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
Fall 2023 - Short Version: If you have this professor as an option for this class, please please PLEASE choose him — you will have no regrets. To preface, I’ve taken college calculus before during HS junior year, but I had such a bad teacher that I dropped it 2nd semester and since then pretty much forgot the whole thing. Now the long version: Professor Gannon is the best. He’s super fun with his lectures, extremely understanding of what college freshmen are going through, puts in the effort and time to explain content thoroughly, and goes out of his way to make the class a memorable one. Though it’s only my first quarter at UCLA, I can say with no doubt that he has set an extremely high bar to beat. This was the only class where I truly wanted to attend every lecture because they were so engaging (if you can’t make lecture, he posts recordings of them on Bruin Learn). The class had weekly HW assignments and quizzes (all easy and very reasonable — you can drop 2 of the lowest scores for each). We had 2 midterms — both were also very reasonable and we had a practice exam for the first one where questions from it actually showed up on MT 1. The final in my opinion was more difficult than the 2 midterms but was still very fair and doable (I actually did the best on the final exam in terms of score wise so…). He also gave us a practice exam for the final but the whole class thought it was ridiculously hard (he didn’t write the practice exam, it was written by another professor in 2019), so it wasn’t as helpful as I anticipated because most questions were unrepresentative of what actually came up on the final. From the 2 midterms and final, I can say that Professor Gannon is definitely not the type to try and stump his students; in fact, he even says in class that he won’t put super “hard” questions on the test. In terms of communication, he’s a 10 out of 10. He’s super responsive by email and answers questions posted on Piazza (our Q/A platform) within 24 hours and usually sooner. He was even answering them by the next day over winter break and on Christmas day — that’s the amount of dedication he has for his students. Some other miscellaneous perks that I’m not sure if other professors will give: 1) extra 12 hours to submit HW/quizzes after the deadline in case of tech issues, 2) 2 grading options where one counts both midterms and the other only counts one midterm but the final weighs more — whichever gives you the higher grade is your final grade, 3) 3x5 notecard double-sided for midterms and 8.5x11 paper single-sided for the final, 4) you can request regrades for both of the midterms and the final if you think you were graded incorrectly, 5) Professor Gannon is willing to make it easier to obtain a grade (ie. for the F23 quarter, he lowered each grade boundary by 1% so a 92 was an A and an 89 was an A- etc.), 6) on exams, he is very lenient with unfinished arithmetic and the methods you use to solve problems (except some like L'Hopital's where he will explicitly state in class not to use). TLDR — please take MATH 31A with Professor Gannon, you won’t regret it.
Fall 2023 - Short Version: If you have this professor as an option for this class, please please PLEASE choose him — you will have no regrets. To preface, I’ve taken college calculus before during HS junior year, but I had such a bad teacher that I dropped it 2nd semester and since then pretty much forgot the whole thing. Now the long version: Professor Gannon is the best. He’s super fun with his lectures, extremely understanding of what college freshmen are going through, puts in the effort and time to explain content thoroughly, and goes out of his way to make the class a memorable one. Though it’s only my first quarter at UCLA, I can say with no doubt that he has set an extremely high bar to beat. This was the only class where I truly wanted to attend every lecture because they were so engaging (if you can’t make lecture, he posts recordings of them on Bruin Learn). The class had weekly HW assignments and quizzes (all easy and very reasonable — you can drop 2 of the lowest scores for each). We had 2 midterms — both were also very reasonable and we had a practice exam for the first one where questions from it actually showed up on MT 1. The final in my opinion was more difficult than the 2 midterms but was still very fair and doable (I actually did the best on the final exam in terms of score wise so…). He also gave us a practice exam for the final but the whole class thought it was ridiculously hard (he didn’t write the practice exam, it was written by another professor in 2019), so it wasn’t as helpful as I anticipated because most questions were unrepresentative of what actually came up on the final. From the 2 midterms and final, I can say that Professor Gannon is definitely not the type to try and stump his students; in fact, he even says in class that he won’t put super “hard” questions on the test. In terms of communication, he’s a 10 out of 10. He’s super responsive by email and answers questions posted on Piazza (our Q/A platform) within 24 hours and usually sooner. He was even answering them by the next day over winter break and on Christmas day — that’s the amount of dedication he has for his students. Some other miscellaneous perks that I’m not sure if other professors will give: 1) extra 12 hours to submit HW/quizzes after the deadline in case of tech issues, 2) 2 grading options where one counts both midterms and the other only counts one midterm but the final weighs more — whichever gives you the higher grade is your final grade, 3) 3x5 notecard double-sided for midterms and 8.5x11 paper single-sided for the final, 4) you can request regrades for both of the midterms and the final if you think you were graded incorrectly, 5) Professor Gannon is willing to make it easier to obtain a grade (ie. for the F23 quarter, he lowered each grade boundary by 1% so a 92 was an A and an 89 was an A- etc.), 6) on exams, he is very lenient with unfinished arithmetic and the methods you use to solve problems (except some like L'Hopital's where he will explicitly state in class not to use). TLDR — please take MATH 31A with Professor Gannon, you won’t regret it.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2021 - I had mixed feelings about this class. Gleizer was clearly passionate about mathematics, but this class's lack of organization made 31A my most stressful course this quarter. Grade breakdown was initially: 50% homework (6 homeworks, lowest score dropped), 10% midterm 1, 10% midterm 2, 30% final. It was eventually changed to: 50% homework (5 homeworks, lowest score dropped), 16.6% midterm 1, 16.6% midterm 2, 16.6% final. We were initially supposed to cover 6 chapters, but by Week 4, we were still on Chapter 1. In the end, we only covered 5 chapters, and this ended up changing how final grades would be broken down. To compensate for our falling behind, Gleizer decided to post 2 one-hour-long lectures every Friday. On top of somewhat rushed, very long homework assignments, I found the content of this class very overwhelming. Gleizer actually managed to lose one entire lecture and part of another, and he didn't rerecord the content. He told us that some of the lost content wouldn't be on any exams, but it ended up being on the midterm. For the first midterm, he actually gave us less than a week's notice regarding when the exam would be, which I found inconsiderate. I guess while Gleizer is a very witty, passionate instructor, I can't help but admit I was disappointed with this class. Neither Gleizer nor his students could have known we would fall behind, but the rushed nature of this course, on top of the addition of extra lectures, made me feel I was forced to commit more time to this course than initially described. I unfortunately don't feel prepared for MATH 31B.
Winter 2021 - I had mixed feelings about this class. Gleizer was clearly passionate about mathematics, but this class's lack of organization made 31A my most stressful course this quarter. Grade breakdown was initially: 50% homework (6 homeworks, lowest score dropped), 10% midterm 1, 10% midterm 2, 30% final. It was eventually changed to: 50% homework (5 homeworks, lowest score dropped), 16.6% midterm 1, 16.6% midterm 2, 16.6% final. We were initially supposed to cover 6 chapters, but by Week 4, we were still on Chapter 1. In the end, we only covered 5 chapters, and this ended up changing how final grades would be broken down. To compensate for our falling behind, Gleizer decided to post 2 one-hour-long lectures every Friday. On top of somewhat rushed, very long homework assignments, I found the content of this class very overwhelming. Gleizer actually managed to lose one entire lecture and part of another, and he didn't rerecord the content. He told us that some of the lost content wouldn't be on any exams, but it ended up being on the midterm. For the first midterm, he actually gave us less than a week's notice regarding when the exam would be, which I found inconsiderate. I guess while Gleizer is a very witty, passionate instructor, I can't help but admit I was disappointed with this class. Neither Gleizer nor his students could have known we would fall behind, but the rushed nature of this course, on top of the addition of extra lectures, made me feel I was forced to commit more time to this course than initially described. I unfortunately don't feel prepared for MATH 31B.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2018 - Lectures: I had 8 AM lectures so half of the class was still waking up but she really tried her best to make the lecture interesting. Homework: extremely light workload, like 10-15 problems per week. She didn't even collect them. You just had to come to the discussion to take weekly quizzes that are exactly the same homework problems. Tests: Professor Gong is new but her tests are fair and straightforward. On our midterms and finals, there were 50 points available but she only graded them out of 40 points, which honestly saves my grades so many times. TA: Matthew Stone is a godsend, you're probably fine without going to lecture. Just reading the textbook and attending the discussion most likely suffice. Warning: I came into 31A thinking it was just Calc AB and I barely passed the first midterm. Don't underestimate the course, take your homework seriously, read the lessons before and after class, make sure your algebra is solid and you would probably ace it!
Fall 2018 - Lectures: I had 8 AM lectures so half of the class was still waking up but she really tried her best to make the lecture interesting. Homework: extremely light workload, like 10-15 problems per week. She didn't even collect them. You just had to come to the discussion to take weekly quizzes that are exactly the same homework problems. Tests: Professor Gong is new but her tests are fair and straightforward. On our midterms and finals, there were 50 points available but she only graded them out of 40 points, which honestly saves my grades so many times. TA: Matthew Stone is a godsend, you're probably fine without going to lecture. Just reading the textbook and attending the discussion most likely suffice. Warning: I came into 31A thinking it was just Calc AB and I barely passed the first midterm. Don't underestimate the course, take your homework seriously, read the lessons before and after class, make sure your algebra is solid and you would probably ace it!
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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.
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.
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