I took the honors version of this class. The class was definitely tough, but Balmer is a good professor that can communicate the material very well. However, I still think Elman is a better professor in term of lectures. Both are very demanding. Balmer gave a very generous curve which more than 1/3 of class got an A and more than 2/3 got a B. Recommended and good preparation for other upper-divs.

He is a pretty clear Lecturer, and his tests are not hard. But I did not understand why he cared about brackets and those details so much!
I missed two points during the whole quarter because of not writing the brackets and not indicating which one is Q and R for QR factorization. Because of this I missed A+ by 0.3%!!!! He is a harsh grader, he made 94% to be A and 98% to be A+. Just be careful about those brackets when you take him he is a fun of brackets!

Intending to take his class next quarter