Professor Surro is a really caring and knowledgeable professor. His exams are extremely doable as long as you go to the lectures, but theTA sections are not helpful unless you don't get the materials he went over in class. Overall, I would highly recommend taking this class with him.

Hands down best professor I've had in the econ department, his lectures are very clear and his tests are fair. The class is hard but if you put in the work you can get the grade you want. His homework also serves as extra credit so it not only helps you better understand the coursework but it gives extra credit points. Would take any other class with Chris again.

My FAVORITE class ever!!! If you can, please choose Chris at all cost. He is the best! I really love his teaching philosophy, that it is more important for student to understand the class materials than simply getting an easy A. Sometimes it is really tempting to choose some 'easy classes' but I feel like I did not learning anything at the end of the day. For this class, yes it is not that easy, but I did feel I learn a LOT and fall into deeper love with Economics.

A few tips for this class(I hope they are useful):
1. Do all the problem sets and quizzes, even if they are not required. The quizzes are super easy, but the problem sets may be a bit more challenging, and more on the intuition side of the problem. But since the midterm and final have a bunch of questions that requires us to understand those intuition, it would be better just to do all the problem sets.
2. Go to office hours!! Chris is super helpful and approachable, and he can explain everything in a logical manner.

In short, I really really really recommend taking Econ 11 with Chris!!! You will learn more than you expected. : )

fellow bruins, this class must be taken with surro. surro explains the INTUITION behind concepts, is super helpful at office hours, and genuinely wants his students to succeed. each test question fits into a certain bucket as you'll see on surro's practice long questions for the midterm and final (he groups questions into categories). to succeed in this class, you need to understand the WHY behind concepts because trust me, on his tests, he will pry for your intuition, not simply memorization of how to solve a problem. anyways this is a class where you absolutely MUST go to lecture. if you miss a lecture you might be in a jiffy because things build off of each other (eg, you gotta go to week 1 lectures to comprehend week 2 lectures). i personally didn't follow surro's "how to succeed" document in full but god did I study a lot for this class.

here's my tips for success:

1. attend lectures in person (you'll be less distracted)
2. form a solid study group or at least find people that you can ask questions to
3. as surro says, use ai to help you understand concepts. worked wonders for me
4. be confident (corny i know). don't go into the class with fear because it's "econ 11 weeder!"
5. dedicate time to reviewing uncertain concepts before the next lecture
6. i already said this but the intuition part is highkey important. dont just memorize an algorithm for how to solve a problem (which can be helpful for some parts tho)

People glaze this man way too much. Yes he’s a decent prof who articulates the content well and seems to really care about his students but I wouldn’t say that he was a particularly engaging lecturer. His tests are actually evil, questions can be very unpredictable bc he really tries to test your intuition so you will see some questions on the test that are formatted like none of the questions you did in psets/other practice material. Imo midterm was worse than the final (midterm is def more of a time crunch than final) but I also put in more than 50 hrs of studying for the final. For reference the median on the midterm was a 66 and for the final was an 82. All the test questions are free response style but they are graded pretty harshly. One good thing though is your midterm grade gets dropped if you do better on the final. Overall this class will require a lot of effort and may make you question your major.

Surro is such a wonderful lecturer and he definitely teaches well. We are allowed cheatsheets on both midterm and final, and we also have problem sets as a cushion for our grades. I was taking ECON 41 with Hahn along with this class and they both turned out fine. As long as you follow Surro's advice on when and how to study, an A- is guaranteed. Always do the practice problems before the lecture and use the problem set and practice problems to practice for exams.

Prof Surro is the best. Definitely take his classes if you can. Just make sure to follow his suggested study methods and you'll be fine.

Chris Surro is easily the best professor at UCLA. He has a unique talent of breaking down complex concepts into easy to understand intuitions and uses those intuitions to guide the entirety of the course. He never strays too far into the math/abstract and keeps his lectures laser focused on the core concepts he wants to get across. He provides a lot of specific guidance beyond classroom learning on how to succeed in his class which was very useful for me.

The midterm will likely be harder than expected. The questions are kind of like SAT questions with relatively easy concepts but somewhat involved problem solving. Its usually just basic algebra/recognition of different concepts.

Definitely do the problem sets; the process of solving problems should be like clockwork before the exams. The more important part is making sure you understand everything in complete detail.

Surro definitely gives you all the resources you need to do well in this class but damn this class is HARD. 33% midterm 66% final grading scheme or you can go 100% final. There's quizzes and problem sets and attendance that can all add extra credit to your grade. You can miss 3 quizzes 2 problem sets and 5 classes to still get max points. Use your bypass on problem set4 fs, however it will help you study for the midterm but it literally takes so long. If you don't put in the work you won't do well. You need to prepare for this class. You legit need to do all the practice problems for each concept to study for the midterm and final. The midterm is meh but that final is wayyyyy harder than the midterm and no one finished early for the final. Honestly if you're not super mathy like me, you'll die in this class.

This course can get challenging, but Professor Surro makes the learning process smooth and engaging. There is an extensive amount of material provided, including quizzes, practice problems, problem sets, and plenty of past exam questions to study from. In addition, Professor Surro is very active on Campuswire and makes sure to answer every question asked.
Both the midterm and final were free-response, with a one-page cheat sheet allowed. The midterm consisted of 3 short-answer and 2 long-answer questions, and the final consisted of 6 short-answer and 3 long-answer questions. From what I could tell, the graders were pretty lenient with partial credit when applicable.
To succeed in this class, I would recommend having a very solid understanding of the intuition behind everything. The math is pretty simple (only goes up to Lagrangian/partial derivatives), but understanding the WHY for each question and scenario will help a lot.
I would definitely recommend Surro for ECON 11, he is a great professor in general!