Vogel is, overall, a good professor. He's very clear during lectures, uploads all the slides, and gives students plenty of resources to succeed in the class. One of his TAs (Ariadna) is amazing, and possibly the best TA I have ever had at UCLA. However, he was not a perfect professor and has many policies that may strike a wrong chord with some students. So read this and consider the flaws of the class if you need to take Econ 101 with him. And if you didn't do too well, I understand where you're coming from, but don't just brush off this review and others because they don't say what you want to see.

I will reflect the sentiment that having Midterm 2 after Thanksgiving break was pretty awful. Additionally, I feel like there was too big a disparity between the difficulty of the first midterm and the two follow-up exams, where the latter two were significantly more difficult to prepare for (although he repeated a question from MT1 on the final). I never really found a problem with his attitude but he does sometimes take jabs at UCLA through his homework questions. I also don't really like the fact that his exams are only a few questions, which can make them unforgiving if you don't know a concept. These are what I would say are the flaws of his class.

But to make up for it, there's plenty of partial credit (edit: yes, you do get partial credit. The second midterm grading was suspect, but overall you will get points for having part of the solution. Not considering boundary solutions is huge; half the work on a given problem that has them is on determining the conditions when the boundary solutions apply) that you can get for setting up the problem in a reasonable way. There's even the possibility of him overscoring one of the problems if you put in extra information about the solution, though I'm not sure if he still does this. Although his exams are short yet difficult, he includes extra problems on the homework to study from and gives solid preparation problems for both midterms and the final. His final review problems were actually very close to what we got on the actual final.

Overall, the class was fair, and Vogel himself is a good lecturer, but if you fall behind, it can be very unforgiving. I was ill-prepared for Midterm 2 and got a 56/100. However, there is always a chance for a comeback if you improve enough, as I still ended up with an A in the class after doing well on the final. If you take this class and don't do too well in the beginning, it's not the end of the world.

This guy is not a good professor. He blows through the material too quickly, and he does not seem open to help other people. The two midterms 2 questions each, and the final was 4 questions, so your entire grade is basically dependent on 8 questions. Try not to take this class if you can.

In hindsight, this class is doable. The first midterm was pretty easy, but like he said, the second midterm was significantly harder for me. I got a 90 on midterm 1 and 20 on midterm 2 -- y i k e s. I went to every lecture and took lecture notes before class so I could try to listen and pay attention to his explanations. He knows what he's talking about but the pace of this class was too fast for me, and I went into the second midterm decently knowing like one chapter worth of covered material. I got a 70 on the final, which was p reflective of the final review he gave out. He's not the best professor, but he's p fair and good about e-mailing back. If you have no other choice but to take him, :/

Professor posts his slides but you should still go to lecture because he’s actually pretty clear at explaining concepts. This guy actually made me genuinely interested in game theory, which my friends found hard to believe. I do agree with what everyone’s complaints about how the exams have so few questions though. This class covers way more material than the exams actually test you on, and it’s surely not a great representation of whether or not you know your stuff. Overall, go to lectures, take good notes, know the slides, and try to beat the curve. Definitely nOt the worst econ professor I’ve had (by far).