ECON 2010

This was the worst class I have taken at UVA.(Accounting was more exciting!)

TA was rude and couldn't speak English.

Apparently, quoting definitions verbatim from the textbook is wrong because we are supposed to "use the definitions Elzinga created in lecture" and "[we] should not always trust what the textbook says."

Tests are very poorly written, making it difficult to understand what the problem is asking.

Great class. The Dutch knockout technique he uses really saved my grade. Make sure you know the material inside out and READ THE TEST QUESTIONS CAREFULLY, Elzinga's very tricky.

Elzinga chooses to lecture to the lowest common denominator but gladly takes questions about tangent topics after class (and can answer them with great insight). What many people who review this course don't seem to realize is that by taking this class, the most significant thing you gain access to is Elzinga's vast supply of human capital. That's what can make this class so worthwhile and life changing - you just have to go to office hours for it, which I would highly recommend. General Course Information: 1) graded out of 400 or 200 points a) the 400 point option is two 80 point tests, 20 points from discussion quizzes, 20 points from clicker questions in lecture, and 200 points for the final b) the 200 point option is known as the "Dutch Knockout," in it your final exam grade is doubled and taken as your entire course grade. 2) my TA was not hard to understand in the slightest. I would say the TAs aren't that necessary, but just something the school does for such a large class to keep student to faculty ratios low. I'm not sure if it is just people not doing as well as they expected and trying to blame it on someone or if some of them are actually bad. 3) Geng's test score average was always about 6 points higher than the class average, so either his sections were actually smarter, or he was an easier grader. 4) the final exam is not nearly as difficult as people seem to make it out to be. Basically consists of either very basic ideas/concepts/definitions questions (which you don't need to study for) and more difficult "how well you can think about things you have learned throughout the course" questions (which you truly cannot study for). Bottom-line: Kenneth "The Man" Elzinga is more than worth your time. Take this class.

Elzinga's lectures are a little haphazard, but the concepts he teaches are generally interesting and it's not too difficult to understand the material.

If you just want to take an Economics class but aren't Pre-Comm/Econ Major, take Professor Coppock's class in the spring.

Professor Elzinga is an incredibly intelligent professor, and he's very open to meeting with students after class or during his office hours. However, I found his lectures to be sometimes a bit dry and simplified. He explains things well over-all, but a lack of structure sometimes made them hard to follow. Unlike Coppock, Elzinga does not use any kind of bullet points while he speaks. This can sometimes make it a little difficult to write down the "most important" points of information. Reading the textbook will definitely supplement the lecture, even if the book is pretty dry.

Tests were sometimes unnecessarily tricky, and it seemed like Elzinga purposely wrote his questions with the intent to trick students. For the most part, they weren't overly difficult, and if you read the textbook and go to lecture, you shouldn't have much difficulty. TA grading seemed sometimes subjective for the "explain" questions. If you don't like your TA on the first day, switch out. A TA that can explain concepts well is an incredible asset. Bingjie was nice, but discussions were not helpful in the slightest.

Final is not too hard. Some of the questions were ridiculously simple, and others actually tested application of your knowledge. His practice exam was very helpful. His Dutch Knockout can be helpful if you mess up a test early on, but don't rely on it. Based on Coppock's grade cut offs (Elzinga never posted them), you had to do better % wise on the final than in the class as a whole. If you have to take Introduction to Micro, take it with Elzinga, but his class wasn't as incredible as some make it out to be.

This class was very interesting and entertaining; Elzinga does a great job lecturing and applying the principles of economics to real life. Midterms were difficult (each had an average just above 70%) and all free response. Final was 75 multiple choice and cumulative. Elzinga curves your final raw point total (out of 400) or gives you your raw final exam score, whichever is higher, as your final average, so it's hard to know how you're doing throughout the semester.

I went into this class with high expectations and I was a bit disappointed. Elzinga teaches from an overhead projector (something I had not seen since elementary school) and uses a “pegs” sheet to cover each lecture. This made it difficult to have a thorough understanding of each lecture and he often summarized major points and simplified them, which made you think you understood the material, but when you read the textbook there was a lot of information he did not cover. The grading system is a somewhat a guessing game too. As previously mentioned in the posts below, he does the Dutch Knockout, but does not give a letter grade for midterms. If you do better than the average it is a good thing, but you have no idea what the average is letter-grade wise. If you do not have a problem with large class lecture learning then I would recommend this class, but if you do I would look into a smaller economics class taught by a T.A.

Mr Elzinga is a great guy, while he is not so clear on the topic he is talking about.

I really did not like this class. Elzinga was a nice guy and if it weren't for him I would have probably withdrawn from the class. My TA was very helpful even though he had a strong accent. He did try his best and was patient whenever I went to office hours. It was just frustrating because the amount of studying and work that I did was in no way reflected by the grade I received.

Awesome professor although more interesting to listen to his examples and life experiences than actually learn the concepts from class. Tests are very tricky. However the final is a lot easier and the Dutch knock-out which lets you count your final grade as your grade for the course if its higher than the average of your test grades means that you can still do well in the end.