Professor Wong is a great lecturer, and I'd recommend him to my friends if they needed to take this class. I liked how he made all of his slides available on Canvas before each lecture so we could download them and copy the annotations that he makes on the slides during lecture. It made this class easier in the sense that I didn't have to worry about writing down core concepts since they were already on the slide. He also uploaded the annotated slides after every lecture so you could look back and see if there was anything you missed. Additionally, he recorded all the lectures via Zoom in case you couldn't join in person, and made the recordings available to watch after lectures in case you couldn't tune in during lectures. This saved me a lot when I got sick for two weeks and didn't attend classes in person.

During discussions, you would work on a quiz on your own, and then after like 10-20 minutes, you could work with your group (that's assigned at the beginning of the quarter) or whoever you wanted to on the quiz to compare answers or ask the TAs/LAs questions about the problems. You also had a 24-hour period to submit both what you did individually and with your group, and while both submissions would be graded, only the group submission grade would count towards your grade. The questions weren't too difficult and these quizzes were definitely a grade boost.

His midterms and finals are definitely tough, but I think that if you understand the concepts well enough you can figure your way through them. I didn't really understand the concepts during lecture, so I had many office hours with him just to clear up my questions and ensure that I was able to understand the concepts. The homework for this class is optional, but it's definitely worth doing to practice using the concepts for the midterms and final.

He has two of these assignments called Challenge Problem Reports, where a concept is applied to the real world and he wants you to not only solve the problem but write your explanations like a textbook. These assignments were interesting but time-consuming, so starting early on them is the key to succeeding on them. He allows you to revise the first one for a higher grade since he understands that it's probably the first time you're doing this type of assignment, which is really useful since you can talk to him or your TAs about what you can do to get a better score using his rubric. You can ask him any questions about the problems after class or during office hours if you need, and even run your work by him to see if you're correct. These assignments also help your grade a lot if you do well on them, so it's important to take the time to do them as well as you can.

Overall, this class was appropriately difficult. With proper time management, doing the optional homework when you can (the flexibility of not having to do homework by a certain date is nice), and going to office hours, this class is doable. It was definitely a challenge for me but not to the point where I thought that this class is too much.

Workload: 7/10. Workload was decent (~4-5 hrs/week) but fair for the material and manageable. The two challenge problem reports take much longer than normal assignments (5+ hours each).

Quizzes/Exams: 7/10. Tests were reasonable for the material and never contained anything completely unexpected. Occasionally, there would be a slightly tricky question requiring some creativity with the concepts but nothing too far outside standard textbook questions.

Grading Scheme: 9/10. Two alternate grading schemes are offered, with the professor choosing the one that nets you the best overall grade. Both offer reasonable balances of quizzes, challenge problem reports, and major exams.

Material: 5/10. Material is a fair difficulty and doing the optional homework from the textbook is essential to doing well in the class. Having the textbook is highly recommended.

Lectures: 9/10. Lectures are well-organized and professor Wong is very proficient at lecturing concisely and clearly.

Support: 7/10. Professor and TAs value supporting students and hold review sessions for midterms/final.

Please save yourself and do not take Professor Wong for this course. I have always loved math and performed well in all prior math classes. Multi variable calculus is very humbling. Reminds me of physics kind of. Won’t was not helpful at all and his exams were absolutely terrible. I got a 77 on the first midterm and a 49 on the second. I studied for days, using the material from lectures and practice exams. The questions barely had to do with what was taught- I copied down all of the practice exam questions onto the single index card he allowed as a cheat sheet, and none of the information helped. Neither did any in-class questions. The final was even worse. I studied for weeks, doing old final exams I found online and made my cheat sheet include EVERYTHING possible that was taught in class. I still barely got a C- on the final.
The challenge problems were terrible. I am not a writer nor have I ever been taught how to write answers and solutions to problems as though they are in a textbook… No guidance was given for these assignments, and it did not help that my TA didn’t know how to do anything. My TA also left halfway through the quarter and we got a new one who was slightly more helpful.
This class made me sob, I seriously did not think I was going to pass. This class was torture.

I'm selling the fourth edition of the Ragowski textbook (loose leaf in a binder) for $25 in like new condition. Message me at ************* :)

Richard Wong is an excellent teacher in the math department. For his lectures, he creates slideshows which he uploads the night before and then annotates, and uploads his annotated lectures afterwards. He also posts lecture recordings. People complained about his lectures being boring, but this is really just due to his somewhat monotonous voice. He packs a lot of info into his lectures, and if you are paying attention and taking notes they go by quickly.

He is also very open in office hours and is willing to address student concerns. He is willing to take students' questions after lecture, and once stood for 20 minutes answering questions about a tough problem set. Also, I emailed him to set up a private office hours meeting to ask about a grading issue on my midterm, and he was super responsive and helpful.

Another important thing is that he likes to assign challenge problem sets, where students address difficult real world problems with mathematics and then do a formal write up explaining their solutions. For any students pursuing stem, these assignments are great practice for higher level math courses where this type of exposition is necessary. They are time consuming though, and if you aren't going into stem it could be a waste of time. Also, the grading can be kind of finnicky with different TAs, but generally if you are thorough you will do very well.

It seems like many past students of Richard's found immense difficulty with his exams, but it definitely seems like he toned it down this quarter. They were definitely not easy, but the first midterm had an average of 85. The second midterm was definitely much harder, but there is a grading scheme which allows you to drop the worst midterm. The final was definitely tricky, featuring problems which he hadn't explained how to do in class, but he absolutely prepares us well enough to solve them. Overall, I would definitely recommend Richard. You will certainly have to work in his class more than some other 32A professors, but you will walk away having gained some serious knowledge of multivariable calculus.

I forgot to do a review last quarter, so here's my review for spring 2022.
I liked Professor Wong's slides a lot, since they are very well organized and it is easy to just review them on your own instead of attending lecture. Regular homework wasn't required, so there was a lot of flexibility with how you could study for this class.
However, I have issues with his exams and projects. Many reviews also noted how his exams seemed like they were meant for another class, but since he curved so weirdly at the end, basic studying meant I was fine, even if it didn't look like that on the raw score. His "challenge problem sets" were very unique. Yes, they helped you work in-depth to the concepts, but I did feel like they dragged on longer than needed, and many of us needed TA help. They had a weird grading scheme based on writing style which I thought didn't fit for a math class, but it was ultimately a grade boost so I'm ok with it.

I honestly loved this class. A lot of the reviews complain about how difficult the exams are, but honestly they felt appropriate considering this class is multivariable calculus at the end of the day. They require much more problem solving than the homework questions, and the TAs are incredibly generous with partial credit which is a total lifesaver. I really really enjoyed the challenge problem sets because I felt like they gave me preparation for upper division courses that require you to able to communicate mathematical ideas. He also lets you fill out a reflection at the end of the course and will potentially round your grade up depending on how thoughtful the reflection is, so he is definitely invested in your learning. At the end of the day, he clearly loves teaching, and he puts in the extra mile to make sure that his students feel welcomed and are learning what they need to learn. If you want a professor that cares about your success, definitely take this one.
As a note for the challenge problem sets, going to office hours for your TA and professor before they are due will ensure that you get an A on them and honestly a 100%. If you don't go to office hours, it will be a lot harder to do well.

*For reference I am a life science major*

Wong is the best professor I've taken math with at this school yet. I thoroughly enjoyed this class because it was straightforward and he focuses more on your learning than grades. The challenge problem sets were indeed challenging, but he encourages groupwork so getting full credit on them wasn't too hard. The lectures were organized which I appreciated, so we knew what lesson we were on and could keep track. The midterms and finals weren't super easy, but they were easy enough. If you knew your concepts, it was basically just application of that to some new types of problems. That being said, I didn't score perfectly on the tests but I still kept an A in the class. Wong pushed collaboration and so it didn't feel as isolated as a normal math class usually is. It wasn't a crazy workload either with the exception of the challenge problem sets being a little time-consuming, but it was only 2 for the entire quarter. For the complaints I've heard about this class being really difficult, I came out of this class with a pleasant experience.

Professor Wong is a very nice guy! He’s receptive to student feedback and offers things like extra credit, revision opportunities, and dropping your lowest midterm to make students feel less stressed about grades so that they can focus on learning. His slides were always well-organized and easy to follow. I found the class to be pretty manageable especially since homework wasn’t mandatory, but I still recommend doing it just to make sure that you’re on top of all the topics from class (usually only takes half an hour to one hour). Wong’s Challenge Problem reports were helpful for learning but personally, I didn’t like how we didn’t get to discuss the solutions—if you didn’t understand it, you’ll never really find out why unless you go out of your way to ask at office hours (and even then I don’t think they’d be straightforward about how to think through the problem). I also can see how the Challenge Problem reports can be really confusing conceptually. For instance, the first Challenge Problem was related to planetary motion and I didn’t understand how to interpret the math until I asked someone to explain physics concepts like tangential/centripetal acceleration. Overall, I still recommend Professor Wong as a solid option for this class, and you’ll do great if you put in the work.

One more note: If you’re like me and haven’t taken Calculus in two years, don’t worry too much—just do some basic review of limits and derivatives before the quarter starts. You also will need to know how to solve basic integrals, but it’s not a huge part of the class. Wong gives out a calc review sheet at the beginning of the quarter and you’ll be fine if you can solve those problems. The class doesn’t use difficult calculus nor does it really start calculus until a few weeks in. You got this!

Great professor. Very organized and clear lectures.