MATH 31B
Integration and Infinite Series
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Requisite: course 31A with grade of C- or better. Not open for credit to students with credit for course 3B. Transcendental functions; methods and applications of integration; sequences and series. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
8 of 9
Most Helpful Review
Easy A class!! I hated math, but he is the best math teacher ever. He gives good lecture, clear and detailed. His exams are pretty easy. As long as you study your notes and know how to do the study questions on the text book, there is no reason to not get an A. I couldn't ask for a better teacher.
Easy A class!! I hated math, but he is the best math teacher ever. He gives good lecture, clear and detailed. His exams are pretty easy. As long as you study your notes and know how to do the study questions on the text book, there is no reason to not get an A. I couldn't ask for a better teacher.
Most Helpful Review
Most of these reviews are just whiny kids. Sure he doesn't give plusses or minuses on grades. But, his tests are pretty easy if you just go to lecture and take notes. Of all the kids in my class (180), only about 50 were showing up to lecture consistently. He lectures straight out of the book, so you could argue you don't need to show up, but if you take the time to hear what he has to say he'll actually tell you everything you need to know for exams so you don't overstudy. He never tries to "trick" you on exams--he gives you the formulas, gives practice tests to his class before the midterms/final (the practice tests were nearly identical to the real tests). He encourages students to come to office hours with questions but is always open to stopping lecture to answer a few questions in class as well. I'd heard horrible things about 31B, and I read the reviews on here and was scared to death of taking him, but I decided to suck it up. Well, it paid off, because these reviews were completely inaccurate. Short was a great professor and he really does care about his students. You gotta study for the tests, but overall they are not that difficult. I'd really recommend this professor for 31B.
Most of these reviews are just whiny kids. Sure he doesn't give plusses or minuses on grades. But, his tests are pretty easy if you just go to lecture and take notes. Of all the kids in my class (180), only about 50 were showing up to lecture consistently. He lectures straight out of the book, so you could argue you don't need to show up, but if you take the time to hear what he has to say he'll actually tell you everything you need to know for exams so you don't overstudy. He never tries to "trick" you on exams--he gives you the formulas, gives practice tests to his class before the midterms/final (the practice tests were nearly identical to the real tests). He encourages students to come to office hours with questions but is always open to stopping lecture to answer a few questions in class as well. I'd heard horrible things about 31B, and I read the reviews on here and was scared to death of taking him, but I decided to suck it up. Well, it paid off, because these reviews were completely inaccurate. Short was a great professor and he really does care about his students. You gotta study for the tests, but overall they are not that difficult. I'd really recommend this professor for 31B.
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2017 - Easy class, confusing lectures. I had to teach myself most of the course material because Professor Tang had a very roundabout, complicated teaching style. (To be fair, it was his first time teaching, and he definitely improved over the course of the quarter.) One thing I did appreciate were the timed in-class examples we did, because I would already have some kind of idea of how to approach problems for the homework we had. We had about four homework assignments the whole quarter, and the midterm and final were both very straightforward and simple.
Fall 2017 - Easy class, confusing lectures. I had to teach myself most of the course material because Professor Tang had a very roundabout, complicated teaching style. (To be fair, it was his first time teaching, and he definitely improved over the course of the quarter.) One thing I did appreciate were the timed in-class examples we did, because I would already have some kind of idea of how to approach problems for the homework we had. We had about four homework assignments the whole quarter, and the midterm and final were both very straightforward and simple.
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Most Helpful Review
He is a fair professor and grader. He does make the occasional mistake during his lectures but he knows what he is talking about. Some other people mentioned that he focuses heavily on memorizing formulas but that's not true. He allowed us to use a note card on the final so that we could focus more on problem solving as opposed to straight memorization. Math 31B is not the most enjoyable class but Professor Taylor definitely makes it better.
He is a fair professor and grader. He does make the occasional mistake during his lectures but he knows what he is talking about. Some other people mentioned that he focuses heavily on memorizing formulas but that's not true. He allowed us to use a note card on the final so that we could focus more on problem solving as opposed to straight memorization. Math 31B is not the most enjoyable class but Professor Taylor definitely makes it better.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2015 - Unger does a good job explaining the material, and his midterms and final were both on the fairer side in that they covered material that we did in the class. However, for whatever reason, he missed like half the quarter, and that was also the part with much harder material. I ended up not doing the best in the class, but I think that's more on me. He's also very accessible for office hours, though his office is always crowded if you don't get there early.
Fall 2015 - Unger does a good job explaining the material, and his midterms and final were both on the fairer side in that they covered material that we did in the class. However, for whatever reason, he missed like half the quarter, and that was also the part with much harder material. I ended up not doing the best in the class, but I think that's more on me. He's also very accessible for office hours, though his office is always crowded if you don't get there early.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2016 - If you are not a mathematics major, taking 31B with Wake is a terrible decision. He teaches the class in an extremely conceptual manner, making it very hard to actually apply what you learn in lecture to the tests and quizzes. Though the curves are generous, the averages are quite low (60% range), practically making it impossible to succeed without one. The lack of graded homework is disappointing, as that usually provides a nice cushion on your grade. In Wake's 31B, there are weekly quizzes in discussion worth 10% of your total grade (each quiz worth 1%). This just adds difficulty, as depending on your TA, you will not receive that nice grade cushion. Wake himself is extremely soft-spoken and somewhat awkward, speaking in a quiet voice that is often difficult to understand. He will ask questions about how to proceed even when we haven't even touched on the material in question, leaving awkward 15 second gaps until some brave soul ventures a guess at the answer he is looking for. Overall, Wake is a nice guy but should stick to teaching higher level math, as us non-Math majors are set up to fail in his class.
Winter 2016 - If you are not a mathematics major, taking 31B with Wake is a terrible decision. He teaches the class in an extremely conceptual manner, making it very hard to actually apply what you learn in lecture to the tests and quizzes. Though the curves are generous, the averages are quite low (60% range), practically making it impossible to succeed without one. The lack of graded homework is disappointing, as that usually provides a nice cushion on your grade. In Wake's 31B, there are weekly quizzes in discussion worth 10% of your total grade (each quiz worth 1%). This just adds difficulty, as depending on your TA, you will not receive that nice grade cushion. Wake himself is extremely soft-spoken and somewhat awkward, speaking in a quiet voice that is often difficult to understand. He will ask questions about how to proceed even when we haven't even touched on the material in question, leaving awkward 15 second gaps until some brave soul ventures a guess at the answer he is looking for. Overall, Wake is a nice guy but should stick to teaching higher level math, as us non-Math majors are set up to fail in his class.
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