YES YES YES! Professor Goncalves is everything you want out of an Econ 11 professor. Spring 2020 was is first quarter at UCLA (I believe he did some post-doc work in NY after graduating from Princeton) and he blew all my expectations out of the water. Especially during all the chaos with the pandemic/BLM protests, he was super understanding and tried to make the best out of the situation. His lectures are very clear, and he goes through a ton of examples to really solidify the content (side note: he REALLY listens to student feedback; he adjusted the difficulty of the 2nd midterm/final after looking over the results of the 1st midterm, for example). He sometimes holds review sessions before exams, and a TON of extra office hours during midterm and final season (use them)! The material of econ 11 is obviously very challenging--the class is a weeder for a reason--but Prof. Goncalves is an absolute gem of the econ department. The grade distribution for Spring 2020 is inflated because tests were open note due to corona, but even if this class was in-person, I'd take this class again in a heartbeat. If I had one complaint about this class, it's the "flipped classroom" structure where you learn the content by watching pre-recorded lectures and lecture is a Q&A session, but this is really more a complaint about the constraints of COVID.

Man's the GOAT. Super clear and good lecturer. I personally didn't like the reversed classroom style of teaching, but also that was probably just in place because classes were online due to the Coronavirus pandemic. But, in general, he explains concepts very well and was as accommodating as the ECON department allowed him to be given the situation.

A reasonable teacher who ensured I learned what I needed. This professor taught Econ 11 far better than my previous experience, and his approach was fair and effective

My review of other professors: https://www.reddit.com/r/ucla/comments/1gmshzu/review_of_econ_professors_as_a_transfer_student/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

This is a weeder class and the department does not try hiding that fact at all—you need to embrace the difficult reality and just deal with it when taking this class, especially because it's impacted. Professor Goncalves isn't a bad teacher, but he isn't great either; he'll teach the basic concepts but you will have to supplement his lectures heavily through practice problems. Your grade will end up being dependent on how many practice problems you did prior to the two midterms and the final, all of which are not easy at all (expect averages of 50% and 70%). There are also a few homework assignments, but they only make up 10% of the grade. For a weeder, though, this class is at least reasonable and very possible to do well in.

At orientation, the advisor said we should take Econ 11 once we’re out of our partying phases. Other peers have confirmed that this class is high commitment to the point where it was their primary class of the quarter.

I came into this class at the peak of the Dunning-Kruger curve thinking 32A knowledge would help me coast through UCLA Econ's famous weeder class. I also set myself up for a rollercoaster quarter by taking this class with 32B, but this one turned out better for me. However, I forgot Lagrange Multipliers so there was a bit of catching up on the multivariable calculus.

Optimization and partial derivatives are the meat of the course but the latter is easier to get a hang of as long as you understand what they're actually measuring. I came into this class barely remembering anything from intro microeconomics, but fortunately Professor reviews these concepts and helps them really make sense with a calculus interpretation. For example, I liked using the partial derivative formula for elasticities more than the Midpoint Method.

Just like for math classes, practicing early and consistently is key for Econ 11. People complain about Professor’s speeding through slides during lecture, but I found it easier to absorb content by not copying down slides verbatim. Instead, I just visualized the rates of change going on in each graph and formula since Professor articulated concepts well and was always patient with questions (I still needed to refer back to slides and TA notes, of course). Keep in mind I was one of those people who found the math computations easier than the conceptual, "economic" meanings so we’ll see how Econ 101 goes.

I didn’t practice as much from the textbook, but it was still helpfully detailed. Discussion was also beneficial as an opportunity for practice (shoutout TA Felipe).

I ended up getting a 60 on the first midterm (≈20th percentile), so I thought it was the end. If Professor didn't release past exams, it probably would’ve been. Keep in mind that I underestimated the class in the first six weeks by only focusing on problem sets.

To prepare for the second midterm, I took the released exams much more seriously by timing myself and making sure I knew how to do the TA problems as well. I did each past exam problem and refused to move on until I knew why an answer was correct. If you're stuck, office hours are plentiful.

Improvement is certainly possible! I ended up getting a 96 on Midterm 2 (≈87th percentile) and a 92 on the final with this new studying strategy.

This was definitely the most I’ve studied for a class at UCLA so far, but the teaching team provides plenty of resources for success. Good luck, you can do it 🫡

Econ 11 is the hardest class I have taken thus far and I feel like it would be challenging with any professor. However, I also did not find the professor's lectures very helpful and I went to TA office hours weekly since they were more willing to help with homework-specific problems than the professor was. The professor provides past exams in preparation for the midterms and final. I would recommend doing these many times as practice for the exams. In my opinion, I felt that the practice sets were not that helpful to prepare for exams so I did not really study these since the exams are mostly multiple choice. Despite doing the practice exams numerous times and practically memorizing them, I still found the exams difficult. Some concepts were hard for me to grasp and you have to understand them conceptually to do many of the multiple choice questions. Not to mention it is quite a time crunch during exams and especially on the second midterm, Goncalves made the questions very difficult and long where there was not enough time unless you knew the shortcuts to the problems (which we were never really taught). I got a 78 on midterm 1, a 78 on midterm 2, and a 90 on the final. The average on the first midterm was 70, around 50 for midterm 2, and 72 for the final. However, the professor ended up adding 16 points to the second midterm which raised everyone's original scores. I did not find the final super difficult after studying the practice finals and the past midterms but it was also moved online due to the protests so this may have made it easier. Overall, although I ended up doing well in the class, it was definitely a struggle and I had to study a lot to do well. I do not think Goncalves is the best professor for Econ 11 but I also do not think he is the worst. Although he makes his exams very difficult and the averages are relatively low, I'm sure he curved a decent amount which helped.

Taking Econ11 with Prof. Goncalves was not easy. I got 74 for mid1, 64 for mid2, an unknown grade for the final, and a final grade of A. Either I did super well on the final or the curve saved my ass. The professor is great at teaching and is very helpful. The test is hard but not unmanageable, as in everyone does bad, so you're alright. I swear I grasp all the concepts, but other factors affect my performance. Anyway, I'm sure regardless of the process, the professor will give u a good grade.

I don't know if taking this class with a different professor would make it any easier, but this course is the most difficult one I have taken so far. I didn't find Professor Goncalves lectures very helpful since he tends to read off of the slides, and I taught myself most of the material. The math for this course was doable even without taking multivariable calculus, but the economic concepts were difficult to learn. The two main grading schemes (with homework being 10%) were 20% for both midterms and 50% final or you can drop a midterm and the higher of the two midterms will be worth 30% and the final 60%. Due to the protests, a third grading scheme was added where homework is 10% and the final is the remaining 90%. The average for midterm 1 was around 70% and the midterm 2 average was close to 50%, so he decided to add 16 points to everyone's score to make the average closer to the midterm 1 average. The final was changed to an online format because of the protests, and I felt that Professor Goncalves didn't make the final too difficult, maybe after seeing the grades on midterm 2. The final average was around 74%. Even though the exams are worth 90% of your grade, Goncalves curves at the end which is helpful. Overall, I wouldn't recommend taking this class with Professor Goncalves, but it is doable if you study a lot.

this class is definitely not for the weak but professor goncalves was a decent lecturer! we jumped into course content pretty quickly which was overwhelming for someone like me who didn't take math 32a or any multivariable course prior to econ 11 but it was relatively easy to get the hang of it. there are 9 pretty complex homework sets, 3 of which are ungraded and just exam practice and the lowest one gets dropped, i chegged most of it LOL. it's good practice for just problem solving and the FRQ portion of exams but there's much more MCQ so it's crucial to understand everything conceptually and be able to think critically because you'll have to flip a problem inside out to get the answer sometimes. he gives multiple past exams for practice which was really helpful. the first midterm was relatively easy with an average of 70% and the second midterm average was 45% LMAO. our final ended up getting moved online last minute because of the protests but it still felt pretty doable just because we flopped so hard on the last midterm i think... he said at the beginning of the quarter that he wouldn't allow a cheat sheet but we got one double sided sheet for each midterm and final which was SUPER helpful, i don't know how i would've managed without one. although he goes over the math for problems pretty quickly, it's mostly derivatives and algebraic manipulation so it was fine, and he's more than willing to clarify any confusion in lecture. overall, taking econ 11 with professor goncalves was a good experience!

the professor is well-versed with teaching materials and knows the content inside out, however, moves fast and there is a decent amount of self-learning. Midterms are hard but often a reflection of past midterms so a great tip would be to use test banks and actually be able to answer the questions.