This guy shouldn't be teaching. I mean really, absurd homeworks, tests totally deviate from any textbook or any macroeconomic curriculum. Not really approachable. C'mon UCLA, never a world class university with professors like Geerolf....

This class is a complete and utter nightmare. I've never felt more stressed and confused from a class here at UCLA. Having taken numerous weeder courses in the past, this class definitely tops the list of being the worst one I've taken yet. He's a very nice professor and will do his best to help you, but know that his lectures (both online and in-class) are nearly IMPOSSIBLE to follow and you WILL remain confused the entire quarter unless you decide to invest an ungodly amount of time into teaching yourself.

This class should not be a hard class, the material was extremely easy, especially compared to Econ 101.
However, this class was HORRIBLE and it was extremely stressful and hard solely because of the professor!!!! He is SO disorganized and mocks you if you ask questions during lecture (even though he prompts you to ask questions). He cannot give a straight answer on anything and literally is the WORST. I regret ever going to the lectures because it was a waste of my time and money.
The grading is an optional midterm (it stays if it helps your grade and is dropped if it hurts your grade) and a final. I skipped the midterm because I was so confused on what he would test on. The un-curved grades on the midterm and final were so low!! But after the curve I got a A-. I simply read the slides and the textbook and got an A- without any help from the professor.
But I spent the entire quarter stressed and confused.

I have a midterm Monday and I'm here because I feel so lost and frustrated. I know it's my fault for letting myself get so behind but I've never struggled this badly before in any econ class or any class for that matter at UCLA. I legitimately fear failing this class and I wish I could drop it but it's impacted despite only about 150 students being enrolled out of 320 availability. I am so. Screwed. Lectures (in person and online) are confusing and hard to follow and Problem Sets are difficult and hard to solve without looking at the answer sheet. Previous years' midterm questions are difficult and specific and I don't know what to do. I've been studying for this midterm for a long time, mind you this is not my first weekend studying for this class. I guess this will be the first class I fail here at UCLA

This was the worst experience I had in UCLA . This professor does not know how to teach at all, and you will most likely not do well on the final or the midterm. Only 9 people got an 90 or above on the midterm and only 10 people got a 90 or above on the final AND the class was over 200 students. Don’t even bother. He will lead you to think the exam is going to be easy and you will have no clue what is going on. Geerolf is a nice guy but a horrible Professor that does not know how to guide his students correctly to pass the class. ITS A WASTE OF TIME HE IS SO BAD

Just to give you an indicator of how hard this class was for me - I got As in every other class at UCLA except for this class and one other (accounting). I got a C+ in this class so yeah it screwed my GPA for the rest of college. I remember just being in awe at how hard the tests were - from how I remember it, it was like having to write out the proofs on the test rather than solve it with actual numbers. This made no sense to me and no matter how hard I studied, I got my worst grades of college.

In office hours, I found Professor Geerolf was very interesting to speak with, but his teaching just did not make sense to me for whatever reason. Do with this what you will - maybe it was just me.

Professor Geerolf is one of the harder 102 professors. He makes the course very hard and you have to study a lot for exams. However, he does a great job tying the class to real life, and by the end of the course you will be very well versed on the material. If you want an easier A for 102, I would not recommend.

This class was horrible. The professor was not prepared for online instruction. We did not know how the Exams were going to be given, or really what information was going to be tested. His exams were tricky and confusing. I would not take this professor again. Many of us were struggling and the averages for exams were extremely low. He did not seem to really care much about the difficulties of online school.
I am extremely unhappy with my grade and would not recommend taking it with this professor. Do yourself a favor.

This class was extremely frustrating because this professor was not clear on what topics are important and how best to prepare for the exams. He literally sent us an email of midterm/final material covered less than 24 hours before the actual test. Further, he did not know how to work an apple pencil for the first four weeks of class so he just went over all math equations from his lecture notes which was incredibly confusing and hard to process/learn from. When he did finally get his pen working, it was still unclear what items were important. There was a lot of stress when it came to preparing for exams, because it was so difficult to know what to study.
BOTTOM LINE: DON'T TAKE THIS PROFESSOR unless you want to suffer.

I don't usually write reviews but DO NOT take ECON102 with Geerolf.

(1) This class is extremely disorganized. The lectures seemed fine but they are completely different from the material you see on the problem sets and the tests.

(2) Geerolf either never responds to your emails, or replies one week later. Please do not expect to receive any replies from him.

(3) TAs are useless, perhaps due to the very messy class, but I virtually learned nothing in TA sessions. I did reach out to my TA when I encountered a topic that needed clarification. In one email, his response was **a Wikipedia link** to the name of the topic. In another one, he wrote that he **did not know** how to reach the answer either. I have heard similar comments from other students about other TAs.

Multiple students have complained to the department. As usual, our all-highness-econ-department responded with non-practical solutions such as asking the students to attend alternative TA sessions and communicating with the professor. Please also note that we have implemented these suggestions prior to the complaint and (obviously) they did not work.

Anw for the sake of mankind, please avoid Geerolf. His lectures do not worth a good few thousand dollars. Action speaks louder than words.