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 - Gang Liu is the G.O.A.T. It took me a whole quarter to be able to understand his accent, but his class and the midterms are purely computational and much like the homework. (Speaking of homework, the weekly homework can be done all in one night, which is what I did every week of the quarter). His final is longer and more difficult than the midterms but the curve compensates for it. One of my favorite things about Gang Liu is his attire. He wore the same iconic blue-shirt brown-pants outfit every single day of the quarter, and so far he has continued to wear the same outfit every day of 32B as well. Does he only own one pair of clothes? Maybe he just has a closet filled only with identical blue shirts and a drawer filled only with identical brown pants. We may never know. Overall 10/10 Gang Liu is the reason I get up in the morning.
Fall 2017 - Gang Liu is the G.O.A.T. It took me a whole quarter to be able to understand his accent, but his class and the midterms are purely computational and much like the homework. (Speaking of homework, the weekly homework can be done all in one night, which is what I did every week of the quarter). His final is longer and more difficult than the midterms but the curve compensates for it. One of my favorite things about Gang Liu is his attire. He wore the same iconic blue-shirt brown-pants outfit every single day of the quarter, and so far he has continued to wear the same outfit every day of 32B as well. Does he only own one pair of clothes? Maybe he just has a closet filled only with identical blue shirts and a drawer filled only with identical brown pants. We may never know. Overall 10/10 Gang Liu is the reason I get up in the morning.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2019 - Professor Manning is great! He's one of those professors who "works behind the scenes". His midterms are quite lengthy but proportionally easy and the final (taken during the pandemic) was hard (but fair, considering it was take home). His lectures are fun and he tries his best to make it engaging. He takes doubts meticulously. P.S. if you EVER have the opportunity to learn from Joseph Breen for your TA, take it blindly. No second thoughts. Gosh he's so helpful that I'd take an entire class even if the professor wasn't good. Now if you don't get Joe as your TA, then be sure to go to his YouTube channel for quality content on 31b, 32a, 32b. You won't regret it.
Winter 2019 - Professor Manning is great! He's one of those professors who "works behind the scenes". His midterms are quite lengthy but proportionally easy and the final (taken during the pandemic) was hard (but fair, considering it was take home). His lectures are fun and he tries his best to make it engaging. He takes doubts meticulously. P.S. if you EVER have the opportunity to learn from Joseph Breen for your TA, take it blindly. No second thoughts. Gosh he's so helpful that I'd take an entire class even if the professor wasn't good. Now if you don't get Joe as your TA, then be sure to go to his YouTube channel for quality content on 31b, 32a, 32b. You won't regret it.
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Most Helpful Review
Martin will not be the worst math professor you will ever have. Unlike some of the previous reviewers, I never had any idea what was going on in lecture, probably because his monotone voice lulled be into boredom -- which is of course, not his fault. But when I did pay attention I found that some of the concepts were simply jus not very well explained. I always taught myself the math later when I was doing the homeworks. Thats another thing actually -- the homework. I actually really enjoyed his pace on the homework. Having had a professor who only enjoyed proof problems the previous quarter, most of Martin's assigned problems were straightforward. What I appreciated the most was that he didn't assignment homework the first week of class or 10th week. So thank you Martin, that was nice of you. To get an A in his class, you just need to be able to do the hardest problems in each of the sections -- if you can do that, and actually understand the material at least somewhat, you should be fine and way ahead of the rest of the class. I think the curves are pretty generous, especially when I thought I failed the second midterm and ended up coming out with a score 11 points over the average. I don't know what the minimum requirements for an A were, but for the first midterm I had 15 points over the average, second 11, and for the final, 64 points above the average. The best advice I can give you is do not get low scores on the the midterms! If you do, then the final will end up being 65% of your grade, and thats a chance you probably don't want to take.
Martin will not be the worst math professor you will ever have. Unlike some of the previous reviewers, I never had any idea what was going on in lecture, probably because his monotone voice lulled be into boredom -- which is of course, not his fault. But when I did pay attention I found that some of the concepts were simply jus not very well explained. I always taught myself the math later when I was doing the homeworks. Thats another thing actually -- the homework. I actually really enjoyed his pace on the homework. Having had a professor who only enjoyed proof problems the previous quarter, most of Martin's assigned problems were straightforward. What I appreciated the most was that he didn't assignment homework the first week of class or 10th week. So thank you Martin, that was nice of you. To get an A in his class, you just need to be able to do the hardest problems in each of the sections -- if you can do that, and actually understand the material at least somewhat, you should be fine and way ahead of the rest of the class. I think the curves are pretty generous, especially when I thought I failed the second midterm and ended up coming out with a score 11 points over the average. I don't know what the minimum requirements for an A were, but for the first midterm I had 15 points over the average, second 11, and for the final, 64 points above the average. The best advice I can give you is do not get low scores on the the midterms! If you do, then the final will end up being 65% of your grade, and thats a chance you probably don't want to take.
Most Helpful Review
HORRID. If you can get out, get out! He is the worst professor I've ever had. You literally just have to memorize proofs. The entire class has no idea what he's talking about half the time, and he is a very poor communicator. Only take if you enjoy hearing "uh" or "um" every ten seconds. Seriously. First day of class I counted. I hit 100 "uh" or "um"s in 12 minutes. Biggest problem is that he assumes the students can see what he sees. He'll do complex math in his head and not show that step. very few people seemed to be able to follow his work very well. My TA was very frustrated with the questions he gave for midterms. Just run. Run.
HORRID. If you can get out, get out! He is the worst professor I've ever had. You literally just have to memorize proofs. The entire class has no idea what he's talking about half the time, and he is a very poor communicator. Only take if you enjoy hearing "uh" or "um" every ten seconds. Seriously. First day of class I counted. I hit 100 "uh" or "um"s in 12 minutes. Biggest problem is that he assumes the students can see what he sees. He'll do complex math in his head and not show that step. very few people seemed to be able to follow his work very well. My TA was very frustrated with the questions he gave for midterms. Just run. Run.
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