Lab lectures were very unhelpful. This quarter we were required to complete homework assignments in R and essentially learn the language in a couple of weeks, but the lab did not help at all. Later in the quarter instead of teaching us new concepts that were relevant to the homework, Rojas introduced us to machine learning and other concepts that were useless for assignments and exams. Overall the integration of the lab with the class was not the best and lab lectures were a waste of time.

Having taken Econ 1 with Rojas (and having had a pretty good experience), I was shocked by how unorganized and poorly planned this course was. This class began with a ridiculous homework assignment in R that took days and ended with Respondus crashing over and over again on the final. In between, Rojas basically seemed to give up on trying to teach - it really felt like the pandemic had taken a lot out of him. He also decided to teach off of an R Markdown document, which sort of made sense because he was trying to teach us R, but was a lot more difficult to follow than a traditional powerpoint. If you can, I would recommend that you wait a couple of quarters before taking 103 so that the Econ department can figure out how to run this class.

Any positive reputation this professor had in the past is completely gone. He has completely checked out as a teacher this year and doesn't care about anyone. You will never get an email response. You will waste 40 hours a week on homework working on unrelated questions. He said we will be tested on R studio and coding, but not a single piece of code was needed for any of the tests. We started with the ability to take tests using R studio, but by the second midterm we were not allowed R studio, limited notes, testing via respondus, and a webcam proctor in addition to testing. While previous reviews say there is a curve, there really isn't. I bombed the first test because I studied to be tested on code. I got B and above on midterm and final. Raw score 79% because of the first exam, C+ as final grade. So basically no curve, couldn't even bump me to a B-. Students were so frustrated with him the entire class wrote a formal letter of complaints to the head of the econ department. One student went as far as chewing him out during one of the class sessions. The material isn't that hard but he made it a very toxic learning environment.

If you have taken AP Statistics or have a knack for mathematics, this class will be a breeze for you.

- Verbose lecture style, and covers the material very quickly. I'm not sure if this is because he is the only person with his camera turned on. No one in class turns on their camera, so he speaks into a black void..

- Exams are proctored on Respondus Browser & Zoom call.

- Many of the multiple choice questions had an option for "None of the Above"

- There is virtually NO curve. Don't rely on there being a curve!!!

- Unlike other ECON 41 professors, he lets you use a Graphing Calculator on exams. Learn how to use it to solve stat questions!

- Many times (during the lecture) he would say, "I'll be sending an e-mail out later about____" . . . and there would never be an e-mail. A total of 4 emails were sent out to students during the entire quarter, about Midterm 1, Respondus Requirement, Midterm 2, and Final Exam.

- Professor Rojas' email policy is: "Students should email me only for personal matters." We are supposed to get help from T.A. or during his office hours only. If you have other classes during his office hours, then you're out of luck.

Despite my experiences shared above, Professor Rojas is a good professor to take for ECON 41. He provides you with textbook scans of homework questions and answers.

The actual material of this class is not difficult, but this class was horrible because of the professor. His lectures were so boring and he would give the easiest examples that did not reflect the difficulty of the actual problems on his exams at all. He also had typos in almost every example he gave during lecture. Grade was based purely on two midterms and a final, which is pretty unfair considering the fact that several of the problems on the exams were unclear and had typos, which he refused to give points back for. He also claims he "curves" but in all three classes I've taken with him, I've never heard of anyone's grade actually changing after his "curve". I feel like I could've done better in this class if it weren't for him, because I understood the material pretty well, but his exams and answer choices were so unclear that I got problems "wrong" despite my calculations actually being correct. Even my TA couldn't give any explanation as to why I got the problems wrong after I explained my calculations other than "sorry, I can't change the professor's decision," which just shows how unreasonable he is.

i took ap stats in high school and this class was a breeze. learn to use a calculator that can do integrals for you and you'll be fine. the midterms were really similar to the practice midterms he gave. i only watched the recorded lectures which i found helpful so i can't say much about what he was like live. homework is also optional. my ta, iris fu was so good and explained everything.

this class was not too hard but a lot of material. rojas uses mindtap instead of ccle for homework and tests. lectures are dry but the professor just read off the slides. the material is introduction level so it is not too hard but there is minimal outside help from TAs and the professor

I'm an international student and I do not intend to major econ. I took this class just for learning about some basic concepts and approach that might be helpful for my other projects. And I DO NOT recommend any non-econ major student to take this course only because you are curious or want to challenge yourself.

Professor's lectures are not helpful at all (at least for me), because I could barely catch up without previous econ experience. So I turned to self-study with the textbook and practices on mindtap, which is expensive but helpful. Every week it took me about a day to read the chapters and finish the homework (not hard), so the workload is pretty light. And the tests are not difficult at all, although the professor does not care about time-zone differences and makes international students like me get up at 2:30am for final.

So this course, generally, is not hard, but I feel like it has no difference with self-learning. Thus, if this course is not a prerequisite for you, you are totally able to rent an ebook and learn by yourself. There's nothing hard. Do not waste your money on expensive materials required for this course.

The workload of the class wasn't too bad, but the material in the second half of the quarter was difficult to learn. The professor seemed really nice, but I stopped going to lecture because I couldn't pay attention for that long. I think lectures would've been more helpful if I skimmed the chapter before going to class. I found that reading the book at my own pace, watching videos, and going to discussion were good enough to learn the material.

My TA Fatih was extremely helpful in learning the material. During discussion, we go through problems and his explanations were very clear and helpful. I asked him for explanations on difficult homework problems during office hours and that was really helpful.

There was homework almost every week. It was all multiple choice, not timed, and there's a check your work button you can use before you submit. Homework can be long, but I basically learned the material as I did the homework.

There's two midterms and one final. All of the tests are on MindTap and all of the tests are multiple choice. The time frame was a bit short. I found the second midterm to be the hardest. You can choose to take the midterms in the morning or in the afternoon so there is a morning curve and an afternoon curve. To study for the tests, just do a bunch of practice problems on MindTap because all of the tests questions and homework questions have a very similar structure.

Written from the perspective of someone who struggles with auditory processing:

Helpfulness: "5" because Professor Rojas was open to my questions and feedback on the course content.

Clarity: "5" because during the lectures he took care to enunciate verbal information and connect it with visual information.

Workload: "3" because the amount of homework assigned was fair and left me with enough time and resources to practice on my own.

Easiness: "3" because the course readings aside from the textbook were super helpful for getting me to consider the textbook info more deeply.

Overall: “5” because I believe Professor Rojas has succeeded in setting up a welcoming environment while encouraging critical thinking about economics.