I'll have you know, that I studied ECON 104 and I only cried from confusion 5 times.

Professor Rojas does not care about his students. Lecture slides ALWAYS had mistakes. Practice problems for the midterm weren't even tailored to be on material that would be evaluated. Exams were on topics not covered in lecture, which the professor explicitly said would not be evaluated. Office hours were not helpful; the professor would not explain the problems and would go on random tangents. The professor spent way too long explaining the simplest of concepts to then completely skim over the complicated theorems. Some theorems were not given to us and there was no associated example in class which meant a lot of self-teaching (however these still came up on exams).

Pretty average class for a beginner econ class. There is 1 homework assignment every week(15% of grade) and lowest score gets dropped. There are 2 midterm exams (both 20% of grade). The first midterm is super easy with an average of 88. The second midterm is harder and had an average of a 78%. The 70 question final is worth 45% of grade and had an average of a 65%. After getting As on both midterms, but getting the average score on the final my grade dropped notoriously by 15%. He claims to curve the overall class at the end but failed to do so even when the average of the final was a D.

The material itself is easy, and the discussion section is optional, but the tests themselves (worth 85% of total grade) are difficult for no reason at all. I understood everything from lecture, got between 90 and 100 on all homework assignments, but the tests have questions that do not correspond to the material learned in class or the homework. There are also entirely multiple choice so even if you understand concepts, one mistake means an entire question missed. The two midterms, worth 20% each, are only 25 questions, which is completely unreasonable.

The best way to describe this class is that it is fair. You will get precisely what you make of it, no more, no less. Professor Rojas is a decent lecturer. He's not the most engaging, is a bit fast-paced, and explanations can be hard to understand the first time. However, he is very open to taking questions and everything is recorded on Zoom for later playback. Homework is done on Mindtap and is very manageable. Practice tests, which are similar to the actual tests, can be found both on Canvas and Mindtap. No extra credit but I believe he does upcurve at the end of the quarter depending on general performance. To sum up, the class doesn't coddle you whatsoever but does provide the materials for success and you will do well if you put in the effort.

Note: TA Mariano Palleja was great...gets to the point and is good at explaining concepts you didn't understand in the lecture.

For context, I only had a semester's worth of Econ in high school and I haven't taken math classes for almost a year. I would say that the material in this class is manageable and does not require any complex calculations. Most of the time, the slides speak for themselves but attending lecture does provide some extra clarity. You can also attend class through Zoom or watch through the posted recordings afterward so having that flexibility is great. Discussions are optional but I thought the practice problems we went over were also pretty helpful. You don't have to buy a textbook, it comes with the website that homework is assigned on and I got through the class without ever really reading it.

Grade breakdown: 20% Midterm 1, 20% Midterm 2, 15% HW, 45% Final

Average scores on each exam in chronological order (based on CCLE): 88%, 79%, 74%

HW is chill bc you can redo it as many times as you want so it's basically a guaranteed 100% as long as you have the patience to redo it and don't miss more than one (lowest grade gets dropped).

The exams were a bit stressful because getting just a few questions wrong would mean the difference between an entire letter grade. Both midterms were 25 questions each and the final was 70 questions. The midterms were both really similar to the past midterms which he provides for practice, it was just the final that had some questions that I had never seen before. I heard that he curved final grades about 1%, but since I was at a 91% it didn't bring my grade up.

Overall decent class, I think an A would have def been possible if I had managed my time better since I usually started studying only 1-2 days before exams and learned most of the material during that time as well. I did not reach out to Rojas at all for help so I can't attest to that, but during lectures he seemed understanding and patient, often delaying homework due dates if we didn't cover as much material as he thought we would during lecture and almost always stopping for questions. I wouldn't recommend this class if you're taking it for an elective/GE, but if it's necessary for your major/minor it is definitely doable.

Class is almost completely useless considering the fact that he posts lectures. A lot of people whine about this class but it’s very straightforward. If you understand how to do the practice problems on MindTap, you’re good to go even though the class is 85 percent exams. Rojas personally is an ineffective lecturer and boring af. He is hard to get a hold of, his office hours are short and via zoom, and he doesn’t respond to emails. He also said the class would be curved but didn’t because it would “bring the grade down.” So I guess don’t rely on the curve, do a bunch of mindtap, and you’ll be fine. It’s not like there are other options…

If you are new to Economics get ready for a lot of self-teaching. Rojas isn't terrible but he does just read off the slides and then leaves you with weekly homework. The structure of the class is 15% homework (with the lowest one being dropped), 20% Midterm 1, 20% midterm 2, and 45% Final. For my class, the final averaged 73% and there was about a 1% curve in the class (for just the overall grades so it did not make a difference for many of us). Overall, this class takes a lot of hard work but it is not impossible, the class uses a website called Cengage that helps with practice problems mostly on just midterm one and briefly two. But for the final, I really have no clue, even now, how I could have better prepared.

To be fair, this class has imporved compared to the reviews from past quarters. However, this is still a confusing & challenging class and you need to dedicate much effort if you don't want your GPA to be ruined. The class material is much like a deeper understanding of AP Stats or Stats 10. The grading scheme is 25% midterm 1, 25% midterm 2, and 50% final, all are mcqs and 1% equals to 1 question in the exams, so getting 1 question wrong in either exam means losing 1 actual point of your final grade. Your final grade is also curved so I guess approximately 1/4 of the class would get an A or A-. On the good side, Dr. Rojas is clearly genius, he knows a lot about finance and economics, and extending the class material to actual work in finance industry. He welcomes questions and is willing to explain everything down to middle-school level math. However, his slides were full of mathematical mistakes cuz I guess he didn't check when using LATEX. So you really need to pay attention so that you won't look at the wrong slides. The exams are difficult and time is tight; but if you really do the homework and all the practice exams and problems, you should be fine. Overall, if you are confident with your mathematical instincts and know Stats 10 material pretty well, then you should be OK with Dr. Rojas and have a generally nice experience.

Don't take Econ 1 w Rojas. The material seems easy enough when you go over it in lecture, but his exams are way too complicated. The midterms were 25 Qs each and the class avg for the 1st was 88, thhen the 2nd midterm avg dropped to 79, and the final was a 74, so not great esp bc this is supposed to be an intro class. The final is 45% of your grade, with each midterm being 20% and the weekly homework being 15% (do all of it, ur lowest score gets dropped). Lectures were not engaging and he read straight from slides. If you are taking Econ 1 for a premajor, take it with Boswell or literally any other professor. Very disappointed and would not take this class again.