This is a tough class if you do not have solid skills in calculus. While the exams are somewhat manageable and the professor provides past exams as study material, I often felt ill-prepared going into the two midterms and final. The class is passable with his generous curve of the class as a whole, but complete the problem sets, go to your discussions, and attend TA office hours held prior to exams in order to ensure that you will pass this course.

I surprisingly did a lot better in this Econ class than Econ 1 or 2. Probably the major reason is that this professor was so much better than both professors I had for Econ 1 or 2 put together. Passed with the B. Went to every TA's office hours as much as I could. I really studied my ass off and passed with a B, surprisingly. However, I decided last minute to change my major from econ to Public Affairs. The biggest reason why I probably didn't do so good in any of the pre-major req. for busi-econ or econ was that I hated it and was not interested at all. I am so glad I switched majors because I actually like school now. overall good professor. Note of Advice: If you haven't enjoyed or done well in any classes in pre-econ/busi-econ, consider taking classes for other majors for just one semester, trust me, it is better to catch it early than when it's too late, I realized just in time.

His lectures are engaging and he's not rude when people ask him questions in class. His class consist of HW sets, 2 midterms, and 1 final. The lowest midterm gets dropped if your final is better. Do the HW problems, the practice exams and time yourself, and go to discussions and office hours for help. This class was hard and is considered a weeder class. His curve is somewhat generous!

Mazzocco is a very funny and nice professor, and does a lot to help students succeed. Unlike much of the Economics department, he doesn't designate a certain amount of people to get a certain letter grade, so if the class performs well, the overall distribution is great. He only curves in your favor, and has continuously improved his exams to make them easier.

This fall (2018), he made all of his exams multiple-choice, and made them even easier by reducing the amount of choices after hearing feedback from the first exam. He also lets you use a double-sided cheat sheet that helps a lot. I would recommend filling it up with sample formulas and examples of how to solve the problems from the sample exams he gives you (especially because the sample exams are VERY VERY similar to the exams he gives in class).

The only problem that I have with this class is that sometimes, Mazzocco doesn't go into depth on how to actually solve the problems, but rather, just explains the theory and throws up some formulas. To deal with this, I would just be diligent about going to discussion and go over the practice exams.

He also posts his slides online, so lecture isn't mandatory, but you should still go to keep yourself accountable.

Grading is as follows:
Homework: 10% (graded for completeness)
Midterm 1 (Week 4): 30%
Midterm 2 (Week 9): 30%
Final: 30%

He lets you replace the lowest midterm score with the final if the final is higher than any of the midterms.

This class would’ve been more challenging if Mazzocco didn’t know what he was doing. Good thing he does.

You don’t really need a textbook for this class (and he tells you this on the first day) because his slides + your TA’s notes should be enough for you to understand the necessary concepts. I’d rather go to lectures instead of reading because I’m lazy, but you could easily self-study from the textbook and the materials online and you should be fine.

The tests are “fair” (leaning on easy) and he lets you write whatever you want on the front and back of the first page of the blue book. There aren’t any projects for this class.

Shoutout to my TA Domenico because I would’ve been lost this whole quarter without his helpful notes and review sessions.

Class is really easy so long as you study for the midterms and finals. Homeworks won't make sense until AFTER you hand them in.

If you just do the practice midterms and finals provided on CCLE with a methodical passion, you'll get a good grade.

Mazzocco is a funny guy. Really good professors. However, lectures are pretty much optional as he covers theoretical stuff for the most part in his slides, and the exams and homework as mathematical applications of this that you can easily look up.

I have sort of mixed feelings about this class. On one hand, Mazzocco was a bad lecturer. I often had difficulty paying attention during lecture, and his accent often made him hard to understand. He also struggled to gauge how difficult to make his exams - the averages on the first midterm and final were around or above 90. That being said, he definitely wanted to his students to succeed in the class and provided us with the resources we needed to prepare for the tests. He also was fair about final grades - he didn’t curve anyone down just because the class did well on his exams. Overall, I would take this class with Mazzocco again.

DO ALL THE PRACTICE EXAMS. I was really concerned about how I would do in Econ 11 because 1) I was told this was a difficult weeder class and 2) I got a C in Econ 1, making me think I wouldn't do well in this class. Thankfully, it actually went a lot better than expected. Mazzocco's lectures are very clear, just make sure you can pay attend through his accent and understand how to do problems through his somewhat messy handwriting on the lecture notes (which I often had trouble with). Overall, he seems to be a very caring professor, and is extremely fair on exams and his grading system. What really helped me get through this class was reading the lecture notes and the textbook (I did a lot of self-learning), and trying to do as much of the practice exams as possible, since they are EXTREMELY HELPFUL AND SIMILAR to what you'll see on the actual test. Work through the practice problems, use your TAs as a resource to explain problems you don't know how to solve, or, as what I often did, use YouTube! (That's how I often reviewed basic concepts and learned stuff like MRTS, calculating demand elasticities, etc). Econ 11 is NOT HARD - just put in the work, and you will see the results.

Great professor! Tests only what he teaches (textbook truly is optional, not an "optional unless you want an A"), pretty clear at delivering the content, and posts all the practice material you need (aka all past exams on CCLE). If you know the main concepts of the class, a B at the very least should be doable. However, since he has changed the test to be all multiple choice (as opposed to just 30-40% of it), averages have risen to 80-90%, so expect essentially no curve. Because of that, I would say know the details because that can be what differentiates the As and Bs since there's very little room for error.
Unorganized pointers:
- You need to remember almost no prior econ to do well
- Mass majority of the tests are calculation based
- Concepts are still important for that last 10-20% to push into the A range. You don't need to know the proofs for the formula, but the conditions for which they are true or the (VERY BASIC) intuition behind them will likely be tested
- Most tests had 2-3 questions on the minor details. This still makes up nearly 10% of the test. Don't study too hard for these - instead, just write down all the formulas (even if you think they're insignificant) on your cheat sheet. In my experience, you'll have plenty of time on the tests to play around with the formulas until something matches an answer.
- My main error was finishing too fast - try to stay as long as you can even after you finish to check your answers. Careless errors made up over half the points I lost, and with little to no curve, this can make or break your grade.

Pretty interesting lectures with good clarity. Flexible policy with exams so it doesn't weigh too heavily on one performance. Just put in the work and you will be fine, I got an A while taking a full course load and working 20 hours a week.