I came into Econ 11 with the expectation that I was going to have to grind and that this would be a tough class. Sure, the tests were hard and the lectures weren't that engaging and the Q&A was a waste of time but it wasn't as bad as most of the Fall 2020 reviews made it seem.

Honestly, just skip Q&A, watch the lecture at 1.5x speed, go to your discussions + TA OH, and do ALL the practice tests he posts and you'll be able to do well. The key is to make sure you understand the rationale behind each and every answer to the practice exams. While you're doing the practice exams, try to think about how you can solve the problems faster and how to make the algebra less tedious.

For reference, I scored a 77% M1, 95% M2, and 95% Final without attending a single Q&A and skipping through the superfluous parts of his lecture.

Good Luck!

Based on the pre-covid reviews, I thought this class would be a breeze compared to other professors. However, he gave us twice as many lectures (just b/c classes were online) and personally, I had a hard time understanding his lectures as he doesn't teach the stuff you REALLY need in order to do well on the test. I had to go to my TA office hours and ask him about everything to later learn about other concepts that were not even mentioned in the lectures. As for the tests, they are definitely way harder than the previous years. He will also have TA's monitor you taking the test on zoom.

Tbh I feel like other reviews don’t represent this class well because a bunch of people complained about the tests and thought the prof was bad, but this class overall is not that bad. Mazzocco is clear in his lectures, provides slides, and often gives concrete examples. He is also very helpful in Q&A sessions and is willing to answer questions.
That being said, tests are definitely challenging but fair. He gives at least 5 practice tests for each midterm and final. I think people expected the same level of difficulty as 2019 and had high hopes, but ultimately it’s more difficult than a typical test. A bunch of people blamed it on how hard it was instead of looking for ways to improve for the next test. A handful of people actually get A’s on tests, which shows the class is not that hard after all.
One complaint I have though is that the prerecorded lectures always go longer than the lecture time. I understand the prof wants to spend more time for us to fully grasp the concept, but having pre-recorded lectures + Q&A sessions during lecture times is just too much.
It’s definitely possible to get an A as long as you pay attention to lectures, do all of this practice tests, and ask questions during prof/TA office hours.

Mazzocco was a genuinely nice professor and he seemed to really care about the students and the material in his class. He provides a lot of previous midterms for practice and make sure you do every single one beacuse his tests are extremely difficult. Because this quarter was online all of his lectures were consistenly longer than the actual time allotted for the class. He is always thorough with explanations but he goes over many derivations that just aren't necessary at all for his exams. I consistently scored below average on both midterms but managed to do well on the final, so I got a B in the class. If you take this make sure to utilize the practice midterms and any extra problems that him or the TA's provide. The curve was pretty generous, considering most people didn't do well on both of the midterms. He says the midterms are open note and that's a supposed advantage that students during covid have over previous econ 11 students BUT there is absolutely no time during the tests to be looking through all of your notes considering how many questions are asked in such a short amount of time. If you take this class be sure you are extremely well prepared for the midterms and final, cause that's your entire grade.

Objectively speaking, since this class was during COVID, it was expected to be more difficult than being in person. However, I am amazed by the fact that this year, this course was basically made HARDER simply because we were online. I personally felt that the exams were twice as more difficult as in previous years and I do not know if this was the implied intent from the professor but nevertheless, the exam grades showed that clearly. 2019 - like 89%, this year's first midterm was a 65%. For myself, this class was simply too fast and not useful in any shape or form but hey, I passed so that's fine. This class is a purely weeder course and by the end of it, since it was not clear as to how many individuals were able to pass with a B- or higher to stay in the pre-business economics major, I can objectively say that most of us despised the result. Best of luck to future fighters in this class as we bless you nothing but well wishes and lots of champagne and pizza.

I will now go cry and try to have a good COVID christmas.

The class in itself isn't that bad. His midterms and final were fair, and his sample exams give you a good idea of what will be on them. He talk a lot about pizza and sushi and Ferrari's and Bugattis. However, he curves down. This is the first class I have even been curved down, and he later told me that the econ department only allows a certain percentage of students to get A's. So while this class is fairly easy for a weeder and the averages on the midterm/final were around 85-90, he curves a lot of people down :/

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.

Econ 11 is a pretty hard class. No way around it. Mazzocco does his best and in general is a nice guy and decent teacher, but if you aren't good at calculus like me this class will probably suck. His curve is generous which is good, but you will have to put in the time to understand the topics and figure out the problems if you want to get a grade above passing. The TA's for Econ usually aren't all that useful, so a lot of the learning in this class will come from sitting down and grinding through all the practice tests and extra problem sets he gives until it becomes automatic.

This class is going to be hard no matter who you take it with, so Mazzocco is probably one of the best people you can take it with. He curves very generously and gives you a ton of practice midterms and finals to study from that were usually relatively similar to the actual test. He's also pretty funny and a super nice guy overall, and his lectures were extremely clear. You have one problem set due a week, which I would definitely recommend actually doing to stay on top of the coursework. Overall, Mazzocco is your best bet to succeeding in this class!

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.