Took him for 102, he is the absolute worst, most horrible, difficult, unrealistic, and unfair professor I’ve ever had. Cant emphasize this enough- do not, I mean, DO NOT, take this class. You will be crying, going to every single TA’s office hours panicking, and have all your hairs go white. I have been in a constant state of anxiousness for the last 10 weeks, awaiting for the moment I can give this man the worst review I could.

He’s a bad lecturer, gives the most unfair HW ever (assumes everyone knows excel at an advanced level), grades homework on accuracy, and is the most condescending, useless professor. He never answered any of my emails, and leaves the TA’s to care to the students he could care less about. In office hours, the TA’s would have to dedicate time to even try to ANSWER THE QUESTION. That’s right, PHD level Economics students couldn’t even intuitively answer the questions he gave us.

I could go on for hours about how the only way this man could be of use to UCLA students is by retiring. I hope that one day he reads this review, so he knows how much I personally loathe him. Thank you for absolutely nothing Saki!

Took ECON 102 with him but since that class isn't listed I just wanna say this guy is the worst professor I've ever had and I've had some bad ones.

I took this professor for 102 as well, and similar to the other reviews, this was by far the worst class I have ever taken at UCLA. His tests and homework caused immense levels of stress and I was genuinely lost the entire quarter aside from Week 1. He expects his students to instantly understand all of the content and complex calculus. My recommendation is to avoid this professor at all costs because I cannot imagine a professor teaching this class worse than he did.

Took saki for econ 102. I wrote a review of this prof that summarizes the class pretty well.

"Definitely one of my least favorite classes I have taken at this school for a plethora of reasons. For starters, the course material/difficulty was way harder than what it should have been. It was obvious to me this professor does not have a good understanding of what kinds of classes econ majors at UCLA take in preparation for this class. For example, there were economic concepts none of us had heard in section, and the professor just taught us these concepts under the assumption that we have already had exposure to them. This was only mildly annoying however. The thing that I really took issue with was how he expected we understood the math he used in his homework, slides, and tests. We have had exposure to most of the calculus, but he would not slow down and really explain it slowly for us. He would just have slides about the math and expect us to instantly understand it. The other things I took issue with were about the first 2 homework assignment. These took an unnecessary amount of time and effort. I like the idea of the homework because it lets us apply abstract concepts to real world examples. However, these homework assignments were executed poorly. They were excel assignments that took so so so long to complete. Moreover, he never taught us how to use excel. It took me longer to actually learn how to use excel and manipulate the data than it did to actually complete the assignment. I would have appreciated if this professor had shown people like me how to use excel beforehand instead of just saying figure it out on your own. This professor was also pretty condescending. When students asked him in lecture to modify the homework or if he could help us out a little more he acted as if we were the ones out of line. He said that he has given us all the tools for us to do the homework so we should be fine. Even though this might be true, if a majority of the class is still struggling, do your job and teach more because something clearly got lost in translation. He also said that we should be thanking him because this is practice for the real world. He said we will not always have the answers and will need to do things on our own. When I heard this I was like stfu we don't owe you anything. That excuse is the ultimate cop out.

Positives of the class: He is probably a really nice guy outside of the context of him being a professor. He invited the high scoring students on the midterm to go out to dinner with him as a reward. The professor is very passionate and knowledgeable about the material. I could tell he wants us to be passionate about macroeconomics as well. This just ain't the way to do it chief."

The grades were heavily curved which was nice, but this class wasn't worth the constant stress.
TLDR: I recommend taking this class if you hate yourself

Had him for Econ 102. While I don't think he was ill-meaning as some are writing here, his class was a pain. His slides are riddled with complex math and derivations which are a) mostly incomprehensible at an undergraduate level and b) not used in exam questions. Homework in this class is hard, graded for accuracy, and extremely lengthy. The TAs and the textbook did most of the actual teaching in this class, though they too were at times confused at the problems we would be confronted with. The material itself goes from 0 to 100 within the first three weeks, and moves on too fast for us to actually learn and comprehend much. The pros, while few, are these: lots of real world application, a fairly balanced grading scheme, and a midterm that is nearly identical to the practice exam he gives you. If you take this class, I suggest studying the textbook, shopping around for a good TA, and leaning on them heavily for explanations and questions. While Saki's class still wasn't as bad as Haanwinckel's dumpster fire last quarter, I probably would not recommend him for Econ 102 if you have other options.

Took Econ 102 with him this semester, I just want to say I'm so naive to think that get away from Daniel's Econ 101 is a relieve of my life.

In course 102, I found the material interesting and his lectures engaging. While he was difficult and the course load was tough at times I did learn a lot and found him to be one of the better professors I have had at UCLA

I would recommend at least one class with Saki. While the course is hard, it's mostly the material and he does a very good job teaching and managing the course.