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 2015 - Professor Hendricks is the BEST prof I've met so far. She is very smart and fast in thinking and talking though gives clear explanations. I made silly mistakes so I end up with A- but the tests are easy. She is passionate in solving problems in her office hour, also gives you warm welcome and friendly smiles. Overall she is great, and I would be willing to take her class again in the upper division if possible.
Fall 2015 - Professor Hendricks is the BEST prof I've met so far. She is very smart and fast in thinking and talking though gives clear explanations. I made silly mistakes so I end up with A- but the tests are easy. She is passionate in solving problems in her office hour, also gives you warm welcome and friendly smiles. Overall she is great, and I would be willing to take her class again in the upper division if possible.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2018 - Hill was a fantastic professor for Math 32A. Being my first math class at UCLA, I think I took for granted how much he cares about the success of students, their understanding, and their enjoyment. Hill hasn't typically always taught lower div math classes, so if you get the opportunity to take anything in the 31-33 series with him, I would highly highly recommend it. Here's some things to know/consider: -(As of 2019) Hill is a faculty in residence. This is super cool because his office hours are hosted on the hill in a large spacious room. Always places to sit and get help. His LA's often will come to and walk around to help with homework/questions. Go to them!! -Rather than collect homework, Hill has weekly quizzes in discussion which are mandatory, but they are basically identical to homework problems, and you can drop your lowest quizzes. The homework assigned itself is a very reasonable amount, maybe took me about 2hr a week to complete. -In his class, especially for the 2nd midterm/final, it is critical you understand the conceptual stuff, not just the math. Really understand gradients, partials, directional derivatives, curvature, etc. Final was very reasonable; new problems but nothing foreign or impossible. Watch out for 2nd midterm, I ended up dropping mine. -Since the exams are all pretty reasonable, the curve is very high - if present at all, so don't rely on it. -While Hill is a good lecturer, he sometimes can shy away from applications/physics of 32A, which can make concepts harder to understand since without it, it's pretty abstract. Don't be afraid to look stuff up on your own. -When I took him, there was nothing for his exams in the test bank. That may have changed since, but it did make preparation a little harder, since all we had were practice exams he wrote.
Fall 2018 - Hill was a fantastic professor for Math 32A. Being my first math class at UCLA, I think I took for granted how much he cares about the success of students, their understanding, and their enjoyment. Hill hasn't typically always taught lower div math classes, so if you get the opportunity to take anything in the 31-33 series with him, I would highly highly recommend it. Here's some things to know/consider: -(As of 2019) Hill is a faculty in residence. This is super cool because his office hours are hosted on the hill in a large spacious room. Always places to sit and get help. His LA's often will come to and walk around to help with homework/questions. Go to them!! -Rather than collect homework, Hill has weekly quizzes in discussion which are mandatory, but they are basically identical to homework problems, and you can drop your lowest quizzes. The homework assigned itself is a very reasonable amount, maybe took me about 2hr a week to complete. -In his class, especially for the 2nd midterm/final, it is critical you understand the conceptual stuff, not just the math. Really understand gradients, partials, directional derivatives, curvature, etc. Final was very reasonable; new problems but nothing foreign or impossible. Watch out for 2nd midterm, I ended up dropping mine. -Since the exams are all pretty reasonable, the curve is very high - if present at all, so don't rely on it. -While Hill is a good lecturer, he sometimes can shy away from applications/physics of 32A, which can make concepts harder to understand since without it, it's pretty abstract. Don't be afraid to look stuff up on your own. -When I took him, there was nothing for his exams in the test bank. That may have changed since, but it did make preparation a little harder, since all we had were practice exams he wrote.
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Great lecturer, cares about you learning the material (stops in middle of lecture just to answer your questions and does extra examples if you don't get it after he explains it). He review the material he will test on the lecture before the midterm. Midterms are fair game. He gives 25% of class an A, Not sure about how the rest work. Suggestion: take him, great prof.
Great lecturer, cares about you learning the material (stops in middle of lecture just to answer your questions and does extra examples if you don't get it after he explains it). He review the material he will test on the lecture before the midterm. Midterms are fair game. He gives 25% of class an A, Not sure about how the rest work. Suggestion: take him, great prof.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2016 - Anyways, I think this was Professor Honda's first time teaching classes here so if you have him in the future your experience may differ because new professors tend to give easier tests. That said, Honda was an okay professor. Not the best but definitely not the worst. Both midterms were very fair bordering on easy. He has reviews on Ratemyprofessor which are more or less accurate. If Honda is an option for you then definitely consider him.
Spring 2016 - Anyways, I think this was Professor Honda's first time teaching classes here so if you have him in the future your experience may differ because new professors tend to give easier tests. That said, Honda was an okay professor. Not the best but definitely not the worst. Both midterms were very fair bordering on easy. He has reviews on Ratemyprofessor which are more or less accurate. If Honda is an option for you then definitely consider him.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2017 - In the very first meeting, Jukka told us that he wouldn't make 32A as difficult as 32B and we don't need to worry about proofs. On the final 8 out of 10 questions were somewhat related to proofs lol. Nevertheless, Jukka is very clear on the lecture subject and is willing to help. He would give you a lot of "hints" in OH before the final.
Winter 2017 - In the very first meeting, Jukka told us that he wouldn't make 32A as difficult as 32B and we don't need to worry about proofs. On the final 8 out of 10 questions were somewhat related to proofs lol. Nevertheless, Jukka is very clear on the lecture subject and is willing to help. He would give you a lot of "hints" in OH before the final.
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2017 - Killip is extremely knowledgeable and very approachable--definitely go to his office hours! He's super nice and will always answer your questions, plus he provides good hints to homework problems. His lectures are also pretty useful (he explains the material pretty well) so I highly recommend going to class--especially because he likes to go in depth on material that sometimes the textbook just briefly touches on. What helped me a lot was reading the textbook and watching the relevant Khan Academy videos on the section before he lectured on it--it made lectures a lot easier to follow. He's also pretty funny, which definitely makes class more fun. Also, note that his homework is 1) insanely difficult and 2) quite time consuming, but it's really good preparation for his exams and honestly I'd say his exams are at least somewhat easier than the homework. Overall, I give Killip 8.5/10 for being an excellent lecturer, very approachable, and funny. His homework is actually horrible though, it's pretty hard.
Fall 2017 - Killip is extremely knowledgeable and very approachable--definitely go to his office hours! He's super nice and will always answer your questions, plus he provides good hints to homework problems. His lectures are also pretty useful (he explains the material pretty well) so I highly recommend going to class--especially because he likes to go in depth on material that sometimes the textbook just briefly touches on. What helped me a lot was reading the textbook and watching the relevant Khan Academy videos on the section before he lectured on it--it made lectures a lot easier to follow. He's also pretty funny, which definitely makes class more fun. Also, note that his homework is 1) insanely difficult and 2) quite time consuming, but it's really good preparation for his exams and honestly I'd say his exams are at least somewhat easier than the homework. Overall, I give Killip 8.5/10 for being an excellent lecturer, very approachable, and funny. His homework is actually horrible though, it's pretty hard.
Most Helpful Review
Lectures He made his class easy to take because he sent out his lecture notes beforehand and also did Bruincast. His lectures were useful when you looked at the notes afterwards for help on the homework. He did a fair number of examples in class. The material itself is not difficult. Having received a C+ in Math 31AB, the new material here was easier to digest. There is some multivariable stuff involving limits, so you should be careful there. Grading Schemes Scheme 1 Homework 15% Midterm 1 20% Midterm 2 20% Final 45% Scheme 2 Homework 15% Better Midterm 30% Final 55% Homework His homework load was fair (~10 problems per week) and the grader chose three easy problems to correct. If you somehow messed up, he would drop the lowest homework score. Exams They were easy. Unlike other professors, he didn't try to trick you with ridiculous functions and whatnot. I got 100% on the first midterm, 88% on the second, and 80% on the final. The medians were 93%, 83%, and 80%, respectively. Unfortunately, I ended with an 89% and received a B+. The class was too easy, so there was a traditional grading scale and no curve. Office Hours He had two office hours per week, but I only went once. He was nice about my question, but I preferred to attend my TA's office hours. Pro-Tip The only thing you need to study for exams are his practice exams. They are basically the same as his actual exams; don't bother with anything else he suggests that you study. For example, he taught Kepler's laws, but didn't test on them. I was paranoid about the final because I thought he would throw a curveball, so I studied some other things and didn't spend as much time on the practice final. The actual final was basically the same as his practice one. Cue my regrets. tl;dr Take him for 32A, but make sure you are on top of his practice exams.
Lectures He made his class easy to take because he sent out his lecture notes beforehand and also did Bruincast. His lectures were useful when you looked at the notes afterwards for help on the homework. He did a fair number of examples in class. The material itself is not difficult. Having received a C+ in Math 31AB, the new material here was easier to digest. There is some multivariable stuff involving limits, so you should be careful there. Grading Schemes Scheme 1 Homework 15% Midterm 1 20% Midterm 2 20% Final 45% Scheme 2 Homework 15% Better Midterm 30% Final 55% Homework His homework load was fair (~10 problems per week) and the grader chose three easy problems to correct. If you somehow messed up, he would drop the lowest homework score. Exams They were easy. Unlike other professors, he didn't try to trick you with ridiculous functions and whatnot. I got 100% on the first midterm, 88% on the second, and 80% on the final. The medians were 93%, 83%, and 80%, respectively. Unfortunately, I ended with an 89% and received a B+. The class was too easy, so there was a traditional grading scale and no curve. Office Hours He had two office hours per week, but I only went once. He was nice about my question, but I preferred to attend my TA's office hours. Pro-Tip The only thing you need to study for exams are his practice exams. They are basically the same as his actual exams; don't bother with anything else he suggests that you study. For example, he taught Kepler's laws, but didn't test on them. I was paranoid about the final because I thought he would throw a curveball, so I studied some other things and didn't spend as much time on the practice final. The actual final was basically the same as his practice one. Cue my regrets. tl;dr Take him for 32A, but make sure you are on top of his practice exams.
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