I love Chris and his lectures, but I didn’t get good grade because this class is totally dependent on final and midterm, which are very very very hard and are basically speed tests. Furthermore, it is really hard for students in middle.

If you need to take Econ 102, take it with Surro. Half of his lectures are going over practice questions and the other half is going over new content. He has you do problem sets, quizzes, and iClicker attendance for “extra points” that gets added as a denominator to your final grade. Exams tend to be fair (mixture of easy and difficult questions). He allows ONE PAGE cheat sheet for both midterm and final. Midterm grade is dropped if you do better on the final. In addition, the Solow Assignment is a great grade booster as it (1) Improves skills with spreadsheets and (2) Goes in detail about one of the main models of the class. Focus on the main part of each lecture and review his lecture notes/slides. Highly recommended!

I went to my first lecture today for Econ 101 with another Econ professor and it made me really miss Professor Surro and his teaching style so here I am writing this review:

Absolutely loved Professor Surro. He is a great lecturer. He is very clear and organized. If I have the chance to take Professor Surro again, I definitely will. I highly recommended taking Econ 11 (and other Econ classes if you have the opportunity) with Professor Surro.

There is no textbook required for this class. Also, Professor Surro doesn't use slides but has typed notes that he posts before each lecture. I found it useful to read through the typed notes before lecture and understand it then go to lecture where he explains all the concepts in the typed notes and often goes more depth. This isn't necessary though because Professor Surro makes his lectures very clear and easy to understand. Professor Surro also provides a lot of opportunities for practice by posting practice problems after each lecture that cover the content learned that day. He then goes over the practice problems in about the first 30 minutes of the following lecture.

Your grade is based on problem sets, quizzes, one midterm, and the final. However, if you do poorly on the midterm and better on the final, your midterm will be dropped and your final will weigh more. I personally found the midterm and final to be fair, and they reflected the problems done in class and on the problem sets and practice questions. Also, the problem sets and quizzes are completely optional but are very helpful so I recommend you do them. Plus, they are graded on effort and they can only help your grade! The points you receive from the quizzes and problems sets you get are added to both the numerator and denominator of your grade. i.e. if you score a total of 500/600 (83.33) on the midterm and final but completed all quizzes and problems (worth a total of 150 points), you would have a 650/750 (86.67) in the class (note that your grade may be higher because this class is curved). Professor Surro also posts the answers for the problem sets after the due date so you can check your answers. He goes over quiz questions in office hours.

Overall, amazing professor and definitely recommend taking this class with him!

People glaze this man way too much. Yes he’s a decent prof who articulates the content well and seems to really care about his students but I wouldn’t say that he was a particularly engaging lecturer. His tests are actually evil, questions can be very unpredictable bc he really tries to test your intuition so you will see some questions on the test that are formatted like none of the questions you did in psets/other practice material. Imo midterm was worse than the final (midterm is def more of a time crunch than final) but I also put in more than 50 hrs of studying for the final. For reference the median on the midterm was a 66 and for the final was an 82. All the test questions are free response style but they are graded pretty harshly. One good thing though is your midterm grade gets dropped if you do better on the final. Overall this class will require a lot of effort and may make you question your major.

If you have a class with Surro in it, take it. He gives so many opportunities to supplement the material and makes it very clear exactly what he expects and how to achieve it. If you follow all the study guidelines he gives at the beginning, you will get a good grade. This guy is amazing. 10/10 would recommend. Also he's so sweet and always cheering you on.

prof surro is truly the goat of ucla econ 🐐 he teaches in a very straightforward way and his exams are fair (difficult but reasonable). his grading scheme is also pretty helpful in cushioning exams: there are 8 problem sets (can drop 2), 14 quizzes (can drop 4), and lecture clicker attendance for extra credit can miss 5). problem sets and quizzes are based on completion not correctness so there’s no reason to get less than full credit. there’s an solow model excel assignment due week 10 and it’s tedious but very doable as long as you have a basic understanding of the solow model. i found the midterm and final to be very fair with no curveballs (conceptual questions are always more difficult for me but just study up on the theory heavy lectures!!) you get 1 handwritten double sided cheat sheet for each exam that will fit all the formulas you will ever need. the math required for this class isn’t difficult just tedious. overall, even though i hate macroecon i really enjoyed taking it with surro!!

If you have to take Econ 102, please try your best to take Surro. He's one of the best professor at UCLA Econ department. The content of the class itself is not easy, so as the exams (but to a reasonable extent). But Surro provided A LOT of materials for people to study and master the concepts. There's weeky problem sets and quizzes graded on completion, practice questions for each section that he would go over at the beginning of each lectures, practice midterms and finals, and he even posted practice exams questions & solutions for each section of the concept covered. The reading he assigned for each problem sets are also super helpful for us to better understand the economic concepts behind math.

Again, the class is not easy. But Surro genuinely cares about his students and you will do well if you study hard for this class. The concept is so much more interesting than microeconomics too.

Surro is a great guy and great teacher with the resources he gives in homework, quizzes, practice problems, and other materials. HOWEVER, his lectures were somewhat awful, he would go over practice problems in a very rushed way for 40 minutes every class not truly explaining why he was doing what he was doing. This would leave 35 minutes to teach a whole new topic, which he rushed very fast. If you fell behind it feels like you almost can't catch up with how fast and nondescriptive he is. And with how fast he goes you will fall behind at some point. Aside from that the topic is somewhat interesting, class jumps from of topics/models frequently and tests are pretty challenging and give little time for how much there is. Still think he is the best teacher available for 102, but still doesn't mean he's perfect.

The class content is easy, extremely straight forward, however, there is a lot of work to review (weekly hw, slides, quizzes, practice problems and practice exam questions, and a whole 200-300 row excel project that takes too long for how repetitive it is). His lectures are also extremely fast paced, he doesn't clarify certain steps, relationships, or parameters, and the midterm had an average of 60+% because no one was able to finish in time. It had barely any multiple choice and even those required scratch paper to solve. But he is very giving with extra credit, hw grading, participation. This class was like the Lebron of Kelly olynyks. Better, but still Kelly olynyk-esque

Surro is such a wonderful lecturer and he definitely teaches well. We are allowed cheatsheets on both midterm and final, and we also have problem sets as a cushion for our grades. I was taking ECON 41 with Hahn along with this class and they both turned out fine. As long as you follow Surro's advice on when and how to study, an A- is guaranteed. Always do the practice problems before the lecture and use the problem set and practice problems to practice for exams.