ECON 2010

Elzinga is an amazing professor! He keeps lecture interesting by taking real world examples and fitting them into the theories and concepts. Beware - his midterms are very simple and straightforward, but the final is challenging. Study, do the reading, go to lecture and you should be okay.

I really enjoyed Elzinga but the final was a killer.

Elzinga's class has two faces. Everyone has heard of the first: the class is awesome. It's a lot of fun, changes the way you think about the world, and introdces you to one of the kindest people put on this Earth.

But there's a bad side too. The final exam makes up half of your grade and does not reflect your past exam scores. There is no way, even through studying, to guarantee that you will do well. The final exam is pretty much a toss up and is terribly disappointing. Although I might expect an A in this class because I know my econ, I still suggest you take the unfair final into account.

Okay, so you're reading the posts below mine and crapping your pants about the final. But don't let it discourage you from taking the class. Coming from someone with no knowledge or background in ECON (and no further desire to study it, if that tells you anything...), I found Elzinga's lectures pretty entertaining and the basic knowledge of economics to be useful. For me, the tests were pretty tough, even with studying (same grade on all three), but that's what to expect. Plus, he curves the final. Overall recommendation: good, but not quite worth the hype.

Midterms were short answer/drawing graphs and not that hard. Final is 75 multiple choice..they are tricky! I got solid A's on the midterms and a C- on the final. So a B+ for the year... Discussion section very helpful if you're confused and TA office hours are great. Once you simply the material in discussion it's very understandable.

Elzinga's lectures were very entertaining, but definitely not worth the hype. People definitely over-hype this class. Some of the questions on exams are directly from his lectures, so its helpful to actually listen to lectures while you are at UVA instead of lying in bed or skipping class. There is really no reason to be late for a 11:00 or 12:30 lecture anyway. First two exams were relatively straight-forward and fair. By no means were the exams SOOOOOOO EASY. Some questions were, but others weren't. Final was definitely hard and my grade dropped from an A+ before the final, to a B+ after the final. So I don't really know what happened, even though I knew the material, or at least I thought I did. But if you came to UVA to take classes that are "Easy A's", then transfer out of UVA, you can't get through 4 years of UVA without encountering any difficult course. Bottom line is just read the book and listen to his lectures. If you do that, the midterm exams will be a fair representation of your knowledge. And take everyone's opinion about the final exam with a grain of salt, because I thought it was really hard, but others probably thought it was easy.

Professor Elzinga is overrated, he is a decent professor who does an adequate job at teaching the material but any real understanding comes from the textbook. Overall the class isn't all that difficult just do not rely on the dutch knockout system.

Everyone should get a basic intro course in principle economics some time before they graduate. It is relevant to anyone once you leave UVA, whether you are an Econ/Comm major or not. Elzinga introduces the material in a really concise manner, and he's such a congenial professor. But, like everyone says, the final is a curveball.

Econ is the way to go!

enjoytable overall but tough final. reccomended.