DON'T TAKE HIM. His exams are extremely long. The final is really hard. For the midterms: just study the TA's notes. For the final: that's hard. You should read the textbook. His lectures are useless.

Don't take this prof! He is a really bad lecturer. You won't really get anything from his lectures and even if you pay attention at 8 am, you might not do well in your exams. His midterms were not that difficult but his FINAL was a killer! It was too much info and almost impossible to understand anything from his lecturing. Plus, it's so boring you'll fall asleep anyway or just not go to class, more than half the people enrolled never went to class anyway.

Instead of going through all the fluff in the other reviews, here's what you need to know:

Swanson's exams are based on his lectures. Swanson's lecture notes are posted online. So why go to class? Yeah it is hard to keep awake in an Econ class at eight in the morning but it might just help you understand that one concept on the notes all the much better. Try to come to class if you can, but if you can't...it's all about the online notes...=).
TA--if you can, try to get Dee...she's a key to succeeding in Swanson's Econ 2 class.

Preparing for the exams--MOST IMPORTANTLY,STUDY THE NOTES CAREFULLY! read the book and if possible, try to do the optional problems he assigns. Swanson's tests are looong for the amount of time given so PACE yourself VERY WELL.At the end of each exam are essay questions that require you to do more than just regurgitate info; u have to be able to analyze a passage very carefully and draw upon all your Econ knowledge to answer it well. The essay(s) are important because they are worth a lot of your free response grade. I stress the exams because your GRADE is BASED ON TWO MIDTERMS AND A FINAL.

This class is curved but don't take it lightly, Swanson is NOT an easy professor.

Swanson has a fiery personality which distracts many students from the clear economic data that he demonstrates in class. On the whole, most students I talked with who got a poor grade had trouble memorizing chart interactions (esspecially demand for loanable funds and currency interactions) or didn't think that reading the text was necessary. I read the text and memorized the charts, and that turned out to be the main criteria on the tests. I figure that many people got a high grade on the first midterm and mistakenly thought that the second would be as easy. This proved to be false. The second is much more equation and chart based, and required a lot more studying. The TA proved to be the best sourse of information for the tests, and its crucial to go to the review and discussion sections. The lectures were at 8 AM for my class, and I found it hard to get up that early. On the whole, however, with hard work, one can get an A; I did.

8 in the morning and he knows he's boring....the only thing that he does is complain about marriage and kids...i'm guessing that he went through some tough times in his life because he is a bitter old man who complains all the time...marriage is bad....kids are bad....that's all he knows...and he paces back and forth the whole entire time....so annoying...and he's not afraid to embarass people during the lecture...i had the class in dickson 260E and during one lecture he pointed one student sitting in the middle of the room and told him to put his Daily Bruin away...poor guy...u can get a good grade in this class only if u have a good TA....take DEE S., she is an awesome TA...and if u go to her discussion and review sessions...u can get an A in this classs....otherwise ur basically screwed...there is no point in attending his lectures unless u want to hear him complain...because he spends half the time doing that...just read the book...and do the problems in the study guide and u should do fine on the midterms...his midterms were okay if u study...and know ur stuff...they are really long tho...multiple choice...short answer...and an essay...all in 50 min...but it's do able...the subject is interesting...but his teaching style sux...the only way to get an A is to get DEE as ur TA and just look over her notes...if u can don't take this professor...but if u have to DO NOT attend lectures...don't miss some precious hours of sleep getting up for this 8 o'clock class because it is worthless...otherwise...good luck..:)

He knows what he is talking about. The lectures were a lot like the book. The class although was not that hard if you keep up with the material and attend section. The tests are hard and very long, but the curve is usually huge so you don't have to do great on the test to get a good grade.(I even left 1/5 of the test blank and got an A) He is a pretty good teacher for the econ department if you can get over his constant pacing back and forth during lecture.

When I initially read these reviews before I took the class, I was a bit worried that it'd be very difficult and that he'd be absolutely horrible. But, after taking the course with Professor Swanson, I found it wasn't as bad as people said.

Basically, the lecture is a regular history class type of lecture that I'm already used to. He talks and you write down the stuff he says. It can get boring sometimes, but I never fell asleep once! (Very proud of myself, I must say, hehe)

His midterms are very long! If you are REALLY prepared, you'll be able to finish just in time and be able to pull off an A. There are about 20 multiple choice questions at either two points or three points each (I can't remember which). There are about 10 short answer questions (maybe less) and 1 essay. For the short answer, if he says to list, then LIST. You don't get extra points for explaining. The points for short answer vary, so I can't really say for those. Most of his SA and Essay questions (for midterms and final) are basically graphing exercises. Practice doing the graphs, and you'll be (for the most part) all set.

For the essay, he has this big long paragraph where someone says some sentences. It's your job to break down the paragraph into claims and you just talk about them. (It may sound confusing now, but it'll make more sense after the first midterm). My suggestion is to number each claim in the paragraph (write the numbers right over the sentences) and then in the space where you write, just do a list (in outline format) of each claim and your explanation - i.e. if it's wrong or right and why. The essay is worth about 35 points.

The final is very similar, except multiply the stuff by 3 (around there) since there's more time. There are about 50 multiple choice, and then a whole bunch of short answers. Around two of the short answers are pretty much essays since they're worth 35+ points. These ones are usually the long graphing/explain what's going on with the graph type questions.

As for Professor Swanson's office hours, he kind of seemed unapproachable in my opinion. I went one time and didn't go ever again.

My advice is to attend every lecture and all of your TA discussions. The TAs are VERY good! They know their stuff - most of them have taught the course before and know what's on the exams. Swanson doesn't change the tests much from quarter to quarter so most of the TAs' suggestions on what is on the test is incredibly accurate. As someone mentioned, Dee's notes are very good. Some people here criticized the TAs' English and so forth, but it's really NOT a problem. If you find something wrong with the essay grading for example, just ask for a re-grade.

The class isn't easy, but it's not all that difficult either. You do have to put some time into it. I, personally, learned quite a bit in the class.

Personally, I think everyone is exagerrating. Yes, the T.A.s speak little or no English. Yes, Swanson loves to make his lil' remarks about Marriage, etc. (Which I found semi-humorous at 8 in the stinkin' morning.) However, the class is still worthwhile. He doesn't stray off the subject too much & everything he does lecture on is relevant to the text. I got a fat "B" and should've done better...but o well. Overall, not an "easy GE." Don't take him unless your an Econ. Major, I guess. Tests are hard and way too longggggg for the allotted time frame. Be sure to study T.A. Dee's Notes. Pretty helpful.

Final Thoughts?!

Beware of the Plaid Shirts! Beware!!

his lectures are very good, about real life and current economics...his midterms are not too hard but the essay are graded poorly b/c the graders (mostly TA's) don\355t' speak English ...they do know econ but in Chinese or Japanese ... his final was probably designed for 5 hours not 3 and you have remember little things ... if you just want a C chill out you don't have to read the book

I took this course my first quarter at UCLA. BIG MISTAKE!!! Now I am not going to major in Economics or anything related to Economics. This class made me want to poke my eyes out. We went through the entire book and it sucks because he didn't even pace us. We came back from thanksgiving break and had to read half the book in two weeks! He expects you to know the material before you take the class which is dumb because if you knew it, why would you take his stupid class? What an a-word. And then he wants to give you these exams that take longer than the time given. And his exams are bogus; they come from nowhere! The T.A's can't speak English, he can't add a little spunk for a dumb 8am class, and his tests are hard!! You have to read the T.A.'s notes, the book, and his lecture notes and on top of that - you need a tutor or something cause you will not know what is going on.

I don't know what to say. This class ruined my day... EVERY DAY. If you can, take it with a different professor. I am just mad thinking about this class right now! Well, all I have to say is, I wouldn't recommend this class to anyone unless i really HATED that person. If you want a class you can pass, this is not the one.