Actually took ECON 41. He isn't a bad professor but go to class and keep up with the coursework. For the first half of the class it is ridiculously easy (think basic probability) but then it gets difficult fast and if you started thinking you could do it on your own you'll show up to the second midterm with a nasty surprise waiting for you. Also, the textbook is horrible.

I took ECON 41 and ECON 103 with Rojas. I really liked him for 103. People always make Econometrics sound super scary and hard, but Rojas breaks down the material and makes it fairly easy. The homework is ridiculously long at times, but if you do all the problems, you should get full credit. Since the homework is 25% of your grade, that gives you some easy points.
His tests are very fair, nothing that would be out of the blue and surprise you.

Rojas is a truly nice guy that really cares about his students. Go to his office hours, he explains things very well. If he sees that you genuinely put effort into his class, he's always willing to help out.

In 41 he got a little technical and spoke in a very statistical language, so he was an ok professor for that class, but an excellent professor for 103, also because 103 is just infinitely more interesting!
I HIGHLY recommend taking Rojas for 103!! It will be one of the best Econ classes you'll take at UCLA!!

ECON 1 w/ Rojas. he cares a lot about his students tries to make lectures interactive and doesnt get disheartened at the poor responses of the class. also, he goes through the chapters at a very slow pace which made him skip 4 chapters from the syllabus.

ECON 41:

Rojas is a good professor, extremely boring, but will teach you everything you need to know. He gives you a lot of information not needed for the test so if you've taken a basic stats class, you will be fine. I didn't study too hard and got an A-. Also, don't buy the book. Waste of money. Enjoy

I took ECON1 with this prof and he's an average-ish prof. He focuses too much on writing every damn word on the blackboard leading to lesser explanation of stuff. His classwork may seem easy but his midterms and the final are much harder than expected. there is no required homework. just two midterms and a final. make sure you do the practice midterm questions he posts because a lot of them are repeatd on the actual midterm and the difficulty level is the same as that on the final and midterm. go to class because he does not post lecture notes or powerpoint slides. the ta's are sucky. i could be a better ta than them. i tried different discussion sections to check out each ta but all of them dont know the material and make too many mistakes.

**I TOOK ECON 1 WITH ROJAS**

Rojas really seemed to cared about the well-being of his students. He went through the material slowly, without caring that we didn't get through all the chapters. He used the blackboard instead of powerpoints - which I really liked, because it forced him to fully explain each graph instead of just pointing to it on a powerpoint.

The book for this class was alright, although his lectures definitely covered more material and I thought they were necessary. The homework (not turned in) was way easier than the exams, so that wasn't too helpful. I would recommend focusing more on the practice midterms (posted online) than the textbook homework.

Econ 106V: Investments

Avoid Rojas at all costs.

Econ 187 - Economic Forecasting

It really comes down to one thing: do you know R code and econometrics?

Do NOT take this class if you've never taken econometrics or are not good at econometrics. This professor is very smart, but he may be a little too smart for the undergraduate level. If you're looking for a class to learn something useful and couldn't care less about your grade, go ahead and take it. If you care about your grades at all (even a little), do not take this class. The final was horrible; no one scored higher than 79.

Course: Econ 106V

With doctoral degrees in statistics and astrophysics, Dr. Rojas brings in an interesting perspective to investments. What I liked about the class was that he was concerned about student learning and he tried his best to stay at a pace that wouldn't result in students falling behind.

The class is structured mostly around PPT slides, which he posts online. These provide a decent framework to start with. Because the assigned textbook is difficult to navigate through (it's a free online version that has lots of hiccups), I'd recommend buying something more substantial. You have to really know the material inside and out to do well; the test problems will be much more sophisticated than the problems in the slides.

With regards to the lab sections, just try your best. I think your best bet is to figure them out with your team and not depend entirely on the TAs. These labs helped me improve my Excel skills and added some value to the course.

about to fail the econ 41 final! :)