Idk what's wrong with these comments. This is a great professor.

So, he changed up the format for the class. Going forward, it's not as mathematically challenging as it was before. Although, there is still a decent amount of math. Think derivatives, partials, and algebra. He's there for you during office hours and after class. Some of the material will seem confusing, but it's confusing because the material is inherently confusing. I would read everything he hands out, all the extra info and whatnot. I liked him, he was a really cool guy. And the curve was pretty generous. I got mid 70s and that was an A-. Anything above an 80 would have been an A. Also, do all the problems he assigns. AND ASK QUESTIONS. THE MORE QUESTIONS YOU ASK, THE SLOWER HE WILL GO DURING LECTURE.

Professor Geerolf is amazing. Given that, the class is HARD. His class is also more mathematical than most macroeconomics classes, but it is also incredibly up to date. He updates his material regularly and makes sure to provide you with both sides of the story so that you're not easily fooled by macroeconomists and politicians. He literally mentions in his first week of lectures that a good reason to learn economics is to not be deceived by economists, and this is a big theme in what he chooses to focus on. He provides a narrative to economics that most professors completely ignore, making the class endlessly more interesting Geerolf himself clearly cares about his students, is very kind and welcoming, and consistently asks if anyone has any questions. He will stay behind for office hours and address each concern.

All this being said, this is not an easy A. I must highlight this: the class is difficult. The math is not very difficult once you understand what it is trying to say, but the process to reach this understanding will take a bit. And, if you make a mistake similar to mine and assume that "it'll all be okay" in the midterm because you understand the concept but not the math (or vice versa): don't.

this class made me start smoking cigarettes again. very interesting class tho, in retrospect

102 is a hard class. Regardless of who teaches it, the material itself is challenging. BUT the professor you take it with can either make or break the class for you. I didn't do very well in this class, but I admit that I got a bit lazy in the end and didn't study as hard as I should've for the final. With that being said, however, Geerolf was a great guy! I was hesitant to take the class with him because he had such bad reviews, but he changed the format of the class and made it so that it's not too math intensive. He was extremely patient with the class and put up with all the questions we asked during lecture. He was also very responsive on CCLE and answered pretty much any question that was posted on there (and trust me, there was a LOT). He's funny and I don't think he even tries to be. He's just naturally goofy and a little odd at times. Tests are challenging but I'm sure that with more time and more concentration, I would've done considerably better. If I could retake this class, I would definitely take it with him but I would also definitely spend more time studying for his tests.

very interesting class. what is wrong with you people?

This class is a total NIGHTMARE. I've never felt so confused or frustrated. This class literally destroyed me. Now I'm half through the quarter and have no idea what to do. I wished I had listened to the reviews here. The professor is a nice and kind person. However his lecture is impossible for me to neither follow nor understand anything. There are a thousands of symbols and notations but he never explain any of them. I am a Math major and this class is a thousand times more confusing than any of the math classes I've taken.
Again total nightmare.

He put a lot of effort in teaching this class, and really want his students to do well and learn a lot. (I guess more on second one, since it is standard grade distribution anyway). I put four times more effort in this one than in Econ101 and Econ103, and reviewed for entire two days and a few nights before final exam. The readings are annoying, but you can learn a lot from them, and to pass the exam, you only need to look at the answers to the reading questions in his pRobles sets. He really likes to use questions from previous exams (including mdt and previous years’ exam), and I feel like over 70% points in final are from previous tests.
Be prepared to learn a lot, but also putting in a huge amount of time. As previous comments said, I also respect his unbiased way of teaching macro. The materials he wrote by himself as course material are so complete that can even be published in the future (I guess).
In the second half of final, since people pooled to have less math in test, he didn’t include anything in redistributive policy in final, and also public debts, which are the two most math heavy sections.
Anyway, you still need a solid (if not excellent) math background.
Also, special thanks to Conor Foley, who answered numerous questions in detail on Campuswire.

Prof. Geerolf is definitely a smart guy but his lectures are extremely hard to follow. If you aren't very comfortable with calculus or math at all, take the class with another professor. He is really nice and interesting but the course itself was very difficult to get through and I mainly relied on my TA for help.

PLEASE READ IF YOU ARE THINKING ABOUT TAKING HIM

Professor Geerolf is undeniably very knowledgeable and adept when it comes to Macroeconomics. However, I feel that it does make it difficult for him to understand that, as students, we are seeing a lot of these concepts for the first time and it takes a lot of time, effort, and commitment to fully understand everything the way he expects us to. I feel like he casually uses a lot of unfamiliar terminology and concepts that he somehow expects us to already know.

Everything was very disorganized because he makes his own material and has his own site that he uses with CCLE so you really had to keep switching around and clicking links to find the material. THERE IS NO TEXTBOOK TO FALL BACK TO IF YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND HIS NOTES. (And his notes are difficult to follow along.) I really had to search the internet for pdfs of econ textbooks. That made everything much easier to understand. We had barely any homework, but do not let that fool you; this class requires a lot of hard work if you want to do well, and even then, a good grade is difficult to achieve. It is easy to feel ENTIRELY LOST in this class. So lost, you do not even know what questions to ask.

In addition, because of COVID, he changed his exam structure from a little math to essentially no math at all. Personally, I would have really preferred the math because all his notes are about the math, we spent most of the class discussing it, and if you understand it, the calculations are quite simple. Instead we were tested on almost all theory, which we never went over. I read through all the chapters on his website and watched all the lectures and could not reason out most of the exam questions afterwards. What you will be tested on is ALWAYS UNEXPECTED so there is no way to really prepare or focus on certain areas ("everything mentioned is testable material"). You have just got to go through all of it and it's almost impossible to keep up with all the additional readings and have all the information retain. We were expected to understand a lot about how specific theorists think and the various takes on economics. (Neoclassical, Keynesian, etc.) He has had many years to understand all of this but trying to make sense of it all in just one quarter is a little unreasonable to me.

I think with COVID this class is just even harder. There are some people that just clicked with this class, but if you are not one of those people, no amount of hard work or dedication will pay off, even if you are a relatively smart person. I came from an extremely competitive high school and had a 3.86 GPA for my first two years of college. I am the kind of person that is more than willing to put in ungodly amounts work but will get very dejected if there are no pay offs. That is this class; it has been the WORST I HAVE EVER TAKEN. I got nothing out of it. I know that a lot of my classmates felt this way too. Please do yourself a favor and do not take it. He seems like a nice person, but it will either be a hit or miss for you. And if you do, do not rely on the curve because if you do not understand the theory, it really does not matter.

Professor Geerolf, if you ever read this, I am doing my best to be kind and reasonable, but this is my honest experience. Sorry :(