I don’t know why there are so many bad reviews for Hempel. Sure she isn't the best prof, but she's definitely not bad. She goes over everything you need to know for exams and if you look over that then you should be fine. Her exams were really easy, both midterms and final.

This is the review for Math 33A, as the school is not giving the slot for writing review for her in 33A, I will have to do the review here. I'm an Engineering Major, I used to got straight A's, hopefully is the case for this class too. As for this class, she is really not good at all. She has a very wired tone and makes kind of a questioning tone when making a statement, which makes the lecture always sound really wired. Moreover, her lecture was all over the place, not organized at all. However, it's just a math class, you don't need any attendance and you just need to go to the sessions to take the quiz, just 5-10 mins and they are all very easy.
If your time cannot accommodate other sessions, just take her, but don't go to lectures. I would say only 40% of the people actually go to the lecture. lol.
Anyway, suggestions are go to the Khan Academy website, and they have the exact linear algebra course, which is a easier version of the class. You watch all the videos, do 1.25, 1.5 or 2X normal speed, cuz Khan speaks a little bit too slow for my brain. And do the HW she posted on the website, you are good to get an A.
As I am taking 5 classes in total this quarter, I basically finished the whole course in 2 days in week 10. Hopefully this works out for you guys.
别去她的课，讲得稀烂，我怎么说就怎么做，反正课很简单，好好做作业就可以保A.然后尽量别惹她，这个女人态度超差，感觉有点种族歧视。

Avoid this class at all costs.
She rushes the material, cannot control the pace of the class, tests really harshly, and is very negative towards her students. I remember the last day in class she literally screamed she wouldn’t care if we gave her bad reviews on evaluations.
Well here’s a bad review: this was the worst class I’ve ever taken here, take it with another professor. I scored higher (A-) on 31B (a harder class) with a more difficult professor (midterm average 50)
I think the grade distribution tells all: it ruins your gpa for nothing.

Although the Professor often made an effort to help and prepare us for exams, she usually still included questions on subjects that we did not go over. In many of her lectures, she would often get confused, causing the material to become unclear.

Whether you are strong in mathematics or not, I would not take Hempel for any math class. Although she is very nice, I would not consider her style of teaching as effective. The lectures consist of her writing on the board for the entirety of the class time. She usually has her back turned to the class and does not thoroughly explain concepts. To add to my last point, there is no book for the class and Hempel does not provide the notes before each lecture; making it difficult for students to go over any material before covering it in the lecture. Save yourself the stress and take someone else for Math 115A.

Hempel is a good example of how knowledge in a subject doesn't directly indicate an ability to teach. She definitely knows the material well and, as a result, works at a pace that might be difficult for most students. As a transfer student, I can't say for sure whether such an accelerated pace is typical at UCLA but, for me personally, I found her pace to be fast.

As for HW, she uses homework from a previous instructor in 115A so getting high scores on HW is manageable. Midterms are doable (and oftentimes the practice exams reflect what is on the actual exams themselves). As for finals, she puts new information on the study guides and expects students to master it by the final.

Overall, Hempel isn't the greatest instructor. If you understand linear algebra incredibly well, then her class might be manageable. But if your overall understanding is grey in some areas and you don't back up each lecture with hours of studying, it might be difficult to catch up.

I definitely think some of the comments here are too harsh, but I wouldn't go so far as to say Hempel was an outstanding professor. Both midterm averages were around 70% with no curve. The grading scheme was meant to help you if you did badly on a midterm, as one could be dropped, but then the final is 65% of your grade so if you do badly on that you're basically screwed. She does get all her notes from another professor, so if you ever need clarification you can read the other version.
I think my poor performance in this class was a mix of my personal lack of understanding and ability to grasp conceptual topics as well as her sometimes confusing lecture style where she basically just copies her notes onto the board.
Overall if you have to take it with Hempel, it's not the end of the world, but if there are other professors available then take theirs.

Nadja Hempel has been to date the worst math professor I have ever learned from. She has a thick accent and to go along with that, she complicates the most basic math concepts. She doesn't have the competence to teach a class, her lectures are boring, and to top it off, she reads straight from the textbook. There was really no point in going to class. She messed up multiple times on the midterms she gave us and didn't want to own up to them so she still counted them for the grade. And the midterms were unnecessarily hard even my TA had trouble explaining some problems. Grading wise, she's a harsh grader. She has two different grading schemes for the class and she picks the one that's better for you but even that has its faults. The only way you can survive this class is if you are really smart with math or have a decent TA. If you have a choice, DO NOT TAKE HER. Otherwise, I wish you the best of luck

One of the few math professors that explain stuff clearly in lectures so that you don't need to resort to the textbook.

Will recommend taking 115A with Prof. Hempel. She has taught 115A six times and I think she did quite a good job explaining the concept. She's also very nice and helpful. The workload is light, she gives you full credit on homework if you did 50% of the problems right. The exams are not hard, although the 24hr final was a bit time consuming. Overall it's a good experience.