**I TOOK ECON 1 WITH ROJAS**

Rojas really seemed to cared about the well-being of his students. He went through the material slowly, without caring that we didn't get through all the chapters. He used the blackboard instead of powerpoints - which I really liked, because it forced him to fully explain each graph instead of just pointing to it on a powerpoint.

The book for this class was alright, although his lectures definitely covered more material and I thought they were necessary. The homework (not turned in) was way easier than the exams, so that wasn't too helpful. I would recommend focusing more on the practice midterms (posted online) than the textbook homework.

Econ 106V: Investments

Avoid Rojas at all costs.

Econ 187 - Economic Forecasting

It really comes down to one thing: do you know R code and econometrics?

Do NOT take this class if you've never taken econometrics or are not good at econometrics. This professor is very smart, but he may be a little too smart for the undergraduate level. If you're looking for a class to learn something useful and couldn't care less about your grade, go ahead and take it. If you care about your grades at all (even a little), do not take this class. The final was horrible; no one scored higher than 79.

Course: Econ 106V

With doctoral degrees in statistics and astrophysics, Dr. Rojas brings in an interesting perspective to investments. What I liked about the class was that he was concerned about student learning and he tried his best to stay at a pace that wouldn't result in students falling behind.

The class is structured mostly around PPT slides, which he posts online. These provide a decent framework to start with. Because the assigned textbook is difficult to navigate through (it's a free online version that has lots of hiccups), I'd recommend buying something more substantial. You have to really know the material inside and out to do well; the test problems will be much more sophisticated than the problems in the slides.

With regards to the lab sections, just try your best. I think your best bet is to figure them out with your team and not depend entirely on the TAs. These labs helped me improve my Excel skills and added some value to the course.

about to fail the econ 41 final! :)

economics 41, not statistics

I had to switch out. This guy was pretty bad, and the textbook is even worse. Rarely available and hardly ever in his office, grades are on a harsh curve and can drop your primary score if you're trying to get into a certain major. I would wait till Hahn teaches this course.

ECON 106V

Hands down, Rojas is the worst economics professor at UCLA. He communicates terribly with the TAs, his slides are filled with typos, and his lectures add no value to learning.

This guy literally can care less about student learning. He reuses other professors' homework and lab assignments and he doesn't even take the time to proof read what he posts. More often than not, homework assignments are filled with typos because he copy-pastes assignments from different sources without looking at the problems to make sure that they make sense.

My advice: don't go to class, buy a book that teaches investments. He didn't even choose a valuable textbook to use. He resorted to some free online textbook that he didn't even teach from; it was useless. It seems like teaching is just his side gig and he could careless about it.

***ECON 41***

I want to take the time to warn everyone who takes ECON 41 with this professor in the future that there is practically NO CURVE WHATSOEVER, and, therefore, you MUST pull 80s or higher on the exams if you want anything higher than a C. Definitely a hardcore weeder class.

You have been warned.

ECON 1*

Rojas is a very engaging teaching. I took Econ 1 at 9:30 in the morning so everyone around was very tired but throughout his lecture he pauses to make sure everyone understands. Rojas also is constantly asking questions for everyone to participate in the lecture. His class goes significantly slower than Sproul but unlike Sproul he gives homeworks that are factored into the grade. All of his tests so far have been 25 multiple choice so depending on who you are this could be good or bad. I definitely recommend for whoever takes this class to buy the book bundle from UCLA because I haven't seen a cheaper option. To buy the code on its own is $120 but the website offers the code and the physical book for $140.

Economics 41 fall 2013:

Some misconceptions I need to address:

The problems on the practice exams are nearly identical to his actual midterms:
This was NOT true in my class. His midterms are pretty straight forward but if you come into the midterm with just memorizing the answers on the practice exams and don't know how to do the actual problems, you're in for a surprise. If he did this in the past, then he no longer does it.

There is no curve:
It depends. He ended up curving the final grade. I had a C- after the final and before the curve. My final grade after the curve was a B.

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Rojas is a pretty good professor in my opinion. Definitely attend the lectures because notes are not posted online. Students who never took stats before may struggle though.
Midterms are straightforward although some of the grading by the TAs can be really harsh. The final was extremely hard (class average was 55%). The integrals on the final were complex so you will need to review your calculus. I recommend Rojas if there are no better professors available.