Despite all the negative reviews, I think Mazzocco is a decent professor. I don't know what all the a**hole reviews are about because he genuinely wanted us to learn and would always answer questions we had about the material. The only negative thing about him is probably his refusal to accommodate students who had legitimate reasons, often concerning their health, for missing original exam windows. He does have a policy that allows you to drop the lowest of two midterms in the situation that you can't take one, or if you failed one, so that's helpful, but it's still somewhat unfair to students who absolutely couldn't make it. So if you know you can't make the midterm or final exams, I wouldn't take the class.

The workload is pretty light, it's just a weekly problem set of 1-3 questions with 1-5 parts that you have a week to do. There's a total of 8 problem sets and they account for 10% of your final grade. The TA's will pick one question from each problem set and your grade for it is based on that one problem. I found them pretty manageable and easy to complete, and I got 100% for all.

There are two midterms and one final, and the exams were all on CCLE for this quarter. Because they were held online, they were all MCQ, with two "essay" questions that were more heavily weighted with multiple parts. If you scored lower on the final than on the two midterms, then each exam is worth 30% of your overall grade. If your final is higher than your midterm grade(s), then the lowest midterm is dropped. The final would be worth 50% of your grade in this situation and the higher scoring midterm would account for 40%. You have an hour and fifteen minutes for each midterm and three hours for the final. The only one I didn't have extra time for was the final, but I did answer every question.

The average grade for every exam was a low C (~71-73%), but I always scored above the average. He posts past exams for you to use as study guides, and I completed about 5-10 of those in preparation for each exam. I didn't read the textbook and it isn't really required, so I just followed his slides. I got a 91.5 on the first midterm, 89 on the second, and 84 on the final. I had a raw score of 89.4, but after the class was curved, I had an A (not sure what the actual percentage is). If it helps, my friend had an 84 and got an A- after the curve.

The TA sections aren't mandatory, they just go over questions similar to ones you'd find on the problem sets. I only attended the first section and the review sessions they held prior to an exam. Overall, I think this course was decent, you just have to put a little time and effort in to get a decent grade. I'd definitely take a class with Mazzacco again. I am a decent test-taker though, which is how I think I managed to get an A. If you usually do poorly on tests, I wouldn't recommend him since 90% of your grade is based on the exams.

Super calculus heavy course. Too calculus heavy. Tests are impossible to finish in 75 minutes. 2 midterms and one is dropped. Professor doesn't care what the students think. Weekly problem sets that take about 6 hours just bc you have to figure out how to do it yourself since the professor doesn't show you. DONT TAKE THIS CLASS

This class is difficult. For sure had to put in more work for this class than the other classes I took this quarter. If you do all the problem sets, go to discussion, attend lecture, and study a fair amount you should be fine. I do like his grading system - he will drop one of your worst midterm if you do better on the final, but if you do worse than everything is counted for 30% with a 10% homework grade.

Worst professor ever. Midterm average was below 60 on both and final average in the low 70’s. His lectures were boring and slow. He gave no examples in class that helped with homework assignments. His lack of care during the pandemic was obvious as he did not care about any students complaints of his lack of clarity and helpfulness. Definitely a weeder class that had everyone pulling their hair out. Do yourself a favor, wait a quarter before taking this class if he is teaching.

The lectures are pre-recorded and uploaded on CCLE, and regular lecture time would be used for Q&A. Honestly I'd prefer live lectures even with remote instructions, since when they are pre-recorded I really end up not watching them at all. There are two midterms and one final, all of them doable but a little calculation intensive.

Overall, I'd say ECON 11 focuses more on math rather than Econ. Being able to calculate derivatives, Lagrange, etc., seems be more important than understanding intuitions behind Econ concepts in this class. However all those math stuff are all covered in other math classes (32A, etc.), so if you have previous experiences in those classes there's nothing to worry about- just memorize all those formulas you'll be good to go. Not sure why Econ dept did not make Math 32A pre-req of this class, since the first two weeks basically teaches you how to calculate second derivatives, Lagrange, optimize functions, etc.

I had high hopes for Mazzocco because of all the hype he had about being the best. Because of virtual learning he made the exams significantly harder than previous years for whatever reason. Truly no one would feel confident after the tests. Our average on the first exam was a 65, compared to the previous years that had an average of a 90. The exams always threw crazy curveballs and were insanely hard compared to the practice exams (previous years exams). I think the class would be 100% better if it was in person!! The lectures are very helpful, but the TA sections help the most! Fortunately, the grading scheme is pretty generous in terms of how weighted your exams/problem sets will be!

This class was really difficult for me to understand and I found the tests to be extremely hard. It was partially my fault because I wouldn't pay too much attention during lecture and then cram for the midterm and final. I liked the format, he would upload prerecorded lectures a few days before having live Q & A sessions where you could ask any questions. But I really never went to the Q & A sessions. Discussion was not mandatory but helpful depending on your TA, Victoria was the best in my opinion.

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.