3.5
Quality2.8
Difficulty64%
Would Retake91
Reviews64%
Would Retake
91
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
91 total ratings5
24
4
25
3
18
2
17
1
7
What Students Say
“Nice person to talk to and lots of opportunities for marks”
EC120 - 3.0 rating“I like cheesecake, lasagna, Patrick and I like her”
EC120 - 4.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
38%
Textbook Required
75%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Improving
+0.91 avg changeRatings by Course
EC213
4.5
(2)EC316
3.5
(2)EC120
3.4
(84)306
3.0
(1)M4W2T3
3.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
EC213
4.5
306
4.0
EC316
3.5
M4W2T3
3.0
EC120
2.8
Reviews (90)
Sometimes it feels like shes learning the material for the first time with us... I try to ask questions but I never get a satisfying answer. Shes a very nice lady though, and she puts a lot of effort into the course... she just doesnt know the material well enough to be teaching it in my opinion.
Professor Schirle is a very nice person, but a hard professor. She continuously states that she has high expectations, and she's right! She marks very difficult, but because of this gives out maaaaany bonus marks and reweights tests. She really expects you to use specific examples from her class in your answers on tests and assign. so go to class!
......
Honestly, if you go to class you should be fine. Class was pretty interesting anyways, so it's not hard to pay attention and retain the information. She's a pretty fair marker in my opinion, she just expects a lot of detail go into your answers on tests, but papers and presentations shes actually quite generous compared to come business profs.
Anyone but TAMMY she's awful worst experience I have ever had in laurier. She literally doesnt wanna answer questions. like bro ur getting paid 160k for what exactly. youve been warned.
If you have a chance to not take this professor, DO NOT. She has absolutely 0 clue how to teach the most simple concepts. It absolutely boggles my mind the way she can take something so simple and turn it into something that you won't understand. If you look up a 5 minute YouTube video on a concept it will teach you way more than her lecture.
She's a sweet woman but sometimes it can be hard to pay attention and follow her lectures. Her class consists of 5 quizzes, lots of homework (DSMs) and a midterm + final. It can be a lot since there is a lot of reading but has not been too bad because we are still online. Could be way more difficult though if in person.
10/10 teacher. Her explanations to questions were always very logical and made it easier to understand
Tammy adds unrelated subjective opinions to course content regularly. Her lectures slides are not very good - and explains concepts very poorly. She will talk around a concept so much and end up making you confused when it is so simple by searching up a Youtube video or reading the textbook. 160k/year? Lol, need to end Uni subsidization.
She's a good professor and has a fair grading scheme. Her teaching is clear and her responses to questions are on-point and helpful!
The final exam was weighted heavily on the final two chapters when it was said to be "slightly weighted" heavier on after midterm content. The final average had to be curved due to this mass misconception.
Prof. Schirle was in my opinion, a decent teacher when it came to EC120. Her lectures summarized textbook content well and it was overall a good course. My big criticism however was the final exam. Weighted at 35% (pretty standard), she said that there was a slight emphasis on after mid-term content. The exam had 2 chapters on it. Very sad.
Decent professor, if you read the textbook and paid attention. DSM's and HW were great to build knowledge. The main issue was the final exam which was supposed to be equally split among chapters with an emphasis on post-midterm material. In reality, the entire exam was focused on 2 chapters. At leas Tammy curved us because of this miscommunication.
Schirle was a great professor to have for EC120. Close to 30% of the marks are extremely easy and full marks as long as you do them. Exams were the easiest of any class I have taken so far. I recommend reading chapter in textbook before class to ensure you understand the material better. She also uses a clicker so make sure you go to class.
The classes were okay good. My biggest complaint was that we never received our test back. I learn better when I know the mistakes I made. The final was unfair as she gave terrible direction on what to study. She felt so bad she had a huge bell curve, given the challenges of learning this year I thought this was just cruel and unnecessary.
Good Prof not any major complaints. Maybe could've been better at answering questions but a very fair course.
Overall she is a decent professor. You can get a lot of easy marks throughout the year on simple assignments. However, Tammy did a terrible job at preparing us for the midterm and final as she provided no review guide for what we needed to study as well as she didnt reopen any past quizzes so we were unaware of what we needed to improve on.
Make sure you review marginal abatement extensively as the entire final is on it. All things considered she is a great professor but with extensive studying for the final for it to be mostly on one page was a bit cruel. Amazing lectures and really helped throughout the semester.
Shes a nice lady, prepares us well for quizzes by giving out sample questions. The final exam was a different beast. It was heavily based on the last two chapters, which I dont think she sufficiently prepared us for. Go to the lectures if you want to understand the graphs; there are a lot in this course.
Nice person to talk to and lots of opportunities for marks. The final was supposed to have been evenly distributed with a focus on post-midterm content but instead heavily focused on the last 2 chapters. It would have been helpful to see where we went wrong on quizzes and tests though.
"Doctor" Tammy Schirle is not a very good teacher. She is incredibly ideologically driven and always inserts her unrelated opinion into all her lectures. She supports liberals and disproportionately criticize NDP. Very poor knowledge of history.
Not a great teaching individual in general. You will quickly find that going to her lectures is quite uselss as she stands there talking about nonsense half the time while simply circling bullet points on the slides. She does not provide great feedback in terms of the review quizzes, and will refuse to drop an incorrectly constructed exam question.
fun prof always made jokes some lectures can be boring but overall she made the whole course super easy midterm was basically our practice quizzes
She gives a fair amount of easy mini-quizzes and homework that will bump up your grade. Schirle definitely knows the material, can't say she knows how to answer a question though. A simple question will turn into a confusing and unnecessarily complicated answer. She needs to simplify her lectures, too much irrelevant information.
Reading the textbook tends to be much more effective than attending lectures.
The lectures were ok, I could honestly learn more by myself by reading the textbook. You'll have homework due every 2-4 days but her quizzes and other assessments were relatively easy. She also livestreams her lectures if you don't want to sit through the in-person ones
Lots of opportunities for easy marks, so it's a hard course to fail. Lectures could be more informative, but there's always the textbook and all of the minor assessments to supplement them. Overall no complaints
Professor Tammy Schirle is such an amazing woman! She cares about her students and also has a very cute dog. If you attend class, and do all the pearson web work you're going to do just fine, if not better than fine! Much recommendation for this class! @2022
Lectures = zzz. Lots of annoying little assignments due but not hard. Tammy's alright, kind of monotone and bland but she does the job
Tammy is such a nice first-year prof when you look at all the awful ones there are... like BU111 David S. She really wants to see her students succeed, and she never once made me feel stupid for asking a question. The class really gives you what you put into it. Midterm and final were all very fair if you at least looked over the material.
Lectures are beyond boring, very difficult to stay awake during them. Just read the textbook and you'll be fine, there's lots of material in this class so try to keep on top of things. 40% of the class is easy 100% which helps out your mark a ton.
Many opportunities for extra credit and ways to boost your mark were provided. Lectures could be bland at times, as she just goes over the content in the textbook, but the slides give a good summary. It's clear that she cares about her students given all of the exam review sessions and office hours. Exam content was very similar to review quizzes.
Tammy is a horrible prof. Class isn't hard or anything but she isn't a good instructor in any way. She's extremely lazy and doesn't care about anything other than that she NEEDS to be called Dr and that she has worked for the government... lol.
Tammy's an excellent professor who cares about her students and makes it as easy as possible to do well in the course. Once you read the textbook, you should understand 80% of the course material. Lots of homework but they are easy to do and makes up 20% of your course grade. Just put in some work and this course will be easy for you.
Nice person
Professor Schirle wasn't necessarily a bad professor, but her lectures felt useless. For the most part she just read over the slides. I personally did not understand anything she would explain and found it better to just learn by myself from YouTube videos. The midterm and final exam aren't too difficult if you actually understand the concepts.
She's a nice lady, but not the best at teaching. She proceeds quickly and leaves out a lot of stuff in the lecture for students to read on their own from the book. However the course itself is easy, a lot of free marks and the exams were all multiple choice. If you do the review quizzes on your own, and read the book, you can easily ace the exams
Tammy is an ok professor but nothing special. Her lectures seem to drag on and it's often easier and more helpful to just watch a 5 minute youtube video on what she's covering. The class has a ton of homework but 40% of your final mark is basically free because of it so I'm not gonna complain too much.
Really nice and approachable but it's very easy to zone out in lecture. A lot of her examples don't land which makes it hard to grasp but she's very fair generous in terms of marks.
This class was essentially self taught, which isn't awful but makes it more difficult. It's relatively easy to get a good grade in this course just because of how it's structured, however I can't say I learned almost anything from my prof.
lectures were kinda boring but she's a nice prof. generously curves midterm and final :)
awesome
I like cheesecake, lasagna, Patrick and I like her. Learned lots.
Love her!
The class structure and grading criteria is fairly straightforward. High marks are fairly achievable.
The lectures are solid she does a good job with examples and explaining the content, there are plenty of free participation marks, and the exams were alright only being multiple choice and the questions had very similar answers.
Lasagna so good. Cheesecake so good. Patrick makes Cheesecake so good. Tammy makes Lasagna so good. If Tammy makes 5 Lasagna and Patrick makes 2 Cheesecake, will I get a D- in the course? Look at the opportunity cost of of Patrick Cheesecake. Marginal utility of Lasagna is 420 Cheesecakes.
shes just ok. you have to teach yourself everything because her lectures never suffice especially if you are new to econ. i also dislike the all multiple choice.
The class structure is formatted very well. Lectures are good with many exmaples, and she will post the completed slides daily. The exams were fair and completely multiple-choice. You can also attend lectures through Zoom and still earn attendance credits which I found very helpful. Very similar to grade 12 economics and overall a great course.
Everything was available online, and the sheer number of learning tools was great. The homework was boring but effective for learning. As well the HUGE 5% bonus mark learning curve assessments are beyond essential in exam prep. Despite lectures being required due to the Iclicker usage, I didn't dread lectures like some other courses.
She's good
didn't learn much from lectures
Her lectures were honestly pretty good and I did learn quite a bit from her. Honestly if you pay attention in class you probably won't need to read the textbook as much. Did fall asleep in a handful of her lectures tho
if you have never taken econ in high school... get ready to learn a whole lotta nothing in these classes, for anyone who HAS taken econ before will know her teaching methods aren't accurate
Amazing teaching!
Uses her ipad wayyyyyyy to much, you dont understand anything. All of the exams are based off of the textbook
Pointless lectures
Professor Schirle is AMAZING! Her lectures are so fun and she engages the class. Economics is not too easy to learn but she makes the transition great. Get this professor a raise. 300K+ please!
Tammy is such a nice lady, but lectures aren't amazing. Def read the textbook or watch youtube videos before or after each lecture as her lectures are broad
Tammy uses her IPad way too much and she often over explains content. If this is your first time taking Economics then read the textbook because you won't learn anything from her lectures. She also says "us economists" way too much.
Not having taken econ in high school made this class very confusing but reading the textbook before class helped heavily. Iclicker and achieve are an easy 100% for 25% of your grade so just try to understand the textbook for exams.
Reading textbook before lectures is essential. Easy grade if you do all the homework. Very nice person but lectures do not always align with textbook material.
Very nice prof, but not too good at teaching all of the content covered in the chapter. Just show up to iClicker, do the Achieve homework, and do all of the practice quizzes she gives online. Understand the different kinds of questions from the quizzes since it will prepare you for the midterm and final, both of which were very fair too.
Tammy is a good professor overall. Sometimes she doesn't cover tiny bits and pieces of info in her lecture so just make sure to read the textbook whenever you're unfamiliar with a concept. evaluations are fair and 20% of your grade is basically free
Read the textbook before going for the lectures to make sense.
her slideshows lowkey make no sense but i loved her
teaches in a very clear way and shes fun sometimes
Super nice lady and knows what shes talking about. A bit of her lectures were confusing, but reading the textbook made things more clear.
Had her in my first year for EC120. Lectures were ok, sometimes they were confusing. A nice professor as a person though who is willing to help you.
Shes extremely liberal, loves to get political. Hire a tutor to have you reexplain lectures if you didnt take it in highschool. Textbooks will help, her lectures are kind of useless but you get marks for questions on Iclicker during them so prob go. Nothing from her lecture is explained properly and will be way different then on the exam.
Tammy was a kind and chill prof, but she cannot teach to save her life. Half the class didn't understand what she was talking about, and in all honesty, why become a professor if you can't teach?
If you have any background in econ, her lectures make sense and are easy to grasp. That said, if you ONLY attend lectures, you will be lost. Use her lectures for application/graphing, use the textbook for definitions and concepts. Overall, she's a good prof and does fun things often but can be overly political.
You could never make me hate Dr. Schirle, I love her so much, if you're curious I was one of the people who danced at her 1pm lecture 2025 fall. As long as you read the textbook, easy A- or above
Tammy is a friendly professor, but she often teaches the class assuming that we already have the same background economics knowledge as her. Slides do not help. Read the textbook, do the homework, and practice quizzes.
They could never make me like her. Always talking about her spine, or her husband, or her brother. Cannot teach to save her life. Half the class didn't understand what was going on, and the textbook is a million times better teacher. Looks nothing like her LinkedIn profile picture. (Not related to the course but it's funny how she catfishes lol)
Tammy is a great professor. Lectures were always interesting and visually aided with graphs to explain more complex concepts. Be ready to attend most lectures, do all review quizzes, and finish all homework because the course builds upon each lesson before it. If you do so you'll do great on exams. Clear marking criteria and simple course to grasp.
Dr. Schirle's lectures were interesting and clear to understand. She provides lots of examples to work through as a class and will always answer questions. Focus in her lectures is very important as the slides say very little (you can review recording on mls if needed though).
Great professor and lectures. Gave lots of graphs for understanding and encouraged student participation. Tests are multiple choice but still pretty challenging. I recommend doing the practice quiz's that aren't worth anything to get a feel for the questions.
Lots of minor assignments that boosted your grade. Made it very easy to do well if you study for midterm/final. Classes are on Zoom as well so if you don't wanna go in person you can do iclicker from home. Taught pretty well.
Tammy usually has engaging lectures to keep your attention. She's a great prof that tries her best, some of her slides can be a bit confusing, but as long as you pay attention and follow along you shouldn't have much trouble. Lots of homework to do for marks which is awesome.
Professor is horrible at teaching, absolutely horrible, loves to draw graphs and space out. Everything about this class is going to be based on text book reading as she does not teach. Loves to talk about her husband, might as well bring him to class and let him space out with her.
Not bad but get an iPad or you be able to take notes. Get an iPad download the slides and draw on them with her and you are fine.
Dr. Tammy Schirle is an amazing economics professor. She is great at making smart, engaging presentations and lectures within EC120. She gives students lots of study resources like review quizzes and mock exams. She is genuinely a great professor and cares about her students a lot.
Honestly just read the textbook and skip lectures. I clicker markers matter somewhat. Textbook explains much better than her lectures.
Dr Schirle was a super nice and helpful professor. If you don't understand the topics or the concepts, the lectures aren't very helpful. The midterms and final are fair, if you understand the concepts you will do quite well. Overall, she is a very kind and caring professor that wants students to succeed.
Read the textbook before or after class. Just do it. Midterm was pretty easy if you actually understand the textbook. Lectures are fun and overhated, but can be confusing sometimes. Again read the textbook. I would give her a 4.5 if I could.
Read the textbook thoroughly, go to class, understand the material, do a lot of practice questions from mock or past exams, and you should get a good grade. Also, for exams, make your OWN cheatsheet as this is basically self-studying, and you actually know the design and layout of your cheatsheet. Very reasonable course if you do everything right.
Dr. Schirle was a fantastic professor for EC120. I thought her lectures were engaging and interesting. Lots of small assessments that will catch up to you if you skip them. She made the content easy to learn for someone who had never taken a business course before. Would love to have her again in the future!
I mean she was okay and was a nice prof. She just talks kind of slow which was frustrating to me but probably was good for others. Just depends what you're looking for. She also would not bellcurve anything for the midterm or final because one person would get a 100%. Like come on... Overall not bad and not too difficult either. Lectures helped.
She teaches a great introduction to econ. There is homework for every chapter but it is a grade booster as it's unlimited attempts and mostly multiple choice. It also teaches you stuff as it's all related to concepts that show up on the exams. The exams were harder than I thought but if you took econ in high school or study really hard you're good.
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
38%
Textbook Required
75%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Improving
+0.91 avg changeRatings by Course
EC213
4.5
(2)EC316
3.5
(2)EC120
3.4
(84)306
3.0
(1)M4W2T3
3.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
EC213
4.5
306
4.0
EC316
3.5
M4W2T3
3.0
EC120
2.8