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
Winter 2015 I had mixed feelings to professor Taylor. He clearly did a lot of work and prepared his notes and powerpoints carefully. However, he became nervous and disorganized during lectures. He made many mistakes, that is true. His midterms were not difficult. Some of the questions were even identical to the book problems or only changed slightly. But this class itself required a lot of calculation. Practices always make you faster and more efficient in solving problems. His final was harder. Those in part b were tricky. But it won’t be a problem if you have followed the material. My advice is if you don’t really care about going to lectures, he is definitely a good choice. But if you rely your study on effective lecutres, you should compare him with other professors. He might not be the best choice, but definitely doable.
Winter 2015 I had mixed feelings to professor Taylor. He clearly did a lot of work and prepared his notes and powerpoints carefully. However, he became nervous and disorganized during lectures. He made many mistakes, that is true. His midterms were not difficult. Some of the questions were even identical to the book problems or only changed slightly. But this class itself required a lot of calculation. Practices always make you faster and more efficient in solving problems. His final was harder. Those in part b were tricky. But it won’t be a problem if you have followed the material. My advice is if you don’t really care about going to lectures, he is definitely a good choice. But if you rely your study on effective lecutres, you should compare him with other professors. He might not be the best choice, but definitely doable.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2022 - Professor Tong is the worst math professor I have ever had. Never once have I struggled with a math class here before. I took the entire series Math 31A, 31B, 32A, 33A, and even Math 61 before this class and passed every single one with an A. I was very confident in my math abilities up until this point and everyone had told me that this class was by far the easiest in the series so I was not concerned when there was a new professor teaching it. Big mistake. Never take this class with Tong. Her lectures were not recorded and they were essentially fast audiobooks with her handwritten notes of the textbook. She spent too much time going over the parts of the chapter that weren’t important and then rushed the bits that were important for the homework. To add insult to the injury, everyone started getting sick around week 3 because of the frat flu and because lectures weren’t recorded it spread throughout the class and affected all of my other classes (since I got sick from this class during all the other midterms too). Just avoid her at all costs. She will make you question your math abilities. This class had absolutely no reason being this difficult.
Fall 2022 - Professor Tong is the worst math professor I have ever had. Never once have I struggled with a math class here before. I took the entire series Math 31A, 31B, 32A, 33A, and even Math 61 before this class and passed every single one with an A. I was very confident in my math abilities up until this point and everyone had told me that this class was by far the easiest in the series so I was not concerned when there was a new professor teaching it. Big mistake. Never take this class with Tong. Her lectures were not recorded and they were essentially fast audiobooks with her handwritten notes of the textbook. She spent too much time going over the parts of the chapter that weren’t important and then rushed the bits that were important for the homework. To add insult to the injury, everyone started getting sick around week 3 because of the frat flu and because lectures weren’t recorded it spread throughout the class and affected all of my other classes (since I got sick from this class during all the other midterms too). Just avoid her at all costs. She will make you question your math abilities. This class had absolutely no reason being this difficult.
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Most Helpful Review
Professor Visan tells you at the beginning of the year that her tests are just as difficult as her homeworks. Take this advice strongly and do your homeworks and you will do well in the class. I redid homework problems (including textbook problems) before each midterm and the final and got an A. Simple class.
Professor Visan tells you at the beginning of the year that her tests are just as difficult as her homeworks. Take this advice strongly and do your homeworks and you will do well in the class. I redid homework problems (including textbook problems) before each midterm and the final and got an A. Simple class.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2016 - Professor Wake is awful. He is the most awkward man I've ever encountered and it shows in lecture. He doesn't articulate his thoughts well at all and often gets confused while doing a problem on the board. He is very soft spoken and hard to understand. Lecture became useless and I basically had to teach myself the class. Also, his 2 midterms and final were all computational multiple choice questions, which might actually be the worst method possible to gauge a students understanding of high level calculus. You can miss 3 questions (30%) on a test due to arithmetic errors even though you solved the differential equation correctly. Overall, avoid professor Wake at all cost, of the 6 math professors I've had at UCLA he is by far the worst.
Winter 2016 - Professor Wake is awful. He is the most awkward man I've ever encountered and it shows in lecture. He doesn't articulate his thoughts well at all and often gets confused while doing a problem on the board. He is very soft spoken and hard to understand. Lecture became useless and I basically had to teach myself the class. Also, his 2 midterms and final were all computational multiple choice questions, which might actually be the worst method possible to gauge a students understanding of high level calculus. You can miss 3 questions (30%) on a test due to arithmetic errors even though you solved the differential equation correctly. Overall, avoid professor Wake at all cost, of the 6 math professors I've had at UCLA he is by far the worst.
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Most Helpful Review
I actually had Wang for MAE 182A. During lectures, he basically does proofs then a couple of practice problems. He doesn't use the book at all. MAKE SURE YOU COPY EVERYTHING DOWN. His techniques to solve differential equations are actually very good and are better written than the book. So copy everything down and use his techniques. His tests were really easy and the average was in the 90s. Just re-do the homework and do a couple of problems from the book.
I actually had Wang for MAE 182A. During lectures, he basically does proofs then a couple of practice problems. He doesn't use the book at all. MAKE SURE YOU COPY EVERYTHING DOWN. His techniques to solve differential equations are actually very good and are better written than the book. So copy everything down and use his techniques. His tests were really easy and the average was in the 90s. Just re-do the homework and do a couple of problems from the book.
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