Ngl based on the reviews before taking this class, I thought this class was going to be a lot worse and the tests were going to be a lot harder. But I also will say that I studied A LOT for this class and I did slightly above average on all of the tests except one. The very first quiz I did horrible but did way better on all of the other exams, but as long as you get around the average which was about 70-75%, then you'll be okay because he curved the class up to a B+.

The lectures are very unhelpful and I ended up teaching myself everything from the textbook because he basically takes the graphs and all of the content from the textbook. I will say though that there were like a few questions on the exams that he only said in lecture, but it was really minor application stuff so that was annoying. I used youtube videos to study and those basically replaced me going to lecture because those were a lot more helpful and they explain it better than Professor Pei. Also my TA's were so unhelpful omg, one of them told me the wrong answers to the test multiple times when we were going over the answers for the test. Office hours are also very unhelpful, so make some friends in this class. Also, because he doesn't release the answers to the test but luckily my TA went over the answers in class, but again some of them were wrong. Do the homeworks though, because he takes some questions that were similar to those and uses them on the test. On the final and midterm you have more than enough time, but I felt on the quizzes you are definitely racing against the clock a little bit.

Overall, the class moves fast though because it's an intro to materials, but at least for some of the tests, you just need to know surface level stuff. The content can be really interesting, I just felt like you had to know a lot and then the tests doesn't test you on too much. Try not to take this class with him, try to take it with Gorsky, I heard he's better because this class was not easy and I developed so much anxiety in this class because him and the TA's are just so unhelpful and they don't really care about you. So, he doesn't assign that much work, but you definitely have to put in a lot of work outside of this class to do well (even though he told me that if I understood the lecture slides, I would be fine) and actually understand the concepts.

In a 1 on 1 office hour I set up to ask for advice on how to succeed in his class because I did not do well on the first quiz, he told me he never had to study in his undergrad so he does not have any tips for me besides study more. That's all you need to know. Avoid this professor.

The lectures are super dense and he just reads off the slides so it is super easy to fall asleep during class. The lectures and the tests don't match up so there are some random questions on the test that come from nowhere. I would study for hours and have the slides memorized and still do bad on the tests. Went to him for help outside of class and the only advice he could give was to study more. The best way to study is to just read the book and try to memorize as much of it as possible.
Try to take it with anyone but him or Yang Yang.

Pei has an accent, but it's not too bad. However, he teaches directly from powerpoint and has a really boring voice, so its really easy to fall asleep in lecture.

He sends out the powerpoint, so you don't have to attend lecture at all.

His tests focused a lot on the concepts instead of the problem solving, so make sure you read the book and take notes.

He has a strong accent and soft voice which sometimes makes the class quite boring. His lecture slides were not that helpful and I think you really need to read the book since there is just a lot of information and you basically have to memorize all of them. But he is nice during office hour. In terms of the tests, they are not that hard but he likes to tests on some very conceptual things that you wouldn't even know what those terms mean. If you could take Lan's, take her instead of him.

his lecture have a lot of information but seems completely irrelevant to solving problems on the exam. His lecture is mostly theories, and he refuse to put up slides online, saying " it's all in the book, and if i put slides online, nobody will come to lecture" well it's true! his lecture is basically reading the book to you.
i found the TA is more helpful, one midterm i only study the midterm review notes from TA, and i got an A