surro my GOAT. great lecturer and has a real learning system if you put in the work. technically nothing except the final was mandatory but obvs there was a midterm and practice work that only boosted your grade. full page cheat sheet was allowed on both exams and he gave us his past final to study from which was nice. me personally i pulled all nighters before each exam bc i didn't put in the work but i think if you understand the concepts, the math isn't hard and you'll be fine. i think he curved at the end too.

Surro is the goat. Great lecturer, tests are very unpredictable you will need to study all the practice materials he emails in order to do really well. I was suffering from crammy salmonella during the final exam defintely could have scored in B range if it wasn't for that because I did a lot better on other finals later in the week and felt better physically. So disregard my shitty grade anyways he was extremely helpful wish I had taken the time to go to office hours. I was annoying as hell probably should belched less oh well. His practice midterm/final were really similar. Class get curved massive time so if you're freaking out just chill you will likely pass. He doesn't want anyone to fail--but you will need to lock in more for 101 cuz Silveria is not as chill about that.

I didn't pay attention in class. I was annoying as hell during lecture. I didn't attend a single office hour. I had salmonella during the final. I somehow ended up with an A-. Surro is truly the GOAT. I was lucky enough to secure a spot with this dude again for econ 102 fall 2025.
Quick note that his handwriting is sometimes illegible and tends to emphasize the first three letters of "assume"...the "Ass Tally" exceeded 20 by the end of the quarter.

I absolutely loved econ 11 and prof surro! i was so nervous going into this class bc i heard it was super difficult etc etc but i swear its not.

surro's lectures are always structured (30 mins doing the practice problems he posted for last lecture's content + 45 mins teaching new content), he provides practice problems, exam style problems, and his typed notes for every lecture/topic, quizzes for each lecture due before the next (only based on completion), and problem sets every week (based on effort but you'll get full credit if you even attempted most). he'll also post more exam style problems for the midterm and final. everything except the final is extra credit unless you do better on the midterm. attendance is also mandatory for extra credit and you can miss up to 5 and still get full attendance credit.

he literally gives you a step-by-step on how to do well in his class, advising you to read thru the types notes before class, do the practice problems right after class, and the exam style ones when you feel confident w the topic, then obviously the practice midterm/final lastly. i did not read the notes or do the pratice problems, but did do everything else.

math in this class was not at all hard, only basic calc. cheat sheets were allowed for midterm and final. i really do not think the content was that hard, either. midterm was extremely easy to me but the final was definitely more challenging. even so, i ended w an A.

i cannot reiterate this enough- if you put in decent effort for this class, you WILL do well. the class is interesting and easy to follow & Surro is amazing. do not fear this class ...

If you need to take Econ 102, take it with Surro. Half of his lectures are going over practice questions and the other half is going over new content. He has you do problem sets, quizzes, and iClicker attendance for “extra points” that gets added as a denominator to your final grade. Exams tend to be fair (mixture of easy and difficult questions). He allows ONE PAGE cheat sheet for both midterm and final. Midterm grade is dropped if you do better on the final. In addition, the Solow Assignment is a great grade booster as it (1) Improves skills with spreadsheets and (2) Goes in detail about one of the main models of the class. Focus on the main part of each lecture and review his lecture notes/slides. Highly recommended!

People glaze this man way too much. Yes he’s a decent prof who articulates the content well and seems to really care about his students but I wouldn’t say that he was a particularly engaging lecturer. His tests are actually evil, questions can be very unpredictable bc he really tries to test your intuition so you will see some questions on the test that are formatted like none of the questions you did in psets/other practice material. Imo midterm was worse than the final (midterm is def more of a time crunch than final) but I also put in more than 50 hrs of studying for the final. For reference the median on the midterm was a 66 and for the final was an 82. All the test questions are free response style but they are graded pretty harshly. One good thing though is your midterm grade gets dropped if you do better on the final. Overall this class will require a lot of effort and may make you question your major.

If you have a class with Surro in it, take it. He gives so many opportunities to supplement the material and makes it very clear exactly what he expects and how to achieve it. If you follow all the study guidelines he gives at the beginning, you will get a good grade. This guy is amazing. 10/10 would recommend. Also he's so sweet and always cheering you on.

prof surro is truly the goat of ucla econ 🐐 he teaches in a very straightforward way and his exams are fair (difficult but reasonable). his grading scheme is also pretty helpful in cushioning exams: there are 8 problem sets (can drop 2), 14 quizzes (can drop 4), and lecture clicker attendance for extra credit can miss 5). problem sets and quizzes are based on completion not correctness so there’s no reason to get less than full credit. there’s an solow model excel assignment due week 10 and it’s tedious but very doable as long as you have a basic understanding of the solow model. i found the midterm and final to be very fair with no curveballs (conceptual questions are always more difficult for me but just study up on the theory heavy lectures!!) you get 1 handwritten double sided cheat sheet for each exam that will fit all the formulas you will ever need. the math required for this class isn’t difficult just tedious. overall, even though i hate macroecon i really enjoyed taking it with surro!!

If you have to take Econ 102, please try your best to take Surro. He's one of the best professor at UCLA Econ department. The content of the class itself is not easy, so as the exams (but to a reasonable extent). But Surro provided A LOT of materials for people to study and master the concepts. There's weeky problem sets and quizzes graded on completion, practice questions for each section that he would go over at the beginning of each lectures, practice midterms and finals, and he even posted practice exams questions & solutions for each section of the concept covered. The reading he assigned for each problem sets are also super helpful for us to better understand the economic concepts behind math.

Again, the class is not easy. But Surro genuinely cares about his students and you will do well if you study hard for this class. The concept is so much more interesting than microeconomics too.

Surro is a great guy and great teacher with the resources he gives in homework, quizzes, practice problems, and other materials. HOWEVER, his lectures were somewhat awful, he would go over practice problems in a very rushed way for 40 minutes every class not truly explaining why he was doing what he was doing. This would leave 35 minutes to teach a whole new topic, which he rushed very fast. If you fell behind it feels like you almost can't catch up with how fast and nondescriptive he is. And with how fast he goes you will fall behind at some point. Aside from that the topic is somewhat interesting, class jumps from of topics/models frequently and tests are pretty challenging and give little time for how much there is. Still think he is the best teacher available for 102, but still doesn't mean he's perfect.