Professor
Chadwick Sprouse
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Most Helpful Review
Summer 2020 - Professor Sprouse is fairly generous in the way he grades. I believe he gave everyone who got a 90% or higher as their overall final grade an A, not an A-. Whenever I had a question and I emailed him, he was prompt in responding which I was very appreciative of. The homework was a bit much but I will say it prepares you well for the two midterms and the final. He docked a few points on the exams for minor errors, but I think this is the norm for math professors. VERY IMPORTANT: Make sure you go over the notes very carefully and take note of the way he wants you to solve problems on the exams because if you do it your own way and still get the right answer, he will mark off a ton of points if not all of them. Solve the problems the way he wants you to solve them and you can figure out the way he wants you to solve them by carefully examining his notes. The bottom line is if you need to take Calc 31A, take it with Professor Sprouse. He is nice, a little funny, and really cares about his students. With Covid-19 going on, he was very understanding and tried to make the difficulty of the class fit the trying times we are currently in as best he could. In addition, my TA Mr. Johnson was great. I would highly recommend him as well.
Summer 2020 - Professor Sprouse is fairly generous in the way he grades. I believe he gave everyone who got a 90% or higher as their overall final grade an A, not an A-. Whenever I had a question and I emailed him, he was prompt in responding which I was very appreciative of. The homework was a bit much but I will say it prepares you well for the two midterms and the final. He docked a few points on the exams for minor errors, but I think this is the norm for math professors. VERY IMPORTANT: Make sure you go over the notes very carefully and take note of the way he wants you to solve problems on the exams because if you do it your own way and still get the right answer, he will mark off a ton of points if not all of them. Solve the problems the way he wants you to solve them and you can figure out the way he wants you to solve them by carefully examining his notes. The bottom line is if you need to take Calc 31A, take it with Professor Sprouse. He is nice, a little funny, and really cares about his students. With Covid-19 going on, he was very understanding and tried to make the difficulty of the class fit the trying times we are currently in as best he could. In addition, my TA Mr. Johnson was great. I would highly recommend him as well.
Most Helpful Review
Summer 2025 - First, I want to say I have nothing personal against professor Sprouse and I wish him well. This is simply a honest opinion on class. Avoid this class. Below average lectures where the professor often makes mistakes. Most likely, you will just find yourself trying to copy down what the professor writes as fast as possible without a good grasp of the material. On top of that the professor seems to occasionally have an attitude, raising his voice, and talking down to students when asked a question regarding the material. In my opinion, this is highly unprofessional and should be basic common sense for anybody teaching a class. However, the worst part about this class is the homework. Homeworks are usually ~20 questions, most questions contain multiple parts: part a, b, c, d, e, f) and often contain questions that range in difficulty beyond the lecture. Expect to take 10+ hours on each of them if you were to actually to do each problem fully yourself. I don't have too much to say about the tests since I dropped the class right after the first midterm, but his grading is not generous. The bright spot about this class was TA Jackson Solheid who in my opinion is the best TA I've had at UCLA so far! Thank you!
Summer 2025 - First, I want to say I have nothing personal against professor Sprouse and I wish him well. This is simply a honest opinion on class. Avoid this class. Below average lectures where the professor often makes mistakes. Most likely, you will just find yourself trying to copy down what the professor writes as fast as possible without a good grasp of the material. On top of that the professor seems to occasionally have an attitude, raising his voice, and talking down to students when asked a question regarding the material. In my opinion, this is highly unprofessional and should be basic common sense for anybody teaching a class. However, the worst part about this class is the homework. Homeworks are usually ~20 questions, most questions contain multiple parts: part a, b, c, d, e, f) and often contain questions that range in difficulty beyond the lecture. Expect to take 10+ hours on each of them if you were to actually to do each problem fully yourself. I don't have too much to say about the tests since I dropped the class right after the first midterm, but his grading is not generous. The bright spot about this class was TA Jackson Solheid who in my opinion is the best TA I've had at UCLA so far! Thank you!
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Most Helpful Review
Summer 2020 - Chad is super passionate about mathematical modeling, so you'll learn a lot of concepts in addition to the regular curriculum. If you're interested in doing research in applied math/math modeling, I'd imagine that this course would be helpful! We had to look at several research papers for our homework sets, and in light of COVID, he even taught SIR models. Chad really tries to keep his class relevant and interesting in terms of subject matter, though I did find his lecturing boring at times. Homework sets, however, tended to be on the longer side, though manageable and not entirely out of the ordinary for a 6 week upper div math course. Chad is super helpful during office hours, and he'll basically tell you how to solve each problem if you ask. And if you even put a semblance of effort into the homework, tests should be very straightforward. Instead of a midterm and a final, there are three non-cumulative exams. The problems are basically pulled straight from homework problems, so the 24 hour open note format of 'rona-era math courses made them pretty easy. Our test averages were around 95 for each exam, and Chad doesn't curve down or give +/- grades, so anyone with a 90+ (most of the class) got an A.
Summer 2020 - Chad is super passionate about mathematical modeling, so you'll learn a lot of concepts in addition to the regular curriculum. If you're interested in doing research in applied math/math modeling, I'd imagine that this course would be helpful! We had to look at several research papers for our homework sets, and in light of COVID, he even taught SIR models. Chad really tries to keep his class relevant and interesting in terms of subject matter, though I did find his lecturing boring at times. Homework sets, however, tended to be on the longer side, though manageable and not entirely out of the ordinary for a 6 week upper div math course. Chad is super helpful during office hours, and he'll basically tell you how to solve each problem if you ask. And if you even put a semblance of effort into the homework, tests should be very straightforward. Instead of a midterm and a final, there are three non-cumulative exams. The problems are basically pulled straight from homework problems, so the 24 hour open note format of 'rona-era math courses made them pretty easy. Our test averages were around 95 for each exam, and Chad doesn't curve down or give +/- grades, so anyone with a 90+ (most of the class) got an A.
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