MATH 33A
Linear Algebra and Applications
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Enforced requisite: course 3B or 31B or 32A with grade of C- or better. Introduction to linear algebra: systems of linear equations, matrix algebra, linear independence, subspaces, bases and dimension, orthogonality, least-squares methods, determinants, eigenvalues and eigenvectors, matrix diagonalization, and symmetric matrices. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
7 of 8
Most Helpful Review
Good lecturer. I went to about 60% of the lectures, but lecture is definitely not required. The books is pretty good, and he lectures right out of the book while adding in quirky examples and humor. It is very easy to teach yourself this whole course out of the text. Homework was manageable, certainly less time-consuming than that which his wife Prof. Radko. A good TA will do wonders, go to each of the TAs discussion sections over the first three weeks, decide which is your favorite, and go to that one. Both midterms and the final were about where everyone was expecting in terms of difficulty, although note that it is extremely difficult to finish the midterms within the 50 minutes, so don't take your time with those. I ended up getting a 98% on the first midterm (avg. 70), 70% on the second midterm (avg. 63), and 70% on the final (avg. 73) and got a B+ in the class.
Good lecturer. I went to about 60% of the lectures, but lecture is definitely not required. The books is pretty good, and he lectures right out of the book while adding in quirky examples and humor. It is very easy to teach yourself this whole course out of the text. Homework was manageable, certainly less time-consuming than that which his wife Prof. Radko. A good TA will do wonders, go to each of the TAs discussion sections over the first three weeks, decide which is your favorite, and go to that one. Both midterms and the final were about where everyone was expecting in terms of difficulty, although note that it is extremely difficult to finish the midterms within the 50 minutes, so don't take your time with those. I ended up getting a 98% on the first midterm (avg. 70), 70% on the second midterm (avg. 63), and 70% on the final (avg. 73) and got a B+ in the class.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2020 - Professor Suzuki was very caring and one of the few professors who has ever taken mid-quarter feedback into consideration. He added CampusWire halfway through the quarter after people said they wanted something like that, which shows that he's a really helpful and caring professor. That being said, I did not like this class in the slightest. Professor Suzuki was a mediocre lecturer at best. He would rarely ever tie together concepts from different lectures together into one story, which is something I think is crucial for lectures. Instead, it felt like every lecture was disjointed and disorganized. There was a lot of reliance on the textbook to figure out all the content, even though the textbook for the class itself is kind of mediocre too. Workload is pretty light though, and exams weren't too difficult. I almost wished that we had more homework problems (and Professor Suzuki accommodated by giving more practice problems along with the assigned homework problems). Exams were easy but mostly because of the 24 hour exam rule during remote learning, there is a lot of computation to do on them. Quizzes were not that easy and are worth a significant portion of the grade, but I honestly found the stuff on the quiz to be pretty important, even though so many of the conceptual questions on the quizzes we never learned.
Fall 2020 - Professor Suzuki was very caring and one of the few professors who has ever taken mid-quarter feedback into consideration. He added CampusWire halfway through the quarter after people said they wanted something like that, which shows that he's a really helpful and caring professor. That being said, I did not like this class in the slightest. Professor Suzuki was a mediocre lecturer at best. He would rarely ever tie together concepts from different lectures together into one story, which is something I think is crucial for lectures. Instead, it felt like every lecture was disjointed and disorganized. There was a lot of reliance on the textbook to figure out all the content, even though the textbook for the class itself is kind of mediocre too. Workload is pretty light though, and exams weren't too difficult. I almost wished that we had more homework problems (and Professor Suzuki accommodated by giving more practice problems along with the assigned homework problems). Exams were easy but mostly because of the 24 hour exam rule during remote learning, there is a lot of computation to do on them. Quizzes were not that easy and are worth a significant portion of the grade, but I honestly found the stuff on the quiz to be pretty important, even though so many of the conceptual questions on the quizzes we never learned.
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Most Helpful Review
Horrible test maker. Let's be completely honest as an engineer, you have to take this class and it's linear algebra (math that is done on a scale with computers that you don't even need to comprehend this stuff). This professor puts true and false on his tests on material that's conceptual black holes like finding exceptions to an infinite by infinite matrix to find an exception to the true and false. It got to the point where after the first few true and false i started questioning every term i knew in the book so that even though the problems with the mechanics of the problems were easy, i questioned every single key phrase that could help me solve that problem. I get it, some professors love their subject and what not but for students that have to go through these hellish walls of prereqs and to find a professor that gives ridiculous tests for no utter reason makes me really scratch my head at the utter illogical nature of why these professors try to rape their students for no reason. if you can choose another professor, do it. no point is destroying your gpa to learn a math subject you're not going to apply in real life if you're an engineer. if you're a math major, then get yourself raped at your own enjoyment and "learning" experience value. don't say i didn't warn you.
Horrible test maker. Let's be completely honest as an engineer, you have to take this class and it's linear algebra (math that is done on a scale with computers that you don't even need to comprehend this stuff). This professor puts true and false on his tests on material that's conceptual black holes like finding exceptions to an infinite by infinite matrix to find an exception to the true and false. It got to the point where after the first few true and false i started questioning every term i knew in the book so that even though the problems with the mechanics of the problems were easy, i questioned every single key phrase that could help me solve that problem. I get it, some professors love their subject and what not but for students that have to go through these hellish walls of prereqs and to find a professor that gives ridiculous tests for no utter reason makes me really scratch my head at the utter illogical nature of why these professors try to rape their students for no reason. if you can choose another professor, do it. no point is destroying your gpa to learn a math subject you're not going to apply in real life if you're an engineer. if you're a math major, then get yourself raped at your own enjoyment and "learning" experience value. don't say i didn't warn you.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2019 - Mrs Wang is a grad student that taught 33A Spring 2019. I personally liked Stephanie and did rly well in her class, however I must admit it is not an easy class. Stephanie's teaching style is very in depth and very fast. She will often give you very technical definitions of every theorem, sometimes with insufficient explanation so you are often left confused with a whole board of writing. There have been many times where no one in the class understood what she had just proven. However, her homework, while long and hard, is helpful with understanding the material. However, her quizzes are very fair. To study for the midterms and finals, I reviewed the quiz and hw solutions and that helped me a lot with the test. If you can understand Stephanie's lecture, you will be very knowledgeable of the material and do well.
Spring 2019 - Mrs Wang is a grad student that taught 33A Spring 2019. I personally liked Stephanie and did rly well in her class, however I must admit it is not an easy class. Stephanie's teaching style is very in depth and very fast. She will often give you very technical definitions of every theorem, sometimes with insufficient explanation so you are often left confused with a whole board of writing. There have been many times where no one in the class understood what she had just proven. However, her homework, while long and hard, is helpful with understanding the material. However, her quizzes are very fair. To study for the midterms and finals, I reviewed the quiz and hw solutions and that helped me a lot with the test. If you can understand Stephanie's lecture, you will be very knowledgeable of the material and do well.
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Most Helpful Review
I am sad to see Dave leave. He was a great professor who inspired students to learn for the sake of furthering one's self, not to learn to get good grades and be a bitch to college/your GPA. If more professors were like him, the school would be a better place especially for south campus classes. Great man, well progressed lectures, and such a cool and awesome dude.
I am sad to see Dave leave. He was a great professor who inspired students to learn for the sake of furthering one's self, not to learn to get good grades and be a bitch to college/your GPA. If more professors were like him, the school would be a better place especially for south campus classes. Great man, well progressed lectures, and such a cool and awesome dude.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2019 - Michael Willis is a mad genius. His style of teaching is very unorthodox, so it might/might not work for everyone, but I loved it and I felt very comfortable with the material. Linear algebra isn't as easy of a subject as everyone believes because of how abstract some of the material can be, but Willis makes it work with his very casual and informal way of explaining the concepts. He makes reasonable tests and is overall a nice guy who initially comes off as a little abrasive but is actually just really eccentric and really funny. Willis made me truly interested in the material and I recommend to anyone taking this class.
Winter 2019 - Michael Willis is a mad genius. His style of teaching is very unorthodox, so it might/might not work for everyone, but I loved it and I felt very comfortable with the material. Linear algebra isn't as easy of a subject as everyone believes because of how abstract some of the material can be, but Willis makes it work with his very casual and informal way of explaining the concepts. He makes reasonable tests and is overall a nice guy who initially comes off as a little abrasive but is actually just really eccentric and really funny. Willis made me truly interested in the material and I recommend to anyone taking this class.
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