Econ 1, Fall 12

Overall, one of the best professors I've had at UCLA. He is very patient and excellent at explaining things. I personally appreciated how much concern he showed for us and his willingness to help despite the class being so large. The exams were quite fair. If you study the practice problems he posts + attend his lectures, you should be fine. Awesome class and prof combo!!

I took his Econ 41. and

DON'T TAKE HIS CLASS

It is not about the class. It is about ur future.

ruined my GPA, and chinese TAs didn't help at all.

ugh. just dont take. Even my roommate, he took Econ1

was not good class tho.

I took ECON 41 (NOT STATS 11) with Prof Rojas during Winter 2011 (it was his very quarter teaching at UCLA). And, I would have to say he made "Statistics for Economists" sound a bit less intimidating.

Your grade in the class is made up of 2 midterms (20% each), homework (10%), and final (50%). I found his exams straightforward and very fair. It really helped that he passed out practice midterms because the format of the actual midterms were extremely similar. I like his lecturing style because he wrote out notes on the blackboard instead of having powerpoint slides. He seriously has the awesomest and neatest handwriting ever!!! Aside from that, he has limited office hours because he teaches about 3 classes per quarter. (He's supposedly working on his 3rd Ph.D! So he's a very busy busy man.) But, he does reply quickly back to your emails and he will throw in a some :) faces too. All in all, he's a pretty decent professor!

I only have negative thing to say: I HATE THE DANG ORANGE "A BRIEF COURSE TO MATHEMATICAL STATISTICS" TEXTBOOK. SIMPLY HORRIBLE!

This is an evaluation for his Econ 1 class.

NOT STATS: 495B.

If anything can be said about Dr. Rojas, it is that he makes fantastic powerpoint presentations. Honestly, with just his powerpoints, it is completely possible to learn everything in the course. They teach step-by-step the entire course. Provided that you read the book and go through his powerpoints, attending his lectures really isn't necessary.

My discussion was very helpful. I do not know if that is to be attributed to my TA or not but it excellently reinforced the material and allowed for questions in a way that simply isn't possible in a lecture of 406 individuals.

Courses taken: Econ 41 and Econ 103.

Hey Fellow Bruins,

Professor Rojas is an interesting guy--from his total meekness and comical degree of passivity to his weird handwriting. I will break down both Econ 41 and Econ 103 with Rojas--which were actually very different experiences.

Econ 41:
This class is ridiculously easy if you have taken a stats class in high school. Although the book is terrible and Rojas lectures are just O.K. (he speaks heavily in stats terminology in Econ 41 and sometimes it's hard for students to determine what is important or what he is saying), Professor Rojas's exams are INCREDIBLY EASY. Although I had never taken stats before in my life, the textbook was terrible, and I did not really understand lectures, I still walked away with an A-. I would take this class with him, because it's pretty easy.

Econ 103:
This course was WAY better than 41 was with Rojas. The textbook was very helpful, the lectures were much clearer, the TAs are really helpful, and 25% of your grade is based on homework which helps teach you the material and applies directly to the tests. I walked into this class with a bit of dread because Rojas had been hard to understand in Econ 41, but he teaches Econ 103 MUCH MUCH MUCH better. I would definitely recommend this class.
-The homework can take a little while, but if you do all of it, you're guaranteed 100%.
-The TAs (Seth, Amanda, and Owen) are super helpful and can clear up any questions you have.
-The tests are very easy, especially cause he gives you practice tests.
-You can teach yourself if need be from the textbook.
-Rojas lectures much better in 103 than he did in 41.

Although I didn't understand what I was doing in Econ 41, and I walked into Econ 103 with dread, I am walking away with a mastery of Econometrics and an A! Take this class with Rojas!

*Econ 1

Honestly, intro econ is so easy there's really not much you can complain about a professor for. Rojas is extremely nice and he goes over the material VERY SLOWLY. His practice exams are nearly identical to the real exams. Keep in mind that the textbook is so basic that when you see his practice exams you might go "wtf is this" but after going through it a bit, it'll start to seem really basic. One of the chillest professors here at UCLA, don't be afraid to take him!

Course Taken: Econ 41

Dr. Rojas is definitely one of the better professors here at UCLA. He's a very kind and diligent person in the way he teaches. He takes the time to answer questions and go slowly through examples, which helped me since I didn't have any stats experience coming in. Even though it was an 8 AM class, I didn't have any problems staying awake or focused since Dr. Rojas has a unique sense of humor and is actually coherent in his explanations. The other reviews were pretty accurate, as he did speak in statistics at times, and made the actual method of solving the problem unclear.

Regarding the tests, the two midterms were fair and not too difficult, and the final was challenging. The TA's in this course put a ton of effort towards helping the students, especially Amanda. Finally, the book is really bad! Do as many practice problems as you can (sometimes I actually wished I had more), and try to figure out the concept from the practice. The actual problems Dr. Rojas gives will be much more straightforward mathematically than the theorems in the book.

Took Econ 106V

To keep it short and sweet, it is a very quantitative class. The only thing you'll be solving on midterms and finals is using formulas to arrive at your answers. It was a decently hard class, but engaging and practical enough to where I feel that the material is extremely worthwhile to learn anyways.

Rojas is obviously intelligent. Perhaps too intelligent for his own good, because he tended to breeze through his PowerPoints very quickly. With that said, thank God that there are PowerPoints. His slides prepare you VERY well with regards to the material and to the tests. I just did those, the homework, and the online quizzes (not-graded). Ended up with an A+.

tl;dr - If you don't mind math and want to have good investing knowledge, take this class. Don't treat it like an easy A. Good luck and God bless.

I took Rojas for Econ 1

He went through the material relatively slow in order to ensure everyone understood the material and constantly asked if anyone had questions. He does post his power points online so going to lecture is not mandatory. He sincerely cares about the success of his students and did not curve the class to hurt anybody. There is weekly homework assignments on Mindtap which is really helpful in preparing for his exams which were all multiple choice. If you can also get your hands on past exams that is also very helpful. The final was supposed to be cumulative but heavily emphasized the chapter after the last midterm so study those well. Section is not mandatory and was not very helpful.

Overall I would recommend Rojas for Econ 1.

I like Rojas because he is pretty organized and he goes to each material slowly. But that is where it ends. For me, his lectures are boring and I find it very hard to focus in class. He has powerpoints up for every lecture and just reads off of it. He has two midterms and one final, all multiple choice, and also weekly homework. They weren't that easy. And he also makes you buy the MindTap thing, which cost almost 100 dollars.

I feel like Rojas is actually a pretty good lecturer. It just so happens that I took him for Econ 2, which is a lot of theory and concepts, and that made the lectures dry. I feel that taking Rojas in a more mathematics-heavy course would actually work better for him due to his slow and methodical teaching style.