Professor
Matthew Bigio Luks
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2022 - As mentioned in other reviews, this class was terrible. Yes, the grade distributions may not indicate this - the class was curved exceedingly heavily, in what was perhaps the only redeeming quality of the course. However, it terms of educational attainment, this class was easily the worst econ course I have taken. Other courses like 101 or 104 were challenging, but I felt that by the end of the quarter, I had at least learned something of relevance to economics. This course lacked even that - I can confidently say that my grasp of 102 course concepts now is no greater than my grasp of the course concepts prior to having taken the course. Little to no practice material was offered besides biweekly homework assignments, and a single practice midterm and final respectively. Additionally, exams contained questions unlike any examples given previously, leaving students to figure it out during the exam. Lectures were directly copied from the textbook, except they were somehow made even more useless through tangential anecdotes and irrelevant backstory. No original content was developed by the professor, however the TAs did try their best to provide necessary information to somewhat comprehend the course. Take this course with another professor if you can.
Fall 2022 - As mentioned in other reviews, this class was terrible. Yes, the grade distributions may not indicate this - the class was curved exceedingly heavily, in what was perhaps the only redeeming quality of the course. However, it terms of educational attainment, this class was easily the worst econ course I have taken. Other courses like 101 or 104 were challenging, but I felt that by the end of the quarter, I had at least learned something of relevance to economics. This course lacked even that - I can confidently say that my grasp of 102 course concepts now is no greater than my grasp of the course concepts prior to having taken the course. Little to no practice material was offered besides biweekly homework assignments, and a single practice midterm and final respectively. Additionally, exams contained questions unlike any examples given previously, leaving students to figure it out during the exam. Lectures were directly copied from the textbook, except they were somehow made even more useless through tangential anecdotes and irrelevant backstory. No original content was developed by the professor, however the TAs did try their best to provide necessary information to somewhat comprehend the course. Take this course with another professor if you can.
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2022 - Took him for 102, he is the absolute worst, most horrible, difficult, unrealistic, and unfair professor I’ve ever had. Cant emphasize this enough- do not, I mean, DO NOT, take this class. You will be crying, going to every single TA’s office hours panicking, and have all your hairs go white. I have been in a constant state of anxiousness for the last 10 weeks, awaiting for the moment I can give this man the worst review I could. He’s a bad lecturer, gives the most unfair HW ever (assumes everyone knows excel at an advanced level), grades homework on accuracy, and is the most condescending, useless professor. He never answered any of my emails, and leaves the TA’s to care to the students he could care less about. In office hours, the TA’s would have to dedicate time to even try to ANSWER THE QUESTION. That’s right, PHD level Economics students couldn’t even intuitively answer the questions he gave us. I could go on for hours about how the only way this man could be of use to UCLA students is by retiring. I hope that one day he reads this review, so he knows how much I personally loathe him. Thank you for absolutely nothing Saki!
Spring 2022 - Took him for 102, he is the absolute worst, most horrible, difficult, unrealistic, and unfair professor I’ve ever had. Cant emphasize this enough- do not, I mean, DO NOT, take this class. You will be crying, going to every single TA’s office hours panicking, and have all your hairs go white. I have been in a constant state of anxiousness for the last 10 weeks, awaiting for the moment I can give this man the worst review I could. He’s a bad lecturer, gives the most unfair HW ever (assumes everyone knows excel at an advanced level), grades homework on accuracy, and is the most condescending, useless professor. He never answered any of my emails, and leaves the TA’s to care to the students he could care less about. In office hours, the TA’s would have to dedicate time to even try to ANSWER THE QUESTION. That’s right, PHD level Economics students couldn’t even intuitively answer the questions he gave us. I could go on for hours about how the only way this man could be of use to UCLA students is by retiring. I hope that one day he reads this review, so he knows how much I personally loathe him. Thank you for absolutely nothing Saki!