McDevitt explains the topics in a clear and straightforward way. He also holds review sections on the weekends before finals/midterm. His MCs are weighted very heavily though, with many options per question. Tread carefully on those. But other than that, I highly recommend him!

As a professor, Prof. McDevitt is great. He gives engaging lectures, is interesting, speaks clearly, and explains concepts pretty well. Make sure you go to class, as attending lecture is very crucial to your success. Even though he gives the lecture notes at the beginning of the quarter, there's always one or two problems on every exam that tests on something he only talked about in lecture. On the same token, discussion is pretty unnecessary. Most of the people I talked to said they didn't go to discussion, and the few times I went to discussion, it was near empty, apart from 2 or 3 people.

His exams are pretty similar to the practice exams he gives you, and he provides study questions that are good preparation for the exams. One of my only problems with this class is that the study questions require you to have learned nearly all of the material for the exam, meaning that you can't study until he has covered near everything for that exam. He doesn't give regular homework, which actually stops you from doing regular, consistent studying. I always felt like I had to study a few days before the exam, rather than consistently after every lecture. On top of this, sometimes he'll remove practice problems because he won't test on them/aren't relevant for this class, meaning that if you do study far before the exam, you might not be studying the right material.

My only other problem with this class is that the exams have few problems, but are broken up into many parts and are worth a lot of points. This means that if you forgot a concept on one of the earlier parts or made a calculation error, you effectively got an entire question wrong, which can equate to 30% of the exam. Also, his entire class is based solely on exams, and he doesn't replace any of your midterms with the final, meaning that you have to be on top of things early on.

Grading scheme is as follows:
Midterm 1: 20%
Midterm 2: 25%
Final: 55%

Overall, I would take Prof. McDevitt again, but keep in mind that this class can destroy people who aren't meticulous and detail-oriented.

At the beginning of this quarter, I was told that McD was the best professor in the econ department and that rang true to the end. His class consists of 3 exams (1 midterm-20% of grade, 2 midterm-25% of grade, and final exam -55% of grade). He writes on an expo board so sit close in class, but his examples in class and the material he posts are incredibly helpful in preparing for each exam. McD will hold multiple office hours prior to all exams which are essentially review sessions where you can ask about any topic. He is by far very knowledgeable about the subject matter and will explain it in all ways to help students understand the concepts. The only difficulty with this course is taking the midterms within 50 minutes. However, he does offer a curve to offset this. The cumulative mean in W19 was a 79% but with the curve, became a B-, so do not rely too heavily on the curve. Also, he will email after each exam with a grade break down so you can see where you stand in the class. Attend lecture, do the study questions/sample exam questions, and, if you need extra help like me, go to office hours. McD wants all his students to succeed and will offer a lot to help them out. I plan on taking him for as many course as possible throughout the rest of my time at UCLA. I would HIGHLY recommend him to any econ student!!

I had some personal issues so my grades sucked but McDevitt is an excellent professor. He is an excellent lecturer.

He does follow his lecture notes (posted online) quite closely but you MUST attend lecture. He doesn't podcast it and some of his lecture notes have errors in them that he fixes during lecture.

His exams are very difficult. Multiple choices have like 7 choices (up to [j] even)
His short response is more straightforward.

Excellent professor. Highly recommend.

AMAZING PROFESSOR . His explanations are so clear, they click right away, and if you're iffy on something, go to office hours, and he is absolutely overjoyed to work through the topic and examples as many times as you need because he really wants you to understand the material and be able to succeed academically. Midterms and finals are difficult but doable (might be a bit time pressured sometimes), but if you go to lecture, office hours, do hw, and practice tests, you will be more than fine! I can honestly say that he is the best professor in the Econ Dept.

Very well organized class that is taught at a reasonable pace. McDevitt is by far one of the most professional and straightforward professors I have come across at UCLA. He keeps his classes very well organized and makes it easy to be successful. He provides a lot of material to help review before exams. Would definitely recommend!

Professor Mcdevitt is definitely one of the most organized professors in the Econ dept. His lectures are clear and straightforward. A few things you may want to know:

1. Your grade is solely based on three exams: 20% midterm 1, 30% midterm 2, 50% final. Homework is posted but not required. It is strongly recommended to do homework on your own, because many homework questions will be more or less on the exam (same format, but numbers changed).

2. His exams are very straightforward. No tricky questions or brainteasers. Almost everything on the exam comes from examples in his lectures. You are tested on how well you understand the concept he delivers and use them in problem solving.

3. Go to his lectures and take notes! He will do many practice problems in lectures, and it is almost guaranteed that ALL OF THEM will be on the exams! You need to know exactly how to solve these problems in the same way he does.

4. Do NOT rely on online notes. Notes will definitely help you study for exams, but NOT everything he delivers in lecture will be posted online. He knows that people skip classes all the time, therefore on his exams he will put some questions he covered in lecture but could not be found on online notes. If you don't go to lecture then you will not know how to solve them.

5. It is important to understand concepts he delivers, including all the graphs he gives in lecture. You are expected know how to interpret and draw the graph.

6. The class average is very high. He does give a "generous curve", but it is not an "easy A". In my class, the curve looks like: 93% A+, 90% A, 87% A-, etc. It is important to be focused and pay attention to detail in exams! Each multiple choice question can worth up to 10 points, and long response questions can worth up to 65 points. If you forget one simple concept you may instantly lose 30+ points on exams, which is almost a letter grade!

Overall it is a rewarding class. You will need to put some work but I definitely would love to take his class again. Good luck.

Great Professor!! Yes he is difficult however his classes are very organized and he knows what he is talking about. Once you take a class with him, you will compare all of your other econ professors to him and fact is most of them will fall short. Once you get and understand his teaching style his class is not so intimidating. I took him for econ 11 and econ 101. I got a B in 11 and then an A in 101. Basically if in class he says "do a problem like this ... on your own" do a problem like that on your own, because those are the ones that seem to appear on his tests. I didn't do as well in 11 because I relied too much on the notes that I bought from the textbook store. These notes in fact are really good, but having them caused me not to pay as much attention in class as I needed to. For 101 however, I took my own notes and obviously did substantially better. I would absolutely recommend McDevitt as a professor, just be prepared to go to class and to put in a bit of solid study time before his tests.

simple, accurate, clear, and effective!

Great lecturer.. presenting materials really clearly & accurately.

Exams are not that hard, if you read & solve his study questions about 2 times,

you will easily get an A on his exams.

What you get for your knowledge? the course material is pretty much similar to Econ 11, so you should do well this class if you understand Econ 11. Prof is very knowledgable and concerning (last time, he held 4 different extra OHs before the final). He always tries to be funny in class and his lecture is very easy to understand. So, try to keep awake and listen to his lecture.
What you get for your grade? The test consists of 2 parts: MC/TF/fill-in-the-blank and essay questions. Essay questions are straightforward. Learn the lecture notes, the examples and his study guides, then you should be able to do 80%+ of the essay questions. MC/TF/Fill-in parts are horrible. his graph is very confusing, and you always have more than 10 options to pick the best one. Tests are also really long and exhausting. However, there are a lot of A+'s and A's in class. So if you try your best, you should get an A.