<p>I felt that Richards’ lectures were pointless as well. The problem was that since he really doesn’t go by the book AT ALL and since he is extremely unapproachable (I’m usually good friends with most of my teachers so this is not me being shy) and generally uninterested in his students’ progress, unless you have good TAs (which I unfortunately did not), there is little you can do to get help. Perhaps Abdullah is as bad or worse, I wouldn’t know. I do know that George Norman is far, far better than both Richards and Abdullah. My roommate took Ec 5 with Norman second semester and I looked at his powerpoints from lecture (which he posts online) and they were extremely comprehensive and far better than mine were with Richards. She also said that he was a good lecturer and very approachable. So try to get Norman and avoid both Richards and Abdullah if you can.</p>