Overall, ECON 11 with Cantu Garcia is extremely challenging. He is a good lecturer and provides amazing notes; however, his tests are extremely difficult and I remember struggling with some of the problem sets.

Took Econ 11 in Winter 2015

The class wasn't easy, but that's just the content, and I'm sure that's the same for any other professor. I thought Carlos was a nice guy, who's pretty funny sometimes, and seems approachable enough. He's organized and pretty clear when it comes to teaching the concepts. However, the 2 midterms and final were pretty difficult, and the class wasn't curved. Although he gave an additional 10% extra credit, which actually helped a lot. He also has a bit of an accent, and his English isn't the best at times, but he's still understandable in my opinion.

Overall, Carlos is pretty good, and while you might feel like you're going through hell during the class, you'll probably come out alright. As long as you do your homework and get all the participation points (by answering questions on the online forum and in lecture), you should be good. Econ 11 with Carlos was a little frustrating at times, especially in the face of unsolvable exam questions, but it isn't insane, and you'll probably get a fair grade if you put in the effort. This wasn't an easy class, but I have no complaints having Carlos as my professor.

Took Economics 11 in Winter 2015

Carlos used to be one of the best TA in UCLA Econ department. Just ask any professor in the department and they know him. He started teaching Econ 11 in Winter 2015 and will continue to teach Econ 11 in Spring.

Tips:
1. All grades are NOT curved. Instead he uses an extra points system that consists of Participation and Bonus Questions. Although the mean of each tests was as low as 60, it is not hard to get an A as long as you have a high participation score. Be sure to attend every lecture and try to answer the questions he asks, you’ll be able to accumulate all 10 participation points rather quickly. This means you get a +10 on your final grade, equivalent to 50 points in midterm or 25 points in final (That is a lot!!!). Bonus Questions are challenge questions offered in each test and worth about 15 to 20 points. There is no partial credit for these questions so do them only if you have time.
2. His notes use partial derivatives and Lagrange multiplier a lot. If you haven’t taken Math 32A yet (which is unfortunately not a requirement for Econ or Business Econ majors), it is recommended that you learn partial derivatives and Lagrange multiplier by yourself before taking this class. Knowing the definition and how to calculate them would be sufficient.
3. The exams are not very easy, but mostly doable. Make sure you do every Problem Set he assigns and do the study guide he writes for each exam, and you’ll be well prepared for the tests.

Pros:
1. As long as you get all 10 participation points and do the homework, you have almost secured an A.
2. The notes and problem sets are very helpful and they prepare you well for upper division classes.
3. Carlos is a nice guy and he is very approachable.

Cons:
1. Although Carlos speaks and writes fluent English, his exams can be very confusing. Sometimes it is hard to understand what the question is asking about.
2. (*This may not apply to everyone*) I don’t think Carlos did a good job in helping us to really learn the material; rather, I feel like he trained us to do all kinds of calculations. You don’t even need to fully understand the concepts to get a good grade. Just follow every steps he did in class and you’ll get the right result. Personally I don’t think I will learn anything useful from it, but some people may actually like this.

Overall, Carlos is an okay teacher and surly he will do better as he gained more experience. You'll definitely get a good grade if you put in the efforts.

This is an honest and open review from a student who’s been doing fairly decent at UCLA and in Economics.
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I took Econ 11 with Carlos in Winter 2015. This was his first time teaching the course as an instructor rather than a TA.

If his problem sets weren’t impossible and his exams actually were relevant to the info presented, he’d honestly be the perfect professor. But with that being said, he still needs some work to get to that point.

Considering that we were his first Econ 11 class, we were his guinea pigs. The beginning of the course was a mess as we dove right into the information with no knowledge of multivariable calculus. Our homework assignments were basically IMPOSSIBLE from the start. Over time, the course slowly started to make sense, but with a LOT of outside help (TA’s, office hours).

Carlos is a great guy. He’s intelligent, extremely caring, and wants his students to succeed. But the problem is that there’s too much expected out of the students. He cannot explain the material too comprehensibly and makes a lot of mistakes on his worksheets (which make you feel as though you’re not getting the right answers).

The way the class is set up was pretty weird, probably because we were his “dummy” test class…
There was no curve, but rather an adjusted grading scale (which was actually beneficial in the end). Here's the scale he used for us (I don't know if he will be doing this in his future Econ 11 courses): 95-100 A+, 90-94 A, 85-89 A-, 80-84 B+, 75-79 B, 70-74 B-, 65-69 C+, 60-64 C, 55-59 C-, 50-54 D

Class is broken down into 20% homework, 20% midterm 1, 20% midterm 2, 40% final, and 10% extra for participation (in class and posting on an online discussion forum).

Compared to when I took 41 to Rojas, I found this material way more challenging and a pain in the a** to work through. Carlos’s worksheets and exams were ridiculously challenging, and I seriously walked out of every exam PRAYING for a passing grade (Keep in mind in his class passing is a C- at 55%).

And yet, I ended up getting a better grade than I did in 41, even though I found this class to be much, much, much, much worse. So although the grading scale is forgiving and not on a curve, I still found everything to be terribly difficult. This class is HEAVILY math based. Econ 11 is generally a math-based course, but Carlos dives DEEP into mathematics, which can get very overwhelming.

If you're looking for something less mathematically Do yourself a favor and take this class with Mazocco or Sproul (if he still teaches 11). I promise you’ll save a few grey hairs in the long run.

Overall he's a pretty good teacher. No doubt, his class is pretty damn difficult and you can expect to spend about 4 hours per week on the problem sets, but there are a bunch of TA's with office hours throughout the week, so there's always a time to get help. Also, make sure you pay a visit to the professor's office hours at least once. He's extremely nice and helpful in a smaller setting. Plus, he always tries to help the students succeed. He took the mid course suggestions very seriously and actually adjusted the way he taught. He even took time to create study guides, extra problems, and documents about how to approach certain problems. It's very evident that he cares for his students.

The only problem with him is that sometimes he speaks too fast or goes over too much content in one class. However, if you review the notes every class and go to office hours when you need, you'll be fine.

That being said, to succeed in this class, you absolutely have to practice and go over the problems forward and backward until you can approach it from a mathematical standpoint and an economic/logical standpoint. Like the others have said, if you aren't familiar with the content in Math 32A, acquaint yourself the process of taking partial derivatives and using langrange multipliers because you will use it over, and over, and over again.
Carlos is a great professor and the class is very fair - put in the work and you'll get what you deserve.

Took Econ 11 with him in the Spring of 2015-will be taking him for Econ 101 in the Summer.
For starters, this is by far the most difficult class I have taken so far. However, this is understandable because Econ 11 is a weeding out course for students in the economics department. While this course is very difficult, it is not impossible to do well in the class. Here are some suggestions that you must consider if you want to do well in his class.
1. His exams are fair, but always attempt to solve the extra credit ones. He typically offers 20 points of extra credit on each of his exams and he personally grades this section, and let it be known that he is a very lenient with his grading scale. Also, during exams, he has helped students decipher ambiguous test questions.
2. Attend his office hours! He has actually been known to reveal potential test questions during these sessions so take advantage of this and every review session he has to offer before his exams.
3. If possible, attend multiple TA discussions. I understand that most students are super busy involved with other extra curricular activities, but if possible, attend them because they are all experts in this field of study. Most of the TA's in the spring were international and spoke with thick accents and some would scold you if you hadn't prepared for their discussion sessions. Nonetheless, if you have the time, please attend these.
Lastly, Cantu is not a teacher that tries to trick his students. He wants them to understand the values of critical thinking, and he does so by pushing students to apply the economic concepts of the models discussed in class. He offered 15 percent of extra credit and it is imperative to take advantage of this. Overall he is a great, caring, approachable, and outstanding professor.
Final grade: A-

I took Econ 11 in Spring 2015 and obtained a solid A.

This is my first class since switching from a Math major and it was really so easy. I only went to three discussions and two office hours. I did skim the book before the tests, but it was not really needed. I did not take Econ 1 or 2 because I tested out of them with AP.

Garcia went over most of the information very well. The second midterm he focused a lot on a topic that he barely went over, but he changed the weighting of that test from 20% to 10%, allowing your homework to be worth 30%.

His tests are fair. It is unlikely to get all of the questions completely correct, but you don't need to. There is 10-15% extra credit available on each test.

His grade weighting is:
20% Problem sets
20% Midterm 1
20% Midterm 2
40% Final
15% Extra Credit

You obtain the extra credit by going to class and answering questions.

Plus he scales the class where an A is 85-100, B is 70-84, C is 55-69.

In my class, 29% got A's, 56% got B's, 9% got C's and 6% got F's, so it is really easy to do well.

I am hoping to take him again in the future.

So if you're coming from Econ 1 and Econ 2, this class is VERY hard. The materials are very challenging and Professor Cantu Garcias, matches that with his problem sets and exams. His problem sets are difficult but once you understand it, it helps with the overall understanding of the materials. BUT the exam problems does NOT reflect his problem sets. The exams bares little resembles from the problem sets, so you really have to know the materials really well. He doesn't emphasize this enough in class, but READ THE TEXTBOOK. The problem sets and exam problems both asks questions that utilizes your intuition so unless you understand math and its context, then you really need to read the book to get that intuition.

I struggled so much in this class but hard work paid off, I ended up with B+, I was so close to an A-.

It's a math intensive class and Professor Cantu Garcias has a strong math background as well, so expect A LOT of math. Though, he is very organized in his lecture notes (which is not inclusive of everything that he teaches in class so you still have to go to lectures). The class was recorded, but the quality was horrible, you can't see the board half the time. So go to class. He gives out participation extra credits for answering questions in class.

His exams and problem sets are very hard. But don't let that discourage you from taking his class. His lectures are usually very organized along with the lecture notes (though you still need to go to class because he doesn't annotate everything in the lecture notes). He gave out extra credits. The class is not curved, which worked to my advantage, so if you are willing to work hard, you can do well.

I noticed that each professor teaches Econ 101 differently, I think we focused a little more on Game Theory in this class. Not just the conceptual Game theory, but actually used math to do calculations for game theories. It was a little more than what I would have liked since I'm not a strong math person.

Overall, expect to work hard. Each of his problem sets takes me HOURS. Once, I procrastinated and it took me almost 10 hours to complete 4 problems and I still did them wrong. So, a good tip: do one homework problem per day.

I feel like he is a little elusive during office hours. Maybe he is just too smart that he doesn't get why some us don't get it. Also, his office hours gets really crowded so it's better to work together with other classmates because you will not be able to get all your questions answered.

There's extra credit called "Collaboration", essentially it's a study group and if you contribute to the study group, you get easy 10% EC. This made the class bearable.

I took Econ 11 with Carlos, and I found it absolutely awful. There are regular homework assignments that require hours of work to complete, and both of the midterms and the final were ridiculously difficult and seemingly unrelated to the homework material/lectures. In order to be successful in this class, you must put a lot of effort to study. The lectures provide a very surface-level picture of the material, whereas the exams require a deep understanding. Going to discussion and TA office hours is essential for this class. Carlos' redemption as a professor is that he is VERY generous with extra credit (in lieu of a curve) for those who participate in class, so attendance is highly recommended. Overall, the material was not overly difficult, but Carlos' method was ineffective and I would not recommend him as a professor.