I took Hall's lectures for both Math 3A and 3B (yes I chose him deliberately for 3B after I take him for 3A even I have to wait for a quarter, and I think that explains a lot). He is a really nice person--in my opinion that is a lot more important than he is an easy professor.

Yes, I agree that his exams and homework may be overwhelming for some, but his exams are really well-designed to differentiate those students who master the material and those who don't. That means if you work hard, you definitely will get rewarded on the exams. If you go to the lectures, take notes and review those notes before exams, you can't do too bad. I rather have a professor who has exams like this than have an "easy" professor--I've had some classes in which I pretty much got the same grades as those who didn't work as hard as I did, and I think that's very unfair. I've also had some classes in which no matter how hard I worked, I still got a low grade--and I guarantee that Professor Hall's class is not like that at all.

For the homework, they are also very carefully chosen--you may have to go over the notes to do them, but after I finish my homework I usually feel that I understand the material better. The homework is 20% out of the whole grades, some people say it helps them to get a better grade.

It is a shame that he's not teaching math 3C next quarter.

It was my first quarter as a freshman at UCLA, and I had no idea what to expect from this class. I'm going into my 2nd year and I can say without hesitation that this was by far the hardest class I have ever taken up to this point (I took 3B and 3C with different professors but nothing compared to how hard this one was). I got a C on the first midterm, a B on the 2nd midterm, and a D on the final, and it somehow ended up becoming an A-. To this day I still don't get how that happened, even with the curve, but apparently half the class failed the final. If any other professors are teaching, take the class with them. Anything but Hall. He's a nice guy, but his tests are just too difficult no matter how much you study. I'm a physiology major and could honestly care less about math.