in the end.

I swear no matter what anyone says about Bianchi you must never take Econ 136 with him. Sure his problem sets are for completion only, but that just means you have to do incredibly well on the midterm and final. And no, you cannot just skip the midterm because he intentionally makes the final undoable

Terrible teacher and very unkind. Says he will curve generously but then has a brutal curve. Most boring lectures I've had. Grading criteria and bins are not disclosed and suspect and no regrades. Also, he refused to tell me midterm policies because he said them in lecture, turns out they were in his lecture slides but he refused to even say that.

Absolutely the worst professor at Cal, and one who finds joy in tormenting his students. During my final he gave something that was completely proof based, something neither the midterm no practice finals consisted of. I heard he's moving toward a entirely exam based grading system, and during my final he was laughing seeing how much we struggled

By far the worst lecturer at Cal. Classes are not engaging, proof heavy with many tangents and completely incomprehensible (thankful for the lecture slides and the GSIs, as going to lectures is useless if not counterproductive). There are 6 problem sets, 1 midterm and no exercises or worksheets proper to prepare for exams. Class is self-study.

Avoid this class at all costs. Lectures contain an overload of content, making it difficult to understand. No homework but your grade relies on 2 midterms and a final. 100 pages+ of practice problems to do on your own pace. Midterm was half multiple choice and half free response. This class will make you not want to go anywhere near finance.

Terrible professor who genuinely hopes students fail. Based on midterm 1, if you get the median grade you get a C+ and if you get the mean grade you get a C-. Gives this HUGE (i mean nearing 100 pages) packet of problem sets that nobody can finish unless they dedicate their life to this class to practice for the midterms and finals.

By far THE worst professor I have seen at UC Berkeley. Grading curve is completely arbitrary, content in lecture slides does not match what is required on tests, lectures are completely dry. I made the mistake of believing that previous negative comments were biased but boy was I wrong. Course content could've been interesting but the guy ruins it.

This is a professor who doesn't appear to care very much either about teaching or his students. His lectures are almost entirely formula-driven, he makes the final brutal and grades students harshly, is not transparent about his grading policies, and treats engaging with students as a tedious obligation. Probably the driest class I've ever taken.

Do yourself a favor and do not take this class or with this professor in general.

Extremely dry lectures that spend an hour and a half doing proofs for formulas that can be memorized. The class is 100% test graded with the exams only test preparation material a 60+ page problem set pdf. He laughed and made jokes about the exam average being low and has little care for his students.

AVOID! Lectures are 1.5 hrs on a blackboard in a 500 person lecture room. Grades are solely based on exams &he loves testing obscure, untaught math-intensive FRQs that are impossible to prepare for. The grade is based on the average of top 20 scores in a 500 person lecture so even if class average is F, if 20 people get A, then you get no curve

Seriously no words for this professor. When most of the class if not passing or getting barely a passing grade because of his atrocious grading system, he just thinks that it's the students fault.

TRUST THE REVIEWS - avoid at all costs. Grading/curve makes no sense at all. Adjusted median is currently in the C range and he said he won't be changing anything. Grades aside, he's incredibly dry and condescending. I wouldn't say he hates his job though because he clearly loves reveling in the students anxiety.

AVOID. literally entire grade is based on 50% midterm 50% final and he is curving the class to a C and refusing to change. avg grade in class has gone down from B+ 3 sems ago to now a C?????? selectively respond to questions asked on ed disc feels like he's happy to see about half the class failing and hates all his students...

Inconsiderate

Course is extremely test-heavy and poorly taught. The professor does a poor job explaining concepts, and you're expected to teach yourself most of the content. If you're not already confident in the subject, prepare to struggle hard.

Worst grading scheme I've ever seen, incredibly difficult exams that are based on an unending number of formulas from 70+ practice problems that all require almost complete self-learning

He's very unavailable. Selectively responds to questions on Ed, ignoring valid questions about the awful grading scheme. And like others have said, prepare to teach yourself all of the material.

His lectures make no sense and are incredibly boring. 2 midterms and 1 final make up your entire grade. In his grading system the top 20 students set the curve, however the top 20 do significantly better (by about 30% raw score) than the rest of the class so the class average is a B- if you're lucky. For us its currently a C. DON'T TAKE HIS CLASS.

Uncaring and traditional. Lectures are boring and aren't recorded. Your grade is comprised of 2 midterms and a final. The avgs are ~60% curved to a C. He laughs at students concerned with their grade. His course pack to study for exams is 90 pages needing different formulas you have to MEMORIZE; no cheat sheet. Lectures don't prepare you for exams.

he wont even respond to questions about what the scope of the final is and just straight up has ignored everyone's questions asked during finals week on ed. i don't understand how such an uncaring professor is still allowed to teach such a hard class and he makes it seem like its all the student's fault for not being able to do well on the exams

ECON 136 is tough, especially for students without strong math intuition. Bianchi rushes through equations without building understanding, and grades rely solely on tests. Curving based on the top 20 is unfair and should violate department policy; it rewards prior skill, not learning gained.

I don't usually make posts for my professors but this is absolutely the WORST class I have ever taken in all my years of schooling. Not because of the content but because of the professor. Genuinely, the worst professor I have ever had and if I could go back in time, I would never take this class under him even if I was offered a million dollars.

the worst prof i have ever seen. he curved his class to a c, 0 respect for students... do not take a class with him

Probably the worst lecturer at Cal, if it's not too ridiculous of me to say. this guy fr doesn't teach u anything, he just rambles on about formulas and doesn't go into them at all. u can self study this entire class and be okay. Personally, I am happy with my grade because most people did a lot worse than I did, but no thanks to his tutelage.

不要参加这个老师的课

Bianchi's lectures are super monotone and he tends to go on long tangents that make it hard to stay engaged. The tests barely reflected what we actually covered in class—our final even had a random proof-style question, and this isn't a math class (discrete math isn't even a prereq). Honestly just a really frustrating experience overall.

Unkind. Most professors I have had, regardless of their interest in teaching, had a minimum desire to see their students succeed. This man, in contrast, seemed at times like he resented the class and was mocking his students. I regret taking this class despite doing relatively well. The energy of the class was immensely discouraging.

not a good lecturer and the tests are difficult