I took this in Winter 2023, and the professor seems to have learned from his past mistakes of making exams too hard. He's a wonderful professor as he seems to genuinely care about the students, and I love his lectures. He assigns weekly multiple-choice problem sets as homework. There are 2 midterms and 1 final.

I found the exams difficult, and it was due to the nature of multiple-choice questions, e.g. a question gives you several statements and asks which is true, and a choice might be "more than one". As a math student inclined towards calculations, I found these types of problems incredibly difficult even with practice.

I think the material is interesting and helps me understand strategies and games better, so I don't regret taking the class. However, if you're a math-inclined person like me and want to get good grade without struggling too much, I'd recommend taking a math class instead. I'd also say that Prof. Haanwinckel made this course more enjoyable, and it's my favorite econ class at UCLA.

I normally don't go out of my way to write reviews, but I loved Professor Haanwinckel. Don't be scared by his Bruinwalk score!! Those are all from past years (2021-23 I think) but he has definitely made his exams way more doable. He is very quirky/funny during lecture, and he would never rush material; if he thought we needed more time on a certain topic, he would take the time rather than brush past it. I don't know my final grade yet, but I really loved him as a professor and encourage ppl to take Econ 101 with him.

worst professor i've ever taken at ucla

Study the practice tests and slides and you should be good. Our quarter had a down curve though, that was annoying.

The grading format was 10% HW and then either 30% Midterm 1, 30% Midterm 2, 30% Final, or 40% Highest Midterm 50% final, whichever was higher. The course is curved, so only your ranking in the class matters. At least taking this class online, the tests were all multiple choice and the lectures were pre-recorded. There was no textbook for the class. The professor would hold "Q&A Sessions" during class time, which most students never attended.

In Spring 2021, the exams were definitely challenging, especially compared to the homework problem sets. Problem sets, especially at the beginning of the course, were more computationally focused while exam questions tended to be more abstract. There are really only 4-5 different types of problems, and making sure that you are intimately familiar with them is the best preparation for the exams.

For the first two midterms, we were given the exams from Winter 2021, and they were definitely much easier than the exams given. However, when the practice final specifically created for this class was much closer in difficulty and format to the final exam.

After each exam, he added ~10-20 points to every student's score. I'm not sure why this was done since the class is graded purely on a curve.

I found the course more insightful than Econ 11, but it definitely is not an easy course.

This class was the actual bane of my existence winter quarter. I was so confident on all the homeworks and honestly did super well on every one of them, but then the exams were COMPLETELY out of nowhere. I actually did surprisingly well on all three exams (no thanks to Haanwinckel) but it is honestly just because I am good at intuitively guessing. He made this class harder on purpose because he wants to single out the stellar students and weed out the non exceptional ones which is ridiculous honestly. Avoid him at all costs.

A lot of these ratings threw me off and made me not want to take 101 with this professor, but they could not have been more wrong. I thought that he was very engaging and funny, and the tests were very fair with high averages.

For all those reading reviews from 2022 and prior -- don't be scared! Professor Haanwinckel genuinely means the best for his students and his teaching has grown to reflect it. His exam difficulty has lowered immensely from previous years, and the average will probably be around a B or B+. He's a caring guy and you can tell that he has utmost concern for his students' success. He also likes to crack jokes and gives off a pretty nerdy vibe with the examples in class (RPG games, sci-fi, etc.). All lectures are recorded and the homework is well-paced. Exams are all multiple-choice and the content of 101 is mathematically less intense than 11. Overall, enjoyed this class a lot.

Professor Haanwinckel is so nice and a very good professor. He had two grading schemes (problem sets 10%, midterm 1 30%, midterm 2 30%, final 30% OR problem sets 10%, best midterm 40%, final 50%) depending on if you score higher in the final or the midterms. This class didn't bring me anxiety at all throughout the quarter and I could tell that Haanwinckel wanted his students to succeed. His exams were made up of true/false and multiple choice and were very fair. Overall, highly recommend taking 101 with this professor.

Made everything harder than it had to be. Terrible at explaining the material and overcomplicated any and every explanation. The material itself wasn't bad but he just made it so hard in the way he asks questions. The tests are tricky and often have mistakes/don't make sense, and you aren't even allowed to ask for clarification. I can tell he isn't a bad guy but he screwed me over, maybe out of stupidity. I had a mistake on a problem set assignment that he didn't fix because he said it wasn't a big deal and it "wouldn't affect my overall grade by much, only .2 ." Of course I ended with an 89.8 and he didn't round it up, he had no sympathy, and seemed to have forgotten about our discussion.