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| 2023-12-14 | Initially, I heard many negative feedback from seniors about the course, but I quickly realized they were mistaken. |
| 2023-12-12 | An awakening! |
| 2023-05-25 | Templates on sale, anyone? |
| 2023-05-23 | Who is to blame? The Observatory? Or yourself? |
| 2023-05-20 | I hope all students would be just as willing to learn and reach out for help from us! |
| 2023-05-05 | Can students late-drop their worst performing course? |
| 2023-01-16 | We shall overcome! We shall overcome the GPA killer's challenge! |
| 2022-12-30 | Rules! We follow rigid rules! |
| 2022-12-30 | I am honest. Why don't you trust me? |
| 2022-12-17 | How many times do I have to repeat before you listen and follow my instructions? |
| 2022-12-06 | Teaching Innovation Award |
| 2022-11-07 | Our expectation: 10 hours per week for 12 weeks! |
| 2022-09-28 | Is it possible to late drop? |
| 2022-06-21 | Why not implement zoom invigilation on top of personalized exam papers? |
| 2022-03-21 | DO NOT PANIC. YOU CAN DO IT. WE CAN HELP YOU, ABSOLUTELY FREE!!! |
| 2022-01-27 | Can you help supervise my project? |
| 2022-01-19 | Please help me to enroll in Introductory Microeconomics NOW! |
| 2022-01-15 | Thank you, for putting in your best effort, thus letting me achieve what I wanted to achieve. |
| 2022-01-06 | It is never easy to face failure, but it can be an important learning experience. |
| 2021-12-30 | University life is not just about getting good grades, but also exploring your limit and understanding yourself. |
| 2021-10-04 | Reasons for disapproving late drop requests |
| 2021-08-04 | It takes two to tango! |
| 2021-08-02 | ECON1210 a killer course? KF Wong a killer? |
| 2021-07-20 | Shock and sad to see student's poor performance in 2021 Spring |
| 2021-07-14 | Cooling-off period |
| 2021-03-17 | Online data are cheap and easy to find, but they have limitations! |
| 2021-02-08 | Mini-projects to build up research ability (1) |
| 2021-01-11 | Be our advisor, please! |
| 2020-12-21 | Why do we need this transparency? For fairness! For learning! |
| 2020-11-23 | You want to build some muscle but do not want to use your time exercising? I can help by exercising for you! |
| 2020-11-18 | Feedback to feedback |
| 2020-11-15 | General comments on participant's performance in a competition |
| 2020-11-04 | Yes, 1200+ personalized versions of the test paper! |
| 2020-02-18 | Let students focus on learning, teachers on teaching, and thus together achieve the intended learning outcomes. |
| 2020-02-10 | Online learning requires Discipline, DISCIpline, DISCIPLINE! |
| 2019-01-15 | Supposedly not difficult to get a B grade. |
| 2018-12-11 | This quality is more important than grades. |
| 2018-11-15 | Late dropping |
| 2018-11-15 | Unreliability of average SETL scores due to the high non-response rate |
| 2018-11-13 | Let go! |
| 2018-10-24 | No, please do not use my lecture time for your society's announcement. |
| 2018-09-26 | Scheduling an appointment |
| 2018-08-27 | None of my business |
| 2018-08-21 | Course evaluation bounds and response rate |
| 2018-08-09 | Be a responsible job applicant |
| 2018-02-10 | No calories browsing.... |
| 2018-01-24 | Would "uncertain" help your postgraduate study application? I would say, CERTAINLY NOT! |
| 2017-09-14 | When helping your friend is NOT HELPING YOUR FRIEND! |
| 2017-09-13 | My life as a student -- AGAIN |
| 2017-09-05 | You like easy grade, easy honor, easy graduation? |
| 2017-07-18 | My Facebook friends, please protect me just as I protect you. |
| 2017-07-12 | An internship |
| 2016-03-01 | You know me. But, do I know you? |
| 2015-12-17 | Why learning fails to happen despite the great design of the course and the great teacher? |
| 2015-10-20 | Can I trust you, my friend? |
| 2015-10-17 | If we have the second chance to "retake", failing or getting a low grade would not be so stressful. |
| 2015-09-18 | My first-hand experience on why learning is not taking place in lectures! |
| 2015-08-20 | Are you sure Econometrics is useless? |
| 2015-05-04 | Eating 100 bowls of rice in a day |
| 2015-01-31 | You say you love me. How can I tell whether you truly love me? |
| 2014-10-24 | I would be happy to write recommendations letter for your PhD or Master application if .... |
| 2014-10-23 | Master of Finance at MIT |
| 2014-10-06 | Are you sure what you saw was black? |
| 2014-03-05 | GOLDEN opportunity -- only to the hard-working students. |
| 2014-03-01 | What to do when your teacher's teaching style does not fit your learning style? |
| 2013-11-28 | A negative experience? Not completely. It can be made into a positive one! |
| 2013-11-27 | Many thanks for your appreciation of my teaching (II) |
| 2013-07-23 | My next stop is Barcelona! |
| 2013-06-01 | Her decision to pursue Master of Finance after her undergradaute study at HKU |
| 2012-11-10 | What should I do at HKU (activities versus study and many other things)? |
| 2011-09-12 | Coach, can you teach me to swim? |
| 2010-02-18 | How government policy with good intention can create frustration and political instability? |
| 2009-12-01 | Cherish our beloved ones who are still around us -- when we still can! |
| 2009-11-27 | Trust your teachers, but don't trust them blindly! |
| 2009-11-26 | You can give me a low score but please write some comments to help me improve my teaching. |
| 2009-08-26 | The similarity in health care service provision and fire fighting service provision |
| 2009-03-23 | Be brave. Visit your teachers. Ask them questions. Your teachers are a lot nicer than you think. |
| 2009-03-14 | How can you verify this is really you -- Dr. Ka-fu Wong of HKU? |
| 2009-03-09 | I dream to work in the business sector. Should I pursue a master degree before I join the private sector? |
| 2009-02-19 | Any economist can predict this... Can you? |
| 2008-12-21 | My students performed poorly in the final exam.
Help me help them.... please. |
| 2008-12-20 | Learning should not end with the final exam! |
| 2008-11-19 | Exchange in Europe can be very rewarding! |
| 2008-11-18 | UC Berkeley is my top choice for exchange! |
| 2008-11-02 | Why did we not have fresh mushrooms twenty years ago? |
| 2008-02-23 | Dialogue is preferred to monologue. Sometimes, things look difficult but they are not really as difficult as we initially think. If we are willing to find help and work hard, we can easily overcome such difficulty most of the times. It is a matter of learning attitude.
For instance, in my course of Economic Forecasting in the 2007 Fall semester, I had to teach a lot of difficult concepts and skills. Students were required to use a software called Eviews and to do some programming using the software. Most students never did programming before and naturally felt uncomfortable. Knowing students' background, I certainly understood the difficulty students faced. Therefore, I tried my best to give example programmes. When students were assigned homework assignments, I would give an example program that would handle the very same homework assignment.
Due to the subject nature and students' lack of background in statistics and computing, such course is not easy for both teacher and students. I was lucky that the majority of students of this course had good learning attitude. Most importantly, they were willing to engage in a active dialogue. Sometimes they told me they had difficulty in a concept and asked me to explain more. Sometimes, I covered additional topics only because they raised an interesting question and then we engaged in a vivid discussion of forecasting issues.
This kind of dialogue is important. Without such dialogue, I have to guess whether students understand my lectures. If their eyes look fishy, I can tell that they had difficulty in something. But, on what? Without a dialogue, I usually try to explain the same concept again more carefully. With a dialogue, I can be more specific in addressing students' difficulty. I will have an easier time of teaching. Students will have an easier time of learning.
The following is an email I recevied from a former students of Economic Forecasting (dated 2008-02-20). He is the kind of students who never shy away from active dialogue with teachers in class. His email shows that he overcame whatever difficulty he had in my course.
> Dear Ka-Fu Wong,
>
> I am Javier Lopez, an exchange student in HKU from Spain who went to your
> Economic Forecasting class during the fall semester of 2007. Now I am back to
> Spain and I have started the new semester in my university (The University of
> Navarra). I didn't have the opportunity to email you before but I would like
> to thank you very much for the course and your help during the semester which
> was very useful to me.
>
> I have to say that I really enjoyed your class and I learned a lot of things.
> To tell you the truth, I was a little bit scared at the beginning with all the
> commands and Eviews program but in the end is the subject that I have enjoyed
> the most in Hong Kong University. Back in Spain I have another subject which
> covers similar topics but which is more theoretical, and I feel very
> comfortable and confident because I learned most of the concepts in your
> class. Not only I learned the theory with you, but I also put it into practice
> with real examples: forecasts of GDP, unemployment, commercial paper rates...
>
> Anyways, I think it was appropriate to tell you this because when you do a
> good job it is always good and gives you power to know it. I really think the
> way you taught the class and the content was very easy going, practical, and I
> had fun learning.
>
> I wish you all the best for the future and I hope that many more students find
> interest and enjoy your class as much as I did.
>
> All the best from Spain,
> Javier Lopez
| 2008-02-13 | If I were a single unemployed old man who lives on Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) | | 2007-12-17 | Is forecasting a pure guessing game? | | 2007-12-16 | I want zero emission of CO2! | | 2007-11-30 | How would I choose universities for exchange? | | 2007-11-28 | Excuse me. Can you write a recommendation letter for me? | | 2007-11-12 | No pain, no gain! | | 2007-09-14 | Teaching is to be enjoyed, and so is studying. Grades should only be secondary. | |