My experience with him was a mix of instructional strengths and several interpersonal and policy-based issues that made the class more frustrating than it needed to be. The workload was definitely too much in the beginning but got better throughout the quarter. Overall, the material was good and the exams were fair, but Moraga’s behavior and handling of students often felt immature, which overshadowed the strengths of the course.

Pros:
Moraga clearly knows mathematics well. His board work, both on whiteboards and chalkboards, is excellent: neat and organized. He also provides solid test preparation materials and gives exams that feel fair and aligned with what he teaches. Looking back, the actual course content wasn’t overtly difficult.

Cons:
The difficulties came mostly from classroom policies and interactions. Early in the quarter, he enforced unusually strict homework formatting rules, such as requiring assignments to be written only on printer paper, not lined paper. Although I understand the need for clarity for graders, he initially refused to accept assignments without offering second chances, even though the instructions were not entirely clear. This was not a great start to the class.

Another early red flag occurred before class one day when a small group of us were talking (more than 5 minutes before class) and getting to know each other. Moraga told us that if we had time to talk, we should instead be reading past lecture notes or the textbook. He later added that "talking before class makes it seem like the class is too easy." I asked whether socializing could actually help us form study groups or learn the material collaboratively, but he shut that down by saying socialization should happen "out there," pointing outside the room. That exchange made the classroom feel a little uncomfortable from then on to be honest. It felt like an attempt to control how students behaved before class, which felt inappropriate and not conducive to a healthy learning environment.

His lecture slides were also difficult to navigate: each slide was just the previous slide with one additional sentence added. This ballooned 40-slide lectures into 200-300 slides, which made finding information a chore. I think he could use "\documentclass[handout]{beamer}" in his LaTex code to fix that but after my previous interactions with him, I didn't really want to say anything.

Although he used Discord for class communication, he managed it in a surprisingly inflexible way--frequently removing messages and responding selectively, which discouraged open discussion rather than facilitating it.

There were also inconsistencies in his expectations on exams. He told us to avoid doing lengthy computations and instead focus on demonstrating conceptual understanding. I followed that instruction and still lost 40% on a problem because I hadn’t included the calculations he said not to do. The mixed messaging made test strategy confusing.

Toward the end of the quarter, I asked him privately about my grade--not to negotiate, but because I genuinely wanted to understand what material I had mastered and where I fell short, especially since we didn’t know our grades (until the last week) or how they were calculated (still don't, he never responded). Instead of responding to me, he told another student that I was trying to ask for a higher grade, which was deeply upsetting and quite unprofessional. I simply wanted a direct, respectful conversation about my performance.

Moraga, I enjoyed the mathematical material, and I appreciated the clarity of your lectures. I just wish the rest of the class had matched the quality of the content. I wanted to be treated like a human being and have open conversations when needed, and I'm still not sure what I did that made you respond the way you did.

Interpret this as you will--this was my experience in the course.

He is awesome. Do not listen to the haters. The materials he covers for the class are very insightful and important topics in linear algebra. Yes, the class is tough, but if you want an easy class, I would not recommend taking the honors in the first place. The honors level probably covers the regular level class's topic in the first half of the quarter.