Abstract. We give a short proof of Zagier's conjecture / Mersmann's theorem which states that each holomorphic eta quotient of weight 1/2 is an integral rescaling of some eta quotient from Zagier's list of fourteen primitive holomorphic eta quotients. In particular, given any holomorphic eta quotient f of weight 1/2, this result enables us to provide a closed-form expression for the coefficient of q n in the q-series expansion of f , for all n. We also demonstrate another application of the above theorem in extending the levels of the simple (resp. irreducible) holomorphic eta quotients.