Rooney is approachable and engaging, and he does his best to make sure that students comprehend the material he teaches in lecture. My only criticism for him has to do with the difficulty of his examinations. After exchanging midterms with a friend who had a different professor for 31B, he and I quickly realized how much more difficult Rooney's exams were in comparison to his professor's. As previous reviewers have already pointed out, the second midterm was particularly unpleasant—the average sat at around 64%.

From my point of view, this professor's class was rather painful because a good portion of his examinations relied on the student's ability to come up with clever tricks to solve problems instead of the comprehension of key concepts taught in lecture and highlighted in the homework assignments. Although exposure to these types of problems can teach you something, it may not be worth taking a hit to your GPA.

In sum: Although this professor is a great teacher, his examinations are more difficult than those other professors who teach the same course. I would advise taking this course with a different professor if the grade distributions seem better.

He has really neat handwriting and basically writes everything he is saying on the board. Our first midterm was fair, the second one was bombed due to time pressure, and the final was fair though there were 1-2 questions that I really couldn't find anyone that knew the answer to. Homework wasn't collected but there were homework quizzes in discussion that were fair (not worth much, only 10%). Replies to emails at a fair pace, and offers 3 office hours, though I didn't attend many of them in lieu of my TA's instead. Final grades were calculated on two schemes, 10% quiz 25% each midterm, 40% final OR 10% quiz 30% better final and 60% final and he would do the higher of the two. The class ended up being curved a bit at the end I think because my overall grade was a 88% but I got A-

He's young and approachable and kind of quirky, so reach out to him!

If you go to lecture and take notes, do the homework, and go to office hours with questions about the homework, then this class should be an easy A.

Professor Rooney is a relatively new professor, but his lectures were very easy to understand and follow. He also put in the effort to make 8 am lectures engaging with his jokes. The material in the second half of the quarter was definitely more difficult, but the final wasn't too bad and he does curve fairly.

honestly i think i'm just dumb as fuck, my friends did well and the professor is nice, i'm just bad at math and relieved i passed, but like his class is most definitely pretty good apart from the fact it's an 8am. the TA's are super committed to their work too, so it's nice.

Rooney is just a model professor. 31B is a hard class, and doing it in 10 weeks is definitely no joke, but I can definitely say he made it as easy as it could have been. As long as you're willing to go to office hours and struggle through the homework, it is more than possible to gain a really solid understanding of everything taught. His office hours were extremely helpful, he was always on time for everything he scheduled and he is amazing at explaining anything students are having trouble with. Second midterm was really difficult, but overall the grading scheme is pretty generous in my opinion (option to drop a midterm and lots of homework quizzes for credit). Hardest class I've ever taken but I feel like I'm so much better at math now, definitely worth it.

Rooney is thorough, engaging, and tests are generally fair. His office hours are generally helpful, and the TAs were good as well. He has weekly questions in discussion, which are problems taken directly from his homework with some occasional minor number changes. He tries his best to answer questions in class, but will respond to emails fairly quickly if you have any that he doesn't answer. Overall, this isn't a particularly difficult class, and if you put in the work you'll get a good grade.