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 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.

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.

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).

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, :/

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.

Professor Vogel's test is by far the most ridiculous test I've taken in UCLA, and I had Ronchetti just for comparison's sake. I have never seen a professor who just determines a student's entire grade based on 8 questions. PLUS, the points he assigns to each of the 8 questions are TOTALLY ABSURD, for example one question may be worth 50 points while the other one is worth only 10 and the latter requires WAY MORE CALCULATION. ALSO, he does NOT give partial credit. I got THIRTY points taken off just because I did not write boundary solution, which is literally two lines. He also brags about how he has tenure so he can't be fired no matter what happens. Seriously, UCLA needs to be careful of who it's offering tenures to. In conclusion, just like one of the previous comments, HE DESERVES TO BE BALD.

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.

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.