Being honest, this class was hard at the beginning but that's the foundation for the entire class. If you can understand the early material, the later material will come easier to learn as you make connections and lines to the different theorems. The trickiest part of this class for me were the concepts like the stuff you had to memorize like properties and how to apply theorems to different parts of the problem to find the right solution. This class was math heavy, so a strong foundation in calculus would be nice, but not needed. The midterms in my opinion were fair and true to the practice tests he gave, but he did throw 1 or 2 curveballs on the frq portion and the mc. What really helped me get through this class was a man who took this class already who was willing to help and a strong group study of friends. Approaching this class, I don't recommend reading the textbook but rather rely on the slides to understand the concepts, the TA notes to understand the math behind it, and YouTube for anything else you're having trouble understanding. Goncalves is a good professor in general, but the way he explained some stuff was confusing when there was a simpler way to understand it but I had to connect the dots myself and find relationships after doing the problems like 100 times. He does goof up on his math a little, but overall not bad. Pay attention to the lectures because the small things he say will be tested.

Professor Goncalves did a good job teaching Econ 11. He offered practice exams which were quite useful.

HOWEVER, this class really is NOT easy, and make sure you understand the material and the lectures.

(Personally, I didn’t find the textbook helpful, but it depends on each person.)

This class was very challenging, and I found it difficult to keep up. While I understand that it's meant to be a tough course, I believe that the professor could have done a better job with the material. The class requires a lot of practice, but the practice material provided was not enough. During lectures, I often felt confused and unsure of what we were studying. If the professor had taught the material in a way that reflected what would be on the exam, it would have been more beneficial. I would recommend attending all the discussion sections since they were more helpful than the lectures. When I asked the TAs and professors for extra practice material, they were not very helpful, and what they had posted online was not sufficient. If they had provided mock exams, it would have been more helpful. The exams got progressively more challenging, and I could have done better on the first exam if I hadn't panicked and made silly mistakes. One of the TAs held review sessions that were useful, so I would recommend attending those. Overall, I think this professor is still the best option for Econ 11, despite the difficulties of the class. I do want to note that I am not very good at math, so my experience may be biased. Other students may not have had the same issues as me. Good luck!

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.