I do not even want to beat around the bush, this class was so much more difficult than it needed to be because of this professor. Other professors teaching this class use multiple choice (at least over COVID) and this one made each test free response. The partial credit he gives is little to none and even when you ask for a regrade, he will "threaten" your grade by saying it will lower it rather than increase it.

The class is dependent upon 3 tests: midterm 1, midterm 2 (held during week 10), and the final.

Do not take this class if you can, there is no reason to tank your GPA or give yourself such a hard time.

Professor Vogel was not a great prof. I didn't like how the entire class was comprised of 2 midterms and 1 final. Also midterm 2 is during week 10 for some reason which sucked. There wasn't a lot of practice material which made it hard to study for the class and live lectures were pretty messy and not that helpful. The exams were also pretty hard.

I first want to thank my amazing TA Raja Chandni for getting me through this course, she is a literal godsend and I would take her again in a heartbeat for any future courses. Now moving onto the review of the course/professor, I'd say firstly DO NOT BE FOOLED BY THE LIGHT WORKLOAD. Yes, there are no problem sets, but the exams Vogel gives are hard as shit and only have 6-8 questions. During COVID, this class was completely asynchronous which made it so much harder to stay motivated and on track (made no better by the fact that Vogel has the most monotone voice in the world). I'd say his lecturing style and slides are not the best, but not the worst either, and I came out of each lecture knowing like most of the material (like I said though, idk if I'd have learned anything fully if not for my TA). Capitalize on the relatively easier first midterm to cushion you for the second one/final and review his practice exams/extra questions like they're the bible. I'd go above and beyond to really understand the material, as Vogel throws curveballs and new types of problems on exams, which are pretty easy if you understand the underlying concepts. Good luck

Vogel is a very smart guy. He kinda sounds like the dude in khan academy... just my opinion. Anyways the course overall is not bad from what I heard from my friends who already took this class. Vogel is very clear in what he wants his students to learn and which topics he covers. His slides are legit what you should know along with the problems he adds on the slides. Despite him not giving any hw with no workload whatsoever, you should solve every material he does give to you to be prepared for the midterm. I personally solved all the problems he used to explain on the slides, the discussion problems, and finally the past midterms he gave out in that order. My TA was Fan Jingyu, she saved my ass. She is a very quiet TA that gives off a vibe that she doesn't know the material well but bro she knows what she is doing. If she does TA again I would recommend her. Anyways if you want to get the grade that you think you deserve put in the time and effort. Don't leave anything for the last min cause that won't do you good. Even if you feel the discussion sections are worthless, just go cause it does help you out in the end. Vogel, explains everything pretty clearly and his exams are fair it won't be difficult if you understood the material and went over to solve the problems he gave on the slides on your own. I hated all the econ classes until this one. So don't weigh heavy on what other reviews are written here cause the experience of the course all boils down to how you took it in and how hard you worked hard to understand the material. This is in fact no easy A or easy class with whichever professor you take it with but I would recommend Vogel. Best of luck!

Absolutely terrible professor. Makes things infinitely harder than it needs to be. He is honestly so stupid and ridiculous at times. The entire course has 3 exams, two midterms and a final. There were eight total questions from all of these exams.

Meaning yes, your entire grade is dependent on 8 questions. He does not know how to relate to students and thinks he is teaching a bunch of PhD students. I hated him and the course and his overcomplicated notation. He comes off as a chill guy, but makes the stupidest exams. He is not worth taking for 101, especially if trying to get into BizEcon. His first exam was like two questions, 50 points each. ridiculous.

I'm glad he is bald, he deserves it.

It is vital to know that this class defines sink or swim. There is almost no handholding on the math and he only goes over how to do questions that appear on the exams once.

Vogel's lectures were pretty entertaining and clear. He comes off as pretentious and pretty douchy at times, but he's brilliant. Also, he treats his students as if the material is obvious, which is pretty annoying when you have to self-teach yourself how he arrived at that solution.

Additionally, his last midterm is scheduled for the last day of class, and its much more brutal than the first. It's annoying that we go straight from midterm to final, but Vogel said he hated studying in college, so he likes to minimize as much as possible. Pretty damn funny ngl.

The best advice for the exams is to learn by doing as much as possible. He posts all his previous year's exams, so grind away on those. Also, be careful because he grades harshly and there is almost zero margin for error. A couple of algebra mistakes will tank your entire course grade.

Overall, will definitely take Vogel again, just know what you are getting yourself into.

IN DEPTH (non-serious) VOGEL ECON 101 REVIEW:

I want to start with this: this class was so so much easier in content to me than Econ11. If you struggled with Econ11 being hella mathy with no explanation, you'll be happy to know that there is way less math (in my opinion) here! For context, I was pretty damn sure I was going to fail Econ 11 -- I didn't, but finished with a score that left me honestly not sure if I would be able to keep my major. This class totally saved me. It is far more conceptual with easier math. The tests are EXTREMELY similar in content to the past midterms/finals he posts and the content he asks you to solve is entirely fair in my opinion.

However... what screws people over is the ATROCIOUS grading rubric. That shit is absolutely UNFORGIVING. It's basically all or nothing. You make one little algebra mistake, you're literally like fucked lol. You are essentially getting no points for that question, and there are only ever like 7-8 questions per exam. Again though, as I said, the content tested is totally fair and won't be by any means much different from previous years. But, skate with caution, because the ice is thin.

The lectures were honestly decent. Vogel beats around the bush a lot, but honestly if you're an English person Vogel makes sense, and isn't impossible to follow. For those who are more math oriented, you may struggle. The lectures/slides don't really matter too much when reviewing though, so it's nbd. I went back to the recorded lectures maybe a handful of times to get a maybe 30 second clip of him explaining something I otherwise didn't know how to do, and then go back to figuring it out on my own.

What absolutely blew, though, was reviewing for the final. The content randomly combines itself out of nowhere, and you just are left to figure it out by yourself. Like, I swear to god, the content I saw from previous finals had me slamming my face into my keyboard trying to understand the 30 step convoluted explanation. Moreover, sometimes he also just writes the algebra weird in his explanations, so you're staring at the steps entirely in the dark. Then, you just start solving it with the previous steps, and realize he just wrote it in a non-intuitive way, and you just wasted 20+ minutes trying to figure out how he got from step 4 to step 5. Just keep going, is my best advice for when this happens.

TA's really make or break this class (as is with most classes at UCLA, if we are being real lol). The discussion content is clutch and shows you how the material could be used in different ways you don't expect. Go to section, it will absolutely set you up for the dub.

I can't lie -- Vogel is a GENEROUS ass curver. He seemed personable when I talked to him, too. He definitely enjoys banter. I ended with a grade in this class that I couldn't believe. I got an F on the first midterm, but bounced after doing well on the final and second midterm. He said around like 30% fall within A range, and 35% within B range. I feel like he is more generous than these percents let on, though.

TLDR; Vogel is by no means bad. Learn how to do all the content on the previous midterms/finals/discussions he provides for you and you will be so fly for this class. Learning by doing is the KEY to this class. Good luck dudes! It's doable!!

1) Hard to approach this professor’s support for understanding the concept. During the quarter, he rarely responds to emails. I joined his office hour a few times, he was really ruled. I can give an example here: I was confused by a slide. It stated, “If this market were competitive, the output would be Q* and the price would be P*.” I asked him why because I remembered MC=AC was a break-even price from Econ 11 and the optimal should be MR=MC which is Q** and P**. Having asked that, he responded with a really negative tone, “It is because you did not study Econ 11 well, and I am not gonna teach you Econ 11 here.” He humiliated his student in front of the entire class and then moved on to the next student’s question completely disregarding his student's comprehension of the slide, this was not the only time.

2) Students in this class received unequal resources from him. We were tested on a question in the second midterm that we were not taught during class. The question was on game theory but 3 players were involved instead of the typical two players that the lecture talked about. The question was graded heavily as it was worth 26.31% (25/95) of our grade pertaining to midterm two. I found out later that some students were taught how to do this kind of question before the midterm during professor Vogel’s office hours.

3) The grade is NOT transparent and fair. In the email he sent to all students he said, “I will not share the specific grade cutoffs.” The students don’t have the right to know why they get the grade they received. We were blinded. This is a pre-major class that is really important to us since it is affecting our future careers. I understand the professor has the right to grade students. However, it should be fair and transparent.

Speaking of a fair grade... If, after you heard all this, you still going to take his class, that means you must be "have to take this class", then go for it at this point. Otherwise, avoid him!

You either get a professor who doesn't know how to teach but gives easy exams or a professor who knows how to teach really well but gives difficult exams. Vogel is the second type. He knows how to teach really well and is very helpful during office hours. His exams are difficult (the practice 2019 Fall exams seemed very easy compared to Fall 2020) and he does not give extra credit. However, he does have a VERY generous curve. I highly recommend taking this class with him as you will learn the material very well.

Well. To be honest with y'all, those bad and good reviews of this prof, I can only say half of them are correct and half are not. What I want to discuss here is not how hard or easy to get an A in his class, what I want to talk about is if this prof is really helping you and efficiently teaching you in your academic life or not. Unfortunately, the answer is NO. He does not give you homework at all, so when you are preparing for your test, there would not be a lot of material you can review. Little workload will make you not remember a single term after years. If you plan to get a job in the future that's related to the professional knowledge you would learn in your major classes, DO NOT TAKE THIS PROF'S CLASS. If you are taking this class for fun, then whatever.