I found this course to be very manageable, and I felt like I learned a lot about the foundations of economics that can be very relevant to other courses and things in general. Elzinga was a very nice professor, but the lectures got to be a little boring, and I felt they weren't even super helpful, as the exams focused mainly on textbook material that Elzinga didn't necessarily focus on. The TA sections were very helpful in breaking down the textbook, and the quizzes given helped in preparing for the exams. The two midterms are short answer, and if you go through the textbook you should be fine. The final was all multiple choice and I did not find it extremely challenging. There is a curve for the class and it is very, very helpful. I overall recommend this class and if you put in a good amount of work it's not hard to get an A, especially with the curve.

Overall the class ends up being fine. I had never taken an economics class before and I ended up coming out with a B- . His lectures are strange at times but I learned a lot from them. Definitely read the book if you aren't familiar with Economics because it defines things well. The two tests were relatively difficult with the final being harder than both but the curve at the end really saved me. As long as you go to class and study before the tests and finals it isn't hard to get an A or B in the class but a lot of people I know relied on dutch knockout and ended up screwing themselves grade wise.

This class does not ask much of you other than going to the lectures and reading 1-2 chapters per week. You don't need to read the Mystery of the Invisible hand unless you really want to get the one question that was put on the final correct. Whatever you do, DO NOT TAKE DIVYA PANDEY as a TA. I took AP micro my senior year so I was comfortable in this class almost the entire time. I murdered the first exam, thought I was the goat and got a B- on the second exam, and then got a B - on the final, BUT the curve is so amazing that I ended up with an A- overall in the class. Soooo many people bomb Elzinga's tests that the minimum % for an A- this year was an 81.5. That's the best part of this course in my opinion.

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-.

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 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.

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...

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.

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.

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.