This was a pretty easy intro to economics class. The course material is very similar to AP Microeconomics if you have taken that before. Rojas was an organized lecturer and really chill professor. All of his slides consisted of material straight from the online book that we used. Class was very straightforward, and homework assignments were fairly easy. The two midterms and final were all multiple choice and were very similar to the homework and practice problems. Exams were also open note and taken online. If the class does poorly on exams, Rojas will curve upwards, but I am pretty sure that everyone did pretty well on all of the exams during this quarter.

Discussion sections were not that useful to me, but they were helpful if you had a question or struggled on a topic. I only went to my discussion a few times, but TA Dom explained everything with clarity, and I recommend him.

i really like professor rojas and i took this class because i really enjoyed taking 103 with him and i did well (i took 103 before the 104 prereq came out) but this class was definitely really challenging for me, and i wish he didn't reference his 104 slides so often since there are students who technically did not take the course yet (or never will!) Admittedly, I definitely didn't take full advantage of office hours and going to class since things were online so i wish i did that more, but he did curve the final grade.

This class is moderate. The concepts are slightly intuitive, slightly need memorization. With Rojas, you don't really need to go to lecture because he reads off the slides but I kinda recommend it because it's easy to fall behind i the class. He does like a chapter and half per week and it's easy to forget about the class. I mostly read the book and that was easier to comprehend. Just skim the slides to make sure to didn't miss any specific info bc his tests are kinda nit picky. The midterms are only 25 questions so if you miss a few, it's already in the B range. The mindtap program is really useful and important. I shared mine with 2 other people which made it go from like $120 to $40 each and we didn't come across any problems with multiple people on at a time. The final is 75 questions so is worth a lot more than the 2 midterms and my TA said doing good on the final is more important.

I expected more from this class. The course is too broad and lacks mathematical rigor. It relies heavily on memorization and on taking the professor’s word for how to proceed when data look a certain way, whereas the math department actually helps you understand the underlying mathematics behind data analysis. As a result, you only touch the surface of each topic. The Econ department’s approach to econometrics seems to prioritize covering as many topics as possible without sufficient rigor, causing students to memorize rather than truly internalize the concepts..

I will not take another econometrics course in the Econ department after this. I’ve learned that if you genuinely want to learn statistics, you need to study in the math or statistics department. I would not recommend this course even as an introduction for anyone considering a quantitative path. Rojas is great, and it is not his fault that this course has numerous shortcomings, as the department forces the course to be mathematically diluted.

I think this class was relatively easy. You just have to pay attention in lectures, take notes, and practice a lot. I would recommend using Mindtap problems (the A+ test prep, specifically) because the exam questions mirror those and it helps you feel prepared. Professor Rojas is also an amazing guy. He is very understanding and sweet. His lectures comprise of reading off the slides and providing additional info of his own. I will say that at times, lectures are a little boring but the Professor keeps you very well engaged. He makes everyone feel welcome and encourages us to answer his questions too. Overall, his exams weren't awful either. I think you just have to make sure that you dedicate time to properly understanding the material and practicing numerous problems. His final had questions with a little more math involved (similar to the problems and applications that are reviewed in discussion sections) because we had more time to work with, but as long as you practice and understand all the problems, you should be alright!

DO THE MINDTAP. The midterms and finals are based on the questions found on the A+ Test Prep and are extremely helpful in preparing for exams. Doing the questions alone will prepare you sufficiently for both the midterms and finals as well as reviewing the slideshow notes.

I took both AP Micro and Macro in high school, and I thought the exams were manageable. But even after studying for days and coming in with prior knowledge, I still ended up with a C+ on the final. I had read a few reviews saying Dr. Rojas was a boring lecturer who mostly reads off his slides—and honestly, that’s kind of true. That said, he’s not a bad professor. He does try to create a space for students to ask questions during class, but he’s not very responsive over email, which I think is important.

Right before the final, I emailed him about which content would be covered and mentioned that my TA’s email wasn’t working—he never replied. I feel like that’s something a professor should follow up on. Strangely enough, when I emailed him to ask about his experience at UCLA, he responded fairly quickly.

GRADING: The class has a slight curve, but there’s very little wiggle room. Your entire grade comes from two midterms (25% each) and a final (50%). It’s frustrating to have just three tests determine your whole grade, but that seems to be the case with a lot of Econ classes here. That said, I would still take Rojas again if I had to.

MINDTAP: This isn’t optional. I found it really helpful to read the material ahead of class and do as many practice problems as possible—especially before the midterms and final. He uses the A+ feature to build his exams, so many of the problems on MindTap are very similar to what shows up on the tests.

TA SECTIONS: TA sections didn’t help much with test prep, but they were useful for clearing up any confusion you had about the material. I also recommend reviewing your past exams—they help a lot with understanding what to expect on the final. Honestly, the most important part of this class is studying hard for the final. It makes or breaks your grade.

Rojas is bad with emails, he will only reply once. Half of his test questions are from Mindtap. Sometimes if you find an old exam he may reuse some of the questions. His lectures are pretty clear but super boring. He uses the whole time. He often asks if you have questions and then moves on immediately. He lowkey does not want your questions. We didn't even finish the content on the syllabus or even the final by the last lecture. He has a very boring tone and his examples and engagement in the class is okay. All his tests are multiple choice so there is no forgiveness. Discussion isn't that helpful if you get the concepts because it is conceptual questions, while the tests are more questions trying to trick you, as MCQ does. It is possible to do well and not learn a lot, as it is possible to understand a lot and do poorly. He only curves if the final class average is below a B. It is easy enough if you do Mindtap (mainly just the A+ test prep), and skim his slides. Lecture is a waste of your time if you only care about your grade because if you practice for half of lecture time you are way better off class wise.

Although the class itself was not horrible, Rojas is not a good professor. He gives zero guidance for what will be on exams and only offers online office hours on Zoom. He gave two practice midterms from many years ago that were mostly math. The midterm had hardly any math on it and was mostly analyzing graphs, having to know what certain R outputs are showing, and some definitions from the notes on certain concepts. The final was basically the opposite and had a lot of math, definition-based questions, no graphs, and not a lot of R code. It was mostly focused on indicator variables and how to solve problems involving them. Although this is mostly just subtracting two equations from one another and is not super difficult, I feel like no one would have expected the exam to look like this after the midterm. The only reason I did well was because I had a great TA who gave us advice on what to study and was super helpful as well. I would suggest going to lectures. He does not record them or do Zoom lectures, and he tends to talk more about topics that he tests on in class and goes into more detail, which helped me understand things a bit better. I would suggest taking this class with someone else if you can.

I went to class about three times before I realized it was absolutely pointless sitting there listening to Rojas read the slides in a monotonous manner. I only did a few days of studying before every midterm and final simply using the mindtap. I'm surprised more people didn't know that his tests are literally exactly like the mindtap practice problems under A+ Test Prep. I just read the mind tap textbook and did the practice problems over and over again and every test was a repeat of those types of questions with a few original questions on the final. Even though the professor and TAs weren't the most helpful, the material wasn't difficult to grasp and did not require much time as class/discussions weren't necessary. Having only 3 exams determine our entire grade was daunting but the mind tap was seriously all you need in this class.