While I was very dissatisfied with her teaching when taking the class, now in hindsight I think that this class is very manageable in comparison to other teachers and classes. I took AP Calc AB in high school, so this class was mainly just a review for me. I didn't really go to her classes, because her lectures were reiterations of the textbook and I didn't understand her at all. However, the practice tests she gave us and homework were similar to her midterms. In this sense, it is very easy for a student who has taken AP Calc AB to self-study their way through this class, even without going to her lectures. I would suggest for students who are taking 31A to choose a different professor if you have not taken a calculus class before. If you have taken AP Calc AB or a similar course, then taking this class wouldn't be as bad as it sounds. I barely studied or went to the classes, but I still did fine.

I wouldn't recommend taking Math 31A with Greenfeld. Even if a lot of material is covered in high school, her lectures are very difficult to follow as she sometimes seems to be just as confused as her students. This is a requirement for many majors and other classes, so take it with a good professor.

Honestly, I was pretty worried because the professor of this class got switched to Professor Greenfeld at the last minute, and I know she doesn't have the greatest reputation in her lower division classes.

However, my personal experience with her this quarter was absolutely fine. Since this class isn't really theoretical at all and almost purely application-based, I thought that the explanations and examples that the professor went over in class were sufficiently clear. As for midterms/finals, while they were pretty long and time-consuming, I thought their difficulty was pretty fair, at least compared to some other proof-heavy 24hr math finals.

I had trouble following along during the lecture at the start of the quarter because she would start with examples first and try to teach the theorems or techniques through the example, but it became confusing what the exact theorems/techniques we should be learning are/where she was getting them. It got better throughout the quarter and I was able to understand the material pretty well after reviewing the notes again on my own time and working through the homework. I personally didn't find the textbook that helpful, and I would have to go to my TA's OH to ask for clarification on what the homework was asking for. The exams were pretty fair, but the final was long and tedious (24 hr format). She's not the best professor I've had, but the course material wasn't too difficult so I was still able to do fine.

This was Greenfeld's first quarter teaching 31a, and it was painfully obvious. While she does seem knowledgable about the material, she does a horrible job explaining and teaching it. She fails to actually answer students questions, and to be honest you are better off learning from the book/discussions/watching youtube videos than actually going to lecture. The material on the tests is nothing like what is seen during class or homework. As for grading, she uses two different methods: 10%Homework+25%Midterm1+25%Midterm2+40%FinalExam and
10%Homework+30%Bestofthetwomidterms+60%FinalExam, she will use whichever will give you the higher grade. The top 25% will receive an A, following 50% a B, and the rest C & D's. If you don't do well on any of the tests, your only hope for getting a decent grade is praying that the curve helps you. Professor Greenfeld isn't a bad person, she's just a really really bad math teacher.

This class was a literal nightmare. I hate to say it, because Professor Greenfeld was really sweet, but it was just terrible. I took AP Calculus in high school, and I remember thinking during the first lecture, "Wow, this is all review. How ridiculously easy!"

I was very, very wrong. Professor Greenfeld does seem like an intelligent woman, but her lectures leave much to be desired. She has an accent, which isn't a huge issue, but combined with her constant "umm"s and illegible handwriting, I rarely understood what exactly was going on during lecture. She would cover the basic definition and a few example problems for whatever the day's topic was. Her in-class examples often were very simple conceptually and numerically.

The homework, however, was a completely different story. Keep in mind that electronic devices and calculators are not allowed for exams. The funny part is that the vast majority of the assigned homework problems require a calculator. And the problems were still typically pretty time-consuming, even if you cut corners. I hated this because I felt that I was always struggling to finish and cared more about turning it in than actually understanding the concept behind the problem. Basically what I'm saying is that lecture does not prepare you for the homework, and the homework does not prepare you for the exams. I failed both midterms, but so did a lot of the class. The average was pretty bad, even though there were 60 available points and your score was out of 50 (this works in your favor and a bunch of people still failed)

One of the only redeeming qualities of this class was my discussion sessions, and that obviously depends on the TA. Mine was great and did his best to completely reteach a week's worth of content in 50 minutes.

The final was way easier than both midterms, and we were allowed to use on side of an index card for notes. I'm assuming this is because of how terrible grades were. This and the curve is what saved me, but I'm telling you, if you can avoid taking 31A with Greenfeld, do it. If you get stuck in this class, good luck :')

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