Bao is great! Dont listen to all those people whining. He is very fair, told us what he will test us on (and followed through) and didnt do anything ridiculous. This was the only class where I followed every single lecture with no problems, even the proofs. Also, he challenged us on the exams rather than throw some random proof at us. Highly recommend.
I am selling my textbook Differential Equations by Polking in a binder in excellent condition. No notes or highlights, and in mint condition. Text me at ********** I can meet on or around campus. Selling for $65 with price negotiable. I used it for Math 33B

Avoid this professor. Three things about this class specifically ticked me off:
1. He spent about 2 weeks reviewing material from 33A because a lot of people had not taken it before taking 33B (don't know why it's not a prereq). I understand it's necessary to explain it to students who haven't taken 33A, but he could have gone much faster/more efficiently than he did, wasting everyone else's time who already knew about matrices.
2. In week 10, he realized how behind he was on material, so he just kind of threw everything at us week 10 and I didn't feel I had enough time to figure it all out before the final (and that last week's material made up a majority of the final). Especially considering the textbook is completely useless at explaining.
3. Such BORING lectures. I'm not saying math is the most thrilling subject on the planet, but come on, it could be far more interesting than Bao made it. He's not very clear in lectures either and doesn't discriminate well between similar topics, so they tended to all blend together in my head even though they were different.
TL;DR. Don't take Bao.

Professor Bao is plain and simple horrible. He is the most unorganized professor I have ever taken. He has uses piazza but seldom replies to questions even directly addressed to him. He does not tell anyone what is going to be on the midterms orbthr quizzes so you are supposed to figure that out on your own. He stammers so much that you forget what he was even talking about. His tests are extremely difficult. The earlier reviews of him simply do not hold now. I took him based on the earlier reviews and felt completely deceived. Avoid him at all costs.

I'm not particularly good at math (I'm ok) and this class is really tough. The pure math aspects were much harder for me than the applications. Bao is a decent instructor. He is a little quiet. He is very nice if you need help. The tests are very hard. I failed the midterm but he has a very generous grading scheme and drops the midterm. The final was also very difficult, but I ended up with a little better than average and got a B+.

Professor Bao's lectures are extremely easy to follow and use a lot of applicable examples which makes the homework easy to do. After taking this course I feel I have a good grasp of the material and feel prepared to move on to other math courses. My only problem with Professor Bao was his lack of organization. He never released an official list of the sections that would be on the midterm and didn't inform his TA's about what material would be on quizzes or tests. His midterm and final are extremely difficult. He puts problems on the test that are far more complicated than homework, but I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing. The tests make you think and aren't just a direct copy of homework problems. Your grade is based on how everyone else does in the class, so the difficulty of the test doesn't matter. Overall, I think the clarity of Professor Bao's lectures should encourage students to take his class, and his lack of organization is not ideal but should not deter you from taking the course.

ridiculously hilarious :)

Professor Bao may have been the worst professor I have ever taken. He was certainly the most unfair, unclear, and difficult teacher I have ever had to study under. As a guy, I'm sure he is nice; I don't want to critique the person he is. However, he is a terrible professor.

I have not met a more disorganized professional in my life. He didn't show up to the first lecture of the quarter. That would have been no problem had he told anyone -- even his TAs didn't know where he was. It wasn't until 20 minutes into the hour that a TA was finally notified that he would not be coming. During that time, we finally received our FIRST communication from Professor Bao: he emailed us the syllabus halfway into the first "lecture". Further, the syllabus was clearly thrown together hastily and lacked crucial information (textbook, TA emails, etc.).

When he does show up, his lectures are still worthless. It's not his accent that ruins the lectures -- his complete disregard for explaining concepts makes him a terrible lecturer. He writes equation after equation on the board without interacting with his students. When he does take questions, his answers are unclear and often display his low understanding of English. Further, his lectures are disorganized, presented without confidence, and confusing to students.

The professor does have a very generous grading scale. 30% of your grade is "gimmie"-points (homework and an easy quiz). However, this is entirely offset by borderline impossible tests. He evaluates his students based of the very hardest questions possible. There is no way to prepare for these tests -- his questions are magnitudes harder than the very hardest book problems. He doesn't give practice finals either. You go in blind and hope that you know enough to get some points. He loves to evaluate the very complicated, niche problems that he covers in lectures. Honestly, it's almost a waste of time to do book problems or learn proofs -- you are expected to know way more than the book can teach you. The book also sucks.

Never say the sentence "Oh he wouldn't ask that." Yes he would. And he probably will.

We had a piazza board set up for this class as well. The purpose of this board is to allow the professor to easily, quickly, and publicly answers any questions that students ask. As we speak, there are hundreds of unanswered questions on the board. He straight up ignores the questions, even urgent ones like "what sections will the midterm cover???"

Professor Bao was terrible. I actually have a solid understanding of differential equations (thanks Khan academy and other resources!) and yet I am concerned that I may have failed his final. It's such crap. Stay as far away from his class as possible.

Bao is a perfect reason why the math department here is awful. Too many damn fobs who can't speak in ENGLISH!! Class is pretty much useless, so just study on your own.

The lecture is very unclear and not organised, The test is very hard, Don't take him!

Professor Bao is a good professor. His grading scheme, on another evaluation here, is very generous in that you only need to do well on 1 midterm, 2 quizzes, and of course the final.

The midterms were easy if you keep up with the concepts and practice. The application problems are like the ones he goes over (he only went over 2 types) and each midterm usually has a proof which will depend on how well you understand the material. The proof was only 10 points, though, out of 100 and there were 5 other questions. The final had doable problems, but there were a few where you had to get creative and there was definitely enough time to complete everything that you could. The averages on the two midterms were around 77 and 80.

His lectures are definitely "by the book" and very straightforward. We had another professor come in to substitute on day, Aliki Mavromoustaki, who has had glowing reviews here. Her style was more creative and it worked well, but I've had a few teachers in high school who tried that and failed miserably. She definitely makes it more interesting. That being said, Bao's lectures get to the point, are very well-structured, and are worth going to. You learn what you need to. He also does a great job of answering questions. You can't go wrong if you're looking to decide between them.

If you took 33A before and did well in it, it will help you greatly. After the second midterm is basically all linear algebra in terms of the calculations you have to do. The only issue with Bao may be if he decides to make his tests tougher since he hasn't had a long history of teaching this course but it seems unlikely.