I'm going to fail this class because the midterm was much harder than the midterms for other professors.

class wasn't too difficult bc i've taken calc before; but i can genuinely say that if i hadn't, this class would've been hell. prof is terrible at explaining & doesn't leave room for any student-teacher interactions. he seems like a super nice guy but just honestly not the best teacher. he posts his lecture notes on ccle (so honestly there's not that much of a point in going) & his TAs are super helpful.

A lot of the other reviews on Professor Fan's Math 31A class are very negative and I don't understand why. He is a great professor that is willing to help you if you go to him with questions. Although he does have an accent, I didn't find it difficult to understand his lectures at all. He often makes jokes in the class that make him quite endearing. I find that the most of the people who complain about the professor are the ones who either: A) aren't putting in the work to fully understand the subjects that we are going over in class, or B) are idiot jocks who are most likely going to drop Math after this class because they don't have the brain cells to comprehend even the definition of a derivative.

Professor Fan is incredibly knowledgeable about mathematics. He really loves math and it shows when he is teaching. He does have an accent, but I believe he is very clear. I also went to his office hours once, and I had missed almost all the points on a midterm question. I was reluctant to show him my paper because I was kind of embarrassed, but he looked over my shoulder and saw my paper anyway. He didn't have any reaction and actually spent over 15 minutes trying to explain it to me in a very kind and encouraging way. He is kind and cares about his students understanding the concepts.

This class was awful in terms of exam difficulty. Lectures are quite confusing. His accent is incredibly thick and it can be difficult to decipher what he says. All of his lectures only consist of theories demonstrated with variables - he doesn't explain them much with examples. I did my roommate's midterm (who was in the same math class with a different prof) for practice for my midterm, and mine was EXPONENTIALLY harder. My TA and the SMC were the only reasons I survived. You need to study very hard to get a good grade in this class if you hadn’t taken calc before like me.

Pretty chill class

I took this class without having taken calculus in high school and not even knowing what a derivative was. I was so confused during lecture because he already expects the students to know certain things since almost all the students had taken calculus before. I studied super hard and got a D on my first midterm and I realized I have to try even harder in this class. Almost all of my study time went into this class and I pretty much taught calculus to myself. I got a B on my second midterm and with the curve it turned into an A- and then got a C+ on my final. Luckily the professor uses grade distribution and I ended the class with an A- which I thought was IMPOSSIBLE. Although he’s not the greatest at explaining things because of his accent and his tendency to assume students know things, he’s very nice and cracked jokes. His intention is to give as many A’s as possible which is why he’s so flexible with curves. My raw score in this class would’ve been a C+ but he curved so that as many students as possible could get A’s. He’s a very kind guy and I would probably take this class with him again but I know I’d have to put in all the work. Also, the homework is very reasonable and doesn’t take too long to do, it’s nothing crazy.

Class attendance is not mandatory which is fantastic. Fan's first lecture did not leave a good impression, he basically just followed the textbook and sometimes gave confusing examples. I ditched all of the lectures after the first 2. I like this series which you can watch for free on youtube. ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-03-differential-equations-spring-2010/video-lectures/lecture-1-the-geometrical-view-of-y-f-x-y/

The textbook can be downloaded for free online, don't buy it. The textbook is also hot garbage imo and I often ended up more confused after reading it than when I started. The TAs are a godsend in this class especially Snyder who was able to condense all of the material into his own lectures in a way more understandable way.

The upside is that the tests are very straightforward and often easy or at least easier than the homework. So the class isn't too bad.

I went to the first few weeks of lectures and learned absolutely nothing. I was confused the entire time and thought it was my fault for not understanding anything, but then I attended Alex (AJ) Moreno's lectures and everything instantly made sense.

But on the plus side, Fan's tests are ridiculously easy and straightforward, and he tells you the exact types of questions he will ask. He also said a 90% is an A, and around 85% an A-. So if you can self-learn/attend another professor's lectures, take this class for the easy A.

Good professor so far in the class