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.

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.

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.

This is an intro Econ class that almost everyone has to take here at UVA. I highly recommend taking it with someone that is not Elzinga. His lectures are boring and dry with little content and as the semester progressed, I found that reading the textbook material in lieu of attending class was far more useful, and it only took about half the time. The grading is also completely subjective for the tests are are very poorly graded. They follow a strict answer key despite the fact that both midterms are exclusively short answer questions.

I'm not sure if this class is dumb hard or if I'm just plain dumb. I went to every lecture and read the book vigorously and still performed poorly on the finals. Getting a good TA is KEY! Some of my friends in other discussions said their ta's would give them 2 or 3 easy quizzes that they could take home, provide them with lots of practice questions, and do a really good job of summarizing the lecture. I had 5 pretty hard quizzes and you had to be super talkative during discussion to get your participation points. Overall, important class, definitely recommend taking it to have a general knowledge of econ, but I would not count on it being a GPA booster.

Elzinga's lectures are extremely boring and very hard to get through. There is some interesting content but overall a boring course.

Elzinga is super cool but sometimes a tad boring. I enjoyed the class but it's not for everyone. He is very knowledgeable in the field and the lectures are interesting. There are two short answer tests with 12 questions each and one 75 question multiple choice test for the final. The tests are a little tricky but he curves the grades at the end of the semester. The clicker questions and TA discussion points count for a little bit, but not a ton. Go to lecture and make sure to get as many TA points as you can because they can be the difference between two grades. I'd also recommend reading the textbook especially if you have no prior knowledge.

Ken Elzinga is one of my favorite professors. His lectures are interesting and worth attending. The midterms are tricky but you can do pretty well as long as you study. The final was multiple choice and much harder than the midterms, so I would not rely on dutch knockout.

Elzinga is an amazing professor, and that's honestly why I would recommend this class. His method of teaching Econ like a liberal arts class really appealed to me, and my TA was AMAZING, so it was a great experience. The class wasn't necessarily intuitive for me (that's probably why I got a B+), but it was interesting. While the huge lecture size may be intimidating, if you sit near the front, you'll be fine (and maybe meet some new friends).

John Fry is a good TA if you can choose. This class is worth taking even though it's kind of hard and not necessarily an easy A because I have found what I learned to be very useful in my other classes (not even econ classes; poly sci and more)