An Open Letter to My Econ Professor

Dear Professor,

It is now midnight and I am still up studying for your test tomorrow. I have some suggestions for improvement for you.

1. Do not give us practice problems from the book that contain tariff or quota scenarios you never once mentioned in class and for which the solutions are not given in the back of the book. While such brain-teasing exercises may present an amusing challenge for someone of your intellectual stature, we non-PhD-holding students simply want to stab our eyes out with a pencil.

2. Do not assign us practice problems for which you are not going to provide the solutions. I'm curious - just where, exactly, does the benefit lie in assigning us practice problems to "practice with" if we can't confirm that we've done them correctly? Maybe you see such uncertainty as a sort of cheap thrill - and I'll grant you it certainly makes taking your exams that much more "exciting" - but I can assure you that I and the other students do not get one ounce of pleasure out of spending hours on a problem, sitting back, and then wondering if we have only made ourselves dumber in the process. Unless, of course, the absence of a solution to the problem just means you're willing to accept any and all possible student answers. Which letter do I bubble in on my scantron sheet for "I don't know?"

Please take my suggestions into consideration.

Sincerely,
Matt