Watson was pretty douchey, but after having taken some other math classes in comparison he was ok. The homework was difficult and often involved concepts not discussed in lecture, but his tests were very fair. Although they definitely were a bit of a time crunch, if you understood the material there was no reason not to do well. I got an 84 on midterm 1, a 90 on midterm 2, and a 92 on the final and got an A overall so his grading was pretty fair.

Watson's lectures contained many proofs and explanations of concepts. In addition, he would sometimes explain certain concepts in great detail and not explain others at all (implicit differentiation). A good professor, but his personality and his office hours could be improved upon.

I found Watson to be pretty unapproachable. He blew me off when I asked if he knew of any good tutors. Lectures were sometimes decent, sometimes pointless, His tests don't look like his homework at all. If you don't mind being taught entirely in proofs and concepts, take Watson. Otherwise I would suggest avoiding him.

Good Teacher, but he is really unapproachable when you want to talk about grading in his exams. He is really tough in grading his exams. Not a very nice person, but an ok teacher. Moves a little bit fast.

Great professor for optimization: really organized and logical so as long as you're paying attention you won't get lost. He tends to do more of the abstract in class, but the homeworks are half practical. It makes some of the problems tough, but go to office hours and he'll figure out where you're confused and guide you until you get it.

His tests are very straightforward. Challenging, but no surprises. I think 5 problems on the midterm and 10 or 12 on the final. Everything on both the midterm and the final were things gone over and emphasized in class.

Definitely one of the better math professors at UCLA.

He is chill. If you can't handle him, you are doomed in every math course above 31a at UCLA. Take him.

Great professor, has an interesting sense of humor that makes lectures semi-entertaining. Gets the content across very well. Tests are usually very fair; he'll have most problems be very similar to HW problems and then one or two that test whether you truly understand the concepts behind everything. He said that he doesn't curve much (although he admit that he'll give an A to anyone who gets an A on the final) but I still got an A- even though I averaged around a B on all exams.

Let me begin my evaluation by stating that I got an A in Watson's class. If you are thinking about taking Watson, be prepared for someone who has very well organized lecture material and great ways of explaining concepts. Students say he is not approachable, but I never went to office hours any way so I guess I wouldn't know. What I do know is that he answered everyone's questions during class and that as long as you payed attention, you would understand.

FORMULA FOR SUCCESS:
1. Notes- Watson gives some pretty distinct hints on what he will be testing on, write that shit down. I remember a huge proof he did in the first week of class, then referred back to later on, and hinted that it might be good to know it, so I memorized it before the test. It was the last problem (most points) and it threw everyone off, throwing me above the curve.

2. Studying - do the problems in the book, all of them. There are only a limited amount of problem types he assigns for hmwk, do all of the books examples of those.

Watson's test are really fair. Nothing was ever like "never seen this shit before"

Encourage yourself to gain a firm understanding on not only the process, but the proofs and reasoning behind what you are learning.

I thought that he was an amazing professor, Liam was so organized, my lecture notes were incredibly clear. He would go over homework problems when he felt we didn't understand, he gave practice tests that were very helpful in preparing for the final and midterm. Additionally, he was nice and would tell us little anecdotes at the beginning of class. Optimization ended up being my favorite math course I took. Really fair grader too!

Awesome professor. He has amazing lectures and explains all of the concepts extremely well. During office hours, you have to ask individual questions. Homework is pretty long and the graders are pretty picky. Midterm and final exam are really long and you will run out of time. They are also pretty tough, but if you really understand the concepts and have good critical thinking then you will do well. He says he doesn't know what curving is (he understood by the end of the quarter), but he still doesn't curve the class much. I still recommend him for any math course because he cares and you will really understand the concepts.