It was impossible to pay attention for more than 10 minutes (contracts). Frier hid the ball too much, asking students what they thought about tangential issues in the case without getting to the point himself. His extremely slow pace was torture. We left class – assuming we could pay attention, which judging from the number of open gchat windows most of us could not – even more confused than before. The textbook was terrible. For the amount of gain the reading load was too heavy. It seemed Frier and White got lazy after editing the third chapter and left us with a bunch of lengthy cases that could be easily condensed.
Frier, by his own admission, asks unhelpful coldcall questions akin to “what color am I thinking of?” The book is good, the professor is funny, but you’re still learning contracts on your own.
Terrible. Going to class was pointless, the book taught nothing and was horribly organized. If you’re taking contracts with him, just read the E and E.
I can pretty much just agree with 3. It’s a good book, but class added very, very little. On the plus side, he did provide a lot of practice exams with model answers. Roman Law might be a great course to take with him, but Contracts? It’s just him musing vaguely in his Mid-Atlantic accent. It was kind of neat that he had a question about Cylons on the final, though.
I don’t really understand these other reviews. Frier is entertaining and funny, and the class sessions are helpful (and I hardly say this of ANY class). #5 isn’t too far from the truth. Frier will generally stay on one student for an entire case, which can be more than half the class if the case is complicated. BUT, he does a great job of supplementing his questions or rephrasing if it is clear you are having a hard time. I would suggest NOT listening to #3 and just reading the E&E. The class is engaging, and the textbook is one of the better ones you will read as a 1L, and honestly, the contracts E&E kind of sucks.
I’m shocked by these reviews. My entire section loved contracts with him. By unanimous consent we considered his class one of the best we had 1st year. We thought the class was very straightforward. The cold calls are long, yes, but he is very cordial and unintimidating. The test was exactly what was expected and the casebook was great.
1) do practice MC questions. There are tons out there (Acing Contracts, Exam Pro, etc.) and they’ll help you figure out what you do and don’t understand.
2) when he puts up a section of the UCC or R2K up on a slide, write down the number, and then go READ it after class. I hardly touched my Restatement during the semester because somehow it just didn’t click for me that those excerpts he was putting up on slides CAME from something, and it would behoove me to read them. I spent time tabbing my book during exams that I totally could have done gradually over the semester.
Yeah, he’s a little weird. But also a nice guy and knows his material. You’ll make it, and you’ll probably learn some Contracts too.
I haaaaate Frier. He’s the worst professor here; it’s hard to understand how he has a job here. He doesn’t seem to understand students’ questions, so does not answer them (competently). He teaches from his own, overpriced textbook; you don’t get more from classes than you get from readings, so you really only need to do one or the other. Except for the fact that his cold calls can be ROUGH. His questions generally are fair, but he can be really mean. If he senses that a student is anxious or struggling, it’s like a shark smelling blood. He gets more and more aggressive, and won’t move on. I also found him extremely rude and unhelpful in office hours. I dislike him more than others, I know, but I also didn’t know a single person in my supersection who came close to liking him.
As others have said, you need to prep with UCC materials far more than you expect for this class’s final, considering we didn’t really reference it much in class itself. I generally felt like I understood the cases well in the book, which Frier co-authored, but comments made in class left a lot of us scratching our heads and no longer feeling like we understood. I did actually enjoy the class itself, though, because the slides he uses are helpful for noting big points and keeping attention, and he makes plenty of entertaining comments. Just be prepared to do a lot of the actual learning from Acing Contracts and studying the UCC on your own time.
If you’re a 1L who has Frier and is reading this, just stop now and accept your fate. You can’t change it.
Having class 4 days a week was entirely unfair and resulted in more reading than classmates in other sections. This man is the ultimate ball hider. I looked at the exam and didn’t know where to start (and I did exceptionally well in my other 2 1L classes).
MLaw Prof Reviews
It was impossible to pay attention for more than 10 minutes (contracts). Frier hid the ball too much, asking students what they thought about tangential issues in the case without getting to the point himself. His extremely slow pace was torture. We left class – assuming we could pay attention, which judging from the number of open gchat windows most of us could not – even more confused than before. The textbook was terrible. For the amount of gain the reading load was too heavy. It seemed Frier and White got lazy after editing the third chapter and left us with a bunch of lengthy cases that could be easily condensed.
Frier, by his own admission, asks unhelpful coldcall questions akin to “what color am I thinking of?” The book is good, the professor is funny, but you’re still learning contracts on your own.
Terrible. Going to class was pointless, the book taught nothing and was horribly organized. If you’re taking contracts with him, just read the E and E.
I can pretty much just agree with 3. It’s a good book, but class added very, very little. On the plus side, he did provide a lot of practice exams with model answers. Roman Law might be a great course to take with him, but Contracts? It’s just him musing vaguely in his Mid-Atlantic accent. It was kind of neat that he had a question about Cylons on the final, though.
Cold calls that last all class.
I don’t really understand these other reviews. Frier is entertaining and funny, and the class sessions are helpful (and I hardly say this of ANY class). #5 isn’t too far from the truth. Frier will generally stay on one student for an entire case, which can be more than half the class if the case is complicated. BUT, he does a great job of supplementing his questions or rephrasing if it is clear you are having a hard time. I would suggest NOT listening to #3 and just reading the E&E. The class is engaging, and the textbook is one of the better ones you will read as a 1L, and honestly, the contracts E&E kind of sucks.
I’m shocked by these reviews. My entire section loved contracts with him. By unanimous consent we considered his class one of the best we had 1st year. We thought the class was very straightforward. The cold calls are long, yes, but he is very cordial and unintimidating. The test was exactly what was expected and the casebook was great.
Two pieces of advice, and Contracts will be ok:
1) do practice MC questions. There are tons out there (Acing Contracts, Exam Pro, etc.) and they’ll help you figure out what you do and don’t understand.
2) when he puts up a section of the UCC or R2K up on a slide, write down the number, and then go READ it after class. I hardly touched my Restatement during the semester because somehow it just didn’t click for me that those excerpts he was putting up on slides CAME from something, and it would behoove me to read them. I spent time tabbing my book during exams that I totally could have done gradually over the semester.
Yeah, he’s a little weird. But also a nice guy and knows his material. You’ll make it, and you’ll probably learn some Contracts too.
I haaaaate Frier. He’s the worst professor here; it’s hard to understand how he has a job here. He doesn’t seem to understand students’ questions, so does not answer them (competently). He teaches from his own, overpriced textbook; you don’t get more from classes than you get from readings, so you really only need to do one or the other. Except for the fact that his cold calls can be ROUGH. His questions generally are fair, but he can be really mean. If he senses that a student is anxious or struggling, it’s like a shark smelling blood. He gets more and more aggressive, and won’t move on. I also found him extremely rude and unhelpful in office hours. I dislike him more than others, I know, but I also didn’t know a single person in my supersection who came close to liking him.
As others have said, you need to prep with UCC materials far more than you expect for this class’s final, considering we didn’t really reference it much in class itself. I generally felt like I understood the cases well in the book, which Frier co-authored, but comments made in class left a lot of us scratching our heads and no longer feeling like we understood. I did actually enjoy the class itself, though, because the slides he uses are helpful for noting big points and keeping attention, and he makes plenty of entertaining comments. Just be prepared to do a lot of the actual learning from Acing Contracts and studying the UCC on your own time.
If you’re a 1L who has Frier and is reading this, just stop now and accept your fate. You can’t change it.
Having class 4 days a week was entirely unfair and resulted in more reading than classmates in other sections. This man is the ultimate ball hider. I looked at the exam and didn’t know where to start (and I did exceptionally well in my other 2 1L classes).