Professor

Michael Willis

AD
4.7
Overall Ratings
Based on 83 Users
Easiness 3.4 / 5 How easy the class is, 1 being extremely difficult and 5 being easy peasy.
Workload 3.5 / 5 How light the workload is, 1 being extremely heavy and 5 being extremely light.
Clarity 4.7 / 5 How clear the professor is, 1 being extremely unclear and 5 being very clear.
Helpfulness 4.7 / 5 How helpful the professor is, 1 being not helpful at all and 5 being extremely helpful.

Reviews (83)

2 of 6
2 of 6
Add your review...
March 30, 2020
Quarter: Winter 2020
Grade: B+

One of the best professors I've ever had. Professor Willis is engaging, funny, clear and incredibly helpful. As someone who struggled with multivar (32A) last quarter I was really nervous about taking this class as many say it's the hardest math LD. However, Willis made all the concepts so simple and clear. His tests can be difficult, but are fair if you pay attention in lectures and truly think about the material in the way he frames it. If you understand the material well, you really appreciate the way he writes his test questions and the eye he has for capturing the most important aspects of the 32B concepts. Even during my worst weeks, I never wanted to skip a lecture (although all of them are bruincasted!!!). Also go to his office hours! I went after I bombed the first midterm LMAO and they helped so much with test preparation and homework. I wish he taught every math class I needed to take. Definitely take ANY math class this man is teaching!

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 32A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Sept. 21, 2020
Quarter: Summer 2020
Grade: A

Total baller, taught concepts that seemed complicated in the book with real clarity, and was always willing to answer questions. Ran lecture online well, still felt that I was learning over zoom clearly

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 32A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
June 19, 2021
Quarter: Spring 2021
Grade: B+

This professor was very kind and helpful. He taught well and helped students understand difficult concepts really well. The only problem is that in order to do well in this class, you must do good on all exams. The 2 midterms and final make up majority of your grade, so if you do bad on one exam, it's hard to bring your grade back up. It's a very hard class in general, and the exams are not easy at all. They are more conceptual, and the grading is quite difficult as well.

However, if you do need to take this course, take it with Willis. He will definitely help you to the best of his ability.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 32A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
June 22, 2021
Quarter: Spring 2021
Grade: A-

Willis is an okay professor, but the exam material is quite difficult. His lectures were semi-engaging but were often confusing due to the lack of concrete examples. His teaching was very conceptual-heavy (which is helpful for the exams), but this style didn't really help explain how to solve certain problems. Homework and class content were very straightforward, but the exams were often way more difficult.

Can't really complain much more; 32A is bound to be difficult anyways. Willis isn't terrible, and he definitely knows what he's talking about. Not sure if I would take a class from him again though.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 31A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Dec. 28, 2020
Quarter: Fall 2020
Grade: A

Willis is an amazing prof. If you have the chance to take a class with him, do it. Homework is 30% of your grade and it is very easy to get all the points here. Half of it is Sapling problems (infinite tries to get 100%) and the other half is written problems. If you have any issues with the written problems, he will go over them in office hours which was super helpful. His lectures were engaging and he made them fun. He was also very good about watching the chat to answer questions as he went. Discussion sections are entirely optional, but I found it helpful to attend. Two midterms, each of which are 20% of your grade (covering the first and second third of the material). The final is 30% of your grade and cumulative. He provided an old exam for all of them for us to use as a study guide. Overall, his class was fun and he made it very easy to succeed!

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 33B
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
March 20, 2021
Quarter: Winter 2021
Grade: P

Best math professor I've had in the entire 30 series. Willis is so clear in what he wants to teach you and tries to find the best way for his students to absorb the material. His notes are concise but full of information. He lectures very well and it doesn't take too much effort to keep up during class because he is so well-paced it barely feels like a quarter-system class. He always took time to answer any questions in the chat, even if it meant falling slightly behind in lecture. I feel like the material in 33B is easy to compute but difficult to truly understand in theory, but I was really able to grasp what was happening intuitively through the way Willis explains. Tests were very fair in material and length and did not take the whole 24 hours. Take Willis, even if you don't like math! He is such a g.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 120A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
June 15, 2020
Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: A

I thought the course material was fairly straightforward, and Prof. Willis certainly helps make it even more so. He's a clear lecturer and he's always willing to take questions during lecture, help out during office hours, and take suggestions from students about the course structure, which was key since Spring 2020 was remote/online.

The overall grade is: weekly homework (20%), two midterms (20% each), and the final (40%). Exams were fair, possibly even more so than the homework assignments, each of which always seemed to have one really tough problem.

In general, I'd definitely recommend taking 120A with Willis.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 31A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Dec. 22, 2020
Quarter: Fall 2020
Grade: A-

best math teacher hands down. ive always struggled in math (flunked calc in hs) but wilis explains concepts/problems clearly.

HW was reasonable. It was around 20-30 online Sapling questions and 3-6 written problems from the textbook. He also drops the lowest score for online HW and written HW. If youre stuck on a problem, he’ll do the problem during OH.

To do well, you should probably try to fully understand the practice tests. Willis’ tests are fair, I would say a little harder than the practice tests. I had 24 hrs to do it + open note so it was doable.

For someone who is good at math, this class should be easy. If you’re not so good at math, like me, try to understand the HW questions fully and go over the concepts he gives in lecture tbh.

Willis says he curves up if the class averages are a little low. Honestly, don’t put all hope on the curve tho. I got a C- , B+, and A- on Midterm 1, 2 and the final if that helps.

Willis’ only flaw is that he doesn’t like pizza.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 32A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Sept. 20, 2020
Quarter: Summer 2020
Grade: A

Made difficult concepts sound easy and made everything easy to comprehend. However, because he teaches it so well, his midterms and finals are actual hell. Consider the balance of good teaching and hard tests.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 32A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Dec. 8, 2020
Quarter: Fall 2020
Grade: NR

TAKEN DURING COVID
Willis is really good at what he does. Thorough, intelligent, and engaging with the class. The workload was alright, a few times it seemed a bit much but that was probably because of zoom tbh, I have no motivation so that probably contributes to not wanting to do the work. Aside from that Willis was pretty nice and helpful, office hours he was really chill. The discussion section seemed like a waste but that could be just me. People said his tests are hard, not really to be honest. The practice midterms were practically the same as the actual midterms, so as long as you can solve those you can pass. Good first professor and class.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 32B
Quarter: Winter 2020
Grade: B+
March 30, 2020

One of the best professors I've ever had. Professor Willis is engaging, funny, clear and incredibly helpful. As someone who struggled with multivar (32A) last quarter I was really nervous about taking this class as many say it's the hardest math LD. However, Willis made all the concepts so simple and clear. His tests can be difficult, but are fair if you pay attention in lectures and truly think about the material in the way he frames it. If you understand the material well, you really appreciate the way he writes his test questions and the eye he has for capturing the most important aspects of the 32B concepts. Even during my worst weeks, I never wanted to skip a lecture (although all of them are bruincasted!!!). Also go to his office hours! I went after I bombed the first midterm LMAO and they helped so much with test preparation and homework. I wish he taught every math class I needed to take. Definitely take ANY math class this man is teaching!

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 32A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Summer 2020
Grade: A
Sept. 21, 2020

Total baller, taught concepts that seemed complicated in the book with real clarity, and was always willing to answer questions. Ran lecture online well, still felt that I was learning over zoom clearly

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 32A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Spring 2021
Grade: B+
June 19, 2021

This professor was very kind and helpful. He taught well and helped students understand difficult concepts really well. The only problem is that in order to do well in this class, you must do good on all exams. The 2 midterms and final make up majority of your grade, so if you do bad on one exam, it's hard to bring your grade back up. It's a very hard class in general, and the exams are not easy at all. They are more conceptual, and the grading is quite difficult as well.

However, if you do need to take this course, take it with Willis. He will definitely help you to the best of his ability.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 32A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Spring 2021
Grade: A-
June 22, 2021

Willis is an okay professor, but the exam material is quite difficult. His lectures were semi-engaging but were often confusing due to the lack of concrete examples. His teaching was very conceptual-heavy (which is helpful for the exams), but this style didn't really help explain how to solve certain problems. Homework and class content were very straightforward, but the exams were often way more difficult.

Can't really complain much more; 32A is bound to be difficult anyways. Willis isn't terrible, and he definitely knows what he's talking about. Not sure if I would take a class from him again though.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 31A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Fall 2020
Grade: A
Dec. 28, 2020

Willis is an amazing prof. If you have the chance to take a class with him, do it. Homework is 30% of your grade and it is very easy to get all the points here. Half of it is Sapling problems (infinite tries to get 100%) and the other half is written problems. If you have any issues with the written problems, he will go over them in office hours which was super helpful. His lectures were engaging and he made them fun. He was also very good about watching the chat to answer questions as he went. Discussion sections are entirely optional, but I found it helpful to attend. Two midterms, each of which are 20% of your grade (covering the first and second third of the material). The final is 30% of your grade and cumulative. He provided an old exam for all of them for us to use as a study guide. Overall, his class was fun and he made it very easy to succeed!

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 33B
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Winter 2021
Grade: P
March 20, 2021

Best math professor I've had in the entire 30 series. Willis is so clear in what he wants to teach you and tries to find the best way for his students to absorb the material. His notes are concise but full of information. He lectures very well and it doesn't take too much effort to keep up during class because he is so well-paced it barely feels like a quarter-system class. He always took time to answer any questions in the chat, even if it meant falling slightly behind in lecture. I feel like the material in 33B is easy to compute but difficult to truly understand in theory, but I was really able to grasp what was happening intuitively through the way Willis explains. Tests were very fair in material and length and did not take the whole 24 hours. Take Willis, even if you don't like math! He is such a g.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 120A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: A
June 15, 2020

I thought the course material was fairly straightforward, and Prof. Willis certainly helps make it even more so. He's a clear lecturer and he's always willing to take questions during lecture, help out during office hours, and take suggestions from students about the course structure, which was key since Spring 2020 was remote/online.

The overall grade is: weekly homework (20%), two midterms (20% each), and the final (40%). Exams were fair, possibly even more so than the homework assignments, each of which always seemed to have one really tough problem.

In general, I'd definitely recommend taking 120A with Willis.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 31A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Fall 2020
Grade: A-
Dec. 22, 2020

best math teacher hands down. ive always struggled in math (flunked calc in hs) but wilis explains concepts/problems clearly.

HW was reasonable. It was around 20-30 online Sapling questions and 3-6 written problems from the textbook. He also drops the lowest score for online HW and written HW. If youre stuck on a problem, he’ll do the problem during OH.

To do well, you should probably try to fully understand the practice tests. Willis’ tests are fair, I would say a little harder than the practice tests. I had 24 hrs to do it + open note so it was doable.

For someone who is good at math, this class should be easy. If you’re not so good at math, like me, try to understand the HW questions fully and go over the concepts he gives in lecture tbh.

Willis says he curves up if the class averages are a little low. Honestly, don’t put all hope on the curve tho. I got a C- , B+, and A- on Midterm 1, 2 and the final if that helps.

Willis’ only flaw is that he doesn’t like pizza.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 32A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Summer 2020
Grade: A
Sept. 20, 2020

Made difficult concepts sound easy and made everything easy to comprehend. However, because he teaches it so well, his midterms and finals are actual hell. Consider the balance of good teaching and hard tests.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 32A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Fall 2020
Grade: NR
Dec. 8, 2020

TAKEN DURING COVID
Willis is really good at what he does. Thorough, intelligent, and engaging with the class. The workload was alright, a few times it seemed a bit much but that was probably because of zoom tbh, I have no motivation so that probably contributes to not wanting to do the work. Aside from that Willis was pretty nice and helpful, office hours he was really chill. The discussion section seemed like a waste but that could be just me. People said his tests are hard, not really to be honest. The practice midterms were practically the same as the actual midterms, so as long as you can solve those you can pass. Good first professor and class.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
2 of 6
ADS

Adblock Detected

Bruinwalk is an entirely Daily Bruin-run service brought to you for free. We hate annoying ads just as much as you do, but they help keep our lights on. We promise to keep our ads as relevant for you as possible, so please consider disabling your ad-blocking software while using this site.

Thank you for supporting us!