The class in itself isn't that bad. His midterms and final were fair, and his sample exams give you a good idea of what will be on them. He talk a lot about pizza and sushi and Ferrari's and Bugattis. However, he curves down. This is the first class I have even been curved down, and he later told me that the econ department only allows a certain percentage of students to get A's. So while this class is fairly easy for a weeder and the averages on the midterm/final were around 85-90, he curves a lot of people down :/

Objectively speaking, since this class was during COVID, it was expected to be more difficult than being in person. However, I am amazed by the fact that this year, this course was basically made HARDER simply because we were online. I personally felt that the exams were twice as more difficult as in previous years and I do not know if this was the implied intent from the professor but nevertheless, the exam grades showed that clearly. 2019 - like 89%, this year's first midterm was a 65%. For myself, this class was simply too fast and not useful in any shape or form but hey, I passed so that's fine. This class is a purely weeder course and by the end of it, since it was not clear as to how many individuals were able to pass with a B- or higher to stay in the pre-business economics major, I can objectively say that most of us despised the result. Best of luck to future fighters in this class as we bless you nothing but well wishes and lots of champagne and pizza.

I will now go cry and try to have a good COVID christmas.

Mazzocco was a genuinely nice professor and he seemed to really care about the students and the material in his class. He provides a lot of previous midterms for practice and make sure you do every single one beacuse his tests are extremely difficult. Because this quarter was online all of his lectures were consistenly longer than the actual time allotted for the class. He is always thorough with explanations but he goes over many derivations that just aren't necessary at all for his exams. I consistently scored below average on both midterms but managed to do well on the final, so I got a B in the class. If you take this make sure to utilize the practice midterms and any extra problems that him or the TA's provide. The curve was pretty generous, considering most people didn't do well on both of the midterms. He says the midterms are open note and that's a supposed advantage that students during covid have over previous econ 11 students BUT there is absolutely no time during the tests to be looking through all of your notes considering how many questions are asked in such a short amount of time. If you take this class be sure you are extremely well prepared for the midterms and final, cause that's your entire grade.

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.

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!

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 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!

He was alright. I thought the lecture was confusing at times but it was recorded so you could go back and watch it if you want. The discussion helped me a lot too. He posts his old exams for you to study from which is nice because it gives you lots of practice before the test. The class is curved and math heavy.

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.