Important note: I took this class during the pandemic, so it was completely online. During a normal quarter it would likely have been very different.

I went into this class knowing that it would be one of the most difficult classes I have ever taken, and now that it's done I believe that it was a worthwhile but painful experience. The lectures are clear, informative, and memorable, and there is plenty of homework and practice problems. Professor Ravetch also held office hours twice a week that were engaging and very helpful, as he made sure that the student understood the concept before moving on. While exams are extremely difficult and different from the practice and homework, if you study effectively and put the work in (I studied for about 2 weeks before each exam) they are possible to do well on. However, there will be curveballs on the exam no matter how much you prepare. The key is understanding the concepts rather than memorizing the questions. This quarter there were three exams that were each worth 1/3 of the final grade.

Taking this class with Professor Ravetch is an experience that I will cherish, as he is a truly caring person and great lecturer. But be ready for a challenge.

Professor Ravetch is an excellent, engaging professor and an all around stand up person, but I've never felt more stupid than when I was in his class, trying to study for his tests. He says he makes the tests to challenge the smartest student in the class, and that's an understatement. Of course, looking at my grade, a good old C+, I may not be the most reliable metric to judge the difficulty of the class. Either way, this is a great class to take if you don't care about your GPA and just want to learn about accounting. I recommend taking a Ravetch class at least once, but maybe a little later when your GPA doesn't matter as much.

Hard class but Ravetch is a great, entertaining teacher. He cares about student learning and will help you. All the TA's are also great. Just don't underestimate this class the tests are extremely hard.

I went into this class thinking I was good at accounting because I got an A in Management 1A. Boy was I wrong. Professor Ravetch is an excellent and engaging professor, but this class is very challenging. Don't go into it overly confident. Ravetch's tests are very difficult. I got a 50% on the first midterm, but luckily Ravetch allows your first midterm score to count for just 20% of your grade (instead of 33%) as long as you improve by 15 points on your second and third midterms (your entire grade in the class is composed of just the three midterms). Luckily this helped my grade, but I still struggled on every midterm and never really got the scores I wanted, despite the fact that I would begin studying a full 7 days ahead of the test. Overall the way he writes his tests problems is pretty tricky, and there are a fair number of curveballs that you've never encountered before in class or on homework. I think the people who had him for 1A probably fared better because they were more used to his tests than those of us who were completely unfamiliar. I'd also say your TA has a fair bit to do with your performance. It took me 7 weeks to realize I had the less experienced TA, but once I started going to the other TAs discussions and office hours I realized I understood things a little bit better. Overall my advice would be to keep up with all of the homework and make sure you understand concepts as you learn them. I was taking a pretty heavy courseload alongside this class, which prevented me from always keeping up with this class' material. That definitely hurt me in the end, as I had to learn concepts for the first time days before the test, and I didn't really have the opportunity to get comfortable with them. I definitely learned a lot about accounting along the way, but it came at the expense of my GPA. Kind of wished I changed this class to P/NP when I had the chance.

Management 1b with Ravetch is certainly not an easy class, but my personal experience this past quarter has led me to believe that it is certainly possible to be successful in this class if you are willing to be committed to going to lectures and doing the problems he posts online. For me, by far the most useful study strategy was to re-do the problems he did in class and posted himself on the website, as they were often very similar to the questions that ended up on the tests. The TAs in this class were also huge, as they put on lengthy review sessions before each of the midterms that were very helpful.

Professor Ravetch is a mathematical genius and an extremely engaging lecturer, which is pretty rare at UCLA. He is always in an uplifting mood and cracks many jokes throughout class which makes lectures that much better. The class itself is not as difficult as the previous reviews paint it out to be. Though you may do poorly on the first midterm (I failed), you get a sense of what to expect for the next two and can potentially do a lot better if you read the textbook+ do exercises and practice problems he often posts on CCLE. Luckily, the last two midterms are relatively easier than the first one: first midterm average was 82, the second was 83, and the last one was 87! There is no course reader required for this class, but he posts blank lecture notes online for you to print and bring to class. Unfortunately, he will leave those blank so it's up to you to show up to lectures. The hw is not turned in, so your grade is based on 3 midterms, but I recommend doing and redoing problems until you're comfortable with the concepts because this class will go relatively fast! Gardener would lecture a chapter a week, but Prof. Ravetch basically sums up an entire chapter in a day so it is easy to fall behind. Luckily, his midterms are not cumulative so you don't have to cram 10 weeks worth of material for the last midterm! Throughout the quarter, Ravetch will give relevant advice about life, sing songs about accounting, and bring a guest in to speak at least one. Despite what others have said, I recommend taking mgmt1b with him!

Had to late drop this class...but went on to do well enough with other instructors to land a job in I-banking. Returned to UCLA a few years later for my MBA, and was asked to be a TA for undergrad accounting...invite letter was signed by Ravetch!

There are many hard professors at UCLA, but what really bothered my about Ravetch was his self-appointed guardianship of the CPA profession. Mr. Gatekeeper himself only lasted a year at Deloitte before retreating to academia.

There are some very polarizing reviews of this professor. Some people - a very small minority - will "click" with Ravetch's teaching and testing style. For the vast majority, this class will be a nightmare. If you go into this class expecting it to be hell, you should probably be fine. If you can, try to make this your only tough class of the quarter because he certainly expects this class to be his students' number one priority.

Here is the problem with Ravetch's tests, as others have pointed out. He expects you to think in new ways that you have not been presented with during his lecture and through book exercises. This is all fine and dandy - but not under a time limit. I found his tests to be extremely unfair. I studied insanely hard for this class, on top of my other difficult classes, and was still often baffled at the questions on his exams. Some people will be able to quickly understand and make new connections yada yada but if you are a normal human person, this will probably be a very unpleasant experience for you.

Do yourself a favor and wait to take this class with someone else. It's just not worth it.

Professor Ravetch is a great lecturer. However, his tests are just way too hard. His lectures are engaging, funny and you can learn a lot from it. However, taking this class has a high chance of killing your GPA. Dont take this class if your GPA is already low

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