Even though she teaches the subject well, I wouldn’t say her style is for everyone. She focuses on the conceptual aspect of math and tries to explain where the formulas come from. She expects students to be somewhat capable of intuitively understanding math. Her exams and midterms are generally according to this too. The problems are designed to evaluate wether or not you really understand the topic and that you don’t just plug numbers into a formula. She always asks true/false questions aimed to test students’ conceptual understanding which are worth around 12-16 points and generally tricky and not that easy. So if you really enjoy math and like to understand it on a deeper level I really recommend taking her class. However as someone who gets stressed out by math and would rather just get it over with, I found her class challenging. Personally, I didn’t have a strong math foundation and I always hated math so if you are like me and just have to take 31A for your major, just pick a more chill professor. But even though this class was hard for me, I really improved my mathematical knowledge a lot and I was really surprised to see how much I learned in 10 weeks. Of course the pace is quite fast and she assigns 3 homework assignments each week (uploads them after each lecture) so you have to stay on top of your work which is actually not a bad thing but I would say the workload was a bit much. The homework is collected every week (you can also upload it to CCLE you don’t need to turn it in physically) and some “grader” grades it (4 questions are chosen randomly and graded, 3 points each, and 3 more points for completion, the average of your homework grades make up 15% of your final grade) There are two midterms and a final exam. Depending on your scores the calculation of your final grade is either 35% midterm1, 35% midterm2, 35% final 15%hw or 35% midterm that you scored higher (lower one gets dropped) 50% final 15% hw. She doesn’t curve her exams and she tries to keep the class average around 70). Below 70 fails. Lastly, about Prof, Hsu, she really cares about students and she tries hard to explain well. She is very helpful in her office hours and solves homework questions so I recommend going there if you ever get stuck. She puts the effort to remember the names of the students who go to office hours and she is a sweet person. She also cares a lot about student feedback and tries to take the surveys she makes students fill out after the first midterm into account. For example she said people told that she skipped some steps in problem solving (which she didn’t, even I could understand how she did the calculations with my bad math foundation) and she immediately changed the way she solved questions she detailed the explanations. On the first midterm T/F questions were around. 30 points and people complained about that so on the final and the second midterm they were 16 and 12. Overall, Prof, Hsu is a nice professor and she teaches well (she was out of town for a week and we got other 31A profs for substitutes and she was way better and clear than both them), I recommend her if you like and get math, or need good explanations and extra help.

Professor Hsu was way better than my 31A professor, but even so, not the clearest. Lectures are BruinCast which is nice. She doesn't curve at all which is concerning. The only reason we all did well was because of the generous final grades due to COVID-19. Her policy for quizzes is nice. They do help raise grades and serve as a checkpoint of sorts throughout the quarter. The lowest grade is also dropped. From what I've heard from other 31B students, she is the best professor to take for this class.

As a student who does not necessarily excel in math, I felt like this class was great and kind to those in my position. The tests were difficult as they tested things we had learned but to a greater extent that made you think. The resources to get an A however, we definitely there and I feel if I retook this class with that mentality I could have truly excelled. Overall, she was a great professor and I would recommend even if you are nervous coming in.

As a teacher, she gets across concepts well and her worksheets are more or less helpful. The problem is that the examples given in class are the easiest, most basic ones. The homework problems are harder than the examples in class, but they are more or less doable if you read through the section in the textbook first. The tests are way too hard in relation to what we were taught. Really don't understand how we were expected to know some of the things that showed up on those tests. The toughest examples in the textbook were not even close to the difficulty of some of the test questions. She gives two midterms and a final. First midterm is fine, but it gets much much harder by the second one, and the final is basically impossible (average was a C). She doesn't curve either. Frustrating because her tests don't reflect your knowledge of the material taught in the class.

Prof Hsu is hands-down my favorite professor this quarter. I switched from a 2PM lecture to this 8AM just for her teaching. She gives out worksheets every lecture going through the concepts- don't even bother taking notes, as filling in the worksheet while she lectures is super helpful. The other reviews are definitely correct: while we had averages in the low 70s for both the second midterm and the final, she didn't curve, though it says in the syllabus that she may lower the cutoffs for the grades. Furthermore, her exams do contain True and False questions that are around 12-20% of the grade. Personally, I felt as long as you stayed on top of the theorems and knew how to apply them, they weren't that hard.

There was two grading schemes: one with 15% for HW, 25% for each midterm, and 35% for the final. The other was 15% for HW, 35% the max of the two midterms, and 50% for the final.

She offers office hours twice a week, where she goes over hard homework problems, any questions, etc. I went every week and they were definitely super helpful. She definitely wants her students to succeed, and takes every measure to help them. She conducted her own mid-quarter (anonymous) evaluation, and she actually ended up utilizing the feedback (lowered percentage of T/F questions), which is more than I can say for some of the prof I took this quarter.

For exams and homework- she really emphasizes the importance of knowing how to solve things versus just getting the correct answer. Even if you run out of time on the exam, writing down your strategy will give you more points. That being said, if you guess or don't show sufficient work (I found this super arbitrary and unfair at some points) you will get docked.

All in all, I'm really happy with this class this quarter. It was definitely hard, but I recommend taking Prof Hsu if you can- you'll learn a ton.

The professor's lectures can be confusing. She knows what she's talking about, but she goes through material quickly. I would suggest reading the textbook before lecture so you have an idea of what will be covered beforehand. Her exams were basically really hard computation problems.

I took 31A and 31B with professor Hsu and I believe she is a great professor. Her lectures are clear and usually pretty much everything in the test is covered in lectures / hw (maybe one question per test is a little harder). She's super helpful with students (OH, emails, piazza etc.). She also gives extra credit, 1% overall, which is a lot on a not curved class. In fact, at least for 31A,B she assigns grades on the standard UCLA scale: A+ 97.5, A 93%, A- 90 etc. However, if the class doesn't perform well, she finds way to bring the grades up (ex. with extra credit on the final to make up for a midterm with a low mean). Her quizzes are also fair and a pretty easy way to bump up your grade (they were hw problems). I didn't really like TA Erza.

Let me start off by saying, Professor Hsu was a drastic improvement from my 31A professor. That being said, this class wasn't easy for me, and I get the feeling a lot of people feel the same way. Even with the craziness of Winter Quarter 2020 and finals being held remotely, I'm not thrilled with my grade. I think the professor (and the department) handled the whole situation pretty fairly, and we were actually given a chance to make up a few points on the first midterm (because the average was significantly lower than the second). However, if we hadn't had these special accommodations, I would have gotten a much lower grade. Overall, I think she does her best to be helpful, but Calc definitely isn't my forte, and this class stressed me out. I like her as a person though, and I think with a bit more effort outside of class I could have done better.

Hsu is a relatively new professor at UCLA, so she is still figuring things out. Her first midterm was really hard, and she realized that so she eased up on the second midterm. Overall she is good at lecturing but when doing calculations she'll skip steps, so it gets confusing. Because the class is only 50 minutes she only has time to go over basics, so you have to self learn to the hard homework problems. Her tests consist of problems from worksheets, homework, and textbook examples. You should go over all the worksheet and text book example problems if you want to do well. Although this is technically a review of Calc 2 (Calc BC), do not come in arrogant as the material goes far more in depth than AP Calc.

Overall, I enjoyed this class and had a relatively easy time. Sometimes the lectures would get a bit confusing but Hsu was always willing to go over any problems that confused you. I do genuinely believe that Hsu wants students to do well and she’ll make sure to address any questions students have. If you’re ever lost during lecture I highly recommend going over the textbook examples- they helped a lot.
The first midterm was really easy and straightforward. The second midterm was slightly harder but still doable. In my opinion, the final was harder than the first midterm but easier than the second. You can find examples similar to the exam questions in the textbook.