TOOK: ECON 1

I thought this class was not bad. If you went to every lecture, you'd be fine. Discussion is not mandatory, but sometimes the TA would teach something that was not covered in class thoroughly and that would show up on the midterm. Midterms were pretty straightforward though - FRQ and MC. HOWEVER, the final was hard. I underestimated it a bit because it was 70 MC problems, so I thought I had some leeway. The problems were tricky on the test and my score dropped down 10% from usual midterm scores. At least with FRQ you get partial credit, but there is no partial credit with MC. Basically work really hard on the midterms to have a good cushion and work hard too on the final so your grade doesn't drop too much.

==I TOOK ECON 1 WITH ROJAS==

Rojas was a good professor. He gives a lot of practice questions before exams that are helpful for the exams. He explained the course principles very plainly. I liked him.

****ECON 1*****

Its Econ 1, but I'm a lit major so I was nervous anyways.

It's easy. I went to class and read the book, but you could probably just do one or the other.

Grade consisted of 2 midterms and a final, test questions were pretty straightforward, but not 100% giveaways, however so long as you know the concepts behind the material you will be fine.

Homework is not collected, but worth doing as test prep.

Rojas is very organized, but I got the feeling he is so smart that he overcompensated with our econ 1 class, and dumbed it down a little too much. Still, he is nice enough, and the course content really is interesting.

*i took econ 1 with him*

Prof.Rojas is a really really nice and patient person but the problem is he is so patient in answering every question and making sure everybody is clear about his point that he goes through materials too slowly. He doesn't care how many chapters he is behind his syllabus(somehow, he managed to be one week behind his syllabus by the end of second week). His pace is exceptionally slow but I feel like he is not spending the time in the "most valued uses"-- to borrow the term I've learnt from this course. He seems to have OCT for drawing graphs and marking and highlighting each area with the correct color which takes forever. If you just sit in his lecture and copy his notes, the endless graphs drive you passive. However, when he does go to the pretty hard and dense materials, I feel like he suddenly accelerates. At first I thought it was just me who had problems comprehending those parts so maybe he is right in going fast over those parts. However, from the questions others asked in class, I realized that most people were stuck at the same place like me. This means that he may not have a clear evaluation of what's difficult for us and what's essential, not to mention his random priority for allocating time. His exams are really really easy. As long as you've studies the practice exams he posted. As a result, THE CURVE IS EXCEPTIONALLY HIGH. THE MEDIAN FOR SECOND MIDTERM IN MY LECTURE IS 96. Enough said.
Now I am studying for his final and I think I feel like I need endless cramming because I dont want to fail this class with a, say, 89 in final

I took ECON 41 and ECON 103 with Rojas. I really liked him for 103. People always make Econometrics sound super scary and hard, but Rojas breaks down the material and makes it fairly easy. The homework is ridiculously long at times, but if you do all the problems, you should get full credit. Since the homework is 25% of your grade, that gives you some easy points.
His tests are very fair, nothing that would be out of the blue and surprise you.

Rojas is a truly nice guy that really cares about his students. Go to his office hours, he explains things very well. If he sees that you genuinely put effort into his class, he's always willing to help out.

In 41 he got a little technical and spoke in a very statistical language, so he was an ok professor for that class, but an excellent professor for 103, also because 103 is just infinitely more interesting!
I HIGHLY recommend taking Rojas for 103!! It will be one of the best Econ classes you'll take at UCLA!!

ECON 1 w/ Rojas. he cares a lot about his students tries to make lectures interactive and doesnt get disheartened at the poor responses of the class. also, he goes through the chapters at a very slow pace which made him skip 4 chapters from the syllabus.

I took ECON1 with this prof and he's an average-ish prof. He focuses too much on writing every damn word on the blackboard leading to lesser explanation of stuff. His classwork may seem easy but his midterms and the final are much harder than expected. there is no required homework. just two midterms and a final. make sure you do the practice midterm questions he posts because a lot of them are repeatd on the actual midterm and the difficulty level is the same as that on the final and midterm. go to class because he does not post lecture notes or powerpoint slides. the ta's are sucky. i could be a better ta than them. i tried different discussion sections to check out each ta but all of them dont know the material and make too many mistakes.

**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.