Professor Elman was a great professor. His handwriting on the board is messy and small at times, but he'd always answer his students when one would ask what he wrote. His lectures are very clear, thoroughly explaining all the proofs for the theorems. The exams involved recalling theorems and proofs from memory, a simple calculation (he even told us what we'd have to do in class), and giving examples of abstract concepts (this was the hardest part). However, simply memorizing everything from class would guarantee you about a 50-75% on the exam, and the class was curved pretty generously. The homework was very challenging, but came entirely from the textbook, so you could just copy the solutions manual's proofs if you wanted. Overall, a solid introduction to upper division math / proof-based math, and not too difficult of a course either.