I had high hopes for Mazzocco because of all the hype he had about being the best. Because of virtual learning he made the exams significantly harder than previous years for whatever reason. Truly no one would feel confident after the tests. Our average on the first exam was a 65, compared to the previous years that had an average of a 90. The exams always threw crazy curveballs and were insanely hard compared to the practice exams (previous years exams). I think the class would be 100% better if it was in person!! The lectures are very helpful, but the TA sections help the most! Fortunately, the grading scheme is pretty generous in terms of how weighted your exams/problem sets will be!

This has probably been my best Econ class here so far. The professor is really good art explaining and is fairly engaging in lecture. The homework tends to be a little difficult but if you can find a study group you will all eventually discuss the assignment to find the correct answer. You don't really need the textbook if you attend all the lectures since he goes over all the material really well in lecture. For the midterms and final, I would definitely recommend practicing the past midterms and finals that he posts since he doesn't stray too far away from the ideas in the past exams. I found the material fairly interesting which helped motivate me to push through in the exams and homework, but it's not particularly the easiest class. I would, however, recommend to take it with professor Mazzocco.

The lectures are pre-recorded and uploaded on CCLE, and regular lecture time would be used for Q&A. Honestly I'd prefer live lectures even with remote instructions, since when they are pre-recorded I really end up not watching them at all. There are two midterms and one final, all of them doable but a little calculation intensive.

Overall, I'd say ECON 11 focuses more on math rather than Econ. Being able to calculate derivatives, Lagrange, etc., seems be more important than understanding intuitions behind Econ concepts in this class. However all those math stuff are all covered in other math classes (32A, etc.), so if you have previous experiences in those classes there's nothing to worry about- just memorize all those formulas you'll be good to go. Not sure why Econ dept did not make Math 32A pre-req of this class, since the first two weeks basically teaches you how to calculate second derivatives, Lagrange, optimize functions, etc.

Super calculus heavy course. Too calculus heavy. Tests are impossible to finish in 75 minutes. 2 midterms and one is dropped. Professor doesn't care what the students think. Weekly problem sets that take about 6 hours just bc you have to figure out how to do it yourself since the professor doesn't show you. DONT TAKE THIS CLASS

Worst professor ever. Midterm average was below 60 on both and final average in the low 70’s. His lectures were boring and slow. He gave no examples in class that helped with homework assignments. His lack of care during the pandemic was obvious as he did not care about any students complaints of his lack of clarity and helpfulness. Definitely a weeder class that had everyone pulling their hair out. Do yourself a favor, wait a quarter before taking this class if he is teaching.

This class is difficult. For sure had to put in more work for this class than the other classes I took this quarter. If you do all the problem sets, go to discussion, attend lecture, and study a fair amount you should be fine. I do like his grading system - he will drop one of your worst midterm if you do better on the final, but if you do worse than everything is counted for 30% with a 10% homework grade.

Despite all the negative reviews, I think Mazzocco is a decent professor. I don't know what all the a**hole reviews are about because he genuinely wanted us to learn and would always answer questions we had about the material. The only negative thing about him is probably his refusal to accommodate students who had legitimate reasons, often concerning their health, for missing original exam windows. He does have a policy that allows you to drop the lowest of two midterms in the situation that you can't take one, or if you failed one, so that's helpful, but it's still somewhat unfair to students who absolutely couldn't make it. So if you know you can't make the midterm or final exams, I wouldn't take the class.

The workload is pretty light, it's just a weekly problem set of 1-3 questions with 1-5 parts that you have a week to do. There's a total of 8 problem sets and they account for 10% of your final grade. The TA's will pick one question from each problem set and your grade for it is based on that one problem. I found them pretty manageable and easy to complete, and I got 100% for all.

There are two midterms and one final, and the exams were all on CCLE for this quarter. Because they were held online, they were all MCQ, with two "essay" questions that were more heavily weighted with multiple parts. If you scored lower on the final than on the two midterms, then each exam is worth 30% of your overall grade. If your final is higher than your midterm grade(s), then the lowest midterm is dropped. The final would be worth 50% of your grade in this situation and the higher scoring midterm would account for 40%. You have an hour and fifteen minutes for each midterm and three hours for the final. The only one I didn't have extra time for was the final, but I did answer every question.

The average grade for every exam was a low C (~71-73%), but I always scored above the average. He posts past exams for you to use as study guides, and I completed about 5-10 of those in preparation for each exam. I didn't read the textbook and it isn't really required, so I just followed his slides. I got a 91.5 on the first midterm, 89 on the second, and 84 on the final. I had a raw score of 89.4, but after the class was curved, I had an A (not sure what the actual percentage is). If it helps, my friend had an 84 and got an A- after the curve.

The TA sections aren't mandatory, they just go over questions similar to ones you'd find on the problem sets. I only attended the first section and the review sessions they held prior to an exam. Overall, I think this course was decent, you just have to put a little time and effort in to get a decent grade. I'd definitely take a class with Mazzacco again. I am a decent test-taker though, which is how I think I managed to get an A. If you usually do poorly on tests, I wouldn't recommend him since 90% of your grade is based on the exams.

This class was challenging but I wouldn't blame the difficulty on the professor; I think the material is hard to grasp in general unless you spend hours and hours practicing it. Professor Mazzocco provided practice exams which were helpful, but completing the midterms within the allotted time was difficult - the exams typically consisted of 20-25 questions and were an hour and fifteen minutes long. The exams were open note, however, there wasn't much time to look at them because of how little time you had to solve a large number of lengthy problems. In the class, you're graded based on homework (10%), midterms (30% or 40%) and a final (30% or 50%). If you performed better on the final than you did on the midterms, he dropped your lowest midterm score (there are 2 midterms and one final) and weighed your undropped midterm at a 40% and your final at a 50%. On the other hand, if your final exam score was lower than that of your 2 midterms, he weighed them all at 30%. The class was definitely difficult and it requires you to start preparing at least a week or a week and a half in advanced for the exams because of how much material you need to go over. Overall, professor Mazzocco was a decent lecturer, but it would've been nice if he didn't make the exams significantly harder because they were open-note (considering there was no time to look at your notes!)

I love Professor Mazzocco! He designed the class to be as fair as possible, and after a long string of professors who didn't bother giving us that courtesy, it was like a breath of fresh air!
First, the tests are all multiple choice and very fair. They are very similar to past midterms, which he posts online for you to practice. You also get a cheat sheet, too, and the grading scale is flexible so that it can only help your grade. He also gives out free points, basically, in the form of homework problem sets that he grades very nicely as well.
My TA, Carlos, was also great. He was always making sure we were following his lecture and was all around a great guy. Professor Mazzocco does have a slight accent, but I thought that as professors went he was always kind and engaging.
Slides and notes are posted online, and the textbook is unnecessary, so if you're smart enough you could technically get away with never attending class. I wasn't smart enough, but I enjoyed lectures anyways.

He told us all these funny stories in class which made lecture fun but whats the point of fun lectures when his tests are ridiculous and everyone struggles ?
I retook the class with Prof. Cantu Garcia in Spring and got an A.
Avoid at all costs !