Professor
Rowan Killip
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2017 - Killip is extremely knowledgeable and very approachable--definitely go to his office hours! He's super nice and will always answer your questions, plus he provides good hints to homework problems. His lectures are also pretty useful (he explains the material pretty well) so I highly recommend going to class--especially because he likes to go in depth on material that sometimes the textbook just briefly touches on. What helped me a lot was reading the textbook and watching the relevant Khan Academy videos on the section before he lectured on it--it made lectures a lot easier to follow. He's also pretty funny, which definitely makes class more fun. Also, note that his homework is 1) insanely difficult and 2) quite time consuming, but it's really good preparation for his exams and honestly I'd say his exams are at least somewhat easier than the homework. Overall, I give Killip 8.5/10 for being an excellent lecturer, very approachable, and funny. His homework is actually horrible though, it's pretty hard.
Fall 2017 - Killip is extremely knowledgeable and very approachable--definitely go to his office hours! He's super nice and will always answer your questions, plus he provides good hints to homework problems. His lectures are also pretty useful (he explains the material pretty well) so I highly recommend going to class--especially because he likes to go in depth on material that sometimes the textbook just briefly touches on. What helped me a lot was reading the textbook and watching the relevant Khan Academy videos on the section before he lectured on it--it made lectures a lot easier to follow. He's also pretty funny, which definitely makes class more fun. Also, note that his homework is 1) insanely difficult and 2) quite time consuming, but it's really good preparation for his exams and honestly I'd say his exams are at least somewhat easier than the homework. Overall, I give Killip 8.5/10 for being an excellent lecturer, very approachable, and funny. His homework is actually horrible though, it's pretty hard.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2025 - Math 32B with Professor Killip was... a memorable experience, to be certain. While at times he did sound a bit like a confused old man losing his marbles (and occasionally evoked flashbacks to Joe Biden's 2024 debate), he was definitely the funniest professor I've had thus far. I may hold an unpopular opinion in that his teaching style aligned well with my learning style. * There were three midterms, because UCLA decided dumping the Rose Bowl for $80M took priority over sufficiently paying the math department TAs. * This said, I'm grateful homework wasn't graded...because I didn't do any of it. * The exams were a piece a' cake: —> 25% of every exam constituted "easy points" problems. —> Another 25% of every exam would have a disgustingly clean answer, which you could get to without actually doing any work. —> The remaining 50% was graded nicely with partial credit. (The lowest grade I got on any midterm was a 77.5% after showing up to midterm day in a stupid Halloween costume, having totally forgotten it was midterm day.) * The catch? You have to understand the formulas well. But Professor Killip dedicated most class time to working through examples, which really helped solidify the concepts we needed to know. * THERE WAS A HUGE CURVE AT THE END!! I finished in the A range, and my grade was still rounded up. From people I've talked to, the lower portion of the curve had a significant grade boost. - My only complaint would be that there was no communication regarding final grades, the distribution of final exam scores, or the final curve. Well, I can't speak for everyone, but I thought Professor Killip made one of the hardest lower-division math weeders into a very manageable experience. I greatly enjoyed my time in this class.
Fall 2025 - Math 32B with Professor Killip was... a memorable experience, to be certain. While at times he did sound a bit like a confused old man losing his marbles (and occasionally evoked flashbacks to Joe Biden's 2024 debate), he was definitely the funniest professor I've had thus far. I may hold an unpopular opinion in that his teaching style aligned well with my learning style. * There were three midterms, because UCLA decided dumping the Rose Bowl for $80M took priority over sufficiently paying the math department TAs. * This said, I'm grateful homework wasn't graded...because I didn't do any of it. * The exams were a piece a' cake: —> 25% of every exam constituted "easy points" problems. —> Another 25% of every exam would have a disgustingly clean answer, which you could get to without actually doing any work. —> The remaining 50% was graded nicely with partial credit. (The lowest grade I got on any midterm was a 77.5% after showing up to midterm day in a stupid Halloween costume, having totally forgotten it was midterm day.) * The catch? You have to understand the formulas well. But Professor Killip dedicated most class time to working through examples, which really helped solidify the concepts we needed to know. * THERE WAS A HUGE CURVE AT THE END!! I finished in the A range, and my grade was still rounded up. From people I've talked to, the lower portion of the curve had a significant grade boost. - My only complaint would be that there was no communication regarding final grades, the distribution of final exam scores, or the final curve. Well, I can't speak for everyone, but I thought Professor Killip made one of the hardest lower-division math weeders into a very manageable experience. I greatly enjoyed my time in this class.
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2020 - *I took this course with the online format due to COVID-19 Professor Killip was a decent professor. I thought that his lectures were sometimes vague and a little confusing as he tends to ramble while he gathers his thoughts. The HW was sometimes a challenge but was not too overwhelming. The quizzes made up a large portion of your grade and were fairly easy. The midterms and final were also very easy as the median for them was around 90% and mostly required computational problems. I think if you watch and understand the general ideas behind each of his lectures, you should do well.
Spring 2020 - *I took this course with the online format due to COVID-19 Professor Killip was a decent professor. I thought that his lectures were sometimes vague and a little confusing as he tends to ramble while he gathers his thoughts. The HW was sometimes a challenge but was not too overwhelming. The quizzes made up a large portion of your grade and were fairly easy. The midterms and final were also very easy as the median for them was around 90% and mostly required computational problems. I think if you watch and understand the general ideas behind each of his lectures, you should do well.
Most Helpful Review
Best South Campus professor I have had at UCLA. Amazing, teaches you every topic thoroughly, is very helpful at office hours. Goes over anything and everything without ever being condescending to his students. His exams ACTUALLY COVER WHAT HE TAUGHT IN CLASS. There is usually one tricky problem on his test, but he has to have that so everyone isn't getting 100s. But definitely take Killip if you are given the chance, the man is brilliant. I would do anything for him to be my father. TAKE HIM.
Best South Campus professor I have had at UCLA. Amazing, teaches you every topic thoroughly, is very helpful at office hours. Goes over anything and everything without ever being condescending to his students. His exams ACTUALLY COVER WHAT HE TAUGHT IN CLASS. There is usually one tricky problem on his test, but he has to have that so everyone isn't getting 100s. But definitely take Killip if you are given the chance, the man is brilliant. I would do anything for him to be my father. TAKE HIM.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2020 - If you are the type of math student who loves math and math is your everything, take Killip. However, if you’re a regular person who enjoyed math 33b and is excited to take an upper div differential equations class FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DO NOT!!! take Killip. For one, his homeworks take AGES. The material in the hw is next to impossible to do unless you attend every office hour, the lecture and textbook material are only slightly related. His exams expand on the homeworks that are already a huge LEAP from the things he lectures on. If you end up taking Killip, camp out in his and the TA’s OH to get those homework answers. Lecture will not help you.
Fall 2020 - If you are the type of math student who loves math and math is your everything, take Killip. However, if you’re a regular person who enjoyed math 33b and is excited to take an upper div differential equations class FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DO NOT!!! take Killip. For one, his homeworks take AGES. The material in the hw is next to impossible to do unless you attend every office hour, the lecture and textbook material are only slightly related. His exams expand on the homeworks that are already a huge LEAP from the things he lectures on. If you end up taking Killip, camp out in his and the TA’s OH to get those homework answers. Lecture will not help you.
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2024 - In terms of lectures, I liked Prof. Killip's teaching. I generally found him quite clear, and his lecturing style does have quite a bit of personality. My impression is that in terms of course content, we hit all the points, and then some; in particular, I appreciated how Prof. Killip would sometimes talk (both briefly, or to some length) about probability topics that may not have been in the course description, but were often relevant/important nonetheless. In terms of formality, I didn't find the class to be especially formal, though we did still do a fair number of proofs & convergence analyses. [A shout-out, also, to our TA James Hogan.] I did admittedly have some trouble following Prof. Killip during the last week of the course, while he was covering multivariate normal distributions; other than that, however, I found everything else understandable. As far as homeworks go, though...woof. To play the devil's advocate, the homework was very helpful in getting a better understanding of course info and practicing the various concepts covered. Even certain ideas/topics that were only briefly mentioned in class, got a fair share of attention and expanding-upon in the homework; some of the homework questions also touched on more application-relevant topics, such as estimation and sampling. That being said, there was a lot of it. A lo-o-ot lot. The homeworks were generally 5-6 questions, very slightly computation-leaning, and took me maybe 6-8? hours on average. That alone doesn't sound too bad...except there were 10 of them, one a week (including midterm week + and week 10), which basically means there is no such thing as a break with this class. To be fair, we did get 2 homework drops; that being said, all questions were graded on correctness, and some of the homework questions were legitimately difficult. To rub extra salt in the wound, all homeworks were posted on Saturdays and due 9 AM the following Friday, which meant we actually had 6 days for each homework...assuming all the requisite knowledge had been covered, otherwise it was more like 4 days. To Prof. Killip's credit, he was generally helpful and did a good job answering questions during office hours. As far as exams go, I personally thought they were okay. They thankfully weren't as difficult as the homeworks, and I found them to be fairly reasonable for the most part, though the timing was a little tight. We did have averages in the mid 70s for both the midterm and the final; that being said, I believe there was also a fairly generous curve. (I made some pretty dumb mistakes on the final, ended with a raw score of ~89%, and got an A.) As a side note, our class only had 15 people in it by week 6, which was kinda strange; I don't recall us ever having too many people, so it wasn't necessarily an attrition thing, but I can't say if the small class size ended up affecting grading somehow.
Winter 2024 - In terms of lectures, I liked Prof. Killip's teaching. I generally found him quite clear, and his lecturing style does have quite a bit of personality. My impression is that in terms of course content, we hit all the points, and then some; in particular, I appreciated how Prof. Killip would sometimes talk (both briefly, or to some length) about probability topics that may not have been in the course description, but were often relevant/important nonetheless. In terms of formality, I didn't find the class to be especially formal, though we did still do a fair number of proofs & convergence analyses. [A shout-out, also, to our TA James Hogan.] I did admittedly have some trouble following Prof. Killip during the last week of the course, while he was covering multivariate normal distributions; other than that, however, I found everything else understandable. As far as homeworks go, though...woof. To play the devil's advocate, the homework was very helpful in getting a better understanding of course info and practicing the various concepts covered. Even certain ideas/topics that were only briefly mentioned in class, got a fair share of attention and expanding-upon in the homework; some of the homework questions also touched on more application-relevant topics, such as estimation and sampling. That being said, there was a lot of it. A lo-o-ot lot. The homeworks were generally 5-6 questions, very slightly computation-leaning, and took me maybe 6-8? hours on average. That alone doesn't sound too bad...except there were 10 of them, one a week (including midterm week + and week 10), which basically means there is no such thing as a break with this class. To be fair, we did get 2 homework drops; that being said, all questions were graded on correctness, and some of the homework questions were legitimately difficult. To rub extra salt in the wound, all homeworks were posted on Saturdays and due 9 AM the following Friday, which meant we actually had 6 days for each homework...assuming all the requisite knowledge had been covered, otherwise it was more like 4 days. To Prof. Killip's credit, he was generally helpful and did a good job answering questions during office hours. As far as exams go, I personally thought they were okay. They thankfully weren't as difficult as the homeworks, and I found them to be fairly reasonable for the most part, though the timing was a little tight. We did have averages in the mid 70s for both the midterm and the final; that being said, I believe there was also a fairly generous curve. (I made some pretty dumb mistakes on the final, ended with a raw score of ~89%, and got an A.) As a side note, our class only had 15 people in it by week 6, which was kinda strange; I don't recall us ever having too many people, so it wasn't necessarily an attrition thing, but I can't say if the small class size ended up affecting grading somehow.
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