Project codes (got A's on everything) and spreadsheet available, ema!l me @ ************* at gma!l

The most useful class an Economics major at UCLA can take. Super helpful and applicable skills that make you a very valuable hire, especially in finance and consulting. Rojas is a great professor, though the class was tough, it was very fair and he's the best Economics lecturer I've had to far. The workload for this class is very heavy, especially if you are newer to R-Studio. I would spend from 10-14 hours on projects and HW every week. The midterm and final were fair and the class is curved. I'd take it again.

With all the bad stuff I'd heard about this class and the difficult time I had in Econ 41 (took it with Rojas, got a B-) I really expected 103 to be rougher than it was. Rojas is super nice and tries his best to make the material interesting and clear. He moves at a manageable pace and has very neat, easy to read handwriting. I never downloaded R or Stata or tried to learn either of them beyond what the outputs meant in the problem sets. I did most of the practice problems, went to my TA's office hours before exams, and came out the other end with a B+. You'll probably do better than me if you have any interest in statistics or programming.

I took Econ 2 and Econ 41 with Rojas, so I knew what to expect in terms of lecture and exam style prior to coming into this class. I definitely think that I made the right choice taking 103 with him as well. He is extremely thorough and clear, and both of his midterms and the final were fair. I definitely suggest buying the textbook and reading the chapters covered in class, because the book goes over example problems and provides more detail than he is able to provide during lecture. We did not have any lab problem sets, so I never downloaded or learned how to code Stata (which is a requirement for some other 103 professors). Therefore, lab discussions will be pretty useless if your TA spends a lot of time covering Stata coding and not on conceptual material. You will need to learn how to interpret Stata outputs in order to do well on the exams, but everything you need to know is covered during Rojas’ lab lectures. I stopped doing the discussion and homework book problems after the first midterm because I didn’t think that they were representative of the questions he asks on exams (ended up being more confusing than helpful), and instead I focused on reviewing practice exams. I did almost exactly average on the first midterm and the final, and 10% above average on the second midterm, and with the curve I ended up with a B+.

The lab lectures were theoretically supposed to teach you R and apply the concepts from regular lecture to coding. However, there were no basics given, so it was really hard to keep up early on in the quarter. Later in the quarter, he gave up on connecting the material to lecture and instead would talk about stocks and machine learning, neither of which were relevant to the homeworks or exams. The only good part about this entire class were the TAs since they were really available to help us try to make sense of the material. When Rojas did actually go over coding material that was related to lecture, it was usually something from the homework that would be due THAT DAY. By this point, most of the class had already taught themselves the concept and googled how to code it into their homework, rendering the lecture useless. Overall, the lab lectures were a waste of time and didn't integrate well into the course.

Worst class I took as a freshman. The professor sounds like he's AI generated because of how boring he is and the grade distribution is ridiculous. There's no homework which is good, but it also means that each midterm is worth 25% and the final is worth 50%. Additionally, the averages were all pretty low for the tests (very low Bs for the midterms and D+ for the final). Going to class feels useless because you end up having to teach yourself everything and the TAs for this class also suck. Moral of the story, don't take this class unless you absolutely have to for your major.

idk why rojas has so much hate on bruinwalk. his lectures were super clear and engaging and he won't test on material that he doesn't fully cover. his tests were challenging but the multiple practice exams he provides are really good prep. compared to other econ professors I've had/currently am taking class with he's my fave. <3

This class was an ABSOLUTE NIGHTMARE. If you have to take Econ 1, DO NOT take it with Rojas!!!!!

No assignments, no quizzes, no extra credit, no participation grade, nothing. Just two midterms (25% weight each) and a final (50% weight). The professor says that by completing the practice problems on Mindtap we should be well prepared for the exams. This is a lie. The questions on Mindtap are easy and give zero indication of if you'll do well on the real exams or not. The actual test questions are much more application based and require a deep understanding of the material (an understanding that is almost impossible to reach given the professor's lack of support).

Both midterms are incredibly brutal, the questions are designed to confuse students and trip them up. Even after weeks of studying and practicing the material, I still did very badly on both midterms. The only reason why I managed to get a B on the final was because I buried myself in the material for weeks leading up to it. I re-read every single chapter in the textbook, watched videos on khan academy, and did countless problems on Mindtap. This is an obscene amount of time devoted to one class that is meant to be a basic introduction to microeconomics. And yet I still ended with a C- overall.

I took AP Micro and AP Macro in high school and assumed that I would be well prepared for econ 1 this quarter. No matter how well you think you understand economics, Rojas will find a way to make you fail. Whatever you do, do not take this class if you care about your GPA.

I actually expected to get an A and ended up getting A-. I guess it's because Rojas's teaching was pretty clear and straightforward. I think the median and average is better than I expected, feels like everyone did pretty well. So I am only at around 30% ranking and ended up getting an A-. The contents were pretty easy, and there are a lot of old midterms in coursehero, especially mdt one. go look for it and then practice a lot, try to get very high scores in the 1st mdt because it's very easy but some people still do bad. Students tend to perform better in 2nd mdt and final, so doing well in mdt 1 can really help you gain some advantage and eventually secure an A.

The professor feels quite lazy with the way he teaches, only reading off of the slides the entire quarter. The way the grades are structured are a nightmare for those who are poor test takers; AKA: 2 mid terms and a final. Also his canvas is UNORGANIZED. Alas, this course has made me realize that I had to switch my major out of Business Economics, so a win is a win I guess.