MATH 32A
Calculus of Several Variables
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Enforced requisite: course 31A with grade of C- or better. Introduction to differential calculus of several variables, vector field theory. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2019 - So I know my review is pretty negative, so I'll start out with some pros. He wears the same snazzy chalk-stained black t-shirt, blue jeans, and jacket to class every day, has a New Jersey accent, makes a lot of anti-humor jokes, and bears a passing resemblance to the new Joker. Cons: The material covered in his class is far beyond the scope of 32A, and for me at least was very difficult to understand. His homework is also only very loosely related to the 32A material covered in the book required for this class, and is basically impossible to do without the help of TAs. I think you can gauge how difficult his midterms and finals are from what I wrote before (spoiler: they are incredibly difficult). Not gonna lie, this class was probably the worst experience I had during this quarter. If you do get put in his class, however, I would recommend that you try to switch out as soon as possible, that way you won't be too behind in the new lecture.
Fall 2019 - So I know my review is pretty negative, so I'll start out with some pros. He wears the same snazzy chalk-stained black t-shirt, blue jeans, and jacket to class every day, has a New Jersey accent, makes a lot of anti-humor jokes, and bears a passing resemblance to the new Joker. Cons: The material covered in his class is far beyond the scope of 32A, and for me at least was very difficult to understand. His homework is also only very loosely related to the 32A material covered in the book required for this class, and is basically impossible to do without the help of TAs. I think you can gauge how difficult his midterms and finals are from what I wrote before (spoiler: they are incredibly difficult). Not gonna lie, this class was probably the worst experience I had during this quarter. If you do get put in his class, however, I would recommend that you try to switch out as soon as possible, that way you won't be too behind in the new lecture.
Most Helpful Review
There will be no other words to describe Professor Conley other than "amazing." He is truly a wonderful math teacher who can actually teach math at a suitable level for everyone. I have heard things, not bright things, from other professors who are also teaching 32A, and I would say that I am extremely happy to have Professor Conley as my instructor. His lectures can be slow, yes. He usually spends like the first 10 minutes of each lecture to go over stuff from previous lecture(s)... So here is my brief message: whenever you have a chance to take him, do so. Also, get to know him. Come to his office hours. You are also welcome to come into the office whenever he is available there (maybe even when it is not his office hour). He is a really, really interesting guy, and you WILL like him! I have not met a person who has a bad overall feeling about him! He might be a little bit slow in responding to email or posting things, but whenever he does, you will be amazed by how details the email is and how dedicated he is to his students (FYI, he has million of things going at the same time, so... it takes a bit of time for him to type up his usually really long and detailed response email). P/S: His class will usually be filled up first, and he will receive requests for PTEs even though other lectures might still have spots. So that tells you how really awesome he is. BEST PROFESSOR EVER!
There will be no other words to describe Professor Conley other than "amazing." He is truly a wonderful math teacher who can actually teach math at a suitable level for everyone. I have heard things, not bright things, from other professors who are also teaching 32A, and I would say that I am extremely happy to have Professor Conley as my instructor. His lectures can be slow, yes. He usually spends like the first 10 minutes of each lecture to go over stuff from previous lecture(s)... So here is my brief message: whenever you have a chance to take him, do so. Also, get to know him. Come to his office hours. You are also welcome to come into the office whenever he is available there (maybe even when it is not his office hour). He is a really, really interesting guy, and you WILL like him! I have not met a person who has a bad overall feeling about him! He might be a little bit slow in responding to email or posting things, but whenever he does, you will be amazed by how details the email is and how dedicated he is to his students (FYI, he has million of things going at the same time, so... it takes a bit of time for him to type up his usually really long and detailed response email). P/S: His class will usually be filled up first, and he will receive requests for PTEs even though other lectures might still have spots. So that tells you how really awesome he is. BEST PROFESSOR EVER!
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While Dai's exams were "fair" in that he was lazy and just put the homework questions on his test, his lectures were only somewhat helpful. He often joked around and sped through some material to ensure it was covered. This is not to say he was an ineffective teacher: he would often repeat some concepts to make sure they got through to the students. However, he didn't seem as professional as the other professors.
While Dai's exams were "fair" in that he was lazy and just put the homework questions on his test, his lectures were only somewhat helpful. He often joked around and sped through some material to ensure it was covered. This is not to say he was an ineffective teacher: he would often repeat some concepts to make sure they got through to the students. However, he didn't seem as professional as the other professors.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2019 - Das has the easiest tests in the math department. His review session, study guide, and past paper are very helpful. You only need to have a superficial understanding of the formulas and learn to apply them to ace the tests. Problems in his final study guide may appear in the final. Weekly quizzes on discussions can be tricky. 32A is a very easy but useful class. Highly recommend Das if you are looking for an easy A.
Winter 2019 - Das has the easiest tests in the math department. His review session, study guide, and past paper are very helpful. You only need to have a superficial understanding of the formulas and learn to apply them to ace the tests. Problems in his final study guide may appear in the final. Weekly quizzes on discussions can be tricky. 32A is a very easy but useful class. Highly recommend Das if you are looking for an easy A.
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Pretty ineffective professor. Going to lectures was pointless and it's easier to just self-teach from the textbook. He doesn't do anything online so you have to actually go to class to get the homework problems. The class had 1 midterm and 1 final. The midterm was extremely easy, but the final was extremely hard. Your overall grade is curved based on the median of the class. Would not recommend.
Pretty ineffective professor. Going to lectures was pointless and it's easier to just self-teach from the textbook. He doesn't do anything online so you have to actually go to class to get the homework problems. The class had 1 midterm and 1 final. The midterm was extremely easy, but the final was extremely hard. Your overall grade is curved based on the median of the class. Would not recommend.
Most Helpful Review
I liked Professor Duke. He is a great professor for your first quarter of math -- his exams are reasonable (about 65-70 mean), and his grading system is very fair (he allows one of the midterm to be discounted in you score better on the final). He also REALLY cares about the success of his students, often asking us what we thought after exams and lectures and helping us in whatever way he can.
I liked Professor Duke. He is a great professor for your first quarter of math -- his exams are reasonable (about 65-70 mean), and his grading system is very fair (he allows one of the midterm to be discounted in you score better on the final). He also REALLY cares about the success of his students, often asking us what we thought after exams and lectures and helping us in whatever way he can.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2020 - Koffi is a very nice professor. Even though sometimes I cannot understand what he said during the class, it doesnt quite matter lol. His lecture slides are VERY USEFUL. If you dont have time to attend his lecture, make sure you go over his lecture slides and understand every SINGLE EXAMPLE QUESION so that you can perform well in HW and the exam. There are some tricky questions in the exam in which the wording is weird. You might lose some points on that but the other calculate-based questions are easy. Be sure to get clear with basic concepts. The workload of this class is not that light but not that heavy as well, you can manage that within a day or two for the weekly homework.
Fall 2020 - Koffi is a very nice professor. Even though sometimes I cannot understand what he said during the class, it doesnt quite matter lol. His lecture slides are VERY USEFUL. If you dont have time to attend his lecture, make sure you go over his lecture slides and understand every SINGLE EXAMPLE QUESION so that you can perform well in HW and the exam. There are some tricky questions in the exam in which the wording is weird. You might lose some points on that but the other calculate-based questions are easy. Be sure to get clear with basic concepts. The workload of this class is not that light but not that heavy as well, you can manage that within a day or two for the weekly homework.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2018 - I just wanted to start out by saying that Sylvester, the god himself, is by far one of the best mathematics professors at UCLA. Despite being a new professor, he handled teaching Math 32A very well, and I'd highly recommend that if he's available, go ahead and take his section! His lectures are okay, and he connects the topics well. Sometimes he might not explain a concept the best, but if you ask questions he takes care to answer them all during lecture with extreme clarity, which is definitely a big bonus. He does have typos (on both online documents and during lecture), but honestly those do not detract from the material that he's teaching. During discussion, people would do groupwork (assisted by LAs) worksheets that quite closely resembled the exam questions, and since discussion is part of the participation grade, I'd highly recommend going. The midterms are straight up easy, but can be time consuming. As long as you paid attention during lecture and worked somewhat on the worksheet/homework problems, you were guaranteed As on the midterms. The final is somewhat a lot more difficult (during final exam review he even stumped himself while trying to solve a question...), but he accommodates by grading extremely leniently (he told us no long computations would be on the test, and when there was a question that was extremely tedious, I believe he ended up giving a lot of people full marks to compensate). His grading scheme is pretty fair; your standard 10-25-25-40 I believe, and he DOES give extra credit, so make sure to utilize those as much as possible (we got 1% for analyzing a map of UCLA and 3% for Piazza participation). Overall, awesome dude. Follow his Instragram too!
Fall 2018 - I just wanted to start out by saying that Sylvester, the god himself, is by far one of the best mathematics professors at UCLA. Despite being a new professor, he handled teaching Math 32A very well, and I'd highly recommend that if he's available, go ahead and take his section! His lectures are okay, and he connects the topics well. Sometimes he might not explain a concept the best, but if you ask questions he takes care to answer them all during lecture with extreme clarity, which is definitely a big bonus. He does have typos (on both online documents and during lecture), but honestly those do not detract from the material that he's teaching. During discussion, people would do groupwork (assisted by LAs) worksheets that quite closely resembled the exam questions, and since discussion is part of the participation grade, I'd highly recommend going. The midterms are straight up easy, but can be time consuming. As long as you paid attention during lecture and worked somewhat on the worksheet/homework problems, you were guaranteed As on the midterms. The final is somewhat a lot more difficult (during final exam review he even stumped himself while trying to solve a question...), but he accommodates by grading extremely leniently (he told us no long computations would be on the test, and when there was a question that was extremely tedious, I believe he ended up giving a lot of people full marks to compensate). His grading scheme is pretty fair; your standard 10-25-25-40 I believe, and he DOES give extra credit, so make sure to utilize those as much as possible (we got 1% for analyzing a map of UCLA and 3% for Piazza participation). Overall, awesome dude. Follow his Instragram too!
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