WANG IS GOATED. If you're a math major, you'd probably disagree because you definitely left with no knowledge from her; however, if you're looking for an EASY A, Wang has you covered. Her lectures are a bit wacky--I stopped watching after the midterm, but you could genuinely learn all her course material from videos or her quick examples in class, practice her previous exams from past quarters, and you will easily pass. Take this class at your own risk; you might not learn much.

Other reviews are being too generous. Wang's math 115 section was horrible. She would whisper during lectures and her notes looked like scribbles. We would all just look at each other trying to decipher what she was saying and what she was writing. I am not joking. We would tell her about this and she would raise her voice for maybe 15 seconds before going quiet again. We even told our TA to tell her something about her low voice which didn't do anything and she continued to whisper. I believe she would wear multiple face masks or just had a very thick mask on all the time, which muted her voice even more. She would solve problems on the board and I could not hear a word of what she was saying, but she still had the audacity to ask if we got it, LOL.

Besides this, she does offer very short homework and take home quizzes, which is nice, but they are nothing like her exams. I would look at the hw, quizzes, and lecture notes after the tests to see if I could find how to solve exam problems from them but they were very unrelated. She would do in-class reviews the week of midterms, which actually helped for the exam. I just find it pointless that you would teach for weeks and weeks but the only material you really need to know to do well on the exams is from the week of during the review. If i had skipped the first 4 weeks of lectures and just went to class during week 5, I'd do decently well on the midterm. I went into math 131 as if I hadn't taken an upper division intro to proofs course with math 115. If you see her grade distributions for other classes and think she's your best choice (like me), you're wrong. Attend one of her lectures before you enroll and you'll see what i'm talking about within the first 2 minutes, maybe even 30 seconds.

I took her class my first quarter here at UCLA and I am now in my spring quarter; I already know her class will be the worst class I will ever take at UCLA to put it bluntly. I feel bad for leaving such a negative review since she's a nice lady and has obviously earned her position if she's teaching here, but she is honestly not a very good instructor, atleast for math 115, and she needs to adjust the way she teaches and runs this course in the future. I would avoid her for the time being and take a different professor unless its one her other math courses that have grade distributions where 99% of the class gets an A.

I don’t know how she is a professor. The lectures are the incredibly painful and I’ve had to stop going because she is so hard to understand. I’ve heard the tests are all easy though, so if you want an easy A, take this class. If you want to actually learn absolutely anything, stay away!

I learned absolutely nothing from lecture. I am someone who will go to lecture even if I don't need to and if the professor isn't teaching anything. After the second week I could not stand going to lecture and my TA was doing such a good job of explaining everything in the discussion (shoutout Sojitra, you taught me the entire course). I saw the reviews before taking this class but I only had 33A and B left and I wanted to be done w/ my lower division math classes.

This course is a disgrace to UCLA as a teaching institution. I actually learned nothing and this spring quarter during physics I had to solve a second order D.E and had to pause for 3-5 minutes before I could even come up with the start to the solution. It's actually embarrassing that UCLA students don't learn Differential equations because of her. The course itself is relatively easy and if you read through the notes or find a youtube playlist that explains it you will follow along. But there really is no need to do any of that when she reuses test questions like crazy. Our midterm was copy paste the Fall 2023 midterm and our final had a BUNCH of questions that were in old finals (there was only question that I had not seen before, and it was really really easy). I'm not saying this as a math prodigy. I am usually a A- or B+ student and this class was just ridiculously easy if you did the HW and read through the notes (the final was a bit hard but like I said, she reuses qs like crazy). Just for context, I finished the 50 minute midterm in 6 minutes and I finished the 3 hour final in 50 minutes.

EASIEST CLASS EVER (if you do not care about learning the content in the class and only want to get an A). Professor Wang does not know how to teach, but then again, she does not expect much from her students. It's hard to miss points on the midterm... most of the class finished it and turned it in within 15 minutes. The final is also not too bad. She puts extremely easy questions and will almost always tell you what questions will be on the exams. If you want to get an A, 100% take this class (do not even look at other professors). But, if you want to learn from a dedicated, helpful, and insightful professor, you are better off with another, harder professor.

Ppl overhate her teaching, I felt that she was really good at explaining the concepts with examples. Ppl also say you don't learn anything in this class, which is also not true. You learn probably 80-90% of what any other 33B class does, you just don't have to apply what you learn to difficult problems (HW, quizzes, and exams all have very easy problems similar to lecture examples). This class was a super easy A, but I also learned the content and Wang was a much better teacher than ppl say. 1000% take this class whether you need it for future classes or not.

Easy class easy A, but very bad learning experience. I think the prior reviews already said this though.

Wang is so nice on grading and so nice on making easy questions for the midterms and finals, but I just CANNOT stand how she 1. doesn't explain anything in her notes and 2. speeds through her lecture. I've only been to ONE in person lecture (her first few were online) and none after that. To be honest, I don't think she wants to teach. I don't see her passion at all :( I really really really hope that she will try to learn how to make her lectures engaging. It's like... she doesn't like teaching so she doesn't teach well, and then students dislike her teaching and don't go to lecture, and then she thinks her students aren't motivated to learn so she just puts less effort into teaching (because you need positive feedback for motivation right). She needs to break out of this vicious cycle.

TLDR:
Pretty straightforward A, all computation-based, bad lectures.
33A is not necessary (but it's also interesting and pretty easy class)
If you want to grasp DE theory more, gotta put in more effort on your own.

HW (6); 25%
Quizzes (3, online); 15%
Midterm; 20%
Final; 40%

Getting an A in this class is pretty straightforward; the tests Wang gives are fairly standard, if not easy computations (I think for the midterm, a fair amount of people started handing in tests after like 10 minutes, if that gives any perspective). If you can get your hands on past exams, she doesn't change much from them as well.

This class serves its purpose as a lower div DE class--you practice applying and learning techniques to solve simple DEs. "You can't learn anything about DEs" in the sense that the theory and proofs are only touched, then basically forgotten about (very computation oriented class; no theory-based T/F shenanigans if that worries you). This class is really as much maintenance as you want it (just learn the computation techniques if all you want is the A).

However, Wang's lectures were EXTREMELY dull, and for me, made DEs much less interesting than they should be :((. 75% percent of the time she'd go silent and when you looked back up, she'd written a completely new definition on the screen. If you're more of a self-learner, I'd honestly recommend just going by the lecture notes pdf she uses.

I’ve been waiting all quarter to write this one. If you are a math major and genuinely want to understand what you’re learning and want to understand the logic behind the math that you are doing, don’t take Wang. Taking a differential equations class with Wang was like being promised a gourmet meal but ending up with a confusing mix of ingredients that somehow never came together.

She had this habit of shortening words as if we were all in on some secret math language that she created, leaving us trying to figure out what she meant. It felt like she threw information at us without really getting it herself, which was obvious whenever she tried to answer questions. Her depth of understanding was as profound as a puddle, her explanations just didn't hit the mark, and she'd either skate around the answers or give explanations that left us even more confused.

It wasn’t a content heavy class, nor did it contain difficult concepts. Did I learn about differential equations? Yes, through my own research and self teaching. What did I learn from Wang? I learned that UCLA has put minimal thought into the hiring process of their professors. Wang is by far the worst teacher I have had in my entire academic career and I think I’ve left the class knowing LESS about math than I did going in.

Easy class tho, pretty much a free A if you know how to self-study well.

Appreciate having the lecture notes and recordings posted. Very fair exams and homework.