mcdevitt is the best professor that i've had at ucla. he's very clear, organized, and structured. many econ students that i knew recommended him to me, so i knew that i wanted to take econ 101 with him. the exams are straightforward, and there's not really any "tricks." he releases an abundance of study questions and practice exams that are basically identical to the exams, so be sure to study those! it helps if you start studying 2 weeks in advance just to get comfortable with the material and then ramp it up 4-5 days before the exam. i've never had an econ professor do this, but he finalizes the exam material a week in advance, so the material covered right before the exam is actually for the next exam. this allows you to narrow in on the topics and only study what is necessary. he was very accommodating of the covid-19 and blm situation, and he simplified the final exam material. however, i will say that the multiple-choice questions are tricky. if you miss 1 QUESTION, you are down by 10 POINTS. that is a lot for a simple error, especially because there can be 4-7 choices! this was super stressful for me, but all the exams were open-note in spring 2020. McDevitt is also super responsive to emails despite managing so many classes, and he accomodated me with a personal situation (which most econ professors won't do). take him!

So, I took this class Spring of 2020 which meant it was entirely online. The professor was very accommodating in regards to current events and the situation. He also takes feedback very well and adjusts aspects of the class accordingly. He's by far the best Econ professor I've had at my time at UCLA so far. He is able to relate classroom events and real life events to economic concepts. Honestly, I think I would've done better if the class was in person/I felt accountable for paying attention, but overall he was an amazing professor and I would definitely take another class with him.

Professor McDevitt was very nice and helpful. I really enjoyed the way he taught because he made the concepts very digestible. The class was still pretty hard for me but it wasn't because of the professor. And I know this class was different for students taking it this quarter, but the professor was very accommodating. I'm excited to take another class with him in the future.

Professor McDevitt is definitely the best professor I've had so far in the Economics Department. Online lectures and posted notes made concepts easy to understand, and practice questions helped with retaining the material. Exams were quite difficult, especially the multiple choice portion, with each question having 8+ possible answers; however, the exams were open note, which helped greatly.
Grades were entirely dependent on exams, and initially midterm #1 was worth 20%, midterm #2 was worth 25%, and the final was worth 55%. However, due to the circumstances Professor McDevitt introduced an alternate grading scheme where both midterms were worth 80% combined and the final was worth 20%, and ending grades would be the higher of the two grading schemes.
Overall, I would definitely take this class again with Professor McDevitt and hope to take other Economics courses with him in the future.

The Best professor I have had at UCLA hands down. Coming from someone who just about passed Econ 11, I was worried this class would be the end of my econ career. Mcdevitt was so clear and his notes were really informative. If you study his practice questions and his notes, there is no reason you cant get an A in this class it was honestly pretty easy. Overall, definitely would recommend.

By far the best econ professor I've had at ucla yet. He is so clear in every aspect, which I've found previous econ teachers to lack in. From his teaching, to what will be on tests, to even offering extra office hours before exams, he knows what he is doing and makes his students feel confident as well. This class has been my first enjoyable econ class because he makes his lectures very engaging and straight-forward. He also posts the lecture notes which are also very clear. He is easy to follow, and will repeat himself on tricky topics to make sure you fully understand. He truly wants the best for his students, and you can just tell how much he cares about what he does. Learned the most from this class so far at my time at ucla and it's stuff I will actually retain because of how well-taught everything was. The guy is such a sweet man and will remind you on why you stuck out this major!

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.