Pieter Spaas, or as some may know him, Papi Spaas, was a wholehearted treat, from his charming humor to his extensive knowledge on the art of mathematics. But in all seriousness, I liked Spaas, I thought that while his lectures were at times difficult to follow he would never hesitate to spend time answering questions and making sure that students understood the material. His discussions were, well as others have already stated, pretty useless, and his midterms pretty straight forward. The only problem with the midterms was that the grading was rather picky and any small mistake would be very costly towards your grade. His final however was HORRIBLE... three straight hours of math that was not nearly as straight forward as the midterms and instead very conceptual. The final clapped my cheeks and I must say that I am slightly peeved that because of it my final grade was as low as it was. I had a B+ going in and the final and those true or false questions steamrolled my score. Regardless seeing Spaas's gentle smile did help lift my spirits a little after. Overall the class is pretty good and quite easy until the final, which you will need to study your ass off for. I would be willing to take a class again with Spaas however he teaches at 8 AM which unfortunately for me is sort of a deal-breaker.

Spaas is a great lecturer, very clear, I understood everything he said in class, and I felt like I was learning the material there too. His lectures are heavily based on the textbook, which I thought was nice. His homework assignments are all directly from the textbook too, they're a bit long and sometimes tedious, but not unreasonable. Homework was due on Fridays at the start of class, and it was always assigned at least a week in advance, the homework is graded for correctness. Spaas writes on a blackboard in his lectures and doesn't use slides, also no bruincast, so you have to show up to take notes.

There were two midterms one in the middle of week 4 and the other at the start of week 8. I thought both were straightforward and only a bit harder than the homework problems, but the grading is harsh and he takes off a lot of points for small errors. The final was not nearly as straightforward, harder than expected, conceptual, and many places to mess up, definitely pulled my grade down.

The discussions were not very worth going to, except to work on the worksheets that Spaas gives, but those are on CCLE anyway. There's not much to do there except a Q&A with the TA. I never really had any questions, but I think Spaas himself definitely answers questions well, from the few office hours I went to.

The textbook is necessary for this class as a homework was 10% of the grade. It was helpful for understanding the content, but it was also a bit annoying as it required the latest edition while previous editions had the same content. The discussion was unnecessary except for getting the practice worksheets which you could find on CCLE. The midterms were fair, but the final was much more difficult. The midterms were more about the implementation of the concepts with a few questions that required more geometric understanding, but the final required much more geometric and theoretical understanding. I did a lot worse on the final than I did on the midterms which is a problem as your grade either follows 10% homework, 20% midterm 1, 20% midterms 2, and 50% final, or 30% best final and 60% final. Spaas does seem to care about the students, but such a spike in difficulty for such an important final caught me completely off guard, so make sure to start studying early for it if you are taking this class.

I will give you the full and honest truth, do not trust some of these reviews. First off, what kind of 8 AM math class is NOT bruincasted? Secondly, if you were to compare his easiness to some of the other professors, he is definitely in the lower middle. His midterms were relatively easy, but it's graded rather harshly. With an hour to do 4 problems, with parts, it's very easy to make minor mistakes, and those mistakes rack up a lot. Especially considering that it's only out of 40 points so each mistake, even as tiny as an arithmetic one, is already a 2.5% deduction. Not only that, but the discussion classes were useless. What is the point of handing out a worksheet if you don't send out the answer key to double check the answers. I'd understand not sending a full step by step guide, but at least the final answer so the students can understand if they're doing them right. (The same goes for the practice midterm). Homework is graded on accuracy, not on completion, which I admit is fair to do, but it definitely adds an annoying hurdle to jump through. Additionally, the workload is manageable, but on the heavier side when compared to the other professors. The final was unexpectedly difficult, which again, is fair to do, but the curve for the class is rather low. I'm not even sure if there is curve or if he just lowered the minimum requirement to get a certain grade. In all honesty, though the professor is as pure as the soft warm light of a spring morning, I would not take his class again. And that's on my grade :(

This is Spaas' first time teaching at UCLA and I'd say he did a decent job teaching this class. The material was presented in details and he was clear about what he lectured most of the time. Often times, he would pause during lecture to answer questions, which was very nice of him. I don't know how helpful he is during office hours, since I have never been to a single one. Workload was not bad, just one homework due on Friday of each week. Discussion sections were unnecessary; we just do worksheet problems but most of those problems are conceptual stuff that we don't need to know anyway. Midterms were decently easy; averages were like 80 something percent. However, final was unexpectedly hard. Fortunately, I think he ended up curving our final grade so the class was overall not bad.

Professor Spaas was a wonderful lecturer, especially since it was his first quarter teaching at UCLA. When explaining topics, not only did he thoroughly explain the calculations for a concept, but also why such calculations and formulas are valid and make sense. I believe that Professor Spaas genuinely wanted all the students to grasp the material, and even allotted the entirety of the final lecture for review of any confusing topics. The final was more difficult than the midterms, but it was not ridiculously hard--it was manageable. I enjoyed taking this class as my first math class at the university level.

TL;DR: Professor Spaas provides students with a holistic understanding of the formulas themselves as well as the concepts behind said formulas.

Spaas is a good lecturer. He presented geometric arguments well and was clear about what he expected the students to know. The final was difficult, but an extremely well written test. The last question could only be solved with a geometric understanding of the gradient, normal and tangential vectors, and acceleration. Boy do I love the geometric interpretation. Spaas is the best calc professor I've had at ucla.