Standard class; previous reviews are still accurate

ECON 2020 was one of my favorite classes this semester because I thought it was very interesting and applicable. Coppock is a great professor who kept me engaged in what he was saying the whole lecture. However, the tests were pretty tricky and required super specific answers. It's sad that this was one of my favorite classes but I didn't do that great in it. It's a very manageable class though, just go to lectures and study for the tests! Discussion sections were a waste of time.

Amazing professor!! Coppock is so funny and engaging. He explains complex material in such a simple way thats so easy to understand. I loved going to lecture and didnt mind reading the one, maybe 2, chapters a week.
For the workload, it really isnt bad. The most important thing to do is to go to lecture and take notes. There are clicker questions but its really easy to get the required amount before the semester ends. I found reading the textbook to be a good reinforcement of the material but it isnt entirely neccessary if you dont want to. Other than reading the textbook chapters, the only other work I ever did was to study for the tests. I would start studying like half a week or a week before the tests. Go over your notes, the textbook, and definitely do the practice problems from your TA.
Overall, I loved this course and learned so much from it that I continue to remember and apply.

AMAZING! Professor Coppock is a fantastic lecturer, he is incredibly knowledgable and best of all, he is able to transmit that knowledge to his students. I've had Professors who are very smart but are not that great of lecturers... Prof Coppock is both: smart and a great professor. His lectures are dense in material so I suggest going to all! and he makes them extremely funny/engaging. The tests are hard but make sure to understand where you messed up and be ready for the next test and the final. He wrote the book so you can`t get away with a weak answer, all responses must be short and sweet and very accurate for the tests. GREAT GREAT COURSE!!!!!

Professor Coppock is an outstanding professor. That being said, I am an economics major so my views are likely biased. To succeed in his class you really need to work hard and try to understand just about everything, which is only possible if you're interested in econ. There will be concepts he keeps going back to and he's very clear that those three principles will show up on exams time and time again. Here are my tips:
1. Attend all lectures, it's essential.
2. Read the book after going to lecture and things will make a lot more sense.
3. Get a good TA, if you get a poor one switch out if you can.
4. Take every opportunity to get points, including in discussion. It can easily mean the difference between an A- and B+.
5. DON'T COUNT ON DUTCH KNOCKOUT! The curve was not generous at all in Spring 2016 and people got curved down from a B+ to a B in some instances. If you don't do well on the first two tests make sure you really focus on the final. Prof. Elzinga's final was much easier in my opinion and had a much more generous curve.

I'm only writing this review because though I agree with some critiques I'm a bit bothered by some of the other ones that I have read. I'll write it in bullet point form for simplicity's sake.

1. I agree that the midterms especially are poorly formulated and graded pedantically. Rather than encouraging an understanding underlying concepts they reward memorization of specific terms and formulas and quite frankly that's not especially conducive to understanding the subject, but if you've read the textbook, reviewed his lecture slides and went to lecture there is no reason you couldn't have done well on them, just for the record, I did not do particularly well on the midterms but I could/should have. The final is pretty straightforward and tests material from across the semester with a heavy slant towards the second half, I don't think there was anything particularly unorthodox about it. Tip for studying: Go over the lecture slides on Collab, they are actually really helpful.

2. What I neither understand nor approve of is this complaining about curving. Looking at the final grade scale, every grade single grade level was curved either cumulatively or on the final exam between two and seven (!) points, which is a substantial curve. On the exam, the A grade was curved three points as was the A+ grade, though other grades were not curved for the final. The cumulative curve for A- was over four points, for a B+ the curve was almost seven points and the curve for an A on the exam was three points, these are substantial curves you are unlikely to encounter anything like it in other courses at the University (in most classes you'll be lucky to get a 1-2 point curve, if one at all). The curving if anything was generous, both cumulatively and (if slightly less so) the final exam. I'm guessing it was somewhat less generous for the final exam because it was a more conventional test, so most students performed better, leading to a less generous curve (because curing as we all know is based off of student performance), but even the final exam curve in no way screwed anyone over. No one deserves any particular grade, you earn one and the curving for the course will make earning a decent grade that much easier.

3. Coppock is a terrific lecturer, I don't think most of us appreciate how difficult it is to maintain the attention of 500+ students four times a week, but he does it. He is engaging, charismatic and funny at times, but more critically, he makes the material much easier to understand. Go to his lectures, there are few other professors out there who are anywhere near as good as he is. Also the textbook he wrote is actually a pretty good read, so that's an added bonus.

4. I got lucky and had a good TA but I've heard varying accounts of TA helpfulness, so if you have a bad one, try and see if you can switch.

Some tips for people who want to take this class in the future, make sure you understand three concepts in particular: Growth theory, Aggregate Demand/Supply and Monetary policy. Those topics are the big three that will determine whether or not you do well in class, if you get them, you'll do just fine, if you don't you'll struggle. Also, as I've said, go to lecture, Coppock is one of the most charismatic and talented lecturers at the university, ably condensing material into comprehensible portions, the class actually made me consider becoming an economics major. Also, you'll need the clicker points (and if nothing else, they're good for practice).

TL;DR: A) Yeah the midterms are far from ideal but the final is pretty much a standard econ test B) curving was generous so stop whining C) Coppock's a great lecturer, go to his lectures D) Make sure you understand: Growth theory, Aggregate Demand/Supply and Monetary policy

Don't get me wrong, Professor Coppock is a great professor in lecture--very articulate, witty and clear. But the guy needs to get off his high horse when it comes to grades. The first two tests were all short answer and if you didn't get the wording exactly how he wanted it, he took all points off. The final was pretty representative of all the material in the course, but the "curve" actually hurt a lot of people--instead of going up from a B+ raw I went down to a B. In other words, don't rely on Dutch Knockout. It sucks how frustrating the grading is in this class because he really does teach the material well, his expectations are just a little too unrealistic in an intro class. Overall I recommend taking Macro with Coppock, but be warned that you may not get the grade you think you deserve.

Like most other people reviewing this class recently, I think that Coppock is a really good lecturer, one of the best I've had at UVA. He's very engaging and keeps lecture interesting. However, I have two reasons why I wouldn't take this class again if I could do the semester over again.
1. TAs: The variance from TA to TA is enormous. Most TAs are alright, some are very good, but some are very bad. Thankfully having a bad TA doesn't ruin your chances of getting an A in the class, though. I know this is a common problem in large classes, so it's a factor in determining whether to take the class (if you aren't required to).
2. Tests: If we're being honest, intro to macro shouldn't really be a hard class, rather more of a class designed to give you a good taste of what economics is. The material covered in the course wasn't especially difficult to understand and the concepts are fairly straightforward. The tests, on the other hand, don't accurately assess your knowledge of economics. They're graded in such a way that stresses verbatim memorization of terms, which isn't strongly related to how well you understand the subject. If you're an economics major and get bad grades on the tests, don't worry-you probably know the material decently. If you aren't extremely interested in economics (maybe just taking the class as a tangential interest, like I did), then you're in for a surprise on the tests.

TL;DR If you've got to take the class, memorize terms for the test. If you aren't enthusiastic about economics and willing to put a lot of study time into it, I can't say I would recommend the course to you.

I actually liked the course, I just hate the way that it's graded. It's very easy to lose points on the written exams for very silly reasons (i.e. forgetting a single word) and the fact that it's Dutch KO means that those who put in effort throughout the semester but just came short on the final get punished by there not being a curve at the end. In summary, the final is weighted so heavily that it's very difficult to get an A in the class without getting an A on the final. And because there is Dutch KO at the end means the grade distributions get messed up and the end result is no curve.

After reading quite a few of these reviews out of curiosity, I'd say the majority of them are fairly close to my own opinion. Coppock is definitely one of my favorite lecturers so far. I'd recommend going to every lecture, reading the textbook, and hoping you get a decent TA. Some are great, some are useless. Overall, a recommended course for pretty much every college student.