Professor Varvarezos is an excellent lecturer with reasonable homework and exams. However, I did not enjoy attempting the discussion worksheets. If they were shorter and more manageable to complete with a group during section, I would have enjoyed this course much more.

Good course - the professor explains concepts very clearly in lecture (though he does adhere pretty closely to the textbook), and he does a good job answering questions during class and office hours. The workload is not especially high: one homework (approx. 8 textbook questions of average difficulty, graded on correctness) and a discussion worksheet (graded on completion) every week.

The exams were all relatively simple - pretty much all of the questions were just straightforward calculations using things from lecture. Notecards were permitted for the midterms, and a single cheat sheet for the final.

Konstantinos Varvarezos is by far the best professor I have ever had. He's incredibly kind, patient, and intelligent. He answers all questions asked in lecture clearly and simply. I only got a C cause I was sick on the day of the final and did horribly. The class itself is super hard and if you don't have to take it you shouldn't, but if you do, Varvarezos is the prof you want.

Konstatinos is a gem of a man. although he may be a little timid (it was his first time teaching), he clearly cares about his students. He gave so many examples I almost got bored, he grades super fairly on the exams (which are pretty easy and not as complex as some of his examples), and will always answer any question you have.

If you have a choice, please take him, he is so nice and sweet and I def would not have survived this class if I had a different professor.

As a life science major who did not have to take this class, I really enjoyed it. Considering this was Professor Varvarezos's first year teaching, I think he did a wonderful job explaining the material and being considerate of students. The grading was transparent, fair, and exams were to the point. I studied a lot on my own and got above the average for every exam, but most people did really well (exam averages were mainly high Bs). This class is not easy, but it is definitely doable if you put in the effort or just grasp calculus topics easily. I recommend this class to anyone who dislikes busy work or group work. It's primarily exams, discussion worksheets (which you can do by yourself), and homework. Homework is usually 6-9 problems and exams are 4 problems with multiple parts. Lecture is not mandatory, but I found it helpful to be there in person.

Professor Varvarezos is a literal gem. He is such a sweet professor and genuinely cares about the success of his students and how they understand the material. In lecture I think he is very clear and goes at a great pace. The homework he assigns is also very helpful for studying for the midterms and final while also still being manageable in workload. For each exam he also posted a set of practice problems. For the first two midterms these reviews were extremely helpful and fairly similar to the structure of the tests. For me, when we started getting into surfaces I struggled to understand the content as well and definitely had a harder time. The final was for sure more challenging than the other two midterms, but in my opinion was still a fair exam so even though I did not score as well, my previous midterm grades saved me. Overall this class was so much more manageable than I thought it would be and that is largely because of Varvarezos. If you have the opportunity to take this class with him, definitely do so.

Overall, Math 32B with Varvarezos is a solid class. As long as you go to lectures or watch them (recorded, which really helped later in the quarter!) and give yourself enough time to really do the HW problems, you'll be fine. He was new this quarter, which means he was probably still figuring out the adequate difficulty for exams, meaning his midterms were very easy while the final was more difficult, but I honestly think this is because he was learning what difficulty levels would properly survey the class (that is, achieve the desired grade distribution). I would anticipate that future quarters will be more balanced.

His homework is very light, 10 or fewer problems per week, all of which are doable. Sometimes you need to read the textbook to solve them and there are always a few challenging ones, but I suppose for the foretold difficulty of Math 32B this is justified. I believe compared to other professors, his homework is reasonable and his grading scheme is forgiving. His lectures are also very helpful, well structured, and to the point; he labels all the important conjectures/theorems and does a recap at the beginning of each lecture, so you never feel lost. His explanations make sense and in general he cares to help you if you ask. There's also a Piazza to ask for additional help, and he is pretty responsive in general on there.

The only thing of note is that the final exam is very heavily weighted; 40 or 45% of your grade depending on the scheme you use. So, you can do terrifically throughout the course and mess up on the final (which had only 4 questions and 40 total points) and destroy your grade. So just, be careful, and study/prepare well for the exam. I think a lot of people this quarter rode the wave of easy midterms and assumed the final would be just as easy, forgot how heavily weighted it was, and then lost out as a result. Even if the class feels easy, still treat it as an important class. Then you can't be surprised on the final.

Okay the reviews here for my quarter are terrible but I actually liked Prof Varvarezos! His lectures were really well-organized and easy to understand, but there was only audio recording (no video or lecture notes). Whenever I missed a class I would just get notes from a friend and listen to the audio at the same time so it was basically like being in class lol.

I thought the midterms were both reasonable, not at all more difficult than the examples he did in class. But the final was genuinely really really bad. I'm lucky I did pretty good but it was definitely far more difficult than anything he had covered in class before. His homework is also really hard—he picks all the hardest questions out of the textbook (even problems) to actually grade on correctness—so I think the final was about the same difficulty as a lot of the homework problems (probably it was easier tbh, HW was hard).

Something I liked about Varvarezos was his office hours. I only went a few times, but every time I asked questions, he was super helpful and understanding, and took the time to fully answer the question. This is mainly how I was able to answer a lot of the homework questions, because he would be fully willing to explain the solutions for them. He also answered a lot of questions from the class during lecture. Lowkey sometimes he spent too long answering questions I got pissed off lol. But it's clear he is really knowledgeable about the material and is generally good at teaching.

IMO if you take the time to fully understand the material conceptually (his tests have true/false) and go to office hours for your questions, his class is actually not that bad. Outside of class time or time spent doing homework, I think I probably spent 1-2 hours/week on average studying? Obviously more around the time of the exams. He's a pretty considerate + competent guy and idk wtf happened when he was writing the final but I would honestly consider him the best math prof I've had so far.

The professor does a good job with explaining the material and gives a lot of example problems in class that are really useful. The homework isn't too bad, there's usually that occasional one or two problems that are tough, but if you go to office hours, you'll get them solved. We also have discussion worksheets every week. Those are tough, but they're graded on completion and they're tougher than the tests. As for the tests, the two midterms were pretty easy, and the final was kind of tough, but he gives fair numbers and as long as you know all the concepts, you'll do fine (he won't throw anything you've never learned). Overall, great professor and considering it's only his first quarter, I'm sure he'll only get better.

BEST PROFESSOR - Had a very similar experience with Fumiaki in 32A. He has engaging lectures and the tests are very straightforward (especially the midterms). The final was a little tricky and took me all 3 hours, but it was still doable. Don't get overconfident before any tests and do all the homework and you should get an A. Discussion work is mandatory.