Do not take Math 70 with professor Butson. His exams are simple, but his personality, as well as his teaching methodology was very undesirable. His constant condescending attitude towards students when prompted questions or comments is absurd and his tardiness and lack of care, in general, should be enough to worry if your tuition money is going into a worthwhile class. The topics covered in this class, given a standard/beginner background in calculus or probability, should be simple and quite interesting, to be frank, so if there are other math professors to choose from, I would avoid the headache that comes with taking Butson. He would describe himself as a 'sarcastic' person but I'm sure he just says that to make an excuse for whatever backhanded comment he makes to the class. Also, he curves by percentage, so there is a chance that you may be curved downward, even if you score well in his exams.

This professor is probably one of the nicest ones I've had at UCLA (what they say about Canadians is true) BUT he is a bad lecturer. His lectures are super boring and he does not do a good job of breaking down probability/the class materials. His exams are super easy but the HWs/lectures were very confusing. If the exams were as hard as the HWs, many ppl would have not done well. However, 60%+ of the class got an A- or better given how the exams were generally the easiest HW problem out there for a given concept. I'm sure he's changed as a professor but that is how my experience with Professor Butson was during his quarter here in his Math 70 class.

Butson was an interesting prof. The class was definitely harder than I expected, especially the second midterm and parts of the final. His grading isn't generous, and his problems are very different from homework and textbook problems, and require you to think critically about the material (think AIME, Mathcounts). His lectures were mostly slides and whiteboard based, not recorded, and didn't provide too much practice material. He loves calling things trivial and using "apriori" to explain things, and would explain things in OH and after class (although sometimes reluctantly). He is mostly a chill guy (slept through one of the classes, often funny in class), but not a great teacher. Overall, expect to do a decent amount of self-studying unless you have strong mathematical intuition.

Butson does a great job of making the homework challenging but not impossible. I always felt as though I was thinking when attempting his HW, unlike lower division math classes, where the problems are just rinse/repeat. He's always very helpful and kind in office hours; whenever I was uncertain about a question, I never had a problem asking for his help. I will say the second midterm exam was a little more difficult than anyone anticipated, he's really looking to get you to think beyond just a simple plug/chug formulaic approach to math. Final was very fair, all the questions were questions he went over in class, to some degree. Some were even from the second midterm.

Overall, would very much recommend this prof but he probably is on the harder side of 170E professors.

NOTE: This review is intended for Math 70 which he taught during his first quarter here

This professor is probably one of the nicest ones I've had at UCLA (what they say about Canadians is true) BUT he is a bad lecturer. His lectures are super boring and he does not do a good job of breaking down probability/the class materials. His exams are super easy but the HWs/lectures were very confusing. If the exams were as hard as the HWs, many ppl would have not done well. However, 60% of the class got an A- or better given how the exams were generally the easiest HW problem out there for a given concept. I'm sure he's changed as a professor but that is how my experience with Professor Butson was during his quarter here in his Math 70 class.