As a transfer student, this was the first Econ course I take at UCLA(I took Econ11 at another University). I was nervous about this course especially when seeing the previous reviews. However, the professor truly understand everything and he is so neat and clear about explaining concepts. Sometimes I am amazed by the way he solve problems as his brain is moving so fast.

The course has 2 midterm(higher midterm 30% + lower midterm) and 1 final (50%), the median is around a 75 but he does gives a very genrous curve so the median student will receive a B or B+. Make sure to do every single practice problem before his tests(including the ones on lecture slides), no homework and no problem sets weekly, but please don't slack off and don't wait everything until the end. His office hours is also helpful. I got A by doing his practive problems and understand how to do them without looking at the solutions and going to his office hours when needed.
His exams are fair and doable. If you really interested in econ, he is the right choice, you will learn a lot.

Okay so the person who wrote the review before this one is clearly bitter about something because let me tell you something this guy is one of the good professors in the Econ department.

He gives practice questions, homework and discussion questions and gives us all his slides. While sometimes his explanations are slightly complicated if/when you read through them again at home it makes sense. He also does try to relate it to simpler examples.

I would recommend Vogel.

Easily the best professor I've ever had. He's great at clarifying concepts, makes the class engaging, cares about student learning, and has straightforward exams. Definitely recommend taking his course.

His exams are ridiculous. Across 2 midterms and a final, there were 9 TOTAL questions asked. AND, a question from the first midterm was directly copied on the final (If you're already asking so few questions, why would you ever repeat a question???). So, there were actually only 8 different questions asked for the whole class.

For these types of classes that are graded on distributions (25% As, 35% Bs, etc.), only having 8 total questions asked across 3 exams makes it EXTREMELY DIFFICULT to recover from even a partial mistake on a single question. I only partially messed up one question on the first midterm and I was already doomed.

Yes, he is a pretty good lecturer. I felt like I learned valuable material in his class (Especially the expanded game theory content) and he taught in a pretty clear and concise manner.

But, as we know: grades are important at the end of the day. Avoid this professor. I received the lowest grade I've ever received in an Econ class with Vogel, and I was not slacking off.

I had Professor Vogel for Econ 101 during Fall 2019. Initially, I was afraid that the reviews about him would prove to be true, that he was a harsh grader who took off lots of points for small mistakes and based your grade off of a small number of problems.

I think Vogel read the reviews on him and decided to change his style. His lectures were pretty well done, and I found him an engaging lecturer. Your grade is still based on three exams, two midterms and a final, but each exam had 6-8 questions as opposed to 2-4 in previous years.

You can get an A in this class, even if you didn't do well in Econ 11. My recommendation is to take advantage of all the practice problems he posts. My studying consisted of redoing all of the problems he did in lecture on his slides and all of the problems he posted online.

Vogel is a very charismatic and engaging lecturer, and he definitely responded to the negative feedback he was getting from previous students. The tests have more questions now, although the final was as long as both midterms, which was strange. All three tests were very easy and I was actually a little disappointed that I did not get to see more interesting problems on the exams. Highly recommend this professor.

I'm not sure why this professor has such bad reviews. He was a great professor. I was doing really well in the class up until the final which was really difficult.

Prof. Vogel ‘s 101 can be fairly easy provided that you have a good understanding of multivariable calculus. But his 101 can be really challenging if Math is your weakness. The exams have only three or four questions with no multiple choice, so you just need to understand the main idea of the course without paying lots of attention to the specifics. But you do need to be utterly carfeful writing your answers considering the small number of questions ( boundary solutions, case by case analysis , etc).

He is my PERSONAL favorite. He gives engaging lectures, he is super smart and balding.

Okay so I personally feel that some reviews of Professor Vogel are a wee bit harsh. I’m honestly not a big fan of his but his class really isn’t that bad. My biggest problem with it is that he taught with slides and I’m really against slides in Econ classes. I feel it’s just harder to follow considering the fact that we are doing mostly math. I would’ve preferred if he used the board more often. However, Professor Vogel’s way of teaching game theory is the bomb diggity. I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed a topic in Econ that much in my life, and it’s supposed to be super complex too.
Professor Vogel warned us that the second midterm and the final would be much more difficult than the first midterm. I felt his “warning” was inaccurate because the second midterm really wasn’t that difficult; the graders just took off a ton of points for the slightest errors and that’s why everyone did badly. I’m still pretty salty about that tbh. The final wasn’t as bad, though.
Honestly, I probably wouldn’t take Vogel again, but he really isn’t as bad as everyone says he is. So if he’s the only one offering Econ 101, I promise you’ll be fine.

Idk why ppl say he's bad. He's literally one of the best professors. If you want to actually understand what is happening in class instead of just memorizing slides, he is the professor to take.
Yes, his tests are tough but honestly, the challenge is fun because he gives you the impression that he knows his shit and when you are done with this class, so will you.
Take him to experience how fun and interesting Econ can be.