As the weakest student entered the classroom Brian Shin realized he realized the student was about to drop. He asked the student “are you not studying enough because you are failing or are you failing because you are not studying enough”. The student who had left it all behind responded equally “If you were unable to understand any of the concepts, would you drop?” Brian Shin responded “Nah I’d learn”. He knew it was time to take action, and said “Stand Proud you are capable”. Unbeknownst to the student, Brian Shin activated his domain expansion “extended office hours”. As the overwhelming intensity of the linear algebra crushed the student, he could only ask one thing, “how?” Brian Shin responded “You failed to consider two things: one, always bet on the professor. And two, throughout heaven and earth, i alone am the diagonalizable one”

If Brian Shin has a million supporters, I AM ONE OF THEM. If Brian Shin has a thousand supporters, I AM ONE OF THEM. If Brian Shin has one supporter, I AM THAT SUPPORTER. If he has no supporters, THEN I AM DEAD. IF THE WORLD IS AGAINST BRIAN SHIN, I AM AGAINST THE WORLD.

Lectures are structured, professor is responsive, exams are similar to hw, hws are a bit long but fair, grading is fair, nice guy, nice class.

Take this man's class. He assigns a short, easy homework and a short, easy quiz once a week. His midterms and finals use questions that are extremely similar to the homework questions he assigns, and his lectures are closely based on the textbook. He also skipped a bunch of sections in the textbook and told us we wouldn't have to worry about them on the exams, which took a huge load off of us when studying.

Honestly? Shin is a pretty damn good professor. I'd say that he's probably the only Math 30 series professor that I've liked. While the content can be conceptually difficult, he breaks down definitions, steps, and problems in a way that is extremely digestible. It's obvious that he really cares about student learning and is passionate about what he does.

The class was set up in a way that I believe really promoted learning instead of just cramming. We had 10 homework assignments (two lowest dropped), 7 online quizzes (two lowest dropped), and 3 exams (one of the midterms could be dropped). Some of the homework assignments were a bit challenging, but they were relatively short and could--for the most part--be completed by integrating concepts from his lecture notes and the textbook. He maintained a class Campuswire in which students could help each other on the assignments and exam preparation, and both him and the TAs were quite active on it, too. Also, he provided lots of extra practice problems for each HW assignment, which is probably the best way to review/practice for exams. The quizzes each had 2 multiple choice questions and a time limit of 10 minutes; they were a great way to get quick feedback on your understanding of the content without impacting your grade that much. I believe the exams were fair, but they were not necessarily easy. The two midterms were quite similar to the homework but were very time-pressured and computationally-heavy. The final was a lot less time pressured, but some of the true-false questions were very tricky because they relied on intuition not explicitly covered in class or the textbook. Ultimately, the exam averages were typically around the low 80s, which is pretty standard for STEM courses.

Whether you are a physical science/engineering major or someone who wants to take this class for a minor/your personal interest, I'd highly recommend taking it with Shin. One thing I will say is that if you aren't a physical science/engineering major, this class may not be the easy A that you'd expect it to be. I'm a Cogsci major who took this class for personal interest (without having done Math 32A/B), and I had to work really hard to get below average on the first midterm and slightly above average on the second midterm and final. You definitely still have to try, but it'll be worth it in the end!

Hot take but I think Shin is a little overrated. He is a good professor and really good at explaining concepts during lectures but he's not perfect. Although he is good at lecturing, the lectures do not cover all the information you need in the class and you need to do your own studying and reading of the textbook to supplement the lectures and he himself let us know during office hours. However, it would've been nice to know that without having to go to office hours. Despite this, Shin is still a really good professor and is extremely fair on his midterms and finals in my opinion. If you understand and can solve all the homework problems, you should be able to get a 100% on the tests (other than the multiple choice questions that are extremely conceptual).

Shin is a very reasonable professor with clear expectations. His lectures are clear to understand and he posts lecture notes after, so you don't really need to show up. His exams were very fair. If you studied the notes and did the homework, you should do well in the class. Highly recommend this class with Shin.

I love Professor Shin. Despite not getting an A, I still felt like I learned a lot from him and would definitely recommend. He goes over the information at an appropriate pace and while lectures aren't required, I think it's worthwhile to go. His exams are a bit tough but the lecture notes are very well written. Overall, Shin is a very very good professor.

Take Prof. Brian Shin if you can! Getting an A in his class is very manageable as his tests are based of the homework and textbook. The homework per week is also pretty light. In addition, he's a chill guy with a majestic beard and he probably plays League of Legends!

If every Professor in UCLA is as generous as Shin, every student who works hard will graduate with a 4.0 GPA.