Professor Rojas is a solid instructor that has straightforward slides and a free online textbook that has plenty of practice and preparation for the tests. There's two midterms that are each 20% of your grade, a final that's 45% of your grade, and the mostly weekly homework that are easy to get 100 on are 15% of your grade. He also provides practice midterms that have questions similar to the actual midterms. I took AP Microeconomics a few months before taking this class so it was not that difficult, but the people I know that didn't take AP Micro still were able to do well as long as they studied and looked over the practice midterms. Also, the lectures are hybrid and most people end up not going to lectures in-person as it's not really necessary as you get the same information by attending on Zoom or watching the recorded lectures. I will note that if you attend the Zoom lectures, be sure to log in on-time as he does not see people in the waiting room, so you won't be let in if you are late online. Also, the TA sections are optional, which is nice, and they are only necessary if you are confused with the material or want to look over a midterm you took. Overall, a fairly easy, strait-forward intro class.

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 bad with emails, he will only reply once. Half of his test questions are from Mindtap. Sometimes if you find an old exam he may reuse some of the questions. His lectures are pretty clear but super boring. He uses the whole time. He often asks if you have questions and then moves on immediately. He lowkey does not want your questions. We didn't even finish the content on the syllabus or even the final by the last lecture. He has a very boring tone and his examples and engagement in the class is okay. All his tests are multiple choice so there is no forgiveness. Discussion isn't that helpful if you get the concepts because it is conceptual questions, while the tests are more questions trying to trick you, as MCQ does. It is possible to do well and not learn a lot, as it is possible to understand a lot and do poorly. He only curves if the final class average is below a B. It is easy enough if you do Mindtap (mainly just the A+ test prep), and skim his slides. Lecture is a waste of your time if you only care about your grade because if you practice for half of lecture time you are way better off class wise.

I went to class about three times before I realized it was absolutely pointless sitting there listening to Rojas read the slides in a monotonous manner. I only did a few days of studying before every midterm and final simply using the mindtap. I'm surprised more people didn't know that his tests are literally exactly like the mindtap practice problems under A+ Test Prep. I just read the mind tap textbook and did the practice problems over and over again and every test was a repeat of those types of questions with a few original questions on the final. Even though the professor and TAs weren't the most helpful, the material wasn't difficult to grasp and did not require much time as class/discussions weren't necessary. Having only 3 exams determine our entire grade was daunting but the mind tap was seriously all you need in this class.

If your read the text book it basically the same material as his slides, unlike other classes their is no room for error on the exams because the the only thing being graded 2 midterms worth 25% each and 50% for the final. he said that if we studied using mindtap we would be well prepared for the exams but the practice exam mindtap generated were way easier and less application based than his exams so at times it felt like i was just memorizing answers rather than learning how to apply the class content. I feel like many student would've felt more prepared if we had homework assignments so that we can get more practice or even extra credit opportunities, as not all student are good test takers.

one word, Mindtap.

Super easy class. The professor is super good. Tests are easy as long as you do practice problems.

professor rojas does his best to teach ECON 1; however, this class is hard asf for no reason!!! the important thing to note: your grade is solely based on two midterms + a final * though, the distribution you can choose :-) your TAs try to be as helpful as they can~ it's giving AP econ exam LOL

If you’re taking Econ 1, definitely take it with another professor. I came out of every lecture confused, but if I went over the lecture slides on my own it was much easier. He makes everything way more confusing than it has to be and his class is fully based on two midterms and a final, which you need to be able to be good at answering weird questions, not just understanding the material. The class average for the midterms and the final ranged from a C- to a C+.
Thankfully, he curved it a bit at the end because a lot of people didn’t do too well. I feel like I understood most, if not all of the material that was taught in the class, but the professor made the class way more complicated than it had to be.

I personally did not find the class to be that difficult or time consuming, just somewhat annoying. Anyway, some notes:
- The class is 100% exams for your grade: 25% x 2 midterms, and 50% final, which is pretty brutal. What makes it worse is all exams are completely multiple choice, and every single question you missed on the midterm was 1% of your grade lost (25 questions on midterms), and final a little less (70 questions).
- Exam questions were mostly pretty straightforward, though just a time crunch. Each exam did have a more than a couple curveballs that were a little weird though, and especially with the midterms, I felt like some questions were almost repeated, so you could have double jeopardy if you forgot one concept.
- The professor held lectures in-person with a zoom stream, but did not record them. However, he posted slides, which I found to be useful and was my primary study tool. Memorize how to identify the areas on the Price-Quantity graph, how the supply/demand curves move, how ceilings/floors/taxes/tariifs/whatever move the Price and Quantity of a product, as well as the 10 or so formulas that come up throughout the course, like midpoint price elasticity of demand, and you're good for most of the exam questions.
- As part of the course, there's an inclusive access "homework" (Mindtap) that costs like $75 where the professor assigns optional homework. However, THEY ARE NOT REALLY OPTIONAL! Some questions on the exams were copy-pasted directly from Mindtap, including some more tricky ones, and they generally were in the style of the exam questions. It was pretty clear that some people did not since in the groupme, people were trying to cause a riot over a question that was directly ripped from the homework - don't be like them and just get the points at the start. Mindtap and the previous exams that the professor posted for the midterms were my study tools for the exams.
- The professor stated that he will not downcurve, but will only curve the class upward to match the average at 80% if the average is below that. For this class, the overall average was around 75%, and everyone had around 5% added to their grade before translating to letter grades.