After taking Professor Mazzocco’s nightmare of an Econ 11 class last quarter, I found this class similar but better. In my opinion, Silveira was a much better professor than Mazzocco and very easily the best economics professor I’ve had at UCLA. That’s not saying much, though.

The content of the class was—for a lack of better words—all over the place. I don’t attribute this to the professor but the nature of the class itself. We found ourselves switching gears constantly: we started off with monopoly and oligopoly; abruptly shifted to a diverse spread of game theory topics; and ended by spending the last week on uncertainty and risk topics that had nothing to do with the prior topics we had learned. Although the professor constantly attempted to demonstrate common trends between the topics, we only ever saw them in practice problems or exam problems.

The problem sets were much more challenging than Mazzocco’s and served as adequate preparation for the exams. The few practice exams he put out a week or less before each exam, however, were more helpful. Although there was a lack of practice exams given the fact that Bernardo has only taught this class for two quarters, I found myself prepared for most of the content on the exams. Becoming intimately familiar with the way in which he formats each question on the problem sets and practice exams is essential, especially those that slightly deviate from the examples in lecture.

The exams were some of the hardest I’ve had in UCLA economics, although—as I said before—that isn’t saying much. There were some problem types that we simply never encountered in the lectures or any of the practice materials that made it on the exams; at the end of the day, they just require some creative intuition because there is no good way to prepare for them. Just follow the strategy I give above, and you will do fine.

Being that its his first year at UCLA, it might be because he's still in his honeymoon phase. Nevertheless, it was truly a pleasure being a student in his class. He was passionate about the topic at hand and was always able to convey topics in a clear and succinct fashion. There is some math in the class but as long as you understand the concepts, the math becomes intuitive. Also demonstrates a lot of real life examples to help you bridge the gap between abstract concepts and practical applications. Stays ~5mins after class to answer questions. Also highly recommend his honors seminar ECON 189. We covered racial discrimination in ban-the-box, bail policy etc.

This class is notorious for being difficult, and it was, but Prof Silveria did a good job at teaching it. Our pre-recorded lectures were never too long or unclear. The only time there might have been uncertainty was during the q and a when someone asked a question he didn't know the answer to. While his lectures were really clear, the problem sets tended to throw curve balls and was quite hard. It is a bit hard to prepare for his exams because he has only taught the class once or twice before this quarter so there weren't too many practice exams to use. Overall, for being a new professor, I enjoyed him!

Honestly went better than I expected and I thought it was easier than Econ 11, but very similar format. My only issue was the curve barely improved my grade, even though I did relatively well.

Well, I passed, so that's the pro part. I came from the sad class of pizzas and champagne for Mazz's 11 class and so, comparatively, this class was slightly easier. I laugh at the ECON department instead, for just stressing students out and placing them in a tough situation because of classes like these. IMO, Bernardo tried HARD to help us out. However, with that dumb ECON curve, it is a system of failure that decreases students' academic and work opportunities with these weeder classes, and ironically, you would think economists would know better.

Class-wise, it was fine. The class is what is it is - more calculus than economics. Midterm was sad. Final was long afk = sad. What else is there to be said? Bernando really does his best though - Can't take that away from him.

overall, the class was pretty difficult, but i found that the pre-recorded lectures were really clear and didn't need to go to the q and a sessions. akina is also an amazing ta and would go through the problem sets step-by-step with me. the first midterm was definitely the harder of the two and the second one was almost identical to the practice ones he gave us. the final was really difficult, but gave a super nice curve. he's really understanding as an econ prof and definitely wants us to understand the material

Overall, Professor Silveria is a gem within the economics department and did a great job teaching this course that is notorious for being difficult. His lectures were clear, the tests were pretty fair, and the class content was well organized. I highly recommend that you take this class with him.
Lectures: Due to remote instruction, lectures consisted of recorded videos explaining key concepts both with slides and examples done on his iPad. None of the lectures were too long, he does a good job balancing both theory and examples, his explanations were clear, and I found them to be engaging. He also held informal Q&A sessions during scheduled class time (these were optional and I only attended a few times but found them helpful for exam review)
Discussions: Discussions were live on zoom and recorded. They consisted of going over additional practice problems and reviewing midterms.
Problem Sets: We had a total of 7 problem sets (only 4 were graded as the others lined up with exams). They consisted of 3-4 problems each and were graded half for participation, half for accuracy on one problem. I found the questions to be of similar difficulty to the exams (although worded in a different format). Great review for exams. Lowest one also dropped.
Exams: This class can be notorious for difficult exams, but I found them overall to be pretty fair. The first midterm was the most difficult for me (he included a multi-part curve ball question that threw many people off), but the second midterm and final were more straightforward. Averages were in the 70s for the first midterm and final and 85 for the second midterm. He also provided two practice tests for each exam that were pretty helpful for studying. Questions were all multiple choice and consist of multi-part questions. As long as if you review these exams, your problem sets, and review your notes, you should do well.
Helpfulness: Overall, Prof. Silveria was very helpful and transparent throughout the quarter. He would frequently email us with updates, hold office hours and answer questions over email, and genuinely takes the student's interest to heart.

Great class and great professor!

I would say that Professor Silveira is one of the better professors in the econ department. His lectures are concise and even though we covered a lot of topics, they weren't too hard to learn. However, the exams are definitely harder than usual, but this seems to be a trend for all econ classes during the pandemic unfortunately. Problem sets also take a really long time and sometimes cover things that we didn't learn so it took a while to figure all the problems out. But this is overall a good class and I'm glad that the prof made the online learning go pretty smoothly.

LECTURES:
- Lectures were prerecorded and posted about 2 days before the lecture day. You're expected to watch the lectures before actual lecture days. You will be provided PPT lecture notes, and only need to write in the margins for some things.
- "QnA sessions" (similar to office hours) take place on lecture days, where you submit questions in a webinar-format. He ends class on-time, not a second over.
- Downside: You can't see questions other students have posted, thus forcing the professor to sort through duplicate questions in the sea of questions.
- Duration of each prerecorded lecture is (almost) always the exact duration as regular class would be.

EXAMS:
- Grade turnaround is very slow.
- All multiple choice questions (Note: COVID-19, online quarter)
- Two midterms, 1 final exam. If you score better than both midterms on your final exam, he'll drop your lowest midterm.
- Proctored by T.A. over Zoom. Webcam is required.

HOMEWORK:
- 4 problem sets are assigned for a grade. He drops your lowest problem set. 50% of the grade is based on completion. He will pick one of the questions to be graded for accuracy (for the other 50%).
- 3 additional problem sets and solutions are given, 1 just before each exam.
- NO late submission accepted.

COMMUNICATION:
- Uses email to share when prerecorded lectures are posted and when problem sets are uploaded.

This professor is the best economics professor that I've had in my two years at UCLA. He previously taught at UPenn and WashU in St. Louis. His lectures are clear, concise, and very engaging. He gives a lot of real life examples which keeps me interested in his lectures. He puts out practice midterms and finals that are nearly identical to the real ones. All exams are multiple choice. With two midterms and a final, he chooses the grading scheme that gives you the highest grade. The only negative thing I have to say is that the homework could be very difficulty and take a few hours to complete and do well. It was graded, but didn't really help me on the exams. Overall, loved this class and professor!!