Professor Vogel is a gem of the econ department. His lectures stand out among the department like a shining star amidst the drab, light-polluted sky that is notorious for curving down. He is both passionate and clear—both in terms of how he lectures content, and how he communicates expectations and procedures of the class. Meaning, he is always prepared with real life examples to contextualize course concepts in a tangible way. He loves a tangent which is great for lecture both because they can be fun to listen to and also because it gives you a break from having to listen intently to the whole lecture and you can tune out for a few minutes. He also is occasionally known for interactive demonstrations which seem to be only vaguely related to course concepts but he really seems to have fun with them nonetheless, so who am I to question it. Vogel seems to have a strong understanding of his audience, and can generally tell when to slow things down for confusing concepts, and just generally knows what college students want—like to know specifically what is going to be on each exam. Speaking of his exams, they are incredibly fair. He posts numerous past exams to study from, including rubrics which show that he's generous with partial credit. There are no problem sets for this class, so the workload is essentially 0 every week, fantastic. But the week leading up to midterm 1, 2, and the final—maybe clear your schedule and move to Powell.

A minor note about the way Vogel structures class is that discussion section is weird. Pretty highly dependent on your TA in terms of what they cover and how they do it, and discussion can often feel like taking a completely different class than what we're doing in lecture. Ultimately, I didn't feel like this was a super consequential factor in the grand scheme of the class, but was a little disorienting in the first few weeks.

Simply put, Vogel is an inviting professor that is passionate about the subject and his students' success. He genuinely seems excited to be at each lecture, and has a lighthearted and engaging lecture style without being patronizing. This mundane major class turned out to be one of my favorite classes I've taken at UCLA to date.

Enjoyment of the course material and the grade you receive in this class are not really related. Vogel himself is a generally clear lecturer but if you find yourself confused about little details such as the math then he will brush over these things very fast. Often in lecture he explains the concepts with words only and excludes the exact mathematical steps to get there, so be prepared to do lots of self teaching. Shoutout to my TA Jack Sitarski if you take this course I definitely recommend him. He explains the concepts and connects them to the math very well and made me more interested in the material. As for Vogel's grading methods, he curves very generously but still grades based on three exams. Making the midterm so close to the final drastically reduced my motivation to study for the final which was for sure the main reason why I did the worst on it. Vogel's humor is dry and I think certain people find it condescending but for me it made lectures more engaging. To do well on the exams just work through every single problem from past exams, discussion sections, homework sets, and the lecture slides.

i think he probably grades easier now after looking at past reviews. the key to this class is to simply sit down and do every single past exam question, discussion question, and lecture question. his exams are pretty identical to those. he did generously curve, which i think maybe he didn't in the past. he knows people don't like him and i don't think he cares. i think he's a snob who doesn't care about his students and can be very condescending. so that made the class very unenjoyable for me but it may not to others. it's nice to not have homework but it pretty much makes everyone cram and learn at the end (all exams are week 7 onwards). grading is 25% MT1 week 7, 25% MT2 week 10, and 50% final. having MT2 during week 10 is ass but you get over it. it's basically another final but just on game theory. the material itself isn't hard, but just try to understand the steps of everything and you should be fine. his recorded lectures and practice problems is really all you need to do/can do. discussions were pointless for me i just sat there and did the worksheet myself since my TA was really slow. live lectures were just office hours and those were helpful a couple times if i needed to ask something. mostly it was going over exam questions. TLDR: if there's someone better take that, but you'll be fine in this class otherwise. no workload just exams.

*Online Version*

The class did not have homework and the final grade was totally based on midterm and final grades (I don't remember is there a 10% participation or not).

Since there was no homework, I haven't watched any lecture videos before the midterms, which is not recommended. The midterm was hard because the time is limited.

The final is also hard, but easier than the final since the time duration is longer for the final.

Econ 101 is not an easy class but I think Vogel's approach to the class is not the worst but not the best. His lectures are helpful if you take your time to watch it and watch it again. He did hold office hours to answer your questions and didn't record it so I'd recommend attending those sections. He doesn't give a lot of practice so you need to truly understand the materials through working on these problems over and over again. TAs are big help, shout out to my man Augusto!!! His grading scheme is actually not strict, you only lose 1 point for math mistakes. The curve is also very generous, so I'm thankful for it. The only catch is you need to read the exam questions VERY CAREFULLY, all the important info are in the LITTLE DETAILS. If I had read them more carefully, A would be totally doable, but I did not so don't be like me. If you are hard working and curious, I'd recommend taking this class for sure. This guy is a bit eccentric which makes the lectures kind of interesting from time to time, and he does try to make Game Theory more interesting.

I really enjoyed Prof. Vogel's lectures. He is very thorough in his explanations. You need to take the time to watch them attentively. The class material in itself was really. interesting - I loved the introduction to game theory.
I got an A by taking written notes during the lectures, reviewing them and consolidating them into study guides, and completing the provided preparation questions. The only way to get an A in this class is complete understanding - don't take this if you just want to memorize.
I hope to have Vogel again in the future.

Taking this class all my friends already took during the summer they all said it was alright. But then I took it, and studied hard for every exam, however, as the midterms and finals roll around they are completely different than what you learn. He teaches you the easy concepts and test you on the hard concepts. Its horrible, especially being online, you cant ask him to clearify what he says. The way they grade is beyond harsh as well. I could tell that the professor taught this class many times, that he forgot how difficult it is to understand the concepts for the first time. Lastly, your grade depends on your midterms and finals. So just know if you not use to remebering to write all the B.S. wordy answers you will fail. Doing the math is not enough. And getting the concepts right also is not enough. I just wish you luck.

Vogel has really clear lectures (all of them were prerecorded, so it was nice being able to replay any confusing parts at any time). He doesn't give any problem sets, but he has a good amount of practice problems that he gives from old exams to discussion/review questions. I still think having more practice questions would be nice, but I spent a decent amount of time going through examples from lecture and the practice he provided, and I was able to do well in the class by understanding that information. His grading scheme was 20% lower score of 2 midterms, 30% higher score of midterms, and 50% final, which was a bit intimidating at first, but he gave a pretty generous curve for the final grade.

I'm not sure why this professor has such bad reviews. He was a great professor. I was doing really well in the class up until the final which was really difficult.

Vogel is a very charismatic and engaging lecturer, and he definitely responded to the negative feedback he was getting from previous students. The tests have more questions now, although the final was as long as both midterms, which was strange. All three tests were very easy and I was actually a little disappointed that I did not get to see more interesting problems on the exams. Highly recommend this professor.