Professor

Richard Wong

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3.9
Overall Ratings
Based on 90 Users
Easiness 3.0 / 5 How easy the class is, 1 being extremely difficult and 5 being easy peasy.
Workload 3.9 / 5 How light the workload is, 1 being extremely heavy and 5 being extremely light.
Clarity 4.1 / 5 How clear the professor is, 1 being extremely unclear and 5 being very clear.
Helpfulness 4.2 / 5 How helpful the professor is, 1 being not helpful at all and 5 being extremely helpful.

Reviews (90)

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MATH 32A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Sept. 5, 2023
Quarter: Spring 2021
Grade: A

Wong is awesome. He is super organized- records all lectures, has slides- posts annotated slides after lectures, and everything you need to know will be on the bruin learn for the class. His grade distributions are always very fair- not too heavy on midterms/finals- there are quizzes and challenge problems that weigh into the grade. The quizzes are group quizzes during discussion, which are open note and you have a day to get it done and submit. He offers a bit of extra credit and will bump you up a letter grade if you are close, I think I finished with an 89 and I got an A in the class (don't know if he meant to give me an A-, but I got an A).
He is a bit of a dry lecturer, but I see it more as straight to the point.
I also took him for 115A and this is where I got to know him better, as I attended many office hours which I didn't for 32A. He is super helpful in office hours and has really good availability. He responds to emails quick and will always be open to answering your questions, no matter how many you have. He is super patient as well with questions, no matter how simple or complicated the question is.
However, his midterms/finals can be a bit difficult, as in they make you think. He will never give you anything he hasn't gone over in class but his midterms aren't generally that straight-foward, but they also are never too complicated.
Overall I 100% recommend to take him if you see him for a math class. He is one of the best professors I've had at UCLA!

Helpful?

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July 1, 2023
Quarter: Spring 2023
Grade: A+

32B is definitely the hardest lower div Math class, but Professor Wong made it a much more enjoyable experience for me. He is the best lower div Math professor I've had so far - his lectures are recorded, delivery of content is clear and concise, and he makes use of visualizations and analogies to explain many of the abstract concepts. Though he claims that homework assignments are optional, I would highly recommend to do them as that is the best way to consolidate your learning and train your speed and accuracy for his exams, which can be pretty tough. Challenge reports are time-consuming but worthwhile as you get to investigate the applications of concepts learnt, while becoming more proficient in LATEX, a useful skill to add to your arsenal. Overall, I would highly recommend Professor Wong for 32B.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
June 30, 2023
Quarter: Spring 2023
Grade: A

Math 32B has been notoriously known as the hardist lower div math class, especially for students who do not have math instincts like me. I'm not gonna lie - this class is very challenging, can be stressful at times and I really put in every effort I could to get an A. However, I do believe Prof. Wong makes this class a lot less painful and in retrospect, I felt like my math skills improved a lot from this class. Prof. Wong is very clear in his slides and lectures , and even if we skipped over some 32A ideas, you can catch up relatively easily once you reviewed relevant 32A materials. He is also very thoughtful: he gives you some extra credit throughout the quarter by writting reflection assignments on what you've learnt so far and how did you feel about yourself, which I think is actually a good way to reflect on your learning.

There's no mandatory homework, but there are 6 weekly quizzes and 2 challenging reports. All of them are not easy, and actually some of them are quite hard. But you are encouraged to seek help from your peers, TAs, and professor himself. My advice is to really catch up with the lectures so you at least know what is going on on the quizzes and reports, where the latter could take you several days to finish. Exams are hard, but there's a lot of partial credits given out so you don't have to ace every single problem perfectly to get a good score. Also I think there's a curve at last to boost your grade a little bit.

Overall, hard class but great professor. Take him! Go to office hours, actually study and try to understand the materials, and you'll do more than fine.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
June 28, 2023
Quarter: Spring 2023
Grade: A

I would highly recommend taking 32B with Professor Wong.

In general, 32B is known to be the most difficult lower div math class because the material is difficult, and the class is fast-paced because there is so much material to cover. If you had any confusion about concepts in 32A like parametrization, conic sections, traces, and partial derivatives, I'd highly recommend reviewing those concepts before taking 32B. These are the building blocks to 32B and won't be reviewed in class (there just isn't enough time).

That being said, I really liked Professor Wong's class because he really emphasized understanding and learning material over performing well on a 50-minute midterm or any single exam. There are two grading schemes: 24% group quizzes, 24% challenge reports, and then either best midterm 16% & final 36%, or each midterm 16% and 28% final. There is no collected homework in this class, lectures are recorded, and slides are posted.

You are allowed (and encouraged!) to use the internet, your peers, TA's, and the Student Math Center on 24 hour group quizzes and the challenge reports which you have about a week to do. It is definitely feasible to get 100's/high grades overall on these assignments since you have a lot of resources to turn to. Close to 50% of your grade is determined by how much effort you put in outside of class, and these definitely can help boost your grade if you're not the best test taker.

I won't lie -- the midterms & finals were difficult. But there is lots of partial credit that is given and Professor Wong & TA's are accessible outside of class for help. I scored in the 70's for both midterms and still came out of the class with an A, so don't freak out too much if you're an anxious/bad test taker. You will definitely have to put a lot of time and effort into this class, so maybe keep that in mind as you plan your class schedule. I think most students spent ~2 hours reviewing material from class per week and completing the optional homework for review.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
June 27, 2023
Quarter: Spring 2023
Grade: B

Average Calc class, very hard, but doable if you put in the work. No hw, but i found that the hw wasn't that helpful for exam preperation. Best way to study is to understand the content more conceptually. Also study the quizes. Most quizes were doable, maybe 1 or 2 had me staying for office hourse after discussion. My quiz groups were also random each week. Challenge reports were pretty tough, if you put in the work a 80% is doable, but they are graded pretty tough.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
June 26, 2023
Quarter: Spring 2023
Grade: A

Math 32B is supposedly known to be one of the hardest math classes of the 30 series, but taking it with Wong, it did not feel that way at all! Wong teaches the material extremely well and is VERY ORGANIZED. From his Bruinlearn website down to his slides, he made all his resources and slides accessible, with an aesthetic interface (which I appreciate lol). His midterms were always more difficult than what he went over in lecture/in the homework (averages hovered around 70%) but there's honestly so much partial credit on his exams that you WILL get points for writing something down. Do the homework!! Even though it is optional, it is the closest you can get to problems on his midterms, other than the practice midterms he puts out. His tests are not ones that you can breeze through computationally, he includes concept questions that you should understand well (so you should strive to understand the material instead of just noting equations down and writing them). He offers a bunch of resources to help you succeed, from individual office hours with him (utilize these!!) to zoom reviews, he truly wants his students to succeed. His challenge reports can be tedious and long but make sure to start these early, collaborate, and barrage TA office hours to make sure your explanations make sense lol. His grading scheme is very generous and he offers two that will drop the lower midterm and weigh your two challenge reports heavier (which is why it is important to do well on them!) and he curves grades at the end if you write a thoughtful reflection. Overall, great class, and I truly learned a lot, he made learning math fun and I highly recommend Wong!! Tips that worked for me:
- Scheduling one-on-one office hour appointments with him to clarify your understanding
- Starting the Challenge Report Sets EARLY, collaborating with friends, and going to TA office hours to check your explanations
- Make sure you conceptually understand what you're learning on top of being able to computationally work it out (ex. knowing the geometric interpretation)
- Do the homework!

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
April 3, 2023
Quarter: Spring 2023
Grade: B+

I appreciate the promptness of Professor Wong in posting recordings and notes on Bruin Learn after each lecture. He is very clear in explaining the concepts and problems. However, the grading of the challenge reports can be inconsistent and may not always reflect your understanding of the material. Despite this, I enjoy taking this course and find the learning experience to be fulfilling. Although the midterms are challenging, I found the final exam to be relatively easy.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
April 3, 2023
Quarter: Winter 2023
Grade: B+

Probably the best professor for 32A. His lectures are clear and well-formatted. Notes are available online and lectures are recorded. He's kind and helpful. Homework is not mandatory. The grade consists of six quizzes, two midterms, two challenge problems, and a final. There are a few extra credit opportunities that are super easy and can boost your grade by 1%. Challenge problems are tough but collaboration is encouraged and you can redo the first one. Quizzes are done as groups and can be turned in nearly a week after the assignment's release date. Midterms and final were pretty fair in terms of tested content. Best advice for this course: make friends with other students and ask for help. Since collaboration is encouraged, take advantage of it.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
March 31, 2023
Quarter: Winter 2023
Grade: A-

I've had three different math professors at UCLA so far and Wong has been the best. He was clear and engaging in his lectures, to the point where if I missed a lecture I could easily catch up using the recording and his annotated slides (I really appreciated that he posted the slides that he used in lecture for us to be able to markup as needed).
As someone apprehensive of group work, the group quizzes were structured in such a way that it still felt like everyone was doing work (you take the quiz individually first and then as a group, but only the group version is graded).
The practice exams were a bit easier than the actual ones, but overall I felt well prepared for the midterms and final (he allowed notecards which I greatly appreciated).
Wong also offers some extra credit in the form of self-reflections which I thought was a nice way to take into account more than just the exam grades into our learning. Overall, I really liked his teaching and would recommend him.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
March 23, 2023
Quarter: Winter 2023
Grade: A-

Such a clear lecturer and understanding person. He sees so much more in his students than their grades, and his main priority is helping you grow as a student. Was a nice change from my 31b course last semester. If I could have a math professor like this every quarter, I would.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 32A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Spring 2021
Grade: A
Sept. 5, 2023

Wong is awesome. He is super organized- records all lectures, has slides- posts annotated slides after lectures, and everything you need to know will be on the bruin learn for the class. His grade distributions are always very fair- not too heavy on midterms/finals- there are quizzes and challenge problems that weigh into the grade. The quizzes are group quizzes during discussion, which are open note and you have a day to get it done and submit. He offers a bit of extra credit and will bump you up a letter grade if you are close, I think I finished with an 89 and I got an A in the class (don't know if he meant to give me an A-, but I got an A).
He is a bit of a dry lecturer, but I see it more as straight to the point.
I also took him for 115A and this is where I got to know him better, as I attended many office hours which I didn't for 32A. He is super helpful in office hours and has really good availability. He responds to emails quick and will always be open to answering your questions, no matter how many you have. He is super patient as well with questions, no matter how simple or complicated the question is.
However, his midterms/finals can be a bit difficult, as in they make you think. He will never give you anything he hasn't gone over in class but his midterms aren't generally that straight-foward, but they also are never too complicated.
Overall I 100% recommend to take him if you see him for a math class. He is one of the best professors I've had at UCLA!

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 32B
Quarter: Spring 2023
Grade: A+
July 1, 2023

32B is definitely the hardest lower div Math class, but Professor Wong made it a much more enjoyable experience for me. He is the best lower div Math professor I've had so far - his lectures are recorded, delivery of content is clear and concise, and he makes use of visualizations and analogies to explain many of the abstract concepts. Though he claims that homework assignments are optional, I would highly recommend to do them as that is the best way to consolidate your learning and train your speed and accuracy for his exams, which can be pretty tough. Challenge reports are time-consuming but worthwhile as you get to investigate the applications of concepts learnt, while becoming more proficient in LATEX, a useful skill to add to your arsenal. Overall, I would highly recommend Professor Wong for 32B.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 32B
Quarter: Spring 2023
Grade: A
June 30, 2023

Math 32B has been notoriously known as the hardist lower div math class, especially for students who do not have math instincts like me. I'm not gonna lie - this class is very challenging, can be stressful at times and I really put in every effort I could to get an A. However, I do believe Prof. Wong makes this class a lot less painful and in retrospect, I felt like my math skills improved a lot from this class. Prof. Wong is very clear in his slides and lectures , and even if we skipped over some 32A ideas, you can catch up relatively easily once you reviewed relevant 32A materials. He is also very thoughtful: he gives you some extra credit throughout the quarter by writting reflection assignments on what you've learnt so far and how did you feel about yourself, which I think is actually a good way to reflect on your learning.

There's no mandatory homework, but there are 6 weekly quizzes and 2 challenging reports. All of them are not easy, and actually some of them are quite hard. But you are encouraged to seek help from your peers, TAs, and professor himself. My advice is to really catch up with the lectures so you at least know what is going on on the quizzes and reports, where the latter could take you several days to finish. Exams are hard, but there's a lot of partial credits given out so you don't have to ace every single problem perfectly to get a good score. Also I think there's a curve at last to boost your grade a little bit.

Overall, hard class but great professor. Take him! Go to office hours, actually study and try to understand the materials, and you'll do more than fine.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 32B
Quarter: Spring 2023
Grade: A
June 28, 2023

I would highly recommend taking 32B with Professor Wong.

In general, 32B is known to be the most difficult lower div math class because the material is difficult, and the class is fast-paced because there is so much material to cover. If you had any confusion about concepts in 32A like parametrization, conic sections, traces, and partial derivatives, I'd highly recommend reviewing those concepts before taking 32B. These are the building blocks to 32B and won't be reviewed in class (there just isn't enough time).

That being said, I really liked Professor Wong's class because he really emphasized understanding and learning material over performing well on a 50-minute midterm or any single exam. There are two grading schemes: 24% group quizzes, 24% challenge reports, and then either best midterm 16% & final 36%, or each midterm 16% and 28% final. There is no collected homework in this class, lectures are recorded, and slides are posted.

You are allowed (and encouraged!) to use the internet, your peers, TA's, and the Student Math Center on 24 hour group quizzes and the challenge reports which you have about a week to do. It is definitely feasible to get 100's/high grades overall on these assignments since you have a lot of resources to turn to. Close to 50% of your grade is determined by how much effort you put in outside of class, and these definitely can help boost your grade if you're not the best test taker.

I won't lie -- the midterms & finals were difficult. But there is lots of partial credit that is given and Professor Wong & TA's are accessible outside of class for help. I scored in the 70's for both midterms and still came out of the class with an A, so don't freak out too much if you're an anxious/bad test taker. You will definitely have to put a lot of time and effort into this class, so maybe keep that in mind as you plan your class schedule. I think most students spent ~2 hours reviewing material from class per week and completing the optional homework for review.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 32B
Quarter: Spring 2023
Grade: B
June 27, 2023

Average Calc class, very hard, but doable if you put in the work. No hw, but i found that the hw wasn't that helpful for exam preperation. Best way to study is to understand the content more conceptually. Also study the quizes. Most quizes were doable, maybe 1 or 2 had me staying for office hourse after discussion. My quiz groups were also random each week. Challenge reports were pretty tough, if you put in the work a 80% is doable, but they are graded pretty tough.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 32B
Quarter: Spring 2023
Grade: A
June 26, 2023

Math 32B is supposedly known to be one of the hardest math classes of the 30 series, but taking it with Wong, it did not feel that way at all! Wong teaches the material extremely well and is VERY ORGANIZED. From his Bruinlearn website down to his slides, he made all his resources and slides accessible, with an aesthetic interface (which I appreciate lol). His midterms were always more difficult than what he went over in lecture/in the homework (averages hovered around 70%) but there's honestly so much partial credit on his exams that you WILL get points for writing something down. Do the homework!! Even though it is optional, it is the closest you can get to problems on his midterms, other than the practice midterms he puts out. His tests are not ones that you can breeze through computationally, he includes concept questions that you should understand well (so you should strive to understand the material instead of just noting equations down and writing them). He offers a bunch of resources to help you succeed, from individual office hours with him (utilize these!!) to zoom reviews, he truly wants his students to succeed. His challenge reports can be tedious and long but make sure to start these early, collaborate, and barrage TA office hours to make sure your explanations make sense lol. His grading scheme is very generous and he offers two that will drop the lower midterm and weigh your two challenge reports heavier (which is why it is important to do well on them!) and he curves grades at the end if you write a thoughtful reflection. Overall, great class, and I truly learned a lot, he made learning math fun and I highly recommend Wong!! Tips that worked for me:
- Scheduling one-on-one office hour appointments with him to clarify your understanding
- Starting the Challenge Report Sets EARLY, collaborating with friends, and going to TA office hours to check your explanations
- Make sure you conceptually understand what you're learning on top of being able to computationally work it out (ex. knowing the geometric interpretation)
- Do the homework!

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 32A
Quarter: Spring 2023
Grade: B+
April 3, 2023

I appreciate the promptness of Professor Wong in posting recordings and notes on Bruin Learn after each lecture. He is very clear in explaining the concepts and problems. However, the grading of the challenge reports can be inconsistent and may not always reflect your understanding of the material. Despite this, I enjoy taking this course and find the learning experience to be fulfilling. Although the midterms are challenging, I found the final exam to be relatively easy.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 32A
Quarter: Winter 2023
Grade: B+
April 3, 2023

Probably the best professor for 32A. His lectures are clear and well-formatted. Notes are available online and lectures are recorded. He's kind and helpful. Homework is not mandatory. The grade consists of six quizzes, two midterms, two challenge problems, and a final. There are a few extra credit opportunities that are super easy and can boost your grade by 1%. Challenge problems are tough but collaboration is encouraged and you can redo the first one. Quizzes are done as groups and can be turned in nearly a week after the assignment's release date. Midterms and final were pretty fair in terms of tested content. Best advice for this course: make friends with other students and ask for help. Since collaboration is encouraged, take advantage of it.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 32A
Quarter: Winter 2023
Grade: A-
March 31, 2023

I've had three different math professors at UCLA so far and Wong has been the best. He was clear and engaging in his lectures, to the point where if I missed a lecture I could easily catch up using the recording and his annotated slides (I really appreciated that he posted the slides that he used in lecture for us to be able to markup as needed).
As someone apprehensive of group work, the group quizzes were structured in such a way that it still felt like everyone was doing work (you take the quiz individually first and then as a group, but only the group version is graded).
The practice exams were a bit easier than the actual ones, but overall I felt well prepared for the midterms and final (he allowed notecards which I greatly appreciated).
Wong also offers some extra credit in the form of self-reflections which I thought was a nice way to take into account more than just the exam grades into our learning. Overall, I really liked his teaching and would recommend him.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 32A
Quarter: Winter 2023
Grade: A-
March 23, 2023

Such a clear lecturer and understanding person. He sees so much more in his students than their grades, and his main priority is helping you grow as a student. Was a nice change from my 31b course last semester. If I could have a math professor like this every quarter, I would.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
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