I really enjoyed Prof. Vogel's lectures. He is very thorough in his explanations. You need to take the time to watch them attentively. The class material in itself was really. interesting - I loved the introduction to game theory.
I got an A by taking written notes during the lectures, reviewing them and consolidating them into study guides, and completing the provided preparation questions. The only way to get an A in this class is complete understanding - don't take this if you just want to memorize.
I hope to have Vogel again in the future.

Econ 101 is not an easy class but I think Vogel's approach to the class is not the worst but not the best. His lectures are helpful if you take your time to watch it and watch it again. He did hold office hours to answer your questions and didn't record it so I'd recommend attending those sections. He doesn't give a lot of practice so you need to truly understand the materials through working on these problems over and over again. TAs are big help, shout out to my man Augusto!!! His grading scheme is actually not strict, you only lose 1 point for math mistakes. The curve is also very generous, so I'm thankful for it. The only catch is you need to read the exam questions VERY CAREFULLY, all the important info are in the LITTLE DETAILS. If I had read them more carefully, A would be totally doable, but I did not so don't be like me. If you are hard working and curious, I'd recommend taking this class for sure. This guy is a bit eccentric which makes the lectures kind of interesting from time to time, and he does try to make Game Theory more interesting.

*Online Version*

The class did not have homework and the final grade was totally based on midterm and final grades (I don't remember is there a 10% participation or not).

Since there was no homework, I haven't watched any lecture videos before the midterms, which is not recommended. The midterm was hard because the time is limited.

The final is also hard, but easier than the final since the time duration is longer for the final.

i think he probably grades easier now after looking at past reviews. the key to this class is to simply sit down and do every single past exam question, discussion question, and lecture question. his exams are pretty identical to those. he did generously curve, which i think maybe he didn't in the past. he knows people don't like him and i don't think he cares. i think he's a snob who doesn't care about his students and can be very condescending. so that made the class very unenjoyable for me but it may not to others. it's nice to not have homework but it pretty much makes everyone cram and learn at the end (all exams are week 7 onwards). grading is 25% MT1 week 7, 25% MT2 week 10, and 50% final. having MT2 during week 10 is ass but you get over it. it's basically another final but just on game theory. the material itself isn't hard, but just try to understand the steps of everything and you should be fine. his recorded lectures and practice problems is really all you need to do/can do. discussions were pointless for me i just sat there and did the worksheet myself since my TA was really slow. live lectures were just office hours and those were helpful a couple times if i needed to ask something. mostly it was going over exam questions. TLDR: if there's someone better take that, but you'll be fine in this class otherwise. no workload just exams.

His exams are ridiculous. Across 2 midterms and a final, there were 9 TOTAL questions asked. AND, a question from the first midterm was directly copied on the final (If you're already asking so few questions, why would you ever repeat a question???). So, there were actually only 8 different questions asked for the whole class.

For these types of classes that are graded on distributions (25% As, 35% Bs, etc.), only having 8 total questions asked across 3 exams makes it EXTREMELY DIFFICULT to recover from even a partial mistake on a single question. I only partially messed up one question on the first midterm and I was already doomed.

Yes, he is a pretty good lecturer. I felt like I learned valuable material in his class (Especially the expanded game theory content) and he taught in a pretty clear and concise manner.

But, as we know: grades are important at the end of the day. Avoid this professor. I received the lowest grade I've ever received in an Econ class with Vogel, and I was not slacking off.

Do practice tests; they are your lifeline. Do them over and over and over again until you memorize the approach and can recite the answer just looking at the problems. There are no other problem sets so those past exams are all you can rely on.

This class is so egregiously dogshit. This is the worst class I've taken at UCLA by far and I truly hope Vogel improves the way he runs this class. Lectures are vague and needlessly wordy and hung up on 1-2 practice problems, exams are INSANELY hard, Vogel himself is snarky and refuses to help during office hours, and discussions are COMICALLY useless

Vogel is by far the worst teacher I've had at UCLA. He spends lectures explaining incredibly abstract topics then discusses 1 practice problem for 45 minutes with 0 regard to prepping for exam materials. When reading slides, you can essentially ignore 75% of the slides at the back half since they are focused on random practice problems unrelated to exams. It's not a variety either (which would at least be something), it's like 1 problem that he spends weeks on

I tried going to office hours and he is incredibly snarky, makes fun of the questions kids ask, and refuses to elaborate when students are CLEARLY confused. I really dk what this stems from, because a student will go him distressed needing help and he will essentially brush them off. Exam averages are ass which shows his genius strategy doesn't work (check other reviews for how bad grades are in this class), its like a 75% and 60% aveerage for the midterms and there is NOTHING else that goes into your grade. Vogel: GIVE SOME HOMEWORKS, PROJECTS, OR SOMETHING SO I DON'T HAVE TO DEAL WITH THE HORRID WAY YOU WRITE EXAMS

Discussions are useless, do not attend. I went for 10 weeks and truly learned nothing it was incredible.

I genuinely hope Vogel does some self reflection after putting me through a class so aggressively DOGSHIT. I learned nothing, and I'm glad to never see this man or his goddamn 2-bullet point calculus-filled slides ever again

Really hard tests. Midterm 1 and 2 Average 72. Final Average 60. Good Lecturer, recorded lectures. he makes the tests really hard to cope that he is bald.

Coming from a math/econ major, but Vogel was absolutely phenomenal. He made the content of 101 engaging and interesting, but never forgot the larger picture, often making remarks of the plausibility of certain theories or applications of theory into real life cases. There is also no homework, and Vogel freely gives out all past exams, which resemble those on the actual tests fairly well, however he likes to give some unique questions just to test your overall/high-level understanding. Plus, he’s just a really down to earth guy and pretty funny.

The class itself I’d say is for everyone to learn, but how it’s structured may not be for everyone. He will likely use scantron tests, has a Week 10 midterm, and those who like homework to keep track of how you’re doing may struggle. But overall, I still highly recommend as my interest in econ grew a lot more.

my grade is more reflective about the fact that i rarely did practice problems rather than professor vogel being a bad instructor, however, i do think the way he structured the class and taught material was very ridiculous. the first midterm was free-response which really helped me pick up partial credit but due to a small misgrade that forced him to go back and fix certain mistakes he decided to make both the second midterm and final multiple choice (he did that purely because he was so inconvenienced by the mistake). the fact that the second midterm was scheduled on the last day of class was so stressful! he also taught content in a very convoluted way that was not the way most professors taught it. all that being said, he curved GENEROUSLY as other reviews have said. i got a 76 on MT 1, 55 on MT 2, and 49 on the final which brought me to a raw 60%, but he curved it up to a C. i still don't know how the fuck that happened but i'm extremely grateful for that 🙏 overall not the best professor but you'll pass doing the bare minimum and do great if you have a better work ethic than me!!