An ok class. I'm still interested in international trade and finance after taking, but Rogowski's a mediocre lecturer and this class was not worth waking up early for on a regular basis. The readings were good though. Probably wouldn't take again considering the other offerings the department has, but I guess you can do worse.

This class was kind of hard for me to grasp the concepts. The lectures are very boring, and you kind of need some background of Economics to do well in the class. I had none. If you like topics about banks, interests rates, the history of economic policy, etc. you will like this class. The class has 25 percent midterm(which is 5 Id's,5 short answer, and one big essay), make sure you do the readings and go over the slides, because its really easy to get lost in the class. The final is worth 45 percent and its on the ENTIRE CLASS, so be ready to study your ass off. You will need the books for this class. He does post his lectures online and trust me you will need them because he is BORING in class. However, if you do readings and get the concepts, you will do ok in the class

I had an awesome GPA until I took this stupid course. Tests are open book/note but it doesn't help AT ALL. WTF...I'd rather get a CLOSED book test then the impossible exams that he gave. Studied my ass off for the class and didnt know what the hell was going on during the test. Seriously, this class will ruin your GPA. I am an A/A-student and I just got my first grade below a B+ because of this clas...

I took PS 124A and boy was that the worst decision in my life for so many reasons. A) The class is very very boring, his lectures make you feel like jumping off of a cliff B) The class is super hard unless you have a base in economics (if you do not, do not even think of taking this class). I did not have any prior econ knowledge which is the reason I struggled so much. C) The TA (at least the one I had was terrible - name is Moni) is terrible, very confusing and vague. She did not respond to the e-mails I wrote to her, and I just had a feeling she hated me although she did not have a reason to. D) The amount of readings is unbearable, it is way too much, way too difficult, way too detailed... E) I have personally never gotten anything lower than a B in any of the classes I have taken at UCLA, well, I got a D in this class so you can imagine the difficulty. F) The exams were open book but that is no help whatsoever, in this class you have to fully understand everything and the exams test your knowledge on applying those concepts to real life situations. There is so much more negative to say about this class that I could literally go on forever. However, the above points should be enough for you to get an idea... CONCLUSION - DO NOT take this class unless you are very good at economics, you will ruin your GPA.

The material of this course is very difficult, and there are A LOT of readings. The tests seem to test your skill of remembering very detailed facts in the readings and explaining complex theories/concepts. However, Rogowski is very fair with the curve on the tests. Overall, I didnt learn anything from his lectures and he just confused me. I learned everything from discussion and going to TA's office hours. You really have to like this subject to do good in the class. Simply memorizing facts and theories won't be good enough for the tests because almost all the questions make you apply the theories to real life situations and concepts. The tests are open book and open note, but I guarantee you that this will NOT help you, and you won't even have time to use them. You either know the stuff or you don't. Overall, the class was difficult and the pop quizzes were a bit annoying.

Wowzers, what a complicated, dense, dry course! Totally overkill. No one had the slightest idea of what was going on in class, in the readings, etc.