MATH 31A
Differential and Integral Calculus
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Preparation: at least three and one half years of high school mathematics (including some coordinate geometry and trigonometry). Requisite: successful completion of Mathematics Diagnostic Test or course 1 with grade of C- or better. Differential calculus and applications; introduction to integration. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
Summer 2020 - Admittedly I found this class easy because I'd taken AP Calculus in high school, but I think even people without prior knowledge will do well with Professor Greene. She genuinely cares about her students, so she's always willing to answer questions and help you when you have trouble. Her lectures move at an appropriate pace and are pretty clear, and when something is unclear and you need clarification she's always willing to explain. Each homework assignment was only about 10 problems, and while there were several assignments due across the week, it was easily manageable; it wasn't busywork with too many useless problems. Exams were the same difficulty or slightly harder (but not too much harder) than homework. The TA Harris Khan was also very helpful, doing many clear examples and having a lot of office hours to help students. Overall, I'd highly recommend taking math with Paige Greene.
Summer 2020 - Admittedly I found this class easy because I'd taken AP Calculus in high school, but I think even people without prior knowledge will do well with Professor Greene. She genuinely cares about her students, so she's always willing to answer questions and help you when you have trouble. Her lectures move at an appropriate pace and are pretty clear, and when something is unclear and you need clarification she's always willing to explain. Each homework assignment was only about 10 problems, and while there were several assignments due across the week, it was easily manageable; it wasn't busywork with too many useless problems. Exams were the same difficulty or slightly harder (but not too much harder) than homework. The TA Harris Khan was also very helpful, doing many clear examples and having a lot of office hours to help students. Overall, I'd highly recommend taking math with Paige Greene.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2021 - I actually took math 31b with Greene but I need to literally post this asap so everyone knows NOT TO TAKE GREENE FOR ANY CLASS. I literally taught the entire class to myself because his lectures were useless. I swear I spent every second of the day studying for this class and still struggled because his tests were so difficult. I got a 5 on ab calc and an A in math 31a so I'm not awful at math but this class was the death of me. Our average for our second midterm was 55. Steer clear.
Fall 2021 - I actually took math 31b with Greene but I need to literally post this asap so everyone knows NOT TO TAKE GREENE FOR ANY CLASS. I literally taught the entire class to myself because his lectures were useless. I swear I spent every second of the day studying for this class and still struggled because his tests were so difficult. I got a 5 on ab calc and an A in math 31a so I'm not awful at math but this class was the death of me. Our average for our second midterm was 55. Steer clear.
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2019 - I liked her! She's a standard good math professor - gives good examples to understand the concepts during class, gives good practice questions for homework and doing them all myself (even if it took like an entire day sometimes) really drove the math into my brain, which is basically how math works anyway. Her midterms aren't great because she gives you 10 extra credit points that just makes the paper unnecessarily long and that makes it harder to just get through the paper. But I think that's mostly because it takes place during the 50 minute lecture time and you can more than make up for it in the final when it's a kinda-longish paper but you have three whole hours to work on it. This class is just practice a lot and you should be okay. She's a good professor! I think a lot of people rated her badly because they aren't able to deal with the material properly - which could be for many other reasons than the professor.
Fall 2019 - I liked her! She's a standard good math professor - gives good examples to understand the concepts during class, gives good practice questions for homework and doing them all myself (even if it took like an entire day sometimes) really drove the math into my brain, which is basically how math works anyway. Her midterms aren't great because she gives you 10 extra credit points that just makes the paper unnecessarily long and that makes it harder to just get through the paper. But I think that's mostly because it takes place during the 50 minute lecture time and you can more than make up for it in the final when it's a kinda-longish paper but you have three whole hours to work on it. This class is just practice a lot and you should be okay. She's a good professor! I think a lot of people rated her badly because they aren't able to deal with the material properly - which could be for many other reasons than the professor.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2018 - I would not recommend Hempel for 31A, especially for anyone who did not take AP Calculus in high school. The class has two midterms and a cumulative final. The first midterm had errors in two questions, one of which made the problem unsolvable. She kind of adjusted our grades, but her main solution was saying that we could have corrected the problem by changing one of the numbers and solved it like that (which almost no one did because of how the problem was written). The second midterm did not have any errors but was also quite difficult. The final was far easier than the midterms. I got an A on the final but the midterms brought me down to a B+. This was after having taken IB Math SL which my teacher taught the same as AP Calc. Hempel does allow cheat sheets on all the tests for equations you need to know. In lecture, she would often start out concepts by showing the proofs, which took time away from learning how to do example problems. To me, the proofs were irrelevant for this math class because there were no proofs on the exams, and the lack of example problems make it much harder to do the homework and understand the material. Homework is assigned, but you don't have to turn it in. I highly recommend doing the homework and also additional practice problems. If you're a total math whiz, this class will probably be easy for you, but it may be challenging even for people who thought they were great at calculus in high school. I would really avoid this professor if you have no background in calculus.
Fall 2018 - I would not recommend Hempel for 31A, especially for anyone who did not take AP Calculus in high school. The class has two midterms and a cumulative final. The first midterm had errors in two questions, one of which made the problem unsolvable. She kind of adjusted our grades, but her main solution was saying that we could have corrected the problem by changing one of the numbers and solved it like that (which almost no one did because of how the problem was written). The second midterm did not have any errors but was also quite difficult. The final was far easier than the midterms. I got an A on the final but the midterms brought me down to a B+. This was after having taken IB Math SL which my teacher taught the same as AP Calc. Hempel does allow cheat sheets on all the tests for equations you need to know. In lecture, she would often start out concepts by showing the proofs, which took time away from learning how to do example problems. To me, the proofs were irrelevant for this math class because there were no proofs on the exams, and the lack of example problems make it much harder to do the homework and understand the material. Homework is assigned, but you don't have to turn it in. I highly recommend doing the homework and also additional practice problems. If you're a total math whiz, this class will probably be easy for you, but it may be challenging even for people who thought they were great at calculus in high school. I would really avoid this professor if you have no background in calculus.
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Most Helpful Review
Houdayer knows what he's talking about, but he's the only one: his English is unintelligible, embarrassingly so in office hours. If you listen really closely to everything he says, you can pick it up, but in the process you don't pick up the actual mathematical concepts being discussed. It's really easy to zone out in lecture because you don't hear words, only some sort of babbling. He seems concerned about student learning but he doesn't appear to be a teacher by trade.
Houdayer knows what he's talking about, but he's the only one: his English is unintelligible, embarrassingly so in office hours. If you listen really closely to everything he says, you can pick it up, but in the process you don't pick up the actual mathematical concepts being discussed. It's really easy to zone out in lecture because you don't hear words, only some sort of babbling. He seems concerned about student learning but he doesn't appear to be a teacher by trade.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2019 - I love Dr. Hsu, but here class is unreasonably difficult. I genuinely enjoyed going to her class, even though I dislike math and it was an 8 AM class. She is really nice, sweet, and helpful. Sometimes, she's funny too. The homework is harder than the class, but that helps me learn. The only problem with this class is the fact that the tests are really hard and she doesn't curve. Our first midterm had an 82 average, which was great. But the final and midterm 2 were around 72%, I don't remember exactly, and she didn't curve the tests. The final was by far the hardest test I've ever taken, and without the curve I went from having a B+ in the class before the final to a C+. If you really want to learn take Dr. Hsu, if math isn't your strong suit and you just care about the grade take an easier professor.
Fall 2019 - I love Dr. Hsu, but here class is unreasonably difficult. I genuinely enjoyed going to her class, even though I dislike math and it was an 8 AM class. She is really nice, sweet, and helpful. Sometimes, she's funny too. The homework is harder than the class, but that helps me learn. The only problem with this class is the fact that the tests are really hard and she doesn't curve. Our first midterm had an 82 average, which was great. But the final and midterm 2 were around 72%, I don't remember exactly, and she didn't curve the tests. The final was by far the hardest test I've ever taken, and without the curve I went from having a B+ in the class before the final to a C+. If you really want to learn take Dr. Hsu, if math isn't your strong suit and you just care about the grade take an easier professor.
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