He is great! The finals is a bit tricky but he made the midterm very straightforward! I think everything is fair :)

ugh i am taking this class right now and it is just a mess lmao. no one goes to lecture and he never gives any feedback. most of us got a B on the midterm, but ... thats 45% of our grade so nearly impossible to get an A in the class unless we ace the final. he doesnt provide solutions for anything, and they take forever to grade hw, and even when they do they don't really explain how we were wrong just says "its wrong." workload is doable, but their grading is so harsh without explanation its frustrating :/ i had swee hong for math 170e and id recommend him

His lectures are clear as he explicitly writes out every step for solving a problem.

Sometimes he skips proofs and/or explanations and tells us to refer to his notes posted on CCLE. His notes are hand-written but readable and pretty detailed.

Homework is doable. He goes over some HW problems during his office hour, which is helpful.

Midterm and Final can be challenging, but they are open book, open notes, open R, open calculator, etc., and he gives extra credit problems on the final.

He replies to your emails promptly and answers your questions with detailed explanations.

I was lucky to have a super nice TA who reviews concepts and goes over homework problems in discussion sections, which also helps.

LECTURES: Lectures are very clear and helpful because everything is explained in a step-by-step manner, and Professor Nguyen always tries his best to explain the details and in-between steps in the proofs or solutions. He also assigns around 10 in-class exercises in total--those are extremely important and helpful, so make sure you go home and try!

HOMEWORK: Only 5-6 problems per homework, but typically every one of them is challenging and time-consuming. Nevertheless, doing his homework is quite helpful in getting familiar with the material.

OFFICE HOUR: Probably the best thing about Professor Nguyen's MATH 171 is his office hours. He is always patient, helpful, and approachable during his office hours. He will give useful hints to homework problems and his exercises, and he will also help you write better solutions.

EXAMS: He gives difficult exams, but perhaps the exams will be hard regardless of which Prof you take MATH 171 with since this class is a proof-based class. Due to COVID, we had a 24-hour midterm and final, which are both very challenging. However, if you put honest efforts into this class throughout the quarter, you will be fine!

OVERALL: I will highly recommend taking this class with Professor Nguyen.

I disagree that prof hates his students. He's very responsive to emails and very helpful in office hours. If you just went to office hours once a week, he'd do almost the entire homework for you. Additionally, although his exams were hard and had no cheat sheet, we knew what material to expect. He gave us plenty of practice and we never saw a question on an exam that we hadn't seen in either homework or the practice problems. He is clear when instructing and doesn't make as many mistakes as some other professors do. 178A isn't meant to be an easy math class. I think his course was fair, but you had to work hard for an A.