fellow bruins, this class must be taken with surro. surro explains the INTUITION behind concepts, is super helpful at office hours, and genuinely wants his students to succeed. each test question fits into a certain bucket as you'll see on surro's practice long questions for the midterm and final (he groups questions into categories). to succeed in this class, you need to understand the WHY behind concepts because trust me, on his tests, he will pry for your intuition, not simply memorization of how to solve a problem. anyways this is a class where you absolutely MUST go to lecture. if you miss a lecture you might be in a jiffy because things build off of each other (eg, you gotta go to week 1 lectures to comprehend week 2 lectures). i personally didn't follow surro's "how to succeed" document in full but god did I study a lot for this class.

here's my tips for success:

1. attend lectures in person (you'll be less distracted)
2. form a solid study group or at least find people that you can ask questions to
3. as surro says, use ai to help you understand concepts. worked wonders for me
4. be confident (corny i know). don't go into the class with fear because it's "econ 11 weeder!"
5. dedicate time to reviewing uncertain concepts before the next lecture
6. i already said this but the intuition part is highkey important. dont just memorize an algorithm for how to solve a problem (which can be helpful for some parts tho)

I was expecting this class to be much harder than it was, HOWEVER you really need to put in the work to do well. Professor Surro is pretty clear in his lectures, however they aren't super engaging and the examples that he does in lecture are much easier than what you will be tested on. The problem sets and quizzes are optional, but DO THEM because they are only graded on participation and they actually help your grade a lot. Also, he never mentions this in class, but be active on campuswire because you get points for that too. Respond to people's questions and ask questions on there if you have any because you get points for that. This class was pretty difficult, but you can do well if you really understand the concepts and are able to apply them to more difficult questions.

I found Econ 102 with Professor Surro to be one of the most interesting Econ courses I have taken so far. He supplements the problem sets with relevant reading about macroeconomics, making sure that students gain a working understanding of applications in the real-world economy, not just a simplified, theoretical model. There weren't many problem sets during the quarter, and each could easily be knocked out in one day if you understood the lecture material. We took one midterm and a final, neither of which were easy A's. Comfortability with math is a plus. There is also a final project that is given after the first midterm. There is plenty of time to work on it, and it isn't too bad if you don't wait until the last minute. The project focuses on working with Excel to help you build valuable career skills. After the final, some people were upset that he promised a curve and didn't deliver. In reality, he promised a score range for the median grade, which was reached without a curve. Surro is a great professor and fun to talk to outside of class. I will definitely be watching for more classes to take with him.

I highly recommend taking Professor Surro for Econ 102. Lectures were pre-recoded and 45 minutes, with a 30 minute live portion during class time. The live portion consisted of doing practice problems related to the lecture, plus office hours at the end. There were 2 open note exams (30% and 45%, or 75% for the final if you improve), an Excel project (15%), HW (10%), and optional quizzes. The optional quizzes added points to the numerator and denominator of the total number of points in the class, which helped pad grades. Professor Surro is a clear lecturer with good slides, exams were tough but fair, and office hours and the Campuswire forum helped a lot with the Excel project, HW questions, and understanding the material in general. Overall I would definitely take this class again, or any other Econ class, with Professor Surro.

THIS WAS THE BEST ECONOMICS CLASS I HAVE TAKEN! The structure of the class was conducive to learning, for a few reasons:

-Short quizzes (credit for completion) after every lecture let you stay on track with material. You know what concepts you should have gotten from the lecture and if you didn't understand quiz questions it was easy to just go back and review the lecture slides. This is unlike other econ classes where you are unsure of what you need to know and to what depth you need to understand material until practice problems are released (or even worse for some classes just midterms).

-The Solow Excel project was a great way to learn excel. Felt very relevant to future job demands. Also a great way to review class concepts. Felt like my time was well spent while working on this project.

-It is very clear what is expected of you on exams. Surro explicitly says that 80% of test material will be similar to questions we have seen (quizzes, problem sets, practice midterms) and 20% will be new questions where we must apply the knowledge.

-Surro is a good lecturer. He explains concepts well. Powerpoints well organized.

-There is material to work with. When studying for the final, I could review the quizzes, problem sets, practice midterm, solow excel project, and practice final. A lot of problems to work with along with organized lectures = easy studying.

I was never stressed taking this class, but not because the material was easy, because Surro was a great teacher with a well-organized class. Would 100% recommend anyone to take this class.

My FAVORITE class ever!!! If you can, please choose Chris at all cost. He is the best! I really love his teaching philosophy, that it is more important for student to understand the class materials than simply getting an easy A. Sometimes it is really tempting to choose some 'easy classes' but I feel like I did not learning anything at the end of the day. For this class, yes it is not that easy, but I did feel I learn a LOT and fall into deeper love with Economics.

A few tips for this class(I hope they are useful):
1. Do all the problem sets and quizzes, even if they are not required. The quizzes are super easy, but the problem sets may be a bit more challenging, and more on the intuition side of the problem. But since the midterm and final have a bunch of questions that requires us to understand those intuition, it would be better just to do all the problem sets.
2. Go to office hours!! Chris is super helpful and approachable, and he can explain everything in a logical manner.

In short, I really really really recommend taking Econ 11 with Chris!!! You will learn more than you expected. : )

!!Don't take this class if you want to get an A!!
I agree that Surro is a great lecturer who explains everything clearly and is really helpful. However, he is a tough grader. The midterm and final is about 70% of the total grade, and the class average for each exam is approximately 75% everytime. Surro promised us that there will be a curve to adjust the mean to B/B+ range, but he went back on his words and did not curve at last. I put in a lot of effort and got 88% on my exams, and I ended up with an A- at last. It was frustrating to see his email notifying us that he won't curve, and I would say that similar scores for other econ dept courses will definitely get some kind of curve.

Tried hard, Failed hard

If I know about this beforehand, wouldn’t take the class

DO NOT TAKE A CLASS WITH SURRO!! BY FAR THE WORST PROFESSOR I HAVE EVER HAD AND THE WORST GRADE I HAVE EVER GOTTEN. VERY CHALLENGING TESTS. HE TOLD US THE CLASS AVERAGE WOULD BE A B+ FOR FINAL GRADES AND IT WAS AROUND A B-. He didn't even curve 1% after saying earlier in the quarter that he wants the average to be way higher. Just don't take this with him he's just one of the worst professors ever.

This was a HARD class but Professor Surro gives a lot of resources to be successful. He uploads typed notes for every topic/class that are pretty detailed, assigns post lecture quizzes, and weekly problem sets. All quizzes and problem sets are graded on completion. These assignments are also optional (if desired, your whole grade could be based off of exams). However, the class is a point-based system that puts most of the weight on the midterm and the final. The midterm is 150 points and the final is 300 points, with the problem sets/quizzes being 150 points total. That being said, the exams are tough in that they really test your understanding of the concepts vs. memorizing the process (Surro highly emphasizes this throughout the quarter). Surro is a good lecturer in that he really hones in on these concepts, but his practice problems are normally easier than the exams, the one thing I disliked. Surro also will answer any questions (usually through Campuswire) quickly.

TLDR: Good professor, hard tests. Econ 11 is a notoriously difficult class and I would say Surro is your best bet.