YES YES YES! Professor Goncalves is everything you want out of an Econ 11 professor. Spring 2020 was is first quarter at UCLA (I believe he did some post-doc work in NY after graduating from Princeton) and he blew all my expectations out of the water. Especially during all the chaos with the pandemic/BLM protests, he was super understanding and tried to make the best out of the situation. His lectures are very clear, and he goes through a ton of examples to really solidify the content (side note: he REALLY listens to student feedback; he adjusted the difficulty of the 2nd midterm/final after looking over the results of the 1st midterm, for example). He sometimes holds review sessions before exams, and a TON of extra office hours during midterm and final season (use them)! The material of econ 11 is obviously very challenging--the class is a weeder for a reason--but Prof. Goncalves is an absolute gem of the econ department. The grade distribution for Spring 2020 is inflated because tests were open note due to corona, but even if this class was in-person, I'd take this class again in a heartbeat. If I had one complaint about this class, it's the "flipped classroom" structure where you learn the content by watching pre-recorded lectures and lecture is a Q&A session, but this is really more a complaint about the constraints of COVID.

Man's the GOAT. Super clear and good lecturer. I personally didn't like the reversed classroom style of teaching, but also that was probably just in place because classes were online due to the Coronavirus pandemic. But, in general, he explains concepts very well and was as accommodating as the ECON department allowed him to be given the situation.

Professor Goncalves is a super awesome professor in the Econ department. He does a great job of explaining the material, and is quite clear in lecture. He posts his lecture notes along with the slides, so it makes it easy to review if you missed anything. The class material can definitely be tricky at first, especially since students who haven't taken Math 32A will have to quite a bit of multivariate calculus. However, the class does get easier as you go and get more familiar with the material. He's really helpful in office hours too. I also took his seminar course, where we read academic papers on the economics of crime and policing and discussed them. This was super fun, and it was really awesome to discuss these topics with him, since he's literally an expert in that field. The midterms weren't terrible, but the averages were somewhat low, with the first having an average of 75 and second 65 (medians were 80 and 70). If you studied and paid attention in lecture, it wasn't terrible. Overall a really cool guy, and great professor too.

I retook this class after failing it the quarter before under Mazzocco. Goncalves is a nice guy who reads off the slides as well as switches off to digital notes. I agree with the other commenter that he does not provide enough relevant extra practice material -- but I will say to definitely study the questions he gives on the practice tests because they end up reappearing on another midterm or even the final. Study early and often. He did apply a good curve (failed all the exams but still passed the class). If one midterm is higher than the other, then he drops the lowest midterm. If you do worse on the final than on both midterms, he weighs them all. Homework is 10% of the grade.
For me, retaking was enough to make me realize that UCLA Econ is merely applied math and isn't as interdisciplinary as I thought it was; I'm switching to Cognitive Science.

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!

Professor Goncalves generally presents course material with clarity, although there may be occasions where his proofs or explanations are confusing. Fortunately, he always provides practice problems in class to help solidify our understanding. The midterms for this quarter become progressively more challenging, and the limited time provided during the exam can be difficult. However, this course offers ample resources for you to succeed, including a bunch of past midterms and finals with solutions to practice before the final exam. Additionally, the TA Jack Sitarski is the GOAT: he recorded two hour-long review sessions where he went over each multiple choice question from a past midterm step-by-step. Overall, I have thoroughly enjoyed this class.

Professor Goncalves was great!!! He gave so many opportunities for us to ask questions and really nail in the material. He gives so many resources like practice tests to test your knowledge before the exam, so there really is no way to under prepare for his exams. The exams were fair, and never beyond what he lectured. Take this class with Goncalves!!! The material will be naturally difficult at first but I can't think of any other better professor to take it with. Also, I highly recommend Goncalves' honor seminar on crime and policing. Such cool stuff and very relevant to today.

Since this was my first econ class at UCLA (I got credit for Econ 1 and 2 from high school) and it was a difficult class I felt that I struggled a bit more than if I had taken Econ 1 and 2 before this. I knew it was a weeder class going in and the difficulty was expected but I felt that my TAs (I attended Victoria's sessions and Akina was my original TA - I changed due to timezone issues) were both incredibly responsive and helpful. Additionally, Professor Goncalves was helpful and hosted Q&A sessions but due to timezone issues and the timings of my other classes, I could only attend one. I think that Professor Gonclaves could've potentially just had live classes and then posted the recordings of those instead of posting lectures and separately hosting Q&As during class time, but of course, this is more applicable due to COVID. I found that he was a good professor and he definitely took feedback well (midterm 2 was easier than midterm 1 and I felt the final was also a good level of difficulty - especially for an open-notes test). However, sometimes I felt that it took me a while to understand the content because he explained it in a very roundabout way. Other than that, I'd say this class was reasonable given the known difficulty of econ 11.

I struggled a good amount with this class because the material was all very new to me. I thought the discussion sections were most helpful in this course and helped me prepare for the exams, although they were always very difficult. Professor Goncalves did curve pretty generously in the end.

Professor Goncalves was the best professor I've had at UCLA! I was scared to take this class because I had heard it was difficult, but Professor Goncalves explained everything very clearly and prepared us for the tests very well. I took this class while it was online because of COVID-19, so the lectures were pre-recorded videos, while the actual lecture time was used to do practice problems and give us time to ask questions. We had weekly homework assignments, which were super helpful and reflected what we had been learning in class. He gave us multiple practice exams before each midterm and the final, which were extremely similar to the real tests. Professor Goncalves was extremely kind and helpful during office hours and during Q&A sessions. I would highly recommend this professor!