Professor Surro continues to be the best professor in the Econ department. He teaches you exactly what he intends on testing you on and is clear and concise when he teaches. Whenever you see a class taught by Chirs Surro it should always be an indication to take it.

Professor Surro is definitely my favorite professor so far in the Economics department. His explanations in lectures are incredibly easy to understand and speaks with great clarity. He also gives a great amount of resources to study from after a tough midterm and is very approachable. His grading schemes are also very kind and gives you many opportunities to succeed.

The class is tough, there's nothing else to it. If you do not study or review the concepts, you will do terribly. However, Professor Surro is a fantastic lecturer and gave all of his students many opportunities to do great. Problem sets + quizzes only took 4-5 hours a week as extra credit and were great for providing some confidence before the final. His policies + curving were also fantastic. The midterm average was a 60% and the final average was a 69% raw. While it is hard, the course is definitely possible to do well in. Not a fan of the material, a massive fan of Surro however.

This class was definitely a tough one for me. The concepts are extremely difficult to grasp, especially over zoom, and so I definitely struggled with it. The coursework throughout the quarter was definitely manageable, but, the exams were something else. The time constraints and difficulty of the questions made it super difficult for almost everyone I know.

This class is very computation based, and while the math itself is not hard, knowing how to apply it to the many types of questions you face is. The exams themselves are incredibly long and a significant level up from the questions you encounter in problem sets and quizzes. The final had a higher average than the midterm, but unfortunately I screwed it up big time. As an instructor, I found Chris's lecture delivery to be pretty dry - at times he seemed borderline uninterested. However, he is straightforward in his explanations and genuinely wanted students to understand the material.

This class at its very core is not difficult. The concepts are all intuitive and if you do enough practice, you will begin to see the patterns on how certain problems should be solved and the basic intuition on why it works (at the very least enough to do well on the tests). Surro is pretty nice and funny at times, however, i found him to be a very boring lecturer and almost fell asleep during most in-person lectures. He also didn't organize lectures the best, sometimes spreading one concept over 2 lectures which created a disconnect when trying to learn that concept. I learned the most when doing the practice midterm and final, redoing the practice problems, and reading the typed notes, thus this class is very taught yourself IMO.

From a grading standpoint, this class has a midterm (worth 150 points and a final worth 300 points) however your midterm grade is dropped and replaced by your final grade if you do better on the final. There is also another 150 points you can add to your grade by doing optional quizzes and problem sets which can only help your grade as wrong answers don't count against you. MAKE SURE to do these quizzes and problem sets as the class is graded on a curve and you don't want to drop ranking just cause you didn't do some participation practice.

TLDR: attend lectures or at least watch the recordings, DO the practice problems before every lecture, DO the quizzes and problem sets, show up to disc if you want (depending on whether u think it's helpful or not, mine was p trash), DO the practice midterms and finals and you should be fine

Being my first econ class, I can come out and easily say that if Surro is ever teaching another class i need to take, I WILL take his class. He is a very good proffessor. Lectures are straight forward but the concepts are not. This is not an easy class because it takes a lot of time and practice. The concepts are not necesarily hard but they do require a full understanding and mastery. That means a lot of self-teaching, but Surro's lectures made it easy to do that.

The midterm is hard but if you study a decent amount, you should be fine. However, prepare yourself to work quickly. Most students did not finish the midterm in time. For me, the final was harder but still manageable - time is less of an issue with the final.

Please do the problem sets and quizes, they help your grade a lot and are good practice.

If you were good at econ in the past, you should get a good grade given you put a lot of time into studying and practicing. The entire grade is based on the midterm, final, and some participation. Also, he gives a cheat sheet for each exam (front and back of printer paper).

I love Chris and his lectures, but I didn’t get good grade because this class is totally dependent on final and midterm, which are very very very hard and are basically speed tests. Furthermore, it is really hard for students in middle.

I feel this class is overrated. It’s a decent elective—great if you enjoy writing and dislike tests. I did well, but it might be hard to earn an A, though an A- is relatively easy to get. I’d sort of recommend it.

My review of other professors: https://www.reddit.com/r/ucla/comments/1gmshzu/review_of_econ_professors_as_a_transfer_student/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

I went to my first lecture today for Econ 101 with another Econ professor and it made me really miss Professor Surro and his teaching style so here I am writing this review:

Absolutely loved Professor Surro. He is a great lecturer. He is very clear and organized. If I have the chance to take Professor Surro again, I definitely will. I highly recommended taking Econ 11 (and other Econ classes if you have the opportunity) with Professor Surro.

There is no textbook required for this class. Also, Professor Surro doesn't use slides but has typed notes that he posts before each lecture. I found it useful to read through the typed notes before lecture and understand it then go to lecture where he explains all the concepts in the typed notes and often goes more depth. This isn't necessary though because Professor Surro makes his lectures very clear and easy to understand. Professor Surro also provides a lot of opportunities for practice by posting practice problems after each lecture that cover the content learned that day. He then goes over the practice problems in about the first 30 minutes of the following lecture.

Your grade is based on problem sets, quizzes, one midterm, and the final. However, if you do poorly on the midterm and better on the final, your midterm will be dropped and your final will weigh more. I personally found the midterm and final to be fair, and they reflected the problems done in class and on the problem sets and practice questions. Also, the problem sets and quizzes are completely optional but are very helpful so I recommend you do them. Plus, they are graded on effort and they can only help your grade! The points you receive from the quizzes and problems sets you get are added to both the numerator and denominator of your grade. i.e. if you score a total of 500/600 (83.33) on the midterm and final but completed all quizzes and problems (worth a total of 150 points), you would have a 650/750 (86.67) in the class (note that your grade may be higher because this class is curved). Professor Surro also posts the answers for the problem sets after the due date so you can check your answers. He goes over quiz questions in office hours.

Overall, amazing professor and definitely recommend taking this class with him!