As a transfer student, this was the first Econ course I take at UCLA(I took Econ11 at another University). I was nervous about this course especially when seeing the previous reviews. However, the professor truly understand everything and he is so neat and clear about explaining concepts. Sometimes I am amazed by the way he solve problems as his brain is moving so fast.

The course has 2 midterm(higher midterm 30% + lower midterm) and 1 final (50%), the median is around a 75 but he does gives a very genrous curve so the median student will receive a B or B+. Make sure to do every single practice problem before his tests(including the ones on lecture slides), no homework and no problem sets weekly, but please don't slack off and don't wait everything until the end. His office hours is also helpful. I got A by doing his practive problems and understand how to do them without looking at the solutions and going to his office hours when needed.
His exams are fair and doable. If you really interested in econ, he is the right choice, you will learn a lot.

Do not take this class!

The grade is 20 percent for the lowest midterm, 30 percent for the highest midterm and 50 for the final. The tests aren't too tough themselves, but they are graded very, very harshly. He is very unforgiving and there isn't much practice. He gives us a few discussion sheets to practice on, and he shows the midterms from the year before (which were much easier than the ones that we had). The final and midterm review sheets were kind of helpful, but not too much. He is a very mediocre professor, and lectures are very boring.

If the practice questions were more like exam questions it would have been reasonable to do well. The only redeeming quality about him is the curve. I got about 5 percent higher than I would have without the curve.

Until now, I think Professor Vogel is pretty good. His slides are clear and organized. His midterm one was easy, and his discussion sessions and homework provided some useful practice questions for this exam. His midterm two is tricky and different from the questions posted on CCLE, but if you read his slides very carefully, you can make it.
Besides, my TA Miss Ariadna is really nice, helpful and knowledgeable. I will recommend my friends to take her discussion.

Okay so the person who wrote the review before this one is clearly bitter about something because let me tell you something this guy is one of the good professors in the Econ department.

He gives practice questions, homework and discussion questions and gives us all his slides. While sometimes his explanations are slightly complicated if/when you read through them again at home it makes sense. He also does try to relate it to simpler examples.

I would recommend Vogel.

Easily the best professor I've ever had. He's great at clarifying concepts, makes the class engaging, cares about student learning, and has straightforward exams. Definitely recommend taking his course.

Vogel is, overall, a good professor. He's very clear during lectures, uploads all the slides, and gives students plenty of resources to succeed in the class. One of his TAs (Ariadna) is amazing, and possibly the best TA I have ever had at UCLA. However, he was not a perfect professor and has many policies that may strike a wrong chord with some students. So read this and consider the flaws of the class if you need to take Econ 101 with him. And if you didn't do too well, I understand where you're coming from, but don't just brush off this review and others because they don't say what you want to see.

I will reflect the sentiment that having Midterm 2 after Thanksgiving break was pretty awful. Additionally, I feel like there was too big a disparity between the difficulty of the first midterm and the two follow-up exams, where the latter two were significantly more difficult to prepare for (although he repeated a question from MT1 on the final). I never really found a problem with his attitude but he does sometimes take jabs at UCLA through his homework questions. I also don't really like the fact that his exams are only a few questions, which can make them unforgiving if you don't know a concept. These are what I would say are the flaws of his class.

But to make up for it, there's plenty of partial credit (edit: yes, you do get partial credit. The second midterm grading was suspect, but overall you will get points for having part of the solution. Not considering boundary solutions is huge; half the work on a given problem that has them is on determining the conditions when the boundary solutions apply) that you can get for setting up the problem in a reasonable way. There's even the possibility of him overscoring one of the problems if you put in extra information about the solution, though I'm not sure if he still does this. Although his exams are short yet difficult, he includes extra problems on the homework to study from and gives solid preparation problems for both midterms and the final. His final review problems were actually very close to what we got on the actual final.

Overall, the class was fair, and Vogel himself is a good lecturer, but if you fall behind, it can be very unforgiving. I was ill-prepared for Midterm 2 and got a 56/100. However, there is always a chance for a comeback if you improve enough, as I still ended up with an A in the class after doing well on the final. If you take this class and don't do too well in the beginning, it's not the end of the world.

This class is so egregiously dogshit. This is the worst class I've taken at UCLA by far and I truly hope Vogel improves the way he runs this class. Lectures are vague and needlessly wordy and hung up on 1-2 practice problems, exams are INSANELY hard, Vogel himself is snarky and refuses to help during office hours, and discussions are COMICALLY useless

Vogel is by far the worst teacher I've had at UCLA. He spends lectures explaining incredibly abstract topics then discusses 1 practice problem for 45 minutes with 0 regard to prepping for exam materials. When reading slides, you can essentially ignore 75% of the slides at the back half since they are focused on random practice problems unrelated to exams. It's not a variety either (which would at least be something), it's like 1 problem that he spends weeks on

I tried going to office hours and he is incredibly snarky, makes fun of the questions kids ask, and refuses to elaborate when students are CLEARLY confused. I really dk what this stems from, because a student will go him distressed needing help and he will essentially brush them off. Exam averages are ass which shows his genius strategy doesn't work (check other reviews for how bad grades are in this class), its like a 75% and 60% aveerage for the midterms and there is NOTHING else that goes into your grade. Vogel: GIVE SOME HOMEWORKS, PROJECTS, OR SOMETHING SO I DON'T HAVE TO DEAL WITH THE HORRID WAY YOU WRITE EXAMS

Discussions are useless, do not attend. I went for 10 weeks and truly learned nothing it was incredible.

I genuinely hope Vogel does some self reflection after putting me through a class so aggressively DOGSHIT. I learned nothing, and I'm glad to never see this man or his goddamn 2-bullet point calculus-filled slides ever again

Really hard tests. Midterm 1 and 2 Average 72. Final Average 60. Good Lecturer, recorded lectures. he makes the tests really hard to cope that he is bald.

Coming from a math/econ major, but Vogel was absolutely phenomenal. He made the content of 101 engaging and interesting, but never forgot the larger picture, often making remarks of the plausibility of certain theories or applications of theory into real life cases. There is also no homework, and Vogel freely gives out all past exams, which resemble those on the actual tests fairly well, however he likes to give some unique questions just to test your overall/high-level understanding. Plus, he’s just a really down to earth guy and pretty funny.

The class itself I’d say is for everyone to learn, but how it’s structured may not be for everyone. He will likely use scantron tests, has a Week 10 midterm, and those who like homework to keep track of how you’re doing may struggle. But overall, I still highly recommend as my interest in econ grew a lot more.

my grade is more reflective about the fact that i rarely did practice problems rather than professor vogel being a bad instructor, however, i do think the way he structured the class and taught material was very ridiculous. the first midterm was free-response which really helped me pick up partial credit but due to a small misgrade that forced him to go back and fix certain mistakes he decided to make both the second midterm and final multiple choice (he did that purely because he was so inconvenienced by the mistake). the fact that the second midterm was scheduled on the last day of class was so stressful! he also taught content in a very convoluted way that was not the way most professors taught it. all that being said, he curved GENEROUSLY as other reviews have said. i got a 76 on MT 1, 55 on MT 2, and 49 on the final which brought me to a raw 60%, but he curved it up to a C. i still don't know how the fuck that happened but i'm extremely grateful for that 🙏 overall not the best professor but you'll pass doing the bare minimum and do great if you have a better work ethic than me!!