MATH 33B
Differential Equations
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Enforced requisite: course 31B with grade of C- or better. Highly recommended: course 33A. First-order, linear differential equations; second-order, linear differential equations with constant coefficients; power series solutions; linear systems. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
I see this professor all the time when I walk through MS. He's always available. Math 33B is the easiest of the 30 series, although the 31s were easy. Class continues what was introduced in 31B. He stresses the theory of differential equations, which can be tricky but shouldn't be too bad if you really understand it. Only bad thing is there's no cheat sheet and the quizzes can be annoying and stressful.
I see this professor all the time when I walk through MS. He's always available. Math 33B is the easiest of the 30 series, although the 31s were easy. Class continues what was introduced in 31B. He stresses the theory of differential equations, which can be tricky but shouldn't be too bad if you really understand it. Only bad thing is there's no cheat sheet and the quizzes can be annoying and stressful.
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2018 - The highlight of this professor was his office hours. He had some of the best office hours of any professor I've ever had. He was very helpful without just handing students the answers to the homework. BUT he did assign a LOT of homework. Overall I really enjoyed this class and I think mostly it was because the professor was so cool.
Spring 2018 - The highlight of this professor was his office hours. He had some of the best office hours of any professor I've ever had. He was very helpful without just handing students the answers to the homework. BUT he did assign a LOT of homework. Overall I really enjoyed this class and I think mostly it was because the professor was so cool.
Most Helpful Review
Summer 2025 - I don't know why all these reviews are so harsh. Maybe it was because I took it over the summer (though I don't know how one's teaching style would be able to change in just a few weeks), but I could say Roper was one of my favorite math professors. TLDR: Engaging lectures, excited to teach, explains thoroughly, answers questions well, exams are fair. Just pay attention in class, ask questions, do all of the problems and you'll be fine. He had a reverse lecture style where you would watch lecture videos before class and review with worksheet problems during lecture. The lecture videos were sometimes very long, ranging from ~1 hour to ~2 hours. I think you could get away with not watching the videos, but I found coming prepared and using the lecture period as a review was really helpful for me. He also just covers the material more in depth in the videos. During lecture, he goes at a very understandable pace and explains everything really well. He answers all student questions time to time and is always happy to clarify anything. There are also a few worksheet problems solved during lecture, and I they were helpful though they were just easy, more conceptual based questions. Don't expect the exam to have questions like those on the worksheet. I think homework was more on the heavy side, as there were a lot of questions to them but you're given a week to complete them so I never had any problem with time. Just work your way through them over the course of the week. The homework problems resemble more closely what you'll see on the exam. The exam was fair, and as long as you understand the material you'll be fine. He said the last two questions (on both midterm and final) were intended to be "trick" questions and he doesn't expect most students to get them right. I thought they were doable though, but they just weren't questions you've seen before. They aren't impossible to solve, just connect all that you've learned to solve it. He also posts practice midterm + final exams that are similar to the actual exam. He reviews a few questions in lecture the day before the exam as well. Unfortunately, it seems like there were issues with cheating on the exam (summer quarter, so all online) so we never got our midterm and final grades back on Gradescope. I think it was frustrating at first trying to take the final without even knowing our grade, since we didn't have our midterm grade, but in hindsight I understand the struggles. (He didn't tell us why grades hadn't been posted until the course ended and we took the final exam). He did post the midterm solutions after though so you had that to practice. Overall, I really liked Roper he was a good lecturer and was always willing to answer any student questions. I don't know why the reviews are so bad. I was really scared going into this class from these reviews but truly it was not bad at all. Just take him he's actually very sweet.
Summer 2025 - I don't know why all these reviews are so harsh. Maybe it was because I took it over the summer (though I don't know how one's teaching style would be able to change in just a few weeks), but I could say Roper was one of my favorite math professors. TLDR: Engaging lectures, excited to teach, explains thoroughly, answers questions well, exams are fair. Just pay attention in class, ask questions, do all of the problems and you'll be fine. He had a reverse lecture style where you would watch lecture videos before class and review with worksheet problems during lecture. The lecture videos were sometimes very long, ranging from ~1 hour to ~2 hours. I think you could get away with not watching the videos, but I found coming prepared and using the lecture period as a review was really helpful for me. He also just covers the material more in depth in the videos. During lecture, he goes at a very understandable pace and explains everything really well. He answers all student questions time to time and is always happy to clarify anything. There are also a few worksheet problems solved during lecture, and I they were helpful though they were just easy, more conceptual based questions. Don't expect the exam to have questions like those on the worksheet. I think homework was more on the heavy side, as there were a lot of questions to them but you're given a week to complete them so I never had any problem with time. Just work your way through them over the course of the week. The homework problems resemble more closely what you'll see on the exam. The exam was fair, and as long as you understand the material you'll be fine. He said the last two questions (on both midterm and final) were intended to be "trick" questions and he doesn't expect most students to get them right. I thought they were doable though, but they just weren't questions you've seen before. They aren't impossible to solve, just connect all that you've learned to solve it. He also posts practice midterm + final exams that are similar to the actual exam. He reviews a few questions in lecture the day before the exam as well. Unfortunately, it seems like there were issues with cheating on the exam (summer quarter, so all online) so we never got our midterm and final grades back on Gradescope. I think it was frustrating at first trying to take the final without even knowing our grade, since we didn't have our midterm grade, but in hindsight I understand the struggles. (He didn't tell us why grades hadn't been posted until the course ended and we took the final exam). He did post the midterm solutions after though so you had that to practice. Overall, I really liked Roper he was a good lecturer and was always willing to answer any student questions. I don't know why the reviews are so bad. I was really scared going into this class from these reviews but truly it was not bad at all. Just take him he's actually very sweet.
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Most Helpful Review
In all honestly, Song is a pretty lousy professor. His lectures are borderline incomprehensible, and you have to mostly study from the book. That being said, his midterms and final were extremely easy...mostly homework questions regurgitated with different numbers. I probably skipped half my lectures and did decently well on the midterms and final, so I am expecting a B+/A-, if his curve is generous then an A is also possible. My recommendation: if you can study on your own from the book, take Song. His class is extremely easy as long as you can teach yourself.
In all honestly, Song is a pretty lousy professor. His lectures are borderline incomprehensible, and you have to mostly study from the book. That being said, his midterms and final were extremely easy...mostly homework questions regurgitated with different numbers. I probably skipped half my lectures and did decently well on the midterms and final, so I am expecting a B+/A-, if his curve is generous then an A is also possible. My recommendation: if you can study on your own from the book, take Song. His class is extremely easy as long as you can teach yourself.
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