NOT. WORTH. IT.

TLDR: His class is too much work for the minimal understanding of 32A topics you will get out of it.
Lectures are incoherent and hard to follow unless you read ahead and know what you're doing beforehand. When he lectures he briefly goes over the proofs behind theorems, then jumps straight into complicated examples. The weekly homework took me about 8 hours of work to complete and is just full of complicated proofs. But these are the exact same proofs as on the exams, so if you can memorize them all, you're set. Except the final was all new problems and very difficult. Thi

DON'T TAKE THIS CLASS. FRESHMEN DO NOT TAKE IT, TAKE 31B INSTEAD, LIFE ISN'T A RACE. I have way too much beef with this class to go into it all. but just don't take it.

I read the reviews for Chayes and thought to myself, "don't worry-- I'm smart. I got a 35 on the ACT, had a 4.6 in high school, and I'm pretty good at math. I'll be fine." NOPE. Lincoln Chayes tore me a new one. Doing weekly problem sets felt like I was physically trying to smash my head through a brick wall. Nothing made sense, reading the book or going to the lectures. His tests are uncurved (except for a freebee 20-some points which don't help you after the first problem you fail) and like staring into the abyss of his mind. I didn't know what to do. I studied, went to review sessions, got a tutor, everything. My roommate dropped week 8 because it was so impossible. I went into the final with and A and came out with a C. Chayes is clearly brilliant, but should not be teaching freshman math courses. He bases problems off of math concepts we would not have learned as freshman and is just impossible in general unless you're wired to understand math before you're taught it. 0/10 would not recommend.

Chayes is by far the most confusing professor I have ever had. He does complicated proofs but instead of explaining things, he just says things like, "No one will disagree when I say... " or "It's obvious that ...". Not only are his conclusions in no way obvious but in saying that, no one wants to ask questions either. Also he doesn't teach from the textbook; his class goes way beyond any other 32A class, which wouldn't be terrible if he could teach. However, he is very unclear and since he doesn't go off the textbook, it's nearly impossible to learn everything he wants. Furthermore, his homework is way too difficult; the first week is fine, but after that I had to rely on my TAs to solve usually more than half the problems in the set.

If you have to take 32A, and Chayes is the only professor left, I would highly recommend you delay 32A and wait for a better professor. Your grade will thank you.

Terrible experience. Do not take this class. You will not learn anything. Trust me.

Good class for people who want a involved, mathematical challenge. Topics in the lectures may sometimes seem jumbled and disconnected for those not adept in rigorous math. Homework is tough, but doable especially with a good study group. Midterms are homework based, so fairly tough. Final is more or less twice as hard, some questions take the concepts you've learned a notch higher.

This was easily the hardest math class I had ever taken, and I regret taking it with him when I compared my work to other 32A professors. The homework was extremely difficult and abstract and homework groups were made to figure it out and I almost always went to a TA to figure out how to do the homework. The final was also brutal because it dropped me a full letter grade. If you have the option to not take Chayes, then make sure you stay far from his class.

Don't take this class. I had an 89% up until the final, but it brought me down all the way to a C- despite my hours of studying. Some people do well in this class, but not me and plenty others. The homework was always very hard and stressful; I could only do about half of it on my own. The two midterms were manageable, but the final was horrible. Overall, I felt like I worked very hard in this class but got nothing out of it.

TLDR:
The only reason I didn't regret taking this class by the end of it all was because I met my boyfriend from here... but unless you end up finding the love of your life, spare yourselves and don't take this overly convoluted class if you're only looking to satisfy lower division major requirements/GE requirements.

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MATH 32A with Professor Chayes is the most difficult math course I have ever taken in my life. Coming out of high school with straight A's, the struggles I faced in this class were truly shocking.

Professor Chayes' course is structured as follows: 10% HW, 15% Midterm 1, 25% Midterm 2, and 50% final. Overall, this seems like a fairly reasonable distribution! But his introduction to differential multivariable calculus course is anything but introductory.

While other MATH 32A classes often focus on computations, Professor Chayes focuses on proofs, almost making the course feel more like an upper division class instead of a lower division introductory math class.

Even though there is a required textbook for this course which provides explanations of basic concepts with clear examples, Professor Chayes never bothers to use this book at all, instead making his own homework problem sets which are not only inconsistent with the level of difficulty found in the book, but which are also extraordinarily difficult and sometimes almost impossible to solve without the help of a TA or math tutor.

Regardless, there is no doubt that Professor Chayes is a very brilliant mathematician with a passion for teaching and research. Despite this, however, he should understand that the undergraduate students taking his class are neither mathematicians nor researchers, nor do his students possess anywhere near the level of expertise in the mathematical field as he does.

Amongst the many students I have made friends with because of our mutual struggling in this course, there are many who are excelling in Professor Chayes' class, performing extraordinarily well on both of his Midterms thus far with scores ranging from the mid-80s to even 100%!

However, there are also many students, like myself, who are trying our hardest in the class but somehow still fail. It is not that we are lazy or that we are merely unintelligent. Many of us were in the top of our class in high school, and even now we spend hours slaving away in SMC or running around to countless discussions and TA office hours in the hopes of finding some explanation for the problem sets that look less like math and more like convoluted logic puzzles.

It is true that many of the problem sets have concepts which often reappear on the midterm. However, without absolute 100% understanding of the fundamentals, as well as a knack for creativity in tackling new and foreign problems and ideas, it's probably very difficult to ace this class.

Our final is on the 3rd of December, and even though I have spent hours in preparing for the exam (and will continue to do so throughout this entire week), I cannot say that I am well prepared, not will I be when I walk into that classroom on Saturday afternoon.

I never thought I'd find myself saying this after nothing but straight A's in high school, but all I want from this course is to just pass. I suppose as long as I don't have to retake MATH 32A, I will be thankful for this terrible experience and all the friends I've made along the way--