I'm only writing this review because I saw a review from my class (Winter 2021) and don't think its fair. Also, I would've appreciated an honest and comprehensive review like this instead of an angry rant from someone who didn't get the grade they wanted.

Grading:
- 25% HW (1 HW per week, lowest dropped)
HW assignments were like 8 problems each, very doable if you just attend lecture/follow his slides. Occasionally there will be problems that the lecture can't answer, so you have to attend a TA's office hour. After each HW is due, the solutions are posted.
- 25% Midterm (covers HW 1-4) If you understand how to do every HW problem you'll get an A
- 50% Final (covers HW 1-9) Same as midterm, just study the HW and you'll get an A. The final and midterm are just HW problems.
- No curves, but for our class overall scores 85+ were given an A. 35% of the class received an A.

Course Content:
You start off by learning budget sets, which is those basic problems where you pretend you have x money and then figure out how much of Good A and Good B you can buy. Then you learn to solve these algebraically. The entire class is just maximization problems and revolves around this concept. Then you start to use partial derivatives to solve more complicated problems. You're not required to understand anything conceptually. If you know how to do a partial derivative, U substitution, the chain rule, and simple algebra, you're set. I only spent a few hours per week on this class.

Overall Thoughts:
Even though I got an A, I have to agree Zame isn't the best professor. He just reads off the slides. This class will require self-studying and patience. I advise you to think about what type of person you are. If you're fine self-studying, you will get an A in this class. It's easy and straightforward, don't worry. If you expect the professor to hold your hand, don't take this class.

Random Thoughts:
I wouldn't take the review from the guy/girl with a B+ seriously, and any other angry reviews that get posted after I write this. My class had a GroupMe, which was just people constantly trashing Zame. It just became rude and toxic towards the end. I suspect that review was from one of those people lol.

This class is not as bad as everyone says it is (I actually thought it was quite easy) and Zame is a decent professor and tries to improve based on feedback. He emails often and is much more organized than most professors since he posts slides before hand and also comprehensive answers to the homeworks after they are due. Before tests, he gives a lot of practice material. On the tests, he even gives extra credit problems. I will put a quick disclaimer and say that I have taken 32A and yes I am a STEM major as well, but I don't actually think it helped me for this class at all. I was not expected to know how to LaGrangian even once and the partial derivatives are literally easier than Math 31A so if you're an Econ major the math is not super hard. Honestly yes his lectures aren't the best so I recommend finding a good TA (Andrew is great! Highly recommend him since he is well organized and goes over many problem types in discussion) and you don't have to go to your discussion except to pick up your HW and midterm so go to other TAs if you think yours isn't good. The HW can be annoying but in retrospect it took 3 hours MAX each week and you only really have to do the HW outside of class (no reading). Definitely find friends in the class to go over the material with; sometimes there are tricky questions and he makes things harder for no reason but do your best on the HW since they are 25% of your grade. GOOD NEWS: The HW can be rough, but you get friends to do it with and it is very manageable that way. This helps you IMMENSELY with the tests because they are very much like the HW. In the end, this class has honestly a certain amount of problem types (not too many types in my opinion but I guess I'm biased because math has infinite types) and you just have to figure them out by doing practice problems and looking over the HW answers. He also curves the class AND a 85 is at least an A rather than the usual 90 (and I believe a 70 was a B but basically all the cutoffs were lower than usual) ON TOP of extra credit. Yes, he isn't the most clear at lecturing because he can go on tangents/just talk which loses students but the slides are clear (he does make mistakes but fixes them, usually they're easy to catch since they're just typos or simple math errors) and go through the problems so that's all you really need and a good TA, and you can go to any discussion so do that. In the end, I would actually recommend taking this class with Zame. I thought it was relatively easy and manageable since it was organized so well. I know people who flipped their entire schedule just to avoid him, but I think that was a HUGE mistake. His class was very manageable and this class is a core for Econ so you will be changing up a lot of your schedule to avoid him. Also, almost all econ professors have horrible reviews so you will be waiting for a long time. Don't be afraid of this class; I don't know why Econ majors hate on it so much it is actually very manageable. In response to a certain negative review, I have never taken this class before nor have I learned the material before. I am really bad at self-teaching but the slides run you through the problems - just do them step by step like the slides and you can figure it out. I put the disclaimer on my STEM background just in case but to be honest I don't think it helped me out at all content-wise.

Disclaimer: Math major here in a calculation based class

This class was truly an experience. Like another reviewer said, the difficulty of this class is mostly up to your TA. Lectures were kinda disorganized with useless handwritten slides, and Zame seems like a nice person but is not that great at explaining concepts. Homework isn't that bad, especially if you attend section/TA OH since they basically give you the answers. Make sure you do them well though since the exams are heavily based off hw questions.

Homework: 25% (drop the lowest from each half of the class)
1 Midterm: 25%, average was about 70/100
Final: 50%

Overall, the class wasn't that difficult thanks to my TA and previous experience with Math 32A. The final grade distributions were pretty generous too, with about 35% of the class getting above A. If you're a math person, then you'll be fine. If not, don't be afraid to attend other discussions to find your favorite TA, they'll be your best friend for the quarter.

The professor wasn't as bad as these ratings posted, however he did make a lot of careless mistakes and confusing notes in lecture. His homework worksheets are very similar to the exams.

Professor makes tests fair. Makes a lot of mistakes. Didn't really go to lecture and just learned from TAs. You'll probably need 32A to succeed in this class but it's not a prerequisite.

He difinitely changed the way he grades/tests. I'm glad I didn't run away after reading all those terrible reviews below. It's honestly an easy A class now. According to his email 36% got A- or above and 56% got B or above. I wouldn't say the final is super easy but I ended up almost acing the test because he gave a 25 point bonus question lol

This class is not hard at all. In fact, I don't understand why the professor has such a low rating. Professor Zame is an excellent instructor and he is very helpful in answering questions. Some homework problems might be challenging and involve a lot of calculation, but as soon as you know how to compute derivatives and integration and how to solve the equations, you can solve most of the problems without any trouble. The midterms and final are pretty straightforward, and they are super easy compared to the Econ 101 class that I have taken. So please don't be scared by the bad reviews of this professor.

Guys, be nice to a 80 years old man who devoted his life to UCLA. Admittedly he is not the best teacher, he is a nice person and the graded materials are fair. Do not blame the professor for your own failure and inability.

I went into this class expecting the worst based on the Bruinwalk reviews and it wasn't as bad as I feared, although I definitely wouldn't go so far as to say it was good.

THE MATERIAL: For context, I took AP Micro and Macro and Calc AB and BC but had zero exposure to multivariable, which I was scared would be an issue going in. I ending up struggling more with the algebra than any of the calc--although there were times when I could tell multivariable knowledge would be very useful. As someone else said, it's basically multivariable concepts in an econ context. Be forewarned, this is basically a math class, so if that's not your thing you probably will struggle.

THE HOMEWORK: Zame posted his lectures asynchronously this quarter, and I would watch all of them but I never understood anything the first time through. Then for the homework I would have to go back and rewatch and reread the slides until I understood something which often would take quite awhile. There was one homework assignment per week and I would typically save it for later and do it in a day or two. The biggest piece of advice I can give for anyone taking this course is FIND CLASSMATES TO DO THE HW WITH. My grade was saved because someone in the class took the time to do a hw review session every week and whenever there was a problem I didn't know how to do he would cover it. I never went to office hours for the prof or any TA, although I know some people got good help in some TA office hours.

THE TESTS: I thought the midterm and final were both quite fair when measured against the homework, though I know some in the class who disagreed. I personally found them easier than a lot of the homework problems. But this was a covid quarter, so everything was open note, and I honestly do not think I'd have done as well if that wasn't the case. The grade was 25% HW, 25% midterm, and 50% final, so quite a lot rested on the tests. To prepare for them I just did the HW problems over and over again (the practice materials Zame provided were useless).

THE PROFESSOR: I do not think Zame is a good professor. Everything that people have said about him is true--he makes loads of typos and errors and his lectures are nearly incomprehensible. His asynch lectures consisted of his disembodied voice reading over slides which is possibly the worst way to learn, especially for math. I never understood anything after watching the lectures and had to reread the slides multiple times while doing the hw. I never went to his office hours, so I have no idea if he was any use there. Econ 11 is a hard class no matter what, but I'm sure there are better professors than Zame.

IN CONCLUSION: If you are good at math and decent at self-guided learning, you will probably do fine in this class even if you have only done Calc BC/Math 31B. If it would be most convenient to take it in a quarter where Zame is teaching, just do it. I thought about waiting and taking Econ 11 next quarter, but I'm glad I didn't. Just make sure you understand the homework and you'll be fine. And do what I did and go in with the lowest expectations possible haha. If you really think you're going to have a hard time with the math or will absolutely need a good prof, and you can afford to push Econ 11 back a quarter, it would probably make for a better experience, but I don't think that Zame needs to be avoided at all costs. Another thing to note is that I did take this class with two easier classes so that definitely contributed to my experience and is something to consider when picking your classes.

Personally, I thought this class was fine. A lot of the reviews describe it as the worst class they have ever taken, which I have to strongly disagree with. I have a feeling that these were some of the same people who were constantly complaining in GroupMe about the exams not being the exact same as homework problems or how the class focuses too much on capitalism (it heavily revolves around finding equilibrium in competitive markets). This class uses math frequently, but it is usually basic algebra or at most taking the partial derivative of a simple function. Often times the professor will give a general formula so that you don't even need to do much calculus. Professor Zame gives lectures by going through slides, which are always uploaded to CCLE. There are sometimes mistakes in the slides when he gives lectures, but they are always corrected and re-uploaded before homework is due. The homework can be completed using only the slides, but going to the lectures (or watching the videos he uploads) usually provides more insight into how the topics apply to the real world. The time given for the exams is very fair, and he even provided a bonus question on the final that was worth 5% extra credit on the final (worth 50% of the final grade). The class is on a guaranteed curve of A: >85%, but the threshold for an A can be lowered. I didn't go to any of the discussion sections, but I've heard that they are very useful. This isn't the easiest class at UCLA, but it definitely isn't as bad as what some people are saying.