I have always enjoyed math and walked into this class thinking that if I did my homework, studied and attended lectures I would be fine. I was desperately wrong. This class was perhaps the hardest class I have ever taken. I honestly really struggled in this class. I thought about dropping out. Some of my friends did well in this class, others did worse. To get a B I had to attend lectures, do practice problems from the textbook, the assigned homework and go to tutoring (SMC). I really struggled with the proofs, but not so much the computations. Ronchetti is a good professor but his tests and homework are insanely hard. Would not recommend this class for a freshman ( I am currently a freshman).

This was my own personal experience in this class. Everyone has different experiences. Please keep that in mind, when deciding!

The class is so freakingly hard. He goes over tons of concepts and definitions in the class and few examples. Even though there is an example, that is much easier than problems in hw. Although this class is a calculation-based class, he always include many proofs in the exams and he has not gone over any one of them in class. Most of them are not on the book, either. So u need to dig into the concepts and explore many more new materials after class, which many fail to do because they have other classes to take. If u are a real fan of math, or u have no other classes to attend besides this one, u can have a try and it would be a disaster.

Only take this class if you really want to understand the material. This class is unnecessarily hard, especially the problem sets. My biggest issue with the class is that he doesn't give answers to the homework afterwards, so you don't really know if you right or why you were wrong.

Ronchetti is a pretty good lecturer, and he clearly cares about his students, but it's certainly a challenge and if you're not passionate about math you probably should choose a different lecture.

Professor Ronchetti is a great professor. He explains the concepts clearly and is a great communicator. The homework that he assigns every week is pretty difficult, but will give you a great understanding of the material, so much so that the midterms feel like a breeze. I would highly recommend if you want to take Math 33A and get a good understanding of the material.

This class was so hard. Traumatizing as a first university math class. He's a good lecturer with good notes but don't let that trick you. The homework takes forever and is super hard after the first week and he comes up with problems himself. Your hand will be tired from taking notes in class, it's non-stop note taking. Tests fluctuated in difficulty, i.e. the first midterm and final were super hard. Good luck if you have him.

This is a review for Math 115A.

I consider Ronchetti the best professor I have had. I had him for Math 33A and that class was extremely difficult, but surprisingly his Math 115A class was not too challenging compared to the other sections (we covered the same material and had similar test averages).

You will hear a lot about Ronchetti being extreme and too demanding, but 1. It’s over-exaggerated and 2. For Math 115A he was a lot more chill.

First of all, Ronchetti is a great teacher. He covers concepts clearly, mostly follows the book, and takes time to address questions during class. He also always BruinCasts his lectures (he did so for Math 33A too).

Second, What Ronchetti did that was amazing was come up with a lot of his own homework questions that were challenging but fascinating and taught you a lot. I really enjoyed the homework questions he came up with, more than the textbooks problems we had.

Ronchetti is also extremely helpful during office hours and will change his hours to accommodate for when the midterms are. He is also extremely intelligent (he was a chess international master) but super humble about it and really kind.

Ronchetti’s curve for this class is somewhat generous (midterms had 48 averages, you said you needed around 19 for C-/C/C+, 43 for a B-/B/B+, 65 for A-/A/A+).

Overall, Ronchetti is an absolute beast. If you want a GOOD and somewhat CHALLENGING professor, take Ronchetti. You won’t regret it.

Ronchetti is really smart and teaches his class with the same expectation of his students. He gives really hard midterms and finals, and even his weekly homework isn't easy. But, he is a really good lecturer that is super clear with his ideas. He's great to go to office hours if you need help understanding material and clarifying information. If you want to become a better math student, Ronchetti will be a great professor to take. If you're looking to relax and finish off your math requirements without too much effort, there are better professors for you.

I disagree with the review above mine. Ronchetti was by no means good at teaching. His lectures were unclear and extremely hard to follow. After the first week, I decided to read my brother's Linear Algebra textbook that he used at Berkeley and I learned a lot of the material ahead. So when I went to class and saw how Ronchetti would introduce a new concept, I honestly scowled. His way of introducing a new topic was terrible. I thought I could have taught it better. I did give him a 5.0 on helpfulness because he holds a lot of office hours, is a very nice guy, and will answer any of your questions (besides direct homework questions).
Now the worst part of this class was without a doubt the homework. It was unnecessarily long. There is no benefit in diagonalizing 4x4 matrices over complex numbers or doing least squares regression with numbers in the 100,000s. I will say that some of the proofs he put in his homework were actually helpful in preparing me for 115A. For example he asked us to prove that the eigenvalues of similar matrices are the same. This got me thinking about proofs in general and I am grateful for that aspect of the homework.
His tests weren't that bad (final definitely the hardest). If you study for them well and don't underestimate them there's no reason you shouldn't get an A-.
So yeah, main complaint is long/unnecessarily long/rote homework problems and unclear teaching. Pros: Good person, answers questions, extremely smart.

THIS IS A REVIEW FOR MATH 33A: First off this man is an absolute unit. He's pretty good at chess (he has a wikipedia page) and knows his math. I was reading some of the other reviews for him and noticed a lot of hate because he was "too hard" or they studied "forty hours a week just to fail every test". Ronchetti is not an easy professor and Linear with him pushed me. The weekly problem sets were pretty brutal and took topics discussed in class and in the class to the next dimension (pun intended). Because of that, I LEARNED! I talk to my friends who have had different 33A professors and their grasp of the material just isn't the same. If math is just something to get through, don't take him, I get it. He moves quickly and expects a lot out of his students. His tests are fair though and he stayed after class everyday to talk with students as well as being helpful in office hours. He is teaching 115A in the spring of 2019 and my friend enjoyed his class so much that he is taking it just to have him as a professor. He convinced some of our other friends to do the same. I would also take the class but it doesn't fit in my schedule. :(.

TLDR; Hard professor with homework that will push you to really understand the material. Highly recommended to anyone looking to understand the fundamentals at a deep level or expecting to use math in the future. You won't regret it.