Took him a couple summers back. Ridiculously hard tests, cynical attitude, treated me like I was an idiot when I went to his office hours. Also, I have a very high GPA and busted my balls in his class all summer, was rewarded with a solid B. Thanks, Swanson! NEVER take him, you will end up with nothing but regrets.

I am betting all the negative reviews are from people that didn't study and wanted an easy class. You HAVE to study for Swanson, because like everyone says, he doesn't give much time for the test.

His lectures are fine. He has interesting stories, and pokes fun at different parts of society. He can probably offend some people, but what he says is pretty much the truth.

He is always in his office during office hours, and is willing to help. Don't be afraid to approach him, but just don't say anything stupid.

His class is very doable, you just have to study and work fast through the tests.

Extremely cynical professor. He doesn't really care about his students, but he does know what he is talking about. If you pay really close attention in lecture, and do the required reading, you can easily get a good grade in the class. I got a C, I didn't study at all for the midterms. He is pretty funny with all the jokes he makes about the US Government and GW Bush.

Swanson is by far the WORST professor I have ever had. His basic teaching technique is explaining topics with complicated graphs with unecessary abbreviations. The book, on the other hand, explains everything very clearly and simply with very few graphs, yet this knowledge is insufficient for the exam. Prof Swanson then goes on to make endless cracks about beer, marriage/family, UCLA, the government, etc. He tries to justify these useless comments by claiming that his views are from economics, and some of them are. But the rest certainly has little to do with anything related to macroeconomics, and Swanson just comes off as bitter and arrogant. One not-nearly-redeeming quality is that he takes an extra hour to go over exams, which is very considerate, but not very helpful since he's just reviewing things we haven't really learned in the first place.

I don't like this guy. He puts things on tests that are not in the book. His lectures are a waste of time. Also, he is not concerned about student learning at all, instead it seems that he wants students to do worse with his impossible fast tests that test more how fast you are than how well you know economics. Probably the worst prof. I ever took at UCLA.

Swanson is hard...his tests actually make you think. Unfortunate so many students seem to equate a professor who makes you work for a grade with a bad professor. He may be hard, but I feel he's fair and he's easy to question. He would go over the exam's after passing them out. He would give answers to every question and have good explanations for the answers. Regarding lecture, the lecture notes are too cryptic for me so I attended lecture. I also liked hearing his cynical comments. Most people find it annoying, but one thing to appreciate about him is how brutally honest he is. He's an economist and economists think in terms of economic efficiency, not human emotion or feeling. I doubt most people can accept that and that's probably why most people don't like him. Course, that's also why those people won't make good economists. Anyway, I think Swanson is actually a really nice guy. If you talk to him, he's cool about things...as long as you don't ask a lot of dumb questions(like one girl in my class) and you don't waste his time in general. Maybe that equates to him not caring about the students, but this WAS econ 2 during the summer...I was probably one of the only econ majors there. I plan on taking a class with him again. PS: don't write "essays" on his essay questions. Unless you can blaze through short answer and multiple choice real fucking fast (and I'm generally not slow myself), bullet or number your points for the essay questions. He actually told us to do that after the first midterm.

Swanson wasn't the greatest professor in the world but he wasn't that bad. Pay attention and take notes in lecture, read the book (although it sometimes doesn't relate at all, it explains things well when it does), and know your stuff before his exams. Back and forth. Upside down. Inverted, even. Don't spend much time on the multiple choice: 15 minutes, max. Focus on the short answer (where the points are). Don't write long flowery sentences explaining things, he doesn't care. Bullet or number your main points. For the essay, someone on this site recommended numbering the sentences then writing the number and your analysis; it was an awesome suggestion I did much better than I might have because of this. Good luck!

professor swanson aka talking lecture notes is not the worst teacher ever. he is simply just as good of a teacher as we would be ebcause all he does is read the lecture notes and draw graphs. when hes not doing that hes usually being pretty cynical and sometimes funny but it seems like he hates everything that isnt beer. take this class p/np because his tests are graded by non-english speaking ta's who usually dont award more than 1/6th credit for the essays. im out

i dont know what everyone is complaining about, i took him for econ 2, and it was pretty easy. all you have to do is read the study guide and go over the TA's notes for the exams, and you'll be fine. the exams are pretty long but the curves are great. i recomend him for econ 2, he made the subject very simple and easy to understand and get interested in.

He is very opinated man. Half the time he's talking about crap not even related to economics like religion or human cloning.