Shin is definitely one o fthe better math professors at UCLA. his midterms would reflect what we did on the homework. he doesn't give practice midterms/finals but if you do all the homework problems he assigns (including the ones you don't turn in) you should be fine. some T/F could be challenging so I would make sure to understand the material conceptually. overall goated

I genuinely don't think I learned anything

Dudes the GOAT. Take with this professor if you can. If you aren't super strong in math and need this class, then this is the professor for you. Basically just do the homework problems and really understand them and you should do well. They prepare you conceptually for what you need to know and you should thrive. ONCE AGAIN, TAKE 33A WITH SHIN!!!!!!!!!

GOAT. Absolute GOAT. When I say I almost gave up on math and took this class as a last hurrah, and Shin absolutely saved me and made me fall in love w math again with how clear he taughtttt I love this guy sm who is this divaaa. I will say he fled to England for a little bit which threw us off but he explained things quickly yet concisely! Nothing crazy but still like compared to other ahem math 31b classes I love this class so so much. I would major in basic linear algebra if I could fr

MIA ZENDER IS THE BEST TA I'VE EVER HAD. Actual valley girl baddie like if every math TA explained shit like her I would get a PHD in math bc I learned sm in her discussions it felt like a friend was explaining to me

Midterms were fair asf and pretty light, final was kinda rough for all of us but still fair. Take this class!!!

BRIAN IS MY FATHER

Shin is one of the best profs you could take this class with!! He is funny and SO clear. Classes were recorded, 2 mandatory midterms (with a grading scheme that favors both or one), and final was easy. Homework every week, quizzes (2 true or false questions) almost every week.

Brian Shin is a great professor. Honestly, this class was lowkey easy since the material and computations were not hard. The problems are mostly row reducing, formula based, and mathematically computational. There was one problem set of homework assigned each week that was due the following Monday. He gives a list of problems from the textbook, but only 2 per lesson was turned in and graded on accuracy. I recommend doing ALL of the problems to do well on the midterm and final. The homework was harder than the exams. They involved more complexity and required additional knowledge than what he covered in lecture, such as theorems or formulas in the textbook. I found doing the previous problem of the homework helpful. For example, if he assigned #2, I would do #1 to get a sense of what to do for #2. Homework was very manageable. There was a 2 question quiz almost at the end of every week that were mostly true and false.

There are two midterms that consisted of 5 free response problems and 5 true and false. The free response problems are easy if you do the homework since they are much more basic and less complex than the homework problems. Final involved about 10 free response and 10 true and false. The true and false questions were my weakness. They involved much more intuition and studying outside of class. I would look at all the theorems in the textbook, not only the theorems he mentions in class. He let us use a notecard for the 2nd midterm and final. I did worse on the first midterm due to the true and false questions because I did not go over the theorems in depth. I thought the true and false on the second midterm were easier because I studied the theorems as I did my notecard. You can see both midterms on Gradescope, but he doesn't allow you to see the final unless you schedule an appointment next quarter. Most of the free response problems on the final were also on the midterms, but he added some additional free response.

Lecture is recorded through Bruincast. In lecture, he goes over theorems, formulas, etc. and does some examples but not a lot. Homework is where you need to practice. He teaches material decently well. However, there are some things he doesn't cover in class, but these things never show up on the midterm or final. I would just ignore whatever he doesn't mention in class even if it's in the textbook. He states all material in the textbook can be on the exams, but he never puts them anyway. Students would ask if a certain thing would be on the midterm, and he always stated anything in the textbook is fair game. The textbook goes over the material in depth, so I didn't find it useful to read. I would only go over the theorems or definitions in boxes.

Attendance wasn't recorded in discussion. Discussion only consisted of doing problems from worksheets. I didn't find discussion that useful as I could do the worksheet another time and some of the worksheet problems were much more complex than needed. 2 homeworks and 2 quizzes were dropped. If 60% of class fills out the course evaluation, then an additional homework and quiz was dropped.

finished the class with a 97.2% and got an A.

This class isn’t easy, especially if you don’t know how to tackle the homework. A lot of the textbook problems show up on the midterms and final, but Shin doesn’t cover all the concepts in class. Honestly, I had to self-learn at least half the material. The homework is tough, but solutions are available online, which really helped me optimize my learning. It’s so challenging that Shin gives 3 homework drops and 3 quiz drops—out of just 10 assignments and 6 quizzes.

The first midterm is the hardest, mainly because of the true/false questions. As a freshman, this was my first math course at UCLA, and I underestimated those T/F questions. They’re 20 out of 100 points on the midterm, and you have to memorize the theorems. The textbook explanations and proofs were tough to follow, so I focused on understanding and memorizing the concepts throughout the course. Shin barely takes the time to explain proofs like the Gram-Schmidt process or linear regressions. Instead of breaking down how they work, he just gives us the equations to use for the problems.

Long story short, if you want to do well, be prepared to self-learn from the textbook.

I think the rumors of this class being easy are greatly exaggerated. It is relatively easy compared to other STEM classes, but I do think it requires some work--unless you're already pretty good at math, you can't just walk into the test without any prior prep. I took this class after I took 33B first, since last quarter, 33A filled too fast for me to get a seat. I came in already familiar with how to use matrices to solve a system, so the first two weeks were very easy for me. However, comparing the two classes, I think 33B (especially with Wang) is SIGNIFICANTLY easier than 33A, and I think that's because this class is taught with a lot of theorems that are difficult to remember. I would say half of class is spent talking about theorems and the other half is spent going over examples. The mathematic work in this class is computationally incredibly simple and easy. However, it might take some practice to remember when to use which set of steps, and which theorems to apply. The majority of true/false questions (two per week on each quiz, ~5 on each midterm, and ~10ish on the final) are based on concepts, so your theoretical knowledge has to be pretty good, unless you're good at guessing. The majority of the points I miss always come from getting the true/false wrong. My best advice to you is to just grind the true/false at the end of each chapter in the textbook.

In terms of class logistics, there's *supposed* to be one quiz a week (none after midterms) and one homework set a week (none after midterms), but I think we ended the quarter with 8 homeworks and 6 quizzes somehow. He continues teaching up until the last day of class and assigns an additional optional homework assignment for week 10 for extra practice, and I recommend doing that even though it doesn't need to be submitted. You drop the lowest two quizzes and lowest homework, and if enough people fill out the survey for the class, it gets bumped to three quizzes and two homeworks. There are two grading schemes, including one where you drop your worst midterm, which is helpful. The second midterm is harder than the first one imo, so you should grind harder for the first one just so that you can drop the second one if necessary. You get one double-sided index card for the second midterm and the final, which is helpful too.

Ultimately, I barely scraped by with an A (93.1%) but I only studied for a day before each test. Those days, I did have to lock in for the entire day and stay up late/wake up early, which is why I found this class more difficult than advertised, but considering how it was doable to cram everything into one long extended study session, I think that makes this class relatively easier than others. Do with that info what you will, but I would recommend not doing what I did.

BRIAN SHIN IS THE ABSOLUTE GOAT. sorry to say this but we don't deserve him. Genuinely amazing professor who likes to teach and wants to make sure you understand the material. It helps that linear algebra isn't too hard to begin with, but the workload is very light, with extra practice problems listed with the problem sets. Go to his office hours, he's so helpful and can break everything down for you. Lectures are recorded, lecture notes are posted, textbook and solutions can be easily found online. 2 midterms, with questions somewhat easier than problem sets obviously meant to test your conceptual knowledge.
I was sick the entire week leading up to the 2nd midterm but thank the GOAT for having an alternative grading scheme that just looks at your top midterm grade.
10/10 imagine if every professor was like him