To be honest, this class was brutal. It's not one of those classes where are you have to do is watch lectures and you'll get an A. It's one of those where you have to do a lot of self-study and going to office hours a lot. He did post-practice exams, questions, and quizzes that all help with fully understanding the material that'll help you with the test. The quizzes are extra credit so that'll also give a boost to your grade. My advice for this class would be to fully understand the material, not just memorize equations and graphs, that'll help in the long run.

PS: Textbooks help for a deeper understanding but you don't need it for the class, lecture notes should be enough

I found Econ 102 with Professor Surro to be one of the most interesting Econ courses I have taken so far. He supplements the problem sets with relevant reading about macroeconomics, making sure that students gain a working understanding of applications in the real-world economy, not just a simplified, theoretical model. There weren't many problem sets during the quarter, and each could easily be knocked out in one day if you understood the lecture material. We took one midterm and a final, neither of which were easy A's. Comfortability with math is a plus. There is also a final project that is given after the first midterm. There is plenty of time to work on it, and it isn't too bad if you don't wait until the last minute. The project focuses on working with Excel to help you build valuable career skills. After the final, some people were upset that he promised a curve and didn't deliver. In reality, he promised a score range for the median grade, which was reached without a curve. Surro is a great professor and fun to talk to outside of class. I will definitely be watching for more classes to take with him.

THIS WAS THE BEST ECONOMICS CLASS I HAVE TAKEN! The structure of the class was conducive to learning, for a few reasons:

-Short quizzes (credit for completion) after every lecture let you stay on track with material. You know what concepts you should have gotten from the lecture and if you didn't understand quiz questions it was easy to just go back and review the lecture slides. This is unlike other econ classes where you are unsure of what you need to know and to what depth you need to understand material until practice problems are released (or even worse for some classes just midterms).

-The Solow Excel project was a great way to learn excel. Felt very relevant to future job demands. Also a great way to review class concepts. Felt like my time was well spent while working on this project.

-It is very clear what is expected of you on exams. Surro explicitly says that 80% of test material will be similar to questions we have seen (quizzes, problem sets, practice midterms) and 20% will be new questions where we must apply the knowledge.

-Surro is a good lecturer. He explains concepts well. Powerpoints well organized.

-There is material to work with. When studying for the final, I could review the quizzes, problem sets, practice midterm, solow excel project, and practice final. A lot of problems to work with along with organized lectures = easy studying.

I was never stressed taking this class, but not because the material was easy, because Surro was a great teacher with a well-organized class. Would 100% recommend anyone to take this class.

I highly recommend taking Professor Surro for Econ 102. Lectures were pre-recoded and 45 minutes, with a 30 minute live portion during class time. The live portion consisted of doing practice problems related to the lecture, plus office hours at the end. There were 2 open note exams (30% and 45%, or 75% for the final if you improve), an Excel project (15%), HW (10%), and optional quizzes. The optional quizzes added points to the numerator and denominator of the total number of points in the class, which helped pad grades. Professor Surro is a clear lecturer with good slides, exams were tough but fair, and office hours and the Campuswire forum helped a lot with the Excel project, HW questions, and understanding the material in general. Overall I would definitely take this class again, or any other Econ class, with Professor Surro.

My FAVORITE class ever!!! If you can, please choose Chris at all cost. He is the best! I really love his teaching philosophy, that it is more important for student to understand the class materials than simply getting an easy A. Sometimes it is really tempting to choose some 'easy classes' but I feel like I did not learning anything at the end of the day. For this class, yes it is not that easy, but I did feel I learn a LOT and fall into deeper love with Economics.

A few tips for this class(I hope they are useful):
1. Do all the problem sets and quizzes, even if they are not required. The quizzes are super easy, but the problem sets may be a bit more challenging, and more on the intuition side of the problem. But since the midterm and final have a bunch of questions that requires us to understand those intuition, it would be better just to do all the problem sets.
2. Go to office hours!! Chris is super helpful and approachable, and he can explain everything in a logical manner.

In short, I really really really recommend taking Econ 11 with Chris!!! You will learn more than you expected. : )

!!Don't take this class if you want to get an A!!
I agree that Surro is a great lecturer who explains everything clearly and is really helpful. However, he is a tough grader. The midterm and final is about 70% of the total grade, and the class average for each exam is approximately 75% everytime. Surro promised us that there will be a curve to adjust the mean to B/B+ range, but he went back on his words and did not curve at last. I put in a lot of effort and got 88% on my exams, and I ended up with an A- at last. It was frustrating to see his email notifying us that he won't curve, and I would say that similar scores for other econ dept courses will definitely get some kind of curve.

Tried hard, Failed hard

If I know about this beforehand, wouldn’t take the class

DO NOT TAKE A CLASS WITH SURRO!! BY FAR THE WORST PROFESSOR I HAVE EVER HAD AND THE WORST GRADE I HAVE EVER GOTTEN. VERY CHALLENGING TESTS. HE TOLD US THE CLASS AVERAGE WOULD BE A B+ FOR FINAL GRADES AND IT WAS AROUND A B-. He didn't even curve 1% after saying earlier in the quarter that he wants the average to be way higher. Just don't take this with him he's just one of the worst professors ever.

While I think Professor Surro himself has good intentions and cares about his students, this class will seriously make you consider switching your major. The material is so extensive, there are so many exceptions to every rule you learn, and the midterm and final are the only things you really get graded on. He does offer a 3% grade boost through problem sets though.
Unless you have a strong grasp on conceptual economics and problem application, this class will be one of the hardest to take at UCLA. Make sure you're positive about Econ before taking it because it is a weed out class and you could end up with a C all for nothing. And please do all four steps he lists for success on the syllabus off the bat from week 1, I didn't and I definitely paid for it. Also don't bother getting a tutor, it won't help and you'll just be out hundreds of dollars.

This was a HARD class but Professor Surro gives a lot of resources to be successful. He uploads typed notes for every topic/class that are pretty detailed, assigns post lecture quizzes, and weekly problem sets. All quizzes and problem sets are graded on completion. These assignments are also optional (if desired, your whole grade could be based off of exams). However, the class is a point-based system that puts most of the weight on the midterm and the final. The midterm is 150 points and the final is 300 points, with the problem sets/quizzes being 150 points total. That being said, the exams are tough in that they really test your understanding of the concepts vs. memorizing the process (Surro highly emphasizes this throughout the quarter). Surro is a good lecturer in that he really hones in on these concepts, but his practice problems are normally easier than the exams, the one thing I disliked. Surro also will answer any questions (usually through Campuswire) quickly.

TLDR: Good professor, hard tests. Econ 11 is a notoriously difficult class and I would say Surro is your best bet.