ECON 1
Principles of Economics
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Not open to students with credit for former course 100. Introduction to principles of economic analysis, economic institutions, and issues of economic policy. Emphasis on allocation of resources and distribution of income through price system. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
4 of 7
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2024 - This was the first Econ class I took at UCLA. The workload is very manageable, however his tests were difficult. The exams were almost impossible to complete on time, with most people guessing the final few answers. Furthermore, the test was all multiple choice, and the difference between the choices on a given problem were sometimes very difficult to differentiate. Most people didn't do too well on the midterm (me included), but he would drop the midterm grade if you did better on the final, which was pretty good. One more thing, he didn't record his lectures, so you basically have to show up to class or you will be missing out on information.
Spring 2024 - This was the first Econ class I took at UCLA. The workload is very manageable, however his tests were difficult. The exams were almost impossible to complete on time, with most people guessing the final few answers. Furthermore, the test was all multiple choice, and the difference between the choices on a given problem were sometimes very difficult to differentiate. Most people didn't do too well on the midterm (me included), but he would drop the midterm grade if you did better on the final, which was pretty good. One more thing, he didn't record his lectures, so you basically have to show up to class or you will be missing out on information.
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2023 - Professor Ohanian does not seem to care much for students in this class. He appears on Zoom once every two weeks just to repeat what he has already covered in the recorded lectures using another set of slides, saving minimal time for additional Office Hours questions. There is far too little practice questions in the MCQ format of the Midterms and Finals (only 4-5 questions a week that rarely asks about the same content as the test questions): the practice questions in the textbook are formatted completely differently and the practice midterms and finals have far too few questions compared to the real one (e.g. the practice finals had 31 questions while the real one has 76). I understand that they used the Mindtap app for practice MCQ questions in the past years but this year it was discontinued because it was too expensive. However, there is no replacement found for the practices on Mindtap and the exam questions continue to come from Mindtap. Overall, because of the lack of well-organized practice, there is no good mechanism to assess how you are doing in this course and how well you understood the topics until it is too late- when you get bonked in the Finals. This just reinforces the sense that this course is poorly organized and the general feeling (this may be subjective) that the professor is teaching this course part-time and has little attention to spare for ECON 1 students.
Winter 2023 - Professor Ohanian does not seem to care much for students in this class. He appears on Zoom once every two weeks just to repeat what he has already covered in the recorded lectures using another set of slides, saving minimal time for additional Office Hours questions. There is far too little practice questions in the MCQ format of the Midterms and Finals (only 4-5 questions a week that rarely asks about the same content as the test questions): the practice questions in the textbook are formatted completely differently and the practice midterms and finals have far too few questions compared to the real one (e.g. the practice finals had 31 questions while the real one has 76). I understand that they used the Mindtap app for practice MCQ questions in the past years but this year it was discontinued because it was too expensive. However, there is no replacement found for the practices on Mindtap and the exam questions continue to come from Mindtap. Overall, because of the lack of well-organized practice, there is no good mechanism to assess how you are doing in this course and how well you understood the topics until it is too late- when you get bonked in the Finals. This just reinforces the sense that this course is poorly organized and the general feeling (this may be subjective) that the professor is teaching this course part-time and has little attention to spare for ECON 1 students.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2024 - I have enjoyed this class so far as it is engaging and the professor really cares about the understanding of her students. The class goes pretty slow for a college course as it is only an introduction to Microeconomics. The readings assigned are a little confusing as to the dates it is due, but none of the readings are mandatory, although they help reinforce the ideas learned in class. The class usually gets out early as well which is really nice. The excel project is also a little confusing, but no experience in excel is needed and you will figure it out. Professor Olivia is also very sweet and seems like she loves what she does.
Fall 2024 - I have enjoyed this class so far as it is engaging and the professor really cares about the understanding of her students. The class goes pretty slow for a college course as it is only an introduction to Microeconomics. The readings assigned are a little confusing as to the dates it is due, but none of the readings are mandatory, although they help reinforce the ideas learned in class. The class usually gets out early as well which is really nice. The excel project is also a little confusing, but no experience in excel is needed and you will figure it out. Professor Olivia is also very sweet and seems like she loves what she does.
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