Professor
Linfeng Li
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2023 - I love Linfeng Li. He’s a super cool and funny guy. Only problems with lecture are his accent can be a bit rough to understand and he tends to copy the textbook for the most part (though he’ll try to answer any questions). The weekly homework’s tend to be pretty short, and the quizzes are extremely easy (there are three during discussion weeks 3 6 and 9). The midterms were rough for me as I made a small mistake on each one that really messed up my score. He was accommodating and gave me a few points back after I explained myself but I ended up dropping that one anyways(he can drop your lowest midterm and increase the weight of the final). The final was extremely fair and very similar to resources he provided in the weeks leading up to it. Everyone I know who prepared well did well on the final, so don’t be disheartened if the midterms are a bit rough. Live Love Lifeng
Fall 2023 - I love Linfeng Li. He’s a super cool and funny guy. Only problems with lecture are his accent can be a bit rough to understand and he tends to copy the textbook for the most part (though he’ll try to answer any questions). The weekly homework’s tend to be pretty short, and the quizzes are extremely easy (there are three during discussion weeks 3 6 and 9). The midterms were rough for me as I made a small mistake on each one that really messed up my score. He was accommodating and gave me a few points back after I explained myself but I ended up dropping that one anyways(he can drop your lowest midterm and increase the weight of the final). The final was extremely fair and very similar to resources he provided in the weeks leading up to it. Everyone I know who prepared well did well on the final, so don’t be disheartened if the midterms are a bit rough. Live Love Lifeng
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2024 - The course was enjoyable overall and well organized. However, I don't think I learned as much as I could have for a few reasons: First, the class was much too computational for my taste, and felt more like a sequel to 33A than to 115A. Second, proofs often relied very heavily on unproven lemmas, where all the work lies in the proof of the lemma. We essentially skipped the proofs of most major results in this manner. For instance, our "proof" of the Spectral theorem presumed the existence of an orthonormal basis of eigenvectors, and the only work we did was finding the matrix decomposition corresponding to this basis. Despite these shortcomings, I still enjoyed the lectures as they were very clear and easy to follow. Homework and exams were also very well-made.
Spring 2024 - The course was enjoyable overall and well organized. However, I don't think I learned as much as I could have for a few reasons: First, the class was much too computational for my taste, and felt more like a sequel to 33A than to 115A. Second, proofs often relied very heavily on unproven lemmas, where all the work lies in the proof of the lemma. We essentially skipped the proofs of most major results in this manner. For instance, our "proof" of the Spectral theorem presumed the existence of an orthonormal basis of eigenvectors, and the only work we did was finding the matrix decomposition corresponding to this basis. Despite these shortcomings, I still enjoyed the lectures as they were very clear and easy to follow. Homework and exams were also very well-made.
AD
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2025 - Pretty solid professor. Always posts notes online and follows the textbook. He's also very considerate. One time, I forgot to submit my homework on Gradescope and he let me submit it late. He also has pretty reasonable tests and if you practice enough proofs, you should be sufficient enough to get a good grade in this class. I will warn you that the final is very hard though. Definitely prepare for the final 2 weeks in advance unlike me. Details on class: Two grading schemes: 25 HW + 20 Mid1 + 20 Mid2 + 35 Final 25 HW + 30 Best Mid + 45 Final
Spring 2025 - Pretty solid professor. Always posts notes online and follows the textbook. He's also very considerate. One time, I forgot to submit my homework on Gradescope and he let me submit it late. He also has pretty reasonable tests and if you practice enough proofs, you should be sufficient enough to get a good grade in this class. I will warn you that the final is very hard though. Definitely prepare for the final 2 weeks in advance unlike me. Details on class: Two grading schemes: 25 HW + 20 Mid1 + 20 Mid2 + 35 Final 25 HW + 30 Best Mid + 45 Final