MATH 32B
Calculus of Several Variables
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Enforced requisites: courses 31B and 32A, with grades of C- or better. Introduction to integral calculus of several variables, line and surface integrals. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
Rogawski is a great professor! Unlike a lot of other math professors, he cares about the class and wants everyone to understand the theory, rather than just writing equations on the board and expecting people to memorize them. His tests really test your understanding of the material, which in some ways made them harder, but if you listen to what he talks about in lecture and think about it a bit, the theory isn't that hard. He's also really friendly and approachable and is very willing to help. If you're taking Math 32A or B, you should take it with him.
Rogawski is a great professor! Unlike a lot of other math professors, he cares about the class and wants everyone to understand the theory, rather than just writing equations on the board and expecting people to memorize them. His tests really test your understanding of the material, which in some ways made them harder, but if you listen to what he talks about in lecture and think about it a bit, the theory isn't that hard. He's also really friendly and approachable and is very willing to help. If you're taking Math 32A or B, you should take it with him.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2020 - Rooney is an integral GOD who goes to war with the math titans every Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 4:00 sharp in MS4000. With no armor other than a plaid untucked dress shirt, khakis, and strap on sandals man cooks hot pasta out of integrals so spicy they'd cause your eyes to tear up and your nose to sweat before you even caught a whiff. Behind his abnormally blue eyes and orange hair is a supercomputer so potent that it has likely already mapped the inside of the black hole at the heart of the Milkyway and mined enough bitcoin to rival the buying power of the US government. The lines "Oh our great Prometheus what fire of knowledge do you bring to us mortals today?" was uttered on many occasions with great reverence to our savior. And what does this King ask for in return? Merely that you don't speak during his lecture... certainly a small price to pay for eternal salvation. Seriously though do take him. So smart and so knowledgeable on the subject. And just an incredible lecturer.
Winter 2020 - Rooney is an integral GOD who goes to war with the math titans every Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 4:00 sharp in MS4000. With no armor other than a plaid untucked dress shirt, khakis, and strap on sandals man cooks hot pasta out of integrals so spicy they'd cause your eyes to tear up and your nose to sweat before you even caught a whiff. Behind his abnormally blue eyes and orange hair is a supercomputer so potent that it has likely already mapped the inside of the black hole at the heart of the Milkyway and mined enough bitcoin to rival the buying power of the US government. The lines "Oh our great Prometheus what fire of knowledge do you bring to us mortals today?" was uttered on many occasions with great reverence to our savior. And what does this King ask for in return? Merely that you don't speak during his lecture... certainly a small price to pay for eternal salvation. Seriously though do take him. So smart and so knowledgeable on the subject. And just an incredible lecturer.
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Most Helpful Review
Professor Simmons was, in my opinion, not very good. His lectures were very conceptual and he tended to jump around a bit and was really unorganized. He had virtually no examples in class, and whichever ones he had were derivations found in the textbook. The grading scheme was 10% homework, 10% quizzes (there were 2) 20% each for 2 midterms, and a 40% final. An alternate grading scheme was available where he took the higher midterm score and made it 35% and the final 55%. He also drops the lowest homework assignment and quiz. What irritated me in this class was that homework was graded very harshly. He assigned about 20 problems from the textbook, some of which were pretty difficult. However, he picks 2-3 problems to grade, and if you get those problems wrong, he takes off full credit. The homework was only worth 6 points each, so if you got those problems wrong, but every other problem right, you'd still get a 0/6 on that assignment. The quizzes weren't too hard, but the midterms were pretty difficult. It wasn't enough just doing all the homework, you actually have to understand the material. His questions were pretty much all conceptual, with one or two derivations in there, and there were always a couple of tricks involved. The final was the hardest one, with about 8 questions, and again was very conceptual. The only reason I passed the class was because my TA was exceptionally good. He also disagreed with the professor's teaching style and he was much better at explaining concepts than Simmons was. Overall, if you have to take this course with Simmons, go to all his office hours and study very hard for his midterms and final. And try to get your homework checked by a TA before turning it in. Actually, it might be better just to take this class with another professor.
Professor Simmons was, in my opinion, not very good. His lectures were very conceptual and he tended to jump around a bit and was really unorganized. He had virtually no examples in class, and whichever ones he had were derivations found in the textbook. The grading scheme was 10% homework, 10% quizzes (there were 2) 20% each for 2 midterms, and a 40% final. An alternate grading scheme was available where he took the higher midterm score and made it 35% and the final 55%. He also drops the lowest homework assignment and quiz. What irritated me in this class was that homework was graded very harshly. He assigned about 20 problems from the textbook, some of which were pretty difficult. However, he picks 2-3 problems to grade, and if you get those problems wrong, he takes off full credit. The homework was only worth 6 points each, so if you got those problems wrong, but every other problem right, you'd still get a 0/6 on that assignment. The quizzes weren't too hard, but the midterms were pretty difficult. It wasn't enough just doing all the homework, you actually have to understand the material. His questions were pretty much all conceptual, with one or two derivations in there, and there were always a couple of tricks involved. The final was the hardest one, with about 8 questions, and again was very conceptual. The only reason I passed the class was because my TA was exceptionally good. He also disagreed with the professor's teaching style and he was much better at explaining concepts than Simmons was. Overall, if you have to take this course with Simmons, go to all his office hours and study very hard for his midterms and final. And try to get your homework checked by a TA before turning it in. Actually, it might be better just to take this class with another professor.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2020 - You can till this professor actually cares about student learning and his lectures are definitely pretty clear. The exams weren't especially easy/hard but the grading for both midterms and homework is incredibly picky. I usually get a perfect homework score in my math classes but I've gotten points deducted left and right in this class. For any other class you'd chalk that up to a strict undergraduate grader, but the midterms were graded similarly. The rubrics are incredibly skewed, punishing you for tiny arithmetic mistakes and slight errors. Overall he's a good teacher but I would still not take him again with his strict af grading. In terms of the course difficulty itself, I'd say it's definitely a step up from 32A but still easier than 33A.
Winter 2020 - You can till this professor actually cares about student learning and his lectures are definitely pretty clear. The exams weren't especially easy/hard but the grading for both midterms and homework is incredibly picky. I usually get a perfect homework score in my math classes but I've gotten points deducted left and right in this class. For any other class you'd chalk that up to a strict undergraduate grader, but the midterms were graded similarly. The rubrics are incredibly skewed, punishing you for tiny arithmetic mistakes and slight errors. Overall he's a good teacher but I would still not take him again with his strict af grading. In terms of the course difficulty itself, I'd say it's definitely a step up from 32A but still easier than 33A.
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Most Helpful Review
The reviews from the past could not be any more wrong at this point in time. If you want the worst math professor at UCLA, take Thiele's class. His lectures are horrible. You will have no clue what he is trying to prove in his lectures. He could at least title what he is trying to do, but no. No study sessions to help any of the students. It's true that his midterms are impossible, and it's true that the kinds of problems on them are things we have never seen before. You will have 50 minutes to power through 6 critical thinking problems that you will not know how to do. Studying the book's problems won't help because Thiele's problems are completely different. Best to know just the concepts. Thiele is not fair and not helpful; avoid him.
The reviews from the past could not be any more wrong at this point in time. If you want the worst math professor at UCLA, take Thiele's class. His lectures are horrible. You will have no clue what he is trying to prove in his lectures. He could at least title what he is trying to do, but no. No study sessions to help any of the students. It's true that his midterms are impossible, and it's true that the kinds of problems on them are things we have never seen before. You will have 50 minutes to power through 6 critical thinking problems that you will not know how to do. Studying the book's problems won't help because Thiele's problems are completely different. Best to know just the concepts. Thiele is not fair and not helpful; avoid him.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2020 - The reviews from his 32A class had students talk about how grateful they were that he would be leaving to teach at Berkeley. One year later, he's back and I understand why they expressed such relief. His lectures are lacking. I understand that the content is boring, but he consistently makes errors in his computations during his live lectures. This, combined with the general air of uncertainty about the direction of the lecture, leads me to believe that he begins each lecture entirely unprepared with only an idea of the content he intends to cover. Another red flag about this professor is that he either skipped or postponed lecture on 3 or 4 separate occasions. I understand if he has a valid reason, but he chose neither to provide that reason nor adjust the difficulty or structure of the course around these missed lectures. Instead, he decided to post lengthy recordings of lectures en masse around test times. In one case, he postponed a final review lecture and held it during finals week. In a similar vein, the organization of homework and test dates are horrid. Instead of spacing out the homework assignments like a reasonable professor would, he opted to not assign homework during the first three weeks, and then cram six assignments into the last seven, at a rate of about one per week. Moreover, he chose to have two midterms, which would normally be fine. However, the first midterm was at the end of week five, and the second one was in week nine. The grade for the second midterm was not released until partway through our 24-hour final. The tests are also very difficult, much more so than the course material. The lectures and homework are largely computational, but the exams are very conceptual, to the point where a student could not reasonably expect the content on said exams. This, combined with the failure to provide any actual direction on how to solve missed exam and quiz problems, led to a general unpreparedness for the final. All in all, Professor Venkatesh is disinterested in teaching the course and apparently intentionally makes succeeding in the class as tedious and difficult as possible. Do not recommend.
Fall 2020 - The reviews from his 32A class had students talk about how grateful they were that he would be leaving to teach at Berkeley. One year later, he's back and I understand why they expressed such relief. His lectures are lacking. I understand that the content is boring, but he consistently makes errors in his computations during his live lectures. This, combined with the general air of uncertainty about the direction of the lecture, leads me to believe that he begins each lecture entirely unprepared with only an idea of the content he intends to cover. Another red flag about this professor is that he either skipped or postponed lecture on 3 or 4 separate occasions. I understand if he has a valid reason, but he chose neither to provide that reason nor adjust the difficulty or structure of the course around these missed lectures. Instead, he decided to post lengthy recordings of lectures en masse around test times. In one case, he postponed a final review lecture and held it during finals week. In a similar vein, the organization of homework and test dates are horrid. Instead of spacing out the homework assignments like a reasonable professor would, he opted to not assign homework during the first three weeks, and then cram six assignments into the last seven, at a rate of about one per week. Moreover, he chose to have two midterms, which would normally be fine. However, the first midterm was at the end of week five, and the second one was in week nine. The grade for the second midterm was not released until partway through our 24-hour final. The tests are also very difficult, much more so than the course material. The lectures and homework are largely computational, but the exams are very conceptual, to the point where a student could not reasonably expect the content on said exams. This, combined with the failure to provide any actual direction on how to solve missed exam and quiz problems, led to a general unpreparedness for the final. All in all, Professor Venkatesh is disinterested in teaching the course and apparently intentionally makes succeeding in the class as tedious and difficult as possible. Do not recommend.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2016 - 32B was such a useful class. Professor Wang taught me how intuitive math could be. Sometimes she'd even pull up snazzy visual graphics in lecture to help us develop intuition. My favorite part of this class was how she always provided motivation for what we were studying from day one through the end of the course. The end with Stokes' Theorem was a bit rushed but the remainder of the course was well-paced. The exams mimicked the homework difficulty very accurately and were really fair. Sometimes the exam had repeat HW questions, which made for a solid grade, but sometimes the exam q's didn't exactly test our skill in applying the concepts to fresh problems. Wang is super helpful in office hours and after lecture. She's clear and dedicated to helping students with their questions even if she has to look through a few textbooks to figure it out ( pretty normal she was a phD candidate when I took this class with her). Wang is the best math professor I've ever had. I really wish she taught the 33 series as well.
Spring 2016 - 32B was such a useful class. Professor Wang taught me how intuitive math could be. Sometimes she'd even pull up snazzy visual graphics in lecture to help us develop intuition. My favorite part of this class was how she always provided motivation for what we were studying from day one through the end of the course. The end with Stokes' Theorem was a bit rushed but the remainder of the course was well-paced. The exams mimicked the homework difficulty very accurately and were really fair. Sometimes the exam had repeat HW questions, which made for a solid grade, but sometimes the exam q's didn't exactly test our skill in applying the concepts to fresh problems. Wang is super helpful in office hours and after lecture. She's clear and dedicated to helping students with their questions even if she has to look through a few textbooks to figure it out ( pretty normal she was a phD candidate when I took this class with her). Wang is the best math professor I've ever had. I really wish she taught the 33 series as well.
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