MATH 32A
Calculus of Several Variables
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Enforced requisite: course 31A with grade of C- or better. Introduction to differential calculus of several variables, vector field theory. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2017 - Killip is extremely knowledgeable and very approachable--definitely go to his office hours! He's super nice and will always answer your questions, plus he provides good hints to homework problems. His lectures are also pretty useful (he explains the material pretty well) so I highly recommend going to class--especially because he likes to go in depth on material that sometimes the textbook just briefly touches on. What helped me a lot was reading the textbook and watching the relevant Khan Academy videos on the section before he lectured on it--it made lectures a lot easier to follow. He's also pretty funny, which definitely makes class more fun. Also, note that his homework is 1) insanely difficult and 2) quite time consuming, but it's really good preparation for his exams and honestly I'd say his exams are at least somewhat easier than the homework. Overall, I give Killip 8.5/10 for being an excellent lecturer, very approachable, and funny. His homework is actually horrible though, it's pretty hard.
Fall 2017 - Killip is extremely knowledgeable and very approachable--definitely go to his office hours! He's super nice and will always answer your questions, plus he provides good hints to homework problems. His lectures are also pretty useful (he explains the material pretty well) so I highly recommend going to class--especially because he likes to go in depth on material that sometimes the textbook just briefly touches on. What helped me a lot was reading the textbook and watching the relevant Khan Academy videos on the section before he lectured on it--it made lectures a lot easier to follow. He's also pretty funny, which definitely makes class more fun. Also, note that his homework is 1) insanely difficult and 2) quite time consuming, but it's really good preparation for his exams and honestly I'd say his exams are at least somewhat easier than the homework. Overall, I give Killip 8.5/10 for being an excellent lecturer, very approachable, and funny. His homework is actually horrible though, it's pretty hard.
Most Helpful Review
Lectures He made his class easy to take because he sent out his lecture notes beforehand and also did Bruincast. His lectures were useful when you looked at the notes afterwards for help on the homework. He did a fair number of examples in class. The material itself is not difficult. Having received a C+ in Math 31AB, the new material here was easier to digest. There is some multivariable stuff involving limits, so you should be careful there. Grading Schemes Scheme 1 Homework 15% Midterm 1 20% Midterm 2 20% Final 45% Scheme 2 Homework 15% Better Midterm 30% Final 55% Homework His homework load was fair (~10 problems per week) and the grader chose three easy problems to correct. If you somehow messed up, he would drop the lowest homework score. Exams They were easy. Unlike other professors, he didn't try to trick you with ridiculous functions and whatnot. I got 100% on the first midterm, 88% on the second, and 80% on the final. The medians were 93%, 83%, and 80%, respectively. Unfortunately, I ended with an 89% and received a B+. The class was too easy, so there was a traditional grading scale and no curve. Office Hours He had two office hours per week, but I only went once. He was nice about my question, but I preferred to attend my TA's office hours. Pro-Tip The only thing you need to study for exams are his practice exams. They are basically the same as his actual exams; don't bother with anything else he suggests that you study. For example, he taught Kepler's laws, but didn't test on them. I was paranoid about the final because I thought he would throw a curveball, so I studied some other things and didn't spend as much time on the practice final. The actual final was basically the same as his practice one. Cue my regrets. tl;dr Take him for 32A, but make sure you are on top of his practice exams.
Lectures He made his class easy to take because he sent out his lecture notes beforehand and also did Bruincast. His lectures were useful when you looked at the notes afterwards for help on the homework. He did a fair number of examples in class. The material itself is not difficult. Having received a C+ in Math 31AB, the new material here was easier to digest. There is some multivariable stuff involving limits, so you should be careful there. Grading Schemes Scheme 1 Homework 15% Midterm 1 20% Midterm 2 20% Final 45% Scheme 2 Homework 15% Better Midterm 30% Final 55% Homework His homework load was fair (~10 problems per week) and the grader chose three easy problems to correct. If you somehow messed up, he would drop the lowest homework score. Exams They were easy. Unlike other professors, he didn't try to trick you with ridiculous functions and whatnot. I got 100% on the first midterm, 88% on the second, and 80% on the final. The medians were 93%, 83%, and 80%, respectively. Unfortunately, I ended with an 89% and received a B+. The class was too easy, so there was a traditional grading scale and no curve. Office Hours He had two office hours per week, but I only went once. He was nice about my question, but I preferred to attend my TA's office hours. Pro-Tip The only thing you need to study for exams are his practice exams. They are basically the same as his actual exams; don't bother with anything else he suggests that you study. For example, he taught Kepler's laws, but didn't test on them. I was paranoid about the final because I thought he would throw a curveball, so I studied some other things and didn't spend as much time on the practice final. The actual final was basically the same as his practice one. Cue my regrets. tl;dr Take him for 32A, but make sure you are on top of his practice exams.
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