MATH 115AH
Linear Algebra (Honors)
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, two hours. Requisite: course 33A with grade of B or better. Honors course parallel to course 115A. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 5.0
Units: 5.0
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2016 - Professor Elman is the best math professor I have had here at UCLA. For the honors 115AH class, he explains the techniques of proofs and repeatedly reiterate key points in proofs. The homework assignments are also very doable. The take home midterm was challenging but not impossible especially with the amount of time that was given. He also gives extra hours for the midterms and finals. This is definitely the honors math upper div to take.
Fall 2016 - Professor Elman is the best math professor I have had here at UCLA. For the honors 115AH class, he explains the techniques of proofs and repeatedly reiterate key points in proofs. The homework assignments are also very doable. The take home midterm was challenging but not impossible especially with the amount of time that was given. He also gives extra hours for the midterms and finals. This is definitely the honors math upper div to take.
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Most Helpful Review
He was really a great professor, I would recommend him for any math course you can. While his exams are difficult he likes to give A's and grades were based on averages, not absolutes. You will come out of the class with a deeper understanding and love for Mathematics than when you entered.
He was really a great professor, I would recommend him for any math course you can. While his exams are difficult he likes to give A's and grades were based on averages, not absolutes. You will come out of the class with a deeper understanding and love for Mathematics than when you entered.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2025 - My experience with him was a mix of instructional strengths and several interpersonal and policy-based issues that made the class more frustrating than it needed to be. The workload was definitely too much in the beginning but got better throughout the quarter. Overall, the material was good and the exams were fair, but Moraga’s behavior and handling of students often felt immature, which overshadowed the strengths of the course. Pros: Moraga clearly knows mathematics well. His board work, both on whiteboards and chalkboards, is excellent: neat and organized. He also provides solid test preparation materials and gives exams that feel fair and aligned with what he teaches. Looking back, the actual course content wasn’t overtly difficult. Cons: The difficulties came mostly from classroom policies and interactions. Early in the quarter, he enforced unusually strict homework formatting rules, such as requiring assignments to be written only on printer paper, not lined paper. Although I understand the need for clarity for graders, he initially refused to accept assignments without offering second chances, even though the instructions were not entirely clear. This was not a great start to the class. Another early red flag occurred before class one day when a small group of us were talking (more than 5 minutes before class) and getting to know each other. Moraga told us that if we had time to talk, we should instead be reading past lecture notes or the textbook. He later added that "talking before class makes it seem like the class is too easy." I asked whether socializing could actually help us form study groups or learn the material collaboratively, but he shut that down by saying socialization should happen "out there," pointing outside the room. That exchange made the classroom feel a little uncomfortable from then on to be honest. It felt like an attempt to control how students behaved before class, which felt inappropriate and not conducive to a healthy learning environment. His lecture slides were also difficult to navigate: each slide was just the previous slide with one additional sentence added. This ballooned 40-slide lectures into 200-300 slides, which made finding information a chore. I think he could use "\documentclass[handout]{beamer}" in his LaTex code to fix that but after my previous interactions with him, I didn't really want to say anything. Although he used Discord for class communication, he managed it in a surprisingly inflexible way--frequently removing messages and responding selectively, which discouraged open discussion rather than facilitating it. There were also inconsistencies in his expectations on exams. He told us to avoid doing lengthy computations and instead focus on demonstrating conceptual understanding. I followed that instruction and still lost 40% on a problem because I hadn’t included the calculations he said not to do. The mixed messaging made test strategy confusing. Toward the end of the quarter, I asked him privately about my grade--not to negotiate, but because I genuinely wanted to understand what material I had mastered and where I fell short, especially since we didn’t know our grades (until the last week) or how they were calculated (still don't know, he never responded). Instead of responding to me, he told another student that I was trying to ask for a higher grade, which was deeply upsetting and quite unprofessional. I simply wanted a direct, respectful conversation about my performance. Moraga, I enjoyed the mathematical material, and I appreciated the clarity of your lectures. I just wish the rest of the class had matched the quality of the content. I wanted to be treated like a human being and have open conversations when needed, and I'm still not sure what I did that made you respond the way you did. Interpret this as you will--this was my experience in the course.
Winter 2025 - My experience with him was a mix of instructional strengths and several interpersonal and policy-based issues that made the class more frustrating than it needed to be. The workload was definitely too much in the beginning but got better throughout the quarter. Overall, the material was good and the exams were fair, but Moraga’s behavior and handling of students often felt immature, which overshadowed the strengths of the course. Pros: Moraga clearly knows mathematics well. His board work, both on whiteboards and chalkboards, is excellent: neat and organized. He also provides solid test preparation materials and gives exams that feel fair and aligned with what he teaches. Looking back, the actual course content wasn’t overtly difficult. Cons: The difficulties came mostly from classroom policies and interactions. Early in the quarter, he enforced unusually strict homework formatting rules, such as requiring assignments to be written only on printer paper, not lined paper. Although I understand the need for clarity for graders, he initially refused to accept assignments without offering second chances, even though the instructions were not entirely clear. This was not a great start to the class. Another early red flag occurred before class one day when a small group of us were talking (more than 5 minutes before class) and getting to know each other. Moraga told us that if we had time to talk, we should instead be reading past lecture notes or the textbook. He later added that "talking before class makes it seem like the class is too easy." I asked whether socializing could actually help us form study groups or learn the material collaboratively, but he shut that down by saying socialization should happen "out there," pointing outside the room. That exchange made the classroom feel a little uncomfortable from then on to be honest. It felt like an attempt to control how students behaved before class, which felt inappropriate and not conducive to a healthy learning environment. His lecture slides were also difficult to navigate: each slide was just the previous slide with one additional sentence added. This ballooned 40-slide lectures into 200-300 slides, which made finding information a chore. I think he could use "\documentclass[handout]{beamer}" in his LaTex code to fix that but after my previous interactions with him, I didn't really want to say anything. Although he used Discord for class communication, he managed it in a surprisingly inflexible way--frequently removing messages and responding selectively, which discouraged open discussion rather than facilitating it. There were also inconsistencies in his expectations on exams. He told us to avoid doing lengthy computations and instead focus on demonstrating conceptual understanding. I followed that instruction and still lost 40% on a problem because I hadn’t included the calculations he said not to do. The mixed messaging made test strategy confusing. Toward the end of the quarter, I asked him privately about my grade--not to negotiate, but because I genuinely wanted to understand what material I had mastered and where I fell short, especially since we didn’t know our grades (until the last week) or how they were calculated (still don't know, he never responded). Instead of responding to me, he told another student that I was trying to ask for a higher grade, which was deeply upsetting and quite unprofessional. I simply wanted a direct, respectful conversation about my performance. Moraga, I enjoyed the mathematical material, and I appreciated the clarity of your lectures. I just wish the rest of the class had matched the quality of the content. I wanted to be treated like a human being and have open conversations when needed, and I'm still not sure what I did that made you respond the way you did. Interpret this as you will--this was my experience in the course.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2020 - Professor Rubin is a great professor. His lectures are clear, but filled with a lot of content. He always pauses for questions and is always willing to help, which I like. Since this is an honors course, we learn about 1.5x the material than regular 115a (Topics we learned that I don't think are covered in 115a: dual spaces, double dual basis, transpose, determinants, Real and Complex Spectral Theorem, Singular Value Decomposition). All his lectures are recorded and he uploads them to CCLE rather fast. Discussions are usually recorded but to be honest, I only attended them two times (I'm so sorry Bar). If you don't have much proof experience, this class will help you transition into proof writing. You'll learn the proof techniques during the first few discussions. Our primary textbook for this class is Linear Algebra by Hoffman and Kunze, but you can find the PDF of it online. You'll need this book because he assigns some homework assignments from this book. This book is a little hard to read, but whether you're taking 115a or 115ah, I would definitely recommend Linear Algebra Done Right by Axler. His grading scheme is as follows (only one grading scheme): 30% Final Exam 15% Midterm 1 15% Midterm 2 20% Quizzes (Lowest quiz dropped; 8 quizzes) 20% Homework (10 HW assignments) Usually every week on Thursday, expect a quiz. These quizzes always stressed me out but it'll help you stay on track. There's a 24 hour window to take the quiz, but after opening the quiz, there's a 30 minute timer to take it and submit it. Each quiz is two problems, usually these are short proofs. Doing the homework assignments is a good way to study. There's a homework due every Thursday at midnight. He uploads the homework assignments in 3 parts, which total to about 8-10 problems a week. Only 3 problems will be graded for corrected, and he'll tell you which problems these are. The rest of the homework is graded on completeness. Try to start them early and don't procrastinate. On average, I would say I spent 3-6 hours a week on homework, but Rubin and the TA are very helpful on Piazza and Office Hours. There are two midterms for this class. I felt the midterms were slightly harder than the homework, but the averages were high. Midterm 1 had an average score of 39.8/50, midterm 2 average was 42.81/50. There are five questions on each midterm and I spent the whole day working on it. FYI: He took nine days to grade midterm 1, and ten days to grade midterm 2, which is pretty fast. After he publishes the exam scores, he also uploads the solutions to CCLE which are very helpful. The final had 10 questions which took me more than 12 hours to complete. The final felt much more challenging than the midterms, so I don't think I did well on it. Rubin cares a lot about his students. At the beginning of every lecture, he conducts a Zoom Poll asking how we're doing. He also sends us several surveys asking us for feedback and our opinions about the class. Do these surveys because he is really dedicated to improving and making the class better for his students. Linear algebra isn't my favorite subject, but I definitely learned a lot in this class. Overall, I would definitely recommend Rubin! Edit: The final has already been graded (only took two days to grade). The mean was 72/100 with standard deviation 17. My calculated grade of 77% turned out to be a C+, so I'm not too sure how generous his curve is.
Fall 2020 - Professor Rubin is a great professor. His lectures are clear, but filled with a lot of content. He always pauses for questions and is always willing to help, which I like. Since this is an honors course, we learn about 1.5x the material than regular 115a (Topics we learned that I don't think are covered in 115a: dual spaces, double dual basis, transpose, determinants, Real and Complex Spectral Theorem, Singular Value Decomposition). All his lectures are recorded and he uploads them to CCLE rather fast. Discussions are usually recorded but to be honest, I only attended them two times (I'm so sorry Bar). If you don't have much proof experience, this class will help you transition into proof writing. You'll learn the proof techniques during the first few discussions. Our primary textbook for this class is Linear Algebra by Hoffman and Kunze, but you can find the PDF of it online. You'll need this book because he assigns some homework assignments from this book. This book is a little hard to read, but whether you're taking 115a or 115ah, I would definitely recommend Linear Algebra Done Right by Axler. His grading scheme is as follows (only one grading scheme): 30% Final Exam 15% Midterm 1 15% Midterm 2 20% Quizzes (Lowest quiz dropped; 8 quizzes) 20% Homework (10 HW assignments) Usually every week on Thursday, expect a quiz. These quizzes always stressed me out but it'll help you stay on track. There's a 24 hour window to take the quiz, but after opening the quiz, there's a 30 minute timer to take it and submit it. Each quiz is two problems, usually these are short proofs. Doing the homework assignments is a good way to study. There's a homework due every Thursday at midnight. He uploads the homework assignments in 3 parts, which total to about 8-10 problems a week. Only 3 problems will be graded for corrected, and he'll tell you which problems these are. The rest of the homework is graded on completeness. Try to start them early and don't procrastinate. On average, I would say I spent 3-6 hours a week on homework, but Rubin and the TA are very helpful on Piazza and Office Hours. There are two midterms for this class. I felt the midterms were slightly harder than the homework, but the averages were high. Midterm 1 had an average score of 39.8/50, midterm 2 average was 42.81/50. There are five questions on each midterm and I spent the whole day working on it. FYI: He took nine days to grade midterm 1, and ten days to grade midterm 2, which is pretty fast. After he publishes the exam scores, he also uploads the solutions to CCLE which are very helpful. The final had 10 questions which took me more than 12 hours to complete. The final felt much more challenging than the midterms, so I don't think I did well on it. Rubin cares a lot about his students. At the beginning of every lecture, he conducts a Zoom Poll asking how we're doing. He also sends us several surveys asking us for feedback and our opinions about the class. Do these surveys because he is really dedicated to improving and making the class better for his students. Linear algebra isn't my favorite subject, but I definitely learned a lot in this class. Overall, I would definitely recommend Rubin! Edit: The final has already been graded (only took two days to grade). The mean was 72/100 with standard deviation 17. My calculated grade of 77% turned out to be a C+, so I'm not too sure how generous his curve is.
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