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Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.
Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.
Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.
Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.
Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.
Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.
Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.
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His accent isn't that tough to understand. It might even be a blessing in disguise because it forces you to pay close attention to what he is saying! Both midterms were easy, but the final was pretty tricky. The homeworks are effective at getting you good at performing computations (which this class is basically all about), and are great prep for the tests. Overall, the class is pretty easy, and Professor Liu will get you to understand the material.
Math 32B is by far the hardest lower div class you have to take as an engineer or any other science major. Average lecturer snazzy dresser accent was a bit heavy but not impossible to understand. Discussions were complete waste of time except to turn in homework. The concepts actually get progressively easier until you hit the last chapter, which is very proofy but he didn't really stress on the proofs a lot. What makes this class is his tests. Most of the computations involve variables so it can be hard to work around the actual math. Midterms were not as some people have have said "easy". Final was VERY VERY VERY hard like 3 or 4 of the integrals were IMPOSSIBLE but tbh as long as you score near or even a bit below the median you're guaranteed like a C+ or B maybe. This class is hard no matter who you take it with but if you hate proofs, definitely recommend Liu. It's just another gpa killer class that may not be useful later on but just a pill you have to swallow as an engineer or physical science major.
Got an A. But just worked out the materials one night before the exams. The lectures/discussions do not help. Study by yourself. The midterms are very easy. It is not hard to get a 90+. But the final has some(about 2-3) really hard problems which almost nobody can work out. However, he curves so it is still an easy A.
I’ll preface this by saying that Math 32B was one of the hardest classes I’ve taken. Conceptually wise, it’s actually not too bad because it’s maybe three weeks worth of lecture of new concepts and then the rest of the time is expanding on the topic to greater dimensions or extensions. Really, the material is pretty tough at first, but once you get to work on it more and more, it gets progressively easier. Also, everyone makes a big deal about Green’s, Divergence, and Stoke’s Theorem (the last chapter), but it’s really quite easy because it’s just an extension of material we’ve already learned. Just tough it out through the early stages of struggle, and then the later parts will probably be easier to deal with.
That being said, Math 32B is a difficult class regardless of your professor, but I’ll elaborate a little more on Liu so that you can see if you’ll like him. His grade breakdown is:
10% HW, 40% midterm, 50% final or
10% HW, 90% final
Lectures:
Liu is a decent lecturer. People complain about his accent, but it’s really not that big of an issue, and I never had a problem with understanding his English. However, I did have problems understanding what he puts on the board because he often skips steps and doesn’t finish computations. It’s fine though, as he pretty much teaches straight from the book. He goes over a lot of proofs as well to make sure you understand the why behind the material, but that’s never tested on. The lectures are worthwhile though as Gang loves his trig identities which he gives tips on in class, as well as symmetry, which you will use a lot on exams. They may not seem totally worthwhile, but I still think they’re worthwhile to go to, but you may fall asleep often.
Exams:
Midterm 1: 15/20
Midterm 2: 14.5/20
Final: 27/50
Each midterm is 5 questions worth 4 points each, and the final has 12 questions, 10 which are worth 4 points and 2 which are worth 5 points. The averages may seem low, but they’re actually really high compared to previous years. My class just must be smart or something. I know everyone says to just get the old tests from the test bank, which I agree is helpful. I do have to say that Gang definitely ramped up the difficulty of the exams so that they’re not “easy.” Conceptually wise, they’re still similar, but you’re going to get some pretty computationally difficult problems, unless you know or see the shortcut. A lot of his problems are really easy if you know the trick, and he often shows them in lecture, but they’re easy to miss. Basically, all of his exams are strictly computational and are doable directly, but become so much easier if you know tricks. I’d recommend getting past exams that are more recent if you want better examples of the level of difficulty to expect.
As for the final, I really didn’t think it was as killer as everyone stated before. Yes, it was difficult, but I was still able to take a good stab at each problem. I’m also not that great at math, but you just have to do a lot of problems and you’ll figure out tricks you need to use. I mean, I probably got a low raw score on the final, but it’s fine because Gang is pretty generous with the curve, so just do better than the average. The final is strictly computational, so go over past midterms before you take the final because there’s a lot of overlap, but the questions are just more difficult.
Homework:
Gang puts out the list of homework for the entire quarter at the very beginning. You have approximately two HW assignments due a week on Thursday, so it’s optimal to choose a Thursday discussion so you don’t have to make an extra trip to your TA to turn in HW. The homework varies in difficulty, with some assignments being extremely tough and others being relatively easy. There are a lot of evens, so I just recommend finding a friend and checking homework with them the day before homework is due. It’s not a big deal.
Extra Help:
You probably won’t have the same TAs, but I would not have gotten an A without Sudesh, my TA. Honestly, I would always be confused by lecture, and then I would just go to his TA section, and boom, everything would make sense. I probably went to Sudesh’s office hours weekly, I went to his review sessions before the exams, sometimes I went to his discussion twice a week just to get extra exposure to the material, so Sudesh was obviously really good. Thus, I never went to Gang for help because I had Sudesh. That being said, I would sort of talk to friends and find out which TA is the best, and go get help from that TA. In this class, there’s a big benefit to knowing a lot of tricks to solving problems (I got a lot of help on symmetry, on changing the curve or changing the 3D object to make things easier to solve) because Gang loves his tricks.
Overall: I’m glad I took Gang. He’s a nice guy, and I enjoyed going to his class everyday. The class is difficult regardless of professor, so really just take whatever works best with your schedule. My only advice is to do a lot of practice and figure out tricks to solve problems when you get stuck, because you will get stuck on problems. His tests are difficult, but he’s nice with the curve, so overall, I’d recommend him.
Math 32B is a unique class in general since it involves a lot of new concepts. Personally I didn't really understand a lot of what Liu said in class, but since it was math it didn't really matter if I didn't understand what he was saying in class I guess. I just made sure that I understood the problems he was doing. Doing the homework problems in this class actually helps because the homework helps you understand what he is actually talking about in class, and it makes you realize that the material isn't really THAT difficult. The two midterms are fairly easy if you get an old test from the test bank since he often makes his tests similar to old ones (however, he did make our second midterm a bit different from the older tests). The final (12 problems) is a killer; it will give you a headache and you will probably not know how to complete at least half of the problems. But that's okay because the curve in this class is generous, and as long as you do around average on the tests then you should get at least a B in the class. Liu definitely knows his math and what he's talking about though.
Great class, it can be hard to understand Liu sometimes, but if you are following along carefully there wont be any problems. His tests are reasonable, I know some friends who had a hard time but I personally did well by just doing the homework with a little extra studying.
I am selling my textbook Rogawski second edition with binder included. No notes or highlights, and in mint condition. Text me at ********** I can meet on or around campus. Selling for$50 with price negotiable.
As a supplement to the former review:
Professor Liu has a very typical Chinese accent.
1. He pronounces "r" more like "l" if "r" is at the beginning of a word.
e.g. "roughly" --> "loughly"
2. He pronounces "v" as "w"
e.g. "Volume" --> "Wolume"
e.g. "The Volume of this V" --> "The Wolume of this Way"
3. He tends to ignore the consonant at the end of a word
e.g. "coordinate" --> "coordinai"
Professor Liu also has a lot of typos in the emails:
e.g. final --> fina, median --> midium / medium
so if you cannot understand what he tries to say in the email, just ask. He will reply within one day.
In terms of teaching, Professor Liu may not be as good as some other professors like Will Conley, but he is certainly way above the average.
About lectures:
His lecturers are clear and organized, and he basically talks about problems in the textbook. Well, you probably think you can skip lecturers and read through the textbook at this point; however, I would strongly suggest you to go to his lectures to learn his tricks to solve problems, which serve a lot in the exams. For example, he frequently taught about some tricks about trig identities and about symmetries, on which he did test a lot.
He will do reviews in class before each midterm and the final.
The problem with his lectures is that he often skips steps. If you are not very fast at doing numbers in your head, you probably should directly ask him. He ALWAYS answers questions.
Another minor thing: he hurried to finish Chapter 18 and did not talk about Chain complexes at all. I don't know the consequences of this since I'm done with Calculus and Physics, but Professors like Conley (even my TA) do talk about that.
About homework:
He has about 20 problems every week. The homework each week is probably relatively long compared to other professors, but it serves as way to practice. I can tell he did look through each problem before posting the problem list, which is good.
About exams:
His two midterms are very easy, but his final is VERY VERY HARD!!!
Each of his two midterms has 5 problems, 4 points each, 20 in total.
His final is long and hard, with 12 problems, 10 with 4 points and 2 with 5 points, 50 in total.
I suggest everyone to take his midterms seriously and get as much score as possible. I never go to the test bank but someone told me that his midterms are very similar to his past midterms in the test bank.
Stats:
midterm 1:
median: 12 / 20 (60%)
midterm 2:
median: 15 / 20 (75%)
final:
median: 24 / 50 (48%)
Note about grading:
Professor Liu mostly follows Math department's policy:
25% A's, 25% B's.
However, he does not give B+. So if you are just a little bit below the A range, you get a B.
Professor Liu teaches math 32B in a very standard way. He does have a very thick Chinese accent, so I guess the non-Asians are having a very hard time understanding him. I hear them make fun of his name anyways in class sometimes. More advantage to me.
Lecture consists of presenting the theory and applying it to 2-3 example. Proofs are considered trivial stuff not worth memorizing, which automatically is epic win.
Homework is mostly based on calculations. There's no need to kill yourself over proofs or some hard problem. Look at the examples and the textbook and maybe the solutions manual, and you'll be doing fine, I believe.
Before every test Professor Liu will give a review lecture, which is basically telling us what formulas to know and what formulas we don't need. This is critical, as he keeps his word and the resulting midterms only involve what was presented in review.
The midterms AND final themselves are all computational. There is no proof needed. The best way to study is to look at examples in lecture and the homework problems. Chances are the test questions are a very tiny variation of those problems. The first midterm had low averages, which was surprising. However, fear not, Professor Liu confirmed with us that the average was a B- or B, which is quite merciful. He also had a magnanimous grading setup with 3 schemes. Either its taking into account all your midterms and final, taking into account only one midterm and the final, or if you're really doing poorly then its 10% homework and 90% final.
However, don't relax and go for the last grading scheme. The final was extremely hard and long-winded. You had 12 questions, with each question's solutions taking up one page, if not more. The final sections in the course were Stoke's Theorem and the Divergence Theorem, which were the most confusing sons of *****s I've ever learned about and if it weren't for a hardcore memorization of the assigned homework problems I wouldn't have found the way to do some of the problems in the final.
Overall, its a standard math course. Try your best to understand his accent, or at least you'll survive just by copying down what he writes on the board. He'll try to help you understand him outside of class if you asked. He's a pretty nice dude. Just don't let the problems scare you, and learn to parametrize.
He's a pretty average professor. His accent is hard to understand, but if you can read the book and figure everything out on your own, then you don't need to understand him. The amount of hw is very reasonable. The midterms are relatively easy because they look like the homework problems and are all computational. The final is super hard, but its curved. The best part about this class is that the problems on the exams are all computational which is great because for most people proofs are the hardest part about math.
His accent isn't that tough to understand. It might even be a blessing in disguise because it forces you to pay close attention to what he is saying! Both midterms were easy, but the final was pretty tricky. The homeworks are effective at getting you good at performing computations (which this class is basically all about), and are great prep for the tests. Overall, the class is pretty easy, and Professor Liu will get you to understand the material.
Math 32B is by far the hardest lower div class you have to take as an engineer or any other science major. Average lecturer snazzy dresser accent was a bit heavy but not impossible to understand. Discussions were complete waste of time except to turn in homework. The concepts actually get progressively easier until you hit the last chapter, which is very proofy but he didn't really stress on the proofs a lot. What makes this class is his tests. Most of the computations involve variables so it can be hard to work around the actual math. Midterms were not as some people have have said "easy". Final was VERY VERY VERY hard like 3 or 4 of the integrals were IMPOSSIBLE but tbh as long as you score near or even a bit below the median you're guaranteed like a C+ or B maybe. This class is hard no matter who you take it with but if you hate proofs, definitely recommend Liu. It's just another gpa killer class that may not be useful later on but just a pill you have to swallow as an engineer or physical science major.
Got an A. But just worked out the materials one night before the exams. The lectures/discussions do not help. Study by yourself. The midterms are very easy. It is not hard to get a 90+. But the final has some(about 2-3) really hard problems which almost nobody can work out. However, he curves so it is still an easy A.
I’ll preface this by saying that Math 32B was one of the hardest classes I’ve taken. Conceptually wise, it’s actually not too bad because it’s maybe three weeks worth of lecture of new concepts and then the rest of the time is expanding on the topic to greater dimensions or extensions. Really, the material is pretty tough at first, but once you get to work on it more and more, it gets progressively easier. Also, everyone makes a big deal about Green’s, Divergence, and Stoke’s Theorem (the last chapter), but it’s really quite easy because it’s just an extension of material we’ve already learned. Just tough it out through the early stages of struggle, and then the later parts will probably be easier to deal with.
That being said, Math 32B is a difficult class regardless of your professor, but I’ll elaborate a little more on Liu so that you can see if you’ll like him. His grade breakdown is:
10% HW, 40% midterm, 50% final or
10% HW, 90% final
Lectures:
Liu is a decent lecturer. People complain about his accent, but it’s really not that big of an issue, and I never had a problem with understanding his English. However, I did have problems understanding what he puts on the board because he often skips steps and doesn’t finish computations. It’s fine though, as he pretty much teaches straight from the book. He goes over a lot of proofs as well to make sure you understand the why behind the material, but that’s never tested on. The lectures are worthwhile though as Gang loves his trig identities which he gives tips on in class, as well as symmetry, which you will use a lot on exams. They may not seem totally worthwhile, but I still think they’re worthwhile to go to, but you may fall asleep often.
Exams:
Midterm 1: 15/20
Midterm 2: 14.5/20
Final: 27/50
Each midterm is 5 questions worth 4 points each, and the final has 12 questions, 10 which are worth 4 points and 2 which are worth 5 points. The averages may seem low, but they’re actually really high compared to previous years. My class just must be smart or something. I know everyone says to just get the old tests from the test bank, which I agree is helpful. I do have to say that Gang definitely ramped up the difficulty of the exams so that they’re not “easy.” Conceptually wise, they’re still similar, but you’re going to get some pretty computationally difficult problems, unless you know or see the shortcut. A lot of his problems are really easy if you know the trick, and he often shows them in lecture, but they’re easy to miss. Basically, all of his exams are strictly computational and are doable directly, but become so much easier if you know tricks. I’d recommend getting past exams that are more recent if you want better examples of the level of difficulty to expect.
As for the final, I really didn’t think it was as killer as everyone stated before. Yes, it was difficult, but I was still able to take a good stab at each problem. I’m also not that great at math, but you just have to do a lot of problems and you’ll figure out tricks you need to use. I mean, I probably got a low raw score on the final, but it’s fine because Gang is pretty generous with the curve, so just do better than the average. The final is strictly computational, so go over past midterms before you take the final because there’s a lot of overlap, but the questions are just more difficult.
Homework:
Gang puts out the list of homework for the entire quarter at the very beginning. You have approximately two HW assignments due a week on Thursday, so it’s optimal to choose a Thursday discussion so you don’t have to make an extra trip to your TA to turn in HW. The homework varies in difficulty, with some assignments being extremely tough and others being relatively easy. There are a lot of evens, so I just recommend finding a friend and checking homework with them the day before homework is due. It’s not a big deal.
Extra Help:
You probably won’t have the same TAs, but I would not have gotten an A without Sudesh, my TA. Honestly, I would always be confused by lecture, and then I would just go to his TA section, and boom, everything would make sense. I probably went to Sudesh’s office hours weekly, I went to his review sessions before the exams, sometimes I went to his discussion twice a week just to get extra exposure to the material, so Sudesh was obviously really good. Thus, I never went to Gang for help because I had Sudesh. That being said, I would sort of talk to friends and find out which TA is the best, and go get help from that TA. In this class, there’s a big benefit to knowing a lot of tricks to solving problems (I got a lot of help on symmetry, on changing the curve or changing the 3D object to make things easier to solve) because Gang loves his tricks.
Overall: I’m glad I took Gang. He’s a nice guy, and I enjoyed going to his class everyday. The class is difficult regardless of professor, so really just take whatever works best with your schedule. My only advice is to do a lot of practice and figure out tricks to solve problems when you get stuck, because you will get stuck on problems. His tests are difficult, but he’s nice with the curve, so overall, I’d recommend him.
Math 32B is a unique class in general since it involves a lot of new concepts. Personally I didn't really understand a lot of what Liu said in class, but since it was math it didn't really matter if I didn't understand what he was saying in class I guess. I just made sure that I understood the problems he was doing. Doing the homework problems in this class actually helps because the homework helps you understand what he is actually talking about in class, and it makes you realize that the material isn't really THAT difficult. The two midterms are fairly easy if you get an old test from the test bank since he often makes his tests similar to old ones (however, he did make our second midterm a bit different from the older tests). The final (12 problems) is a killer; it will give you a headache and you will probably not know how to complete at least half of the problems. But that's okay because the curve in this class is generous, and as long as you do around average on the tests then you should get at least a B in the class. Liu definitely knows his math and what he's talking about though.
Great class, it can be hard to understand Liu sometimes, but if you are following along carefully there wont be any problems. His tests are reasonable, I know some friends who had a hard time but I personally did well by just doing the homework with a little extra studying.
I am selling my textbook Rogawski second edition with binder included. No notes or highlights, and in mint condition. Text me at ********** I can meet on or around campus. Selling for$50 with price negotiable.
As a supplement to the former review:
Professor Liu has a very typical Chinese accent.
1. He pronounces "r" more like "l" if "r" is at the beginning of a word.
e.g. "roughly" --> "loughly"
2. He pronounces "v" as "w"
e.g. "Volume" --> "Wolume"
e.g. "The Volume of this V" --> "The Wolume of this Way"
3. He tends to ignore the consonant at the end of a word
e.g. "coordinate" --> "coordinai"
Professor Liu also has a lot of typos in the emails:
e.g. final --> fina, median --> midium / medium
so if you cannot understand what he tries to say in the email, just ask. He will reply within one day.
In terms of teaching, Professor Liu may not be as good as some other professors like Will Conley, but he is certainly way above the average.
About lectures:
His lecturers are clear and organized, and he basically talks about problems in the textbook. Well, you probably think you can skip lecturers and read through the textbook at this point; however, I would strongly suggest you to go to his lectures to learn his tricks to solve problems, which serve a lot in the exams. For example, he frequently taught about some tricks about trig identities and about symmetries, on which he did test a lot.
He will do reviews in class before each midterm and the final.
The problem with his lectures is that he often skips steps. If you are not very fast at doing numbers in your head, you probably should directly ask him. He ALWAYS answers questions.
Another minor thing: he hurried to finish Chapter 18 and did not talk about Chain complexes at all. I don't know the consequences of this since I'm done with Calculus and Physics, but Professors like Conley (even my TA) do talk about that.
About homework:
He has about 20 problems every week. The homework each week is probably relatively long compared to other professors, but it serves as way to practice. I can tell he did look through each problem before posting the problem list, which is good.
About exams:
His two midterms are very easy, but his final is VERY VERY HARD!!!
Each of his two midterms has 5 problems, 4 points each, 20 in total.
His final is long and hard, with 12 problems, 10 with 4 points and 2 with 5 points, 50 in total.
I suggest everyone to take his midterms seriously and get as much score as possible. I never go to the test bank but someone told me that his midterms are very similar to his past midterms in the test bank.
Stats:
midterm 1:
median: 12 / 20 (60%)
midterm 2:
median: 15 / 20 (75%)
final:
median: 24 / 50 (48%)
Note about grading:
Professor Liu mostly follows Math department's policy:
25% A's, 25% B's.
However, he does not give B+. So if you are just a little bit below the A range, you get a B.
Professor Liu teaches math 32B in a very standard way. He does have a very thick Chinese accent, so I guess the non-Asians are having a very hard time understanding him. I hear them make fun of his name anyways in class sometimes. More advantage to me.
Lecture consists of presenting the theory and applying it to 2-3 example. Proofs are considered trivial stuff not worth memorizing, which automatically is epic win.
Homework is mostly based on calculations. There's no need to kill yourself over proofs or some hard problem. Look at the examples and the textbook and maybe the solutions manual, and you'll be doing fine, I believe.
Before every test Professor Liu will give a review lecture, which is basically telling us what formulas to know and what formulas we don't need. This is critical, as he keeps his word and the resulting midterms only involve what was presented in review.
The midterms AND final themselves are all computational. There is no proof needed. The best way to study is to look at examples in lecture and the homework problems. Chances are the test questions are a very tiny variation of those problems. The first midterm had low averages, which was surprising. However, fear not, Professor Liu confirmed with us that the average was a B- or B, which is quite merciful. He also had a magnanimous grading setup with 3 schemes. Either its taking into account all your midterms and final, taking into account only one midterm and the final, or if you're really doing poorly then its 10% homework and 90% final.
However, don't relax and go for the last grading scheme. The final was extremely hard and long-winded. You had 12 questions, with each question's solutions taking up one page, if not more. The final sections in the course were Stoke's Theorem and the Divergence Theorem, which were the most confusing sons of *****s I've ever learned about and if it weren't for a hardcore memorization of the assigned homework problems I wouldn't have found the way to do some of the problems in the final.
Overall, its a standard math course. Try your best to understand his accent, or at least you'll survive just by copying down what he writes on the board. He'll try to help you understand him outside of class if you asked. He's a pretty nice dude. Just don't let the problems scare you, and learn to parametrize.
He's a pretty average professor. His accent is hard to understand, but if you can read the book and figure everything out on your own, then you don't need to understand him. The amount of hw is very reasonable. The midterms are relatively easy because they look like the homework problems and are all computational. The final is super hard, but its curved. The best part about this class is that the problems on the exams are all computational which is great because for most people proofs are the hardest part about math.
Based on 42 Users
TOP TAGS
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- Needs Textbook (15)
- Appropriately Priced Materials (11)
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