All you need to do is dedicate 10 hours a week to the class by doing the discussion problems and problem sets on your own. Don’t review exams from before or on 2022 because they were ridiculously challenging, as that was when the professor was very tough. Take your time when studying—don’t rush things, rewatch the lectures, and take good notes. On average, it took me 2 hours and 15 minutes to take good notes for each of his video lectures. After that, I would do the discussion problems for that week, then work on the problem set problems. I got an A+, so if you follow that formula, you should do well.

PLEASE take this class with Haanwinckel he is a good and engaging lecturer. I probably put in less than 1/3 of the time/effort studying for this class compared to Econ 11 w Surro and still ended up doing better in this class (this was the first Econ class I got an A in). His tests are pretty predictable and straightforward, all multiple choice with a lot of t/f questions (he posts all his previous exams for you to review but I only did the 2024 & 2023 ones bc the older ones are way too hard). The averages for each exam were pretty high (around a B) and we did end up getting our final grades down curved so that you would’ve needed a 84 for a B-, 92 to get an A-, and 20% of the class got an A. For both midterms you get 3 pages of cheat sheets (6 sides) and for the final you get 6 pages (12 sides) which is more than enough, I always ended up using less. Lectures are recorded but the audio is crunchy. Problem sets are multiple choice, graded on accuracy but not timed. Only complaint is that he sometimes would word things weirdly when explaining concepts, like he would try to use simpler words to explain something but it ended up making it more confusing. It wasn’t a big deal since none of the concepts are that complex and I still thought he taught at a really good pace. Overall this class was genuinely a breath of fresh air coming out of Econ 11 and made me like econ again so thank you Haanwinckel

I struggled a bit in the class because it is more conceptual and theoretical than ECON 11 and ECON 41. ECON 101 is harder than both 41 and 11 combined just because I tend to do better with mathematical calculations than theoretical real-world implications. Professor Haanwinckel is a great lecturer and he cares about students' learning. He would go slower on topics that students struggle with and his lecturers are engaging. Even though he did downcurve our grade (92 is a cut-off for A-), he offers two different grading schemes (one of them allows you to drop your lowest midterm). In terms of the exams' difficulty, they are definitely easier than the previous quarters (hence the downcurve). To succeed in this class - pay attention to lectures (you can join on Zoom or watch the recording), do a lot of practice, and ensure that you actually understand the theoretical concepts.

Material is not as difficult compared to Econ 11 and Econ 41. Only work is doing a problem set every week. He's a good lecturer and he also publishes/records his slides/lectures. However, he does DOWNCURVE if the class scores above average so be aware.

He definitely changed his style of teaching in recent quarters. Material was super light and he provided a lot of content that were helpful for studying like all of his annotated lecture notes/videos and exams (though the older versions were definitely a lot more different and harder than the newer ones so I don't really recommend that you bother with those). Was an engaging lecturer, and he only made you do like a 10 question problem set every week. As long as you knew how to do those and did a bit of review of the old exams, this class should be an easy A. Do note that the final was a bit harder than the two midterms though, so be a bit prepared for that.

I really liked Haanwinckel. He truly cares about teaching and about his students. I know he has a lot of bad reviews but HIS CLASS IS NOT AS DIFFICULT AS IT USED TO BE. The tests that we took had better phrasing to the questions, and the questions themselves were not as time consuming as previous years. In my opinion, he explained the material well and gave real world examples which made the class more interesting. A good amount of this class involves material from Econ 41 or math 170E so if you are taking that while taking Econ 101/ before taking Econ 101 it'll give you an advantage. He will teach you the material that you need to know from Econ 41 but it's easier to understand the concepts if you actually take Econ 41.

Professor Haanwinckel is one of the best professors I have ever had. I saw previous reviews, and they weren't very good, but he was improving a lot, and as a student, I appreciate it a lot. I believe the professor did a perfect ratio of real-world problems and ease for the problems we were solving. Daniel was very helpful during office hours. The material itself isn't hard (easier than Econ 11) if you pay attention and do homework. He published about 3-4 practice midterms and finals, which was very helpful. Definitely would recommend taking this class with Professor Haanwinckel!

Made everything harder than it had to be. Terrible at explaining the material and overcomplicated any and every explanation. The material itself wasn't bad but he just made it so hard in the way he asks questions. The tests are tricky and often have mistakes/don't make sense, and you aren't even allowed to ask for clarification. I can tell he isn't a bad guy but he screwed me over, maybe out of stupidity. I had a mistake on a problem set assignment that he didn't fix because he said it wasn't a big deal and it "wouldn't affect my overall grade by much, only .2 ." Of course I ended with an 89.8 and he didn't round it up, he had no sympathy, and seemed to have forgotten about our discussion.

Professor Haanwinckel is so nice and a very good professor. He had two grading schemes (problem sets 10%, midterm 1 30%, midterm 2 30%, final 30% OR problem sets 10%, best midterm 40%, final 50%) depending on if you score higher in the final or the midterms. This class didn't bring me anxiety at all throughout the quarter and I could tell that Haanwinckel wanted his students to succeed. His exams were made up of true/false and multiple choice and were very fair. Overall, highly recommend taking 101 with this professor.

For all those reading reviews from 2022 and prior -- don't be scared! Professor Haanwinckel genuinely means the best for his students and his teaching has grown to reflect it. His exam difficulty has lowered immensely from previous years, and the average will probably be around a B or B+. He's a caring guy and you can tell that he has utmost concern for his students' success. He also likes to crack jokes and gives off a pretty nerdy vibe with the examples in class (RPG games, sci-fi, etc.). All lectures are recorded and the homework is well-paced. Exams are all multiple-choice and the content of 101 is mathematically less intense than 11. Overall, enjoyed this class a lot.