MATH 3A
Calculus for Life Sciences Students
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Preparation: three and one half years of high school mathematics (including trigonometry). Enforced requisite: successful completion of Mathematics Diagnostic Test (score of 48 or better) or course 1 with grade of C- or better. Not open for credit to students with credit in another calculus sequence. Modeling with functions, limits, and derivatives, decisions and optimization in biology, derivative rules and tools. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2018 - REVIEW FOR 33A: Best math teacher I’ve had at Ucla thus far. Not sure what the other review is talking about because Bhaskar is so sweet and wonderful and a far better teacher than Liu (had him for 32A). The material does start out easy and pick up the pace really fast. Her lectures are speedy so if you miss something you might be lost. With that said, she’s really good at answering questions. She also assigns such short easy homework so honestly the workload for this class was the lowest workload I’ve had for any math teacher. Her first midterm was sooo easy, I think the average was a 88%. Second one was way harder, average was around a 60% I think. Her final was doable. She holds really good office hours, makes review sheets to help you study, and is awesome at answering questions on the piazza discussion board. I also had an awesome TA, get Harris Khan if you can. To top it off, her grade distribution was so nice. I get a 77% which turned into a B+. She also rounded you up if you were close. NICEST MATH TEACHER EVER, take 33a with her!!!!
Winter 2018 - REVIEW FOR 33A: Best math teacher I’ve had at Ucla thus far. Not sure what the other review is talking about because Bhaskar is so sweet and wonderful and a far better teacher than Liu (had him for 32A). The material does start out easy and pick up the pace really fast. Her lectures are speedy so if you miss something you might be lost. With that said, she’s really good at answering questions. She also assigns such short easy homework so honestly the workload for this class was the lowest workload I’ve had for any math teacher. Her first midterm was sooo easy, I think the average was a 88%. Second one was way harder, average was around a 60% I think. Her final was doable. She holds really good office hours, makes review sheets to help you study, and is awesome at answering questions on the piazza discussion board. I also had an awesome TA, get Harris Khan if you can. To top it off, her grade distribution was so nice. I get a 77% which turned into a B+. She also rounded you up if you were close. NICEST MATH TEACHER EVER, take 33a with her!!!!
Most Helpful Review
Grade breakdown: 10% homework 25% midterm 1 25% midterm 2 40% final OR 100% final Whichever was higher was the grade you got for the class. The final and the overall grades of the class were curved at the end of the quarter. In the beginning I wasn't happy with her teaching strategy. I thought she went too slow and went too in depth into things in a way that was too confusing. However, as the quarter progressed, I got more used to how she taught and am actually not too opposed to her teaching anymore. For many in my class she was a horrible professor, but for me personally, I thought she was helpful in explaining the conceptual aspects of calculus. It may be because I took AP Calculus AB my senior year of high school, but I feel like once you have a firm grasp on the math conceptually, you should be doing more than fine on the midterms and final. She was a very concerned professor and answered everyone's questions in class. Just know that she most likely won't go over actual problems in class. That's where discussion comes in. My TA, Chuyuan Fu, was not very effective at all. She was very quiet and couldn't really answer questions that well, which is why discussion attendance dwindled quickly week after week. However, she tried her best teaching, and I admire that, but it just wasn't for her. As far as homework goes, it was incredibly easy. Not a big work load at all. Around ten problems due each week online. There were a couple to a few conceptual questions each week. With the computational questions, it was good because you could put in your answer and check it to see if it was right. If it was wrong, you could put in a new answer and check it again, but it would not show you the right answer. You could also work on it throughout the week and save your progress before turning it in. If you don't turn it in by the deadline, it turns itself in automatically. DO NOT BUY THE MATH TEXTBOOK. She never touches it. It may be used by other professors, but for Brown, no. There were eight assignments total. Homework grade: 90.83% There were two midterms which were nine questions each. I didn't think they were very difficult. As long as you understood the conceptual parts of it, you were fine. One thing I really liked though was how quickly she grades. For the second midterm, I took it on a Monday, and I got it back that same Wednesday. I thought this was excellent. Midterm 1 grade: 44/45 98% Class mean grade: 34/45 76% Midterm 2 grade: 42/45 93% Class mean grade: 30.9/45 69% The final was fifteen questions and was similar to the midterms. It covered the whole breadth of the course and included both conceptual and computational questions. I was stuck on two problems in total. This too was graded quickly. Took it on Monday and saw my grade online on Friday. Final grade: 62/70 89% Class mean grade: 46.9/70 67% Overall it was an okay class. Easy for me in particular, more difficult for some. But the professor, all in all, was fair. Final course grade: A
Grade breakdown: 10% homework 25% midterm 1 25% midterm 2 40% final OR 100% final Whichever was higher was the grade you got for the class. The final and the overall grades of the class were curved at the end of the quarter. In the beginning I wasn't happy with her teaching strategy. I thought she went too slow and went too in depth into things in a way that was too confusing. However, as the quarter progressed, I got more used to how she taught and am actually not too opposed to her teaching anymore. For many in my class she was a horrible professor, but for me personally, I thought she was helpful in explaining the conceptual aspects of calculus. It may be because I took AP Calculus AB my senior year of high school, but I feel like once you have a firm grasp on the math conceptually, you should be doing more than fine on the midterms and final. She was a very concerned professor and answered everyone's questions in class. Just know that she most likely won't go over actual problems in class. That's where discussion comes in. My TA, Chuyuan Fu, was not very effective at all. She was very quiet and couldn't really answer questions that well, which is why discussion attendance dwindled quickly week after week. However, she tried her best teaching, and I admire that, but it just wasn't for her. As far as homework goes, it was incredibly easy. Not a big work load at all. Around ten problems due each week online. There were a couple to a few conceptual questions each week. With the computational questions, it was good because you could put in your answer and check it to see if it was right. If it was wrong, you could put in a new answer and check it again, but it would not show you the right answer. You could also work on it throughout the week and save your progress before turning it in. If you don't turn it in by the deadline, it turns itself in automatically. DO NOT BUY THE MATH TEXTBOOK. She never touches it. It may be used by other professors, but for Brown, no. There were eight assignments total. Homework grade: 90.83% There were two midterms which were nine questions each. I didn't think they were very difficult. As long as you understood the conceptual parts of it, you were fine. One thing I really liked though was how quickly she grades. For the second midterm, I took it on a Monday, and I got it back that same Wednesday. I thought this was excellent. Midterm 1 grade: 44/45 98% Class mean grade: 34/45 76% Midterm 2 grade: 42/45 93% Class mean grade: 30.9/45 69% The final was fifteen questions and was similar to the midterms. It covered the whole breadth of the course and included both conceptual and computational questions. I was stuck on two problems in total. This too was graded quickly. Took it on Monday and saw my grade online on Friday. Final grade: 62/70 89% Class mean grade: 46.9/70 67% Overall it was an okay class. Easy for me in particular, more difficult for some. But the professor, all in all, was fair. Final course grade: A
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Most Helpful Review
HE IS THE BEST TEACHER! He has a great teaching style and all his quizzes and exams are fair. Conley explains EVERYTHING. His lectures are thorough and he writes down every detail you need for your notes. There isn't too much homework and he truley cares about his students! TAKE HIS CLASS, EVEN IF YOU DON'T NEED MATH FOR YOUR MAJOR
HE IS THE BEST TEACHER! He has a great teaching style and all his quizzes and exams are fair. Conley explains EVERYTHING. His lectures are thorough and he writes down every detail you need for your notes. There isn't too much homework and he truley cares about his students! TAKE HIS CLASS, EVEN IF YOU DON'T NEED MATH FOR YOUR MAJOR
Most Helpful Review
Dai is great. He is a very good teacher and I found his class relatively easy. He assigns homework every week which is due on Friday and he has two midterms and a final. I thought his first midterm was super easy. His second one was trickier. His final, I thought, was pretty okay, but he definitely threw some curve balls in. During his lectures he definitely hints at important problems which he puts in the tests. Some are even the exact same numbers. Overall, go to his lectures (they are helpful), go to section (also helpful) and make sure you understand how to do each type of problem you do in class and in the homework and you'll be fine. I got an A+ and I did all of that. He was basically my favorite teacher so far as well. He's really sweet, understanding and fair. From what I've heard, he is the best Math 3A professor you can get. Good luck!
Dai is great. He is a very good teacher and I found his class relatively easy. He assigns homework every week which is due on Friday and he has two midterms and a final. I thought his first midterm was super easy. His second one was trickier. His final, I thought, was pretty okay, but he definitely threw some curve balls in. During his lectures he definitely hints at important problems which he puts in the tests. Some are even the exact same numbers. Overall, go to his lectures (they are helpful), go to section (also helpful) and make sure you understand how to do each type of problem you do in class and in the homework and you'll be fine. I got an A+ and I did all of that. He was basically my favorite teacher so far as well. He's really sweet, understanding and fair. From what I've heard, he is the best Math 3A professor you can get. Good luck!
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2017 - DO NOT TAKE THE CLASS WITH THIS PROFESSOR. He has a huge ego and never accepts blame for his failings to teach the students. He berated the students multiple times for not catching his mistakes in lecture. He made simple concepts much more confusing—at least his midterms were easy, but the final was a big difficulty spike. I recommend any other professor, especially Anderson if he is available.
Fall 2017 - DO NOT TAKE THE CLASS WITH THIS PROFESSOR. He has a huge ego and never accepts blame for his failings to teach the students. He berated the students multiple times for not catching his mistakes in lecture. He made simple concepts much more confusing—at least his midterms were easy, but the final was a big difficulty spike. I recommend any other professor, especially Anderson if he is available.
Most Helpful Review
Taking a class with Prof. Fernandez is like having an Indian version of James Bond as a math professor. It's freaking awesome! He's so cute, and he really cares about his students learning the material in a deep way. His tests and grading are totally fair because Fernandez is a super cool dude. The best part is that he always looks like he walked right out of a fashion magazine - he came to lecture one day in a sparkly gold and blue stripped blazer! The glare kept hurting my eyes, but whatever. Thanks to Professor Fernandez's class, when I told my friend I could beat him at arm wrestling and he said "Prove it," I honestly replied, "I'll prove it - prove it like Pythagoras' Theorem!"
Taking a class with Prof. Fernandez is like having an Indian version of James Bond as a math professor. It's freaking awesome! He's so cute, and he really cares about his students learning the material in a deep way. His tests and grading are totally fair because Fernandez is a super cool dude. The best part is that he always looks like he walked right out of a fashion magazine - he came to lecture one day in a sparkly gold and blue stripped blazer! The glare kept hurting my eyes, but whatever. Thanks to Professor Fernandez's class, when I told my friend I could beat him at arm wrestling and he said "Prove it," I honestly replied, "I'll prove it - prove it like Pythagoras' Theorem!"
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