Professor
Linfeng Li
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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 2026 - I will preface by saying he is a VERY clear lecturer, genuinely the only lectures I have ever been to that I felt I understood in real time. BUT: The exams were disproportionately difficult compared to the homework and the examples given in class. The first exam was incredibly difficult, the average was around 50-60%, and no one got a 100%. He even told us MOST of the class left a question at the end fully blank. The second exam was easier in terms of the problems, but IT WAS SIX (AS IN 1 2 3 4 5 6) MULTIPART (A, B, C , D, AND EVEN E SOMETIMES), LONG QUESTIONS IN 50 MINUTES, WITH INCREDIBLY LONG AND TEDIOUS ARITHMETIC. NOT A SINGLE PERSON FINISHED IN TIME. This class genuinely gave me trust issues when it comes to exams. Ended up dropping it week 9. 32A is easy in terms of content, but this professor wanted to lower his average and made the exams insanely difficult and borderline unfair. It felt impossible to succeed in this class, and I felt the professor was aware of that, but did nothing to help anyone succeed.
Spring 2026 - I will preface by saying he is a VERY clear lecturer, genuinely the only lectures I have ever been to that I felt I understood in real time. BUT: The exams were disproportionately difficult compared to the homework and the examples given in class. The first exam was incredibly difficult, the average was around 50-60%, and no one got a 100%. He even told us MOST of the class left a question at the end fully blank. The second exam was easier in terms of the problems, but IT WAS SIX (AS IN 1 2 3 4 5 6) MULTIPART (A, B, C , D, AND EVEN E SOMETIMES), LONG QUESTIONS IN 50 MINUTES, WITH INCREDIBLY LONG AND TEDIOUS ARITHMETIC. NOT A SINGLE PERSON FINISHED IN TIME. This class genuinely gave me trust issues when it comes to exams. Ended up dropping it week 9. 32A is easy in terms of content, but this professor wanted to lower his average and made the exams insanely difficult and borderline unfair. It felt impossible to succeed in this class, and I felt the professor was aware of that, but did nothing to help anyone succeed.
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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.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2025 - His exam was tough for me but I'd say I'm just stupid and the material is known as one of the hardest at UCLA, so I don't think it was the professor. He is really kind, offers the extra credits, responds to the email well, and curves a lot. I was really grateful when he curved a LOT.. May God bless him 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 Thank you so much professor .. What I was impressed was his first lecture. He went through the basic symbols on the board and it was really helpful to start with! There were a lot of homework assignments, but it's pretty standard for upper-division math courses like Math 110B or 135. Compared to biology courses I took(or like econ), it might feel like a lot, but for math students it's just part of the game. People planning to take this course, good luck! I hope you succeed your academic journey and find your way (unlike me..)
Winter 2025 - His exam was tough for me but I'd say I'm just stupid and the material is known as one of the hardest at UCLA, so I don't think it was the professor. He is really kind, offers the extra credits, responds to the email well, and curves a lot. I was really grateful when he curved a LOT.. May God bless him 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 Thank you so much professor .. What I was impressed was his first lecture. He went through the basic symbols on the board and it was really helpful to start with! There were a lot of homework assignments, but it's pretty standard for upper-division math courses like Math 110B or 135. Compared to biology courses I took(or like econ), it might feel like a lot, but for math students it's just part of the game. People planning to take this course, good luck! I hope you succeed your academic journey and find your way (unlike me..)
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