Professor
Michael Hill
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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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