Professor Santugini is amazing! He's so sweet and caring to all of his students, and is always ready to help if you need it. He gives you weekly practice problems, which you go over with your TA during discussion, and also a weekly homework assignment. Additionally, there are 2 lecture quizzes per week, which are usually pretty easy and straightforward, and 1 discussion quiz which you complete after your discussion section (these quizzes aren't hard either). There's no textbook for this course, so everything that we learn is from lecture; however, his lectures are very good. This class uses a lot of graphs to explain economic concepts. I had never taken an economics course before coming to UVA, but I'm really glad I took this course with Professor Santugini because I really enjoyed it! #tCFfall2021

I went into this class expecting it to be an easy A based on the reviews. This was definitely not the case. Professor Santugini is such a nice guy and he really is passionate about what he is teaching, but the content was confusing at times and I didn't prefer the way the class was structured. There are weekly lecture quizzes, discussion quizzes, homework assignments, and practice problems, two midterms, and a final. I often felt fine about the material during lecture but found it difficult to apply in the questions. All of the material is HEAVILY math-based. Santugini really is such a nice guy and the class is doable but I would not consider it an easy A. #tCFspring21

I wasn't a huge fan of this class. It gets fairly complicated at points and Professor Santugini moves extremely quickly during his lectures. There seemed to be a disconnect between what was taught in lecture and then what was on quizzes and exams. Marc is a nice guy, but I don't really recommend this class.

THIS CLASS IS NOT AN EASY A. the professor is amazing but this is not taught like a normal econ class. TAs are other students who are busy and unhelpful in discussion sections. They also show favortism. the class is hardly curved and extremely hard. The final was impossible. try taking with another professor who actually uses the textbook and teaches concepts instead of math. there is no way to learn by outside help because of how Marc teaches econ. If you get behind or dont understand how marc or the ta is explaining something, you are screwed.

Do yourself a favor and take this class with Marc Santugini! Everyone takes it with elzinga, and santugini gets the "math-based economics" rep. Let me tell you, I am miserable at mathematics, dropped calc 1. I still got an A+ with Santugini because he just pounds his method into your head until you become a machine and the grading is objective. You never have to read, his lectures fly, his accent is hilarious, and I will always remember how much Kayla and Josel love those bushels of wheat. Just pay attention in lecture because outside of your TA and those midterm practice problems, there are no resources (textbook) to learn the stuff. Santugini goes up and down the rows to greet before lecture while his upbeat music is playing, it just makes you want to be there. Santugini's grade distribution is higher than elzinga's and his TAs are better. Case closed

Professor Santugini is a really great guy. He's approachable, kind, and willing to go above and beyond to help his students. That being said, his course is a mess. His lectures move way too fast, and the entire course is taught via slide projector. There is no textbook, so if you fall behind in the lectures, good luck trying to catch up. The course material is almost entirely math-based. I feel like I barely learned any economic concepts whatsoever. He set up a review session for the midterm exam, where former students came back to go over the stack of practice problems he provided. It was a great idea in theory, but the tutor I was assigned to had no idea how to answer the questions and the experience left me even more confused. Finally, the discussion sections were useless. My TA was arrogant, lazy, and didn't seem to care much about helping his students better understand the material. He would spend the entire section going over the week's homework problems at a ridiculous pace and hastily end each session with a quiz, which he usually gave us about 2 minutes to complete. Bottom line: avoid this course unless you're a math wiz, and cross your fingers for a decent TA.

Santugini is a really nice guy, very passionate about econ. The class is not too difficult if you go to lecture, do the homework, and do the practice problems. I'd highly recommend going to discussion and attending the tutoring sessions. Sometimes Santugini goes over things too quickly and its nice to have clarifications. My TA was Paige and she was great - super helpful especially before the tests. Go over the tutoring tests before the exams super extensively because its exactly like the exams

Santugini is the nicest guy ever! He started every class walking around and greeting all his students and he always played this techno music to get us all pumped up and ready to learn. I really enjoyed his lectures and found his tests fairly easy (except the final which was insane-- don't rely on dutch knockout). He doesn't assign reading and the only outside work is short easy homework assignments each week to turn in to your TA. He also assigns practice problems that are not required but CRITICAL if you want to do well on the tests because that's where the actually tricky questions are. Elzinga is a legend but I have no regrets taking micro with Santugini

Santugini taught econ in a very unique way basically using only graphs. It wasnt hard to learn the concepts and regurgitate them on the tests but I came away not really understanding anything about econ in the context of the real world. If you need to fulfill a requirement and dont want a lot of work this is a good option for econ but if you are interested in really learning about econ concepts/ need to know them for future classes I suggest Elzinga instead.

Marc is one of my favorite professors--he is so charismatic and clearly wants everyone to have a good time while doing well in the class. (He also gives out tons of free stuff by lottery). Attendance in lecture is mandatory because of clicker questions, but I felt that going to lecture was a good idea anyway since he was so good at explaining concepts. There is a homework worksheet due each week in discussion, and there are weekly practice problems that you should do. Personally, I always did the homework and rarely did the practice problems and ended up with an A+ in the class. The tests are decently difficult--the practice problems and the homework are a good indicative of what the tests will look like. Like most of the Econ professors, he uses Dutch Knockout, so if your final grade is better than your course grade, he takes that score instead. There is also a curve of some sort involved. The final was somewhat harder than the other tests--I went from getting an A on the tests to an A- on the final--so I wouldn't totally count on the Dutch Knockout. Overall, I would recommend this class--the concepts were interesting and the class wasn't particularly hard.