ECON 2010

I really liked Mr. Elzinga, but like some other posts say, he get very off topic in his lectures so you really need to read the textbook. The textbook is very helpful even if you just scan it. I would recommend asking people about which TA they have, because I ended up with a horrible TA. DO NOT get Divya Pandey as your TA. She is very unorganized and unsympathetic. She always told me, when I asked a question, that she was not going to answer it because it was intuitive and common sense. She also had a language barrier and our quizzes were so confusing.

The only work for this class was the textbook reading. I honestly didn't enjoy the textbook very much. I found some of Elzinga's lectures to put me to sleep but he is an ECON legend (even my mom took his class) and I couldn't ever imagine myself taking it with another professor.

Elzinga is probably the only "celebrity" professor at UVA and he's a super nice guy. He tried to get to know the students that go to his office hours or ask him questions after class or email him. He's extremely knowledgeable in economics and is considered an expert in the field, though that has its drawbacks since he missed like 3 lectures this semester because he had to testify on various court cases. In lecture you complete clicker questions and he sometimes tells you that there will be some in the next class but not always, so I'd recommend going to every lecture until you get the 15 points for the clicker questions. That being said, he fills his exams with seemingly random concepts or facts that aren't mentioned in the textbook, so if you want to do well on the exams you should go to lecture and pay attention, though it's sometimes extremely hard due to the size of the class and his lectures are usually on the boring side. You also NEED to read the textbook since Elzinga brushes over actual foundational economics in lecture in favor of the content he wants to teach. I personally enjoyed the textbook and it's much more in-depth than Elzinga's lectures. If you go to lecture and keep up with reading you will probably get an A or A-. The exams are straightforward if you do the work, and the exam averages are pretty low (since most people don't do the work) so if you keep on top of the class the curve at the end will definitely benefit you. I don't know about other professors but I would recommend taking the class with Elzinga if you are interested in econ, but not if you are looking for an easy A gen ed.

Professor Elzinga is a legend at UVa. He is extremely knowledgeable in the economics field and has been teaching this course the same way for generations (literally-- the parents of some people in our lecture took it with him) . In my opinion, taking this class with Professor Elzinga is a rite of passage for any UVa student. Lectures are interesting and entertaining, but it is definitely necessary to do the supplemental textbook readings to succeed in the class. Also, pay close attention to the Econ minutes at the beginning of every lecture, because information from these shows up on the final exam. Overall, I enjoyed this course and am glad I took it with Elzinga.

I took this course because it is a prereq for Batten and other degree programs I was interested in. I specifically took this course with Elzinga because he is so well known around Grounds and so many people told me I had to take it with him. Honestly, I don't see the big hype around him. He was a dry and boring lecturer and I often found his worldview very outdated (granted, he is rather old). The TAs are told to be extremely nit-picky when grading the two midterms which was extremely frustrating when you would get zero points on a 6 point question because you used a word in one of your definitions that was a synonym of the word they would've used. The final was unnecessarily tricky. Elzinga was honestly the worst professor I had this semester. He does not live up to the hype. My TA was good though.

I love everything about this course other than the test. All the contents Professor Elzinga taught were useful and he explained in a way that we could apply the lessons we learned to real-world situations. Besides that, Elzinga is also such a sweet character and live up to his reputation on ground.

The tests and grades, on the other hand, are a totally different story. The two tests are all in short-answers which have very strict grading rules, detailed into specific wordings. If you explained the concept in a different format from the key, you are likely to be taken points off which, in most of cases, are full points. The other thing is that this class is based on percentiles rather than scores, which means that you would not know your actual grades for the previous two test until final. The final is even more "impossible" with 75 MCs encompassing every details he mentioned in class, textbooks, and the required reading. This is definitely not an easy A class.

Take this class with Elzinga! I want to do politics/Batten/PPL so needed the pre-req and actually learned a ton. It's not easy though. Tests require intense studying and are very picky/specific. On one test, I gave the write definition except for one word and got the entire question wrong. It's also based on a curve (kind of) so it's hard to predict your score but it is compared to the average. For example, I got an A- for the class with 336/400 points for the semester so your grade will be higher than the percentage value. Despite the specific and tricky tests, I did fine with no previous econ experience and decent studying for the exams. Read the textbook (it's like 1/4 of the class and some of it is never mentioned in lecture). But definitely take it. I've heard Santiguini (or the other guy who teaches it in the fall) is easier but it's more math-based...

Elzinga is really overrated in my opinion but the course itself was fine enough. Having a good TA is VERY important if you want to do well in the class; I know for me personally, my TA definitely was a huge factor in why I was able to do well. If you attend lectures and discussions as well as keep up with the readings, you should be able to do just fine in the class.

Elzinga is good, but in my opinion, generally a little overhyped. I felt a lot of his examples in economics in life were too abstract, usually dealing with art or other "old people" examples when he could have easily used any restaurant on the Corner to make his point. His lectures are fairly boring, but can be interesting when he incorporates court cases he's worked on. Not too difficult with a pretty generous curve. Read Colander and don't rely on Dutch Knockout.
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Elzinga definitely deserves his celebrity professor reputation; he's super friendly and knows a lot about econ. That said, his lectures were almost always dull. To make things even more problematic, the two midterms and final exam include questions about things brought up in lecture that weren't in the textbook, meaning you should try your hardest to pay attention and take solid notes. Elzinga grades on a curve so as long as you go to class, read the textbook, and do the problems the TAs send out, this class is an easy A or A-.