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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Fall 2019 - Well I think Siddarth is a good professor overall. He is going to Berkeley next quarter so Bruinwalk doesn't really matter. But as I saw complains on finals, I still want to put this comment down. To start with, he knows what he is teaching and doesn't rely on slides except when he needs to check on his notes for examples. He shows steps for solving each type of problems and is clear on the methods, both algebraically and geometrically. His final is admittedly significantly harder than the homeworks (by the way, he gives a lot of homeworks and the last one consisted of 53 questions due the day before finals so remember this) but I personally think the test overall is well made. You can't solve those problems by simply plugging numbers into equations, this is, at least for me, how a test should look like. I missed something on the final also, but I still think it is well designed. On thing for me, however, the final is definitely longer than it should be, and I had to ask many clarifying questions regarding what the problems mean so spaces of improvements here. Like you shouldn't except students to think hard for a consecutive 3 hours cause many problems do explain some depth of thinking. Also, Siddarth should consider what topic to put on midterms and finals. Many things we learned between midterm 1 and 2 are not even asked in midterm 2 and what's asked in midterm 2 are mostly not in finals. Overall, in terms of the teaching, he is a decent professor, and good luck to him and his future students in Berkeley.
Fall 2019 - Well I think Siddarth is a good professor overall. He is going to Berkeley next quarter so Bruinwalk doesn't really matter. But as I saw complains on finals, I still want to put this comment down. To start with, he knows what he is teaching and doesn't rely on slides except when he needs to check on his notes for examples. He shows steps for solving each type of problems and is clear on the methods, both algebraically and geometrically. His final is admittedly significantly harder than the homeworks (by the way, he gives a lot of homeworks and the last one consisted of 53 questions due the day before finals so remember this) but I personally think the test overall is well made. You can't solve those problems by simply plugging numbers into equations, this is, at least for me, how a test should look like. I missed something on the final also, but I still think it is well designed. On thing for me, however, the final is definitely longer than it should be, and I had to ask many clarifying questions regarding what the problems mean so spaces of improvements here. Like you shouldn't except students to think hard for a consecutive 3 hours cause many problems do explain some depth of thinking. Also, Siddarth should consider what topic to put on midterms and finals. Many things we learned between midterm 1 and 2 are not even asked in midterm 2 and what's asked in midterm 2 are mostly not in finals. Overall, in terms of the teaching, he is a decent professor, and good luck to him and his future students in Berkeley.
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Summer 2020 - After receiving a B- in Math 31A and a A- in Math 31B, I was expecting a very low grade in this class, since Math is not really my thing, However, I honestly feel that the material covered in Math 32A is easier than the content in both Math 31A and Math 31B. Professor Wang is a young, quirky, and funny professor all around. She often would give us long breaks (about 10 mins per 2 hour session). In terms of her teaching style, Wang was very conceptual and often disregarded doing examples for the class. As a result, I did honestly rely on the textbook very heavily for studying for the exams. However, I did find the textbook to be very sufficient, as most of the topics explained on there were articulated concisely. For the Summer, she had two grading schemes, and she took the higher of the two grades. (Scheme 1: 20% HW, 15% Quizzes, 15% MT 1, 15% MT 2, 35% FINAL, Scheme 2: 15% HW, 10% Quizzes, 20% MT1, 20% MT2, 35% Final). There was one quiz per week and the material from the previous two lectures were tested. I personally felt most of the quizzes were pretty straightforward. She even made mistakes on a few quiz problems and ended up giving full credit to everyone. The main thing that sucks about this class is the Homework. Literally my summer was eaten up by doing the homework all day. Like some of the problems took up an entire page or so. I remember on 4th of July weekend I was stuck trying to finish up and upload a 32 page document to gradescope. When I say she gives a lot of homework, I literally mean a good 70 questions per week. So be wary of that. The first Midterm was pretty easy. Midterm 2 she assigned two problems that were merely impossible to do in the time limit. As a result, she ended up giving full credit if you partially solved them. These two questions were so difficult that even my TA had trouble solving these during his discussion section. Just try to show your work as much as you can and you will receive full credit. Likewise, the Final exam was slightly difficult, but they give a lot of partial credit and they don't take away that much points for wrong answers. So once again, show your work and write EVERYTHING you know! All in all, I had a moderate experience in Math 32A with Wang this Summer. Another complaint is that she took very long to get our grades in for some reason. She uploaded them almost a week past the due date. Stephanie is very approachable so don't be afraid to reach out to her for help! If you study hard and do a lot of practice problems you'll be fine!
Summer 2020 - After receiving a B- in Math 31A and a A- in Math 31B, I was expecting a very low grade in this class, since Math is not really my thing, However, I honestly feel that the material covered in Math 32A is easier than the content in both Math 31A and Math 31B. Professor Wang is a young, quirky, and funny professor all around. She often would give us long breaks (about 10 mins per 2 hour session). In terms of her teaching style, Wang was very conceptual and often disregarded doing examples for the class. As a result, I did honestly rely on the textbook very heavily for studying for the exams. However, I did find the textbook to be very sufficient, as most of the topics explained on there were articulated concisely. For the Summer, she had two grading schemes, and she took the higher of the two grades. (Scheme 1: 20% HW, 15% Quizzes, 15% MT 1, 15% MT 2, 35% FINAL, Scheme 2: 15% HW, 10% Quizzes, 20% MT1, 20% MT2, 35% Final). There was one quiz per week and the material from the previous two lectures were tested. I personally felt most of the quizzes were pretty straightforward. She even made mistakes on a few quiz problems and ended up giving full credit to everyone. The main thing that sucks about this class is the Homework. Literally my summer was eaten up by doing the homework all day. Like some of the problems took up an entire page or so. I remember on 4th of July weekend I was stuck trying to finish up and upload a 32 page document to gradescope. When I say she gives a lot of homework, I literally mean a good 70 questions per week. So be wary of that. The first Midterm was pretty easy. Midterm 2 she assigned two problems that were merely impossible to do in the time limit. As a result, she ended up giving full credit if you partially solved them. These two questions were so difficult that even my TA had trouble solving these during his discussion section. Just try to show your work as much as you can and you will receive full credit. Likewise, the Final exam was slightly difficult, but they give a lot of partial credit and they don't take away that much points for wrong answers. So once again, show your work and write EVERYTHING you know! All in all, I had a moderate experience in Math 32A with Wang this Summer. Another complaint is that she took very long to get our grades in for some reason. She uploaded them almost a week past the due date. Stephanie is very approachable so don't be afraid to reach out to her for help! If you study hard and do a lot of practice problems you'll be fine!
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