Professor Rojas has an incredible amount of education (double Doctorate holder) and tries to make Econ 41 as frictionless as possible. The first midterm is extremely doable, and each test thereafter is more challenging (so do tons of practice for the first one to cushion the others). Not the most approachable professor since he always had class after lecture, so make sure you find a good TA.

This class is moderate. The concepts are slightly intuitive, slightly need memorization. With Rojas, you don't really need to go to lecture because he reads off the slides but I kinda recommend it because it's easy to fall behind i the class. He does like a chapter and half per week and it's easy to forget about the class. I mostly read the book and that was easier to comprehend. Just skim the slides to make sure to didn't miss any specific info bc his tests are kinda nit picky. The midterms are only 25 questions so if you miss a few, it's already in the B range. The mindtap program is really useful and important. I shared mine with 2 other people which made it go from like $120 to $40 each and we didn't come across any problems with multiple people on at a time. The final is 75 questions so is worth a lot more than the 2 midterms and my TA said doing good on the final is more important.

Professor Rojas is, hands down, one of the best economics professors at UCLA. The class starts out with simple concepts, but ramps up the difficulty after the 1st midterm. Make sure you know how to take integrals and derivatives. Rojas doesn't really go over these in class, but Math 31A/B are prerequisites, so you are expected to know how to perform basic calculus.

Your grade in this class is 100% dependent on exams (25% midterm 1, 25% midterm 2, 50% final). Midterm 2 is not cumulative, but the final is cumulative. I received an A in this class with 14% above the average on the 1st midterm, 25% above the average on the 2nd midterm, and 13% above the average on the final.

Best of luck to everyone!

I took both AP Micro and Macro in high school, and I thought the exams were manageable. But even after studying for days and coming in with prior knowledge, I still ended up with a C+ on the final. I had read a few reviews saying Dr. Rojas was a boring lecturer who mostly reads off his slides—and honestly, that’s kind of true. That said, he’s not a bad professor. He does try to create a space for students to ask questions during class, but he’s not very responsive over email, which I think is important.

Right before the final, I emailed him about which content would be covered and mentioned that my TA’s email wasn’t working—he never replied. I feel like that’s something a professor should follow up on. Strangely enough, when I emailed him to ask about his experience at UCLA, he responded fairly quickly.

GRADING: The class has a slight curve, but there’s very little wiggle room. Your entire grade comes from two midterms (25% each) and a final (50%). It’s frustrating to have just three tests determine your whole grade, but that seems to be the case with a lot of Econ classes here. That said, I would still take Rojas again if I had to.

MINDTAP: This isn’t optional. I found it really helpful to read the material ahead of class and do as many practice problems as possible—especially before the midterms and final. He uses the A+ feature to build his exams, so many of the problems on MindTap are very similar to what shows up on the tests.

TA SECTIONS: TA sections didn’t help much with test prep, but they were useful for clearing up any confusion you had about the material. I also recommend reviewing your past exams—they help a lot with understanding what to expect on the final. Honestly, the most important part of this class is studying hard for the final. It makes or breaks your grade.

Rojas is legitimately one of the best professors at UCLA. He is very neat and organized during lectures. His tests are extremely fair. All of the material comes straight from the book. If you read the textbook and understand it, then you will do very well on tests.

His midterms are a bit time sensitive and a lot of the problems require tedious work. However it is not a difficult class. I've noticed a lot of people complain about not doing well, but then they admit they never open the book. As a math major I think this is a bit ridiculous. If you want to do well in the class open the book and read it. Rojas has less than 3 hours a week to cover the material he needs in a 400 person lecture hall. You can't expect him to explain every detail.

You don't really need to go to lecture, or lab, or learn STATA (outputs on exams are pretty common sense once you read the book). Great class and very useful.

I enjoyed Rojas' lectures. I am an econ major so I enjoyed to be able to have a class that is more applicable to real life situations than theory. I attend school full time and also work 30 hrs per week which makes the whole school schedule difficult to balance. Thus, any student who puts a little bit of effort will be able to get a good grade in this class. Like the other person mentioned, exams are very similar to practice exams/homework problems. It is a little pressed for time (practice to solve the problems fast). The MC questions are a little more conceptual. I think that he was one of the best professors that I had so far. He actually teaches the material.

Rojas is nice... but he's overrated. There's no reason to delay taking 103 just to take it with him. Like others have said, his tests are similar to the practice exams and homework problems that he assigns. However, his tests are really, really time crunched.

Selling Textbook Cheap! Text ********** :)

One of the worst experiences ever. Professor Rojas spends forever on painfully simple concepts, even making many mistakes while doing so. In fact, he spent so much time on basic set theory that he cut out maximum likelihood estimators from the course, which was arguably the only difficult part of Econ 41. Going to lecture was the biggest waste of time ever--Rojas just throws some definitions at you and then does the most simple examples ever. Lectuers were boring and the class overall doesn't require much thinking at all.

Rojas is a great professor. For the most part he explains everything clearly during lecture and gives lots of examples. He may go a bit fast during lecture sometimes, but that is my only complaint. He is very helpful during office hours and seems to really care about student learning. I found his final to be a lot more difficult than the midterms, so be prepared for that.