LOVED this class. Professor Elzinga is one of my favorite teachers ever and because of this class I am now seriously considering being an econ major. He clearly loves the subject matter and is very funny and engaging. 10/10 would recommend.

If you can get Justin Garrison as a TA, he is AMAZING! I felt so much better about the content after discussion each week. I didn't gain much from lecture (except for a few things that the textbook didn't cover but that my TA covered in discussion anyway). I learned 95% of the material directly from the textbook. I came in having not taken an econ class before and felt that the content you had to learn was not super difficult, but obviously certain concepts are harder than others. Clicker questions are pretty easy for the most part and didn't always correlate directly with the lecture that day so you can get away with not going to lecture. I will say that Elzinga does try to get to know his students, especially if you reach out to him, and is clearly passionate about Econ. Definitely not a bad experience, but it wasn't the amazing experience that people in the past have hyped it up to be. Even if you don't want to do econ, you learn some useful information, so I would definitely recommend it. Also, for planning purposes, Elzinga's class block is technically an hour and 15 min but he normally only lectures for an hour max.

This class was alright. If you truly love economics and are passionate about it, you will enjoy this class. If you do not like economics, this class will drag on. I have econ experience (ap micro and macro) but this class was very average to me. The lectures were not as beneficial as reading the textbook and going to my TAs office hours. If you have the opportunity, enroll in Justin Garrison's block. He is a PhD student, and he is super knowledgable and kind. He is the reason I did well in this course. He provided great study guides and in class assignments.

ECON 2010 was an interesting class to take online during COVID-19. Overall, it was very bland and its delivery was very poor. I had high expectations for this course and Prof. Elzinga but ultimately those fell flat. Regarding workload, the only real assignments were post-lecture quizzes, discussion attendance and quizzes, the midterms, and the final. The exams in this class are not easy and take weeks of preparation. The grading on these is not flexible and one or two slip ups can seriously tank your grade. It also doesn't help that the exams are all short answer. In order to excel in this class you need to almost perfect all of your post lecture quizzes and perform at a high level on the exams. Prof. Elzing gives you the dutch knockout option but I would not bank on it. Even though this class was a disappointment and I ended up opting into the CR/NC policy, Dan was an excellent TA and really displayed a great deal of care for all of his students. Highly recommend him.

This course was online async with a discussion component for Fall 2020. I spent probably 3-6 hours a week on this class with lectures and studying combined. To be honest, I didn't find this course to be as hard as everyone says. The thing is you have to keep up with the course work and you can't cram right before the tests. The two midterms are very memorization based in my opinion, and the best thing to do is memorize all the vocabulary words. The final was a little easier because it's multiple choice, but you should really study everything well and have no gaps in your knowledge. IMO, as long as you put in the work, this should be an A. Oh, and also, read the corresponding textbook chapters BEFORE the lectures. It makes things so much easier to understand.

It wasn't too bad of a course. Although, the grading of the exams was definitely a bit harsh. They don't really give out partial credit on questions, so you essentially have to be perfect to get credit. The final was completely multiple choice but still managed to be one of the rougher MC exams I've ever had the displeasure of taking. Luckily I have prior experience in econ so I still found the class to be relatively easy, but it can definitely be annoying at times if it's your first econ class. Don't be scared of the class though because the curve is INSANELY forgiving. Elzinga is a great lecturer and his econ minutes were great (rip Ollie). Just be sure to go to your discussion section so you can get full credit points for that, and although the lecture quizzes are kind of annoying, they shouldn't be too difficult.

Elzinga's lectures are sometimes interesting, but his tests are more geared to tricking you than testing your knowledge. His ego gets in the way of him explaining important concepts in class, which is frustrating because he spends time telling stories about dumb things. This is an iconic class at UVA, but I wouldn't say that it was anywhere close to one of my favorites.

I have zero interest in economics, so I didn't enjoy this class much. I think Professor Elzinga is a great lecturer, though. Do not skimp on reading the textbook - if you want to do well on the exams, it's crucial! Discussion section was just a review of the week's lectures. The TA provided us with a few homework assignments that were much more difficult than the exams, which I found helpful. That being said, the exams are tricky and will require you to apply your understanding of the material from the lectures and textbook at a higher level. #tCF2020

First off, I want to say that I like Professor Elzinga and truly feel that I learned a lot in this class. Unfortunately, that did not reflect in my grade. I think the one of most important things in this class is having a good TA who can help you interpret the dull lectures and textbook concepts. My TA wasn't the best...at all. The midterms are both short answer, however I found myself more confused by the questions at times than the actual class content. Some questions were real life situations that asked to be related to economics, but gave little to no context about which concept it was supposed to be applied to. It did not help that the answer key was very strict and left little room for interpretation. The final exam was multiple choice, and despite studying for hours, taking the practice final, and watching multiple YouTube videos to prepare, I still got a D...which turned into a C- thanks to the curve (thank god) because the questions were purposely worded in a confusing way. If you're trying to decide between courses, do not pick this one simply because Elzinga teaches it and he's a "legend."

Most overrated professor at UVA by far. For a supposed legend, Elzinga's class is not it, take Micro with someone else. His exams are really dumb in the sense that they grade for specific wording so if you don't say the answer exactly how they want it, you won't get credit. Elzinga mentions about 100 times how he taught some of our parents. His lectures are very useless as he'll maybe touch the very basic details about certain topics but will leave it up to you to learn the details. Reading the textbook is your best friend for exams and then making sure you pay attention to his econ minutes because he'll include random details on the exams. #tCF2020