Rowan Killip
Department of Mathematics
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3.0
Overall Rating
Based on 26 Users
Easiness 2.4 / 5 How easy the class is, 1 being extremely difficult and 5 being easy peasy.
Clarity 2.5 / 5 How clear the class is, 1 being extremely unclear and 5 being very clear.
Workload 2.5 / 5 How much workload the class is, 1 being extremely heavy and 5 being extremely light.
Helpfulness 2.8 / 5 How helpful the class is, 1 being not helpful at all and 5 being extremely helpful.

TOP TAGS

  • Needs Textbook
  • Is Podcasted
  • Useful Textbooks
GRADE DISTRIBUTIONS
74.6%
62.2%
49.7%
37.3%
24.9%
12.4%
0.0%
A+
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
C-
D+
D
D-
F

Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.

21.1%
17.6%
14.1%
10.6%
7.0%
3.5%
0.0%
A+
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
C-
D+
D
D-
F

Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.

ENROLLMENT DISTRIBUTIONS
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Reviews (16)

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Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
June 26, 2020

I took this class online during COVID 19. Although the material itself is not terrible (easier than the 32 series but harder than 33b), I highly recommend that you DO NOT take this class with Killip. His pre-recorded lectures were vague and hard to follow (although he did provide some comic relief by telling himself "concentrate!" as he lost his train of thought every 3 seconds), so much so that I decided to stop watching them altogether by the 2nd week and read the entire textbook instead. He regularly did not show up to his own office hours, and was often unresponsive to emails or posts on questionsly, so prepare yourself to be frustrated and have unanswered questions if you take this class. The midterms were 90 minutes long, which considering the circumstances I thought was pretty unfair, but the material on them was definitely doable if you studied. We had a 24 hour final (because the math department forced him to), and although it was noticeably more difficult content-wise than the midterms, we had more time so overall it was easier. The only good thing about this class was the notes the TAs posted from their discussion sections. That's literally it. I would absolutely not take this class with Killip due to his bad lectures and overall lack of interest in helping his students.

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Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
June 23, 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.

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Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Verified Reviewer This user is a verified UCLA student/alum.
Aug. 27, 2020

I took this class online because of COVID. Lectures were prerecorded. The professor would post them a couple hours before lecture time and answer questions in lecture time. Lectures were very confusing and hard to follow. I had to spend way too much time in discussion+reading the textbook to understand the material. Homework and quizzes took way too long each week and were extremely difficult. However, midterms(1.5 hrs) and the final(24 hrs)were doable. I'd avoid taking him if possible.

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Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
June 22, 2020

I took this class in an online format due to COVID19. Killip posts prerecorded lectures and he is on zoom during the assigned lecture time to answer questions, which I thought was really nice of him. However, I feel like a lot of the material during lecture was quite complicated, sometimes he taught us proofs that I thought were unnecessary to know in this class. A lot of times I have to look into the textbook to understand the class material. I'd say that the midterms were not too bad, but the final was a little brutal. It was supposed to be a 24 hour final taken in 3 hours, but I ended up using 6+ hours, and I think most people did too. Grading consists of weekly quizzes, weekly homework, midterms, and final. For the quizzes and homework, sometimes they're easy, and sometimes they're hard. However, I don't think it's hard to get an A. As long as you understand the concepts well, do the homework, and go to office hours when you have questions, you will be fine. Shout out to my awesome TA Bon-Soon for explaining concepts clearly and making this class doable.

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Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Verified Reviewer This user is a verified UCLA student/alum.
Dec. 25, 2020

Nice guy, but boring lectures.

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Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
July 9, 2020

This was taught during the quarantine so ill allow some room for improvement and try to not be too critical. I was initially told that this class was pretty easy and the other reviews of this professor made it seem like it would be easy, however, im assuming that because this was not in person like it normally would be that this class was much more difficult. I found the lecture recordings to feel unbearably long and overall unhelpful with the class material. It required much more individual reading and practice than i think a class of this kind should. I just feel that i have fallen behind others who took this class in person and had access to a better learning experience.

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0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
July 2, 2020

Recorded lectures were not very useful. Ended up just learning all the material in discussion every week.

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Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: B-
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
June 27, 2020

I took 33A with a different professor during winter quarter and didn't pass, then took this class with Killip this past quarter (covid/remote learning).
I think out of all profs you could pick for linear algebra, Killip is a pretty solid bet. He explained things much more clearly than the other professor I took. He had useful tricks/pneumonic devices and was pretty good at explaining the intuition behind otherwise complex topics.
Imo, the textbook for this course is no good so it's better to have a prof like Killip who will explain things clearly for you. He did seem to lean on the textbook more as the quarter went on, and concepts got more difficult, so I had a harder time. But overall Killip is solid.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
June 26, 2020

All of the lectures for this class were prerecorded and the often consisted of going over the proof for concepts and formulas that are used. The proofs are nice because understanding where a formula comes from can be useful, but often the proofs were very complex and confusing. I would highly recommend reading the textbook before/after the lectures. The quizzes were pretty easy overall but some were a lot harder than others. The midterms were very straightforward and the final was a lot harder. Everything in the class builds on itself so make sure to understand the content of the first couple weeks. Overall a pretty solid math professor.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Fall 2017
Grade: A
June 5, 2018

Killip was absolutely my favorite professor. He was engaging and interesting, and it was obvious that he loved what he was teaching. Most math professors here turn out to be as confusing as the material they teach, but Killip was straight-forward, well-organized, and effective at teaching multi-variable calculus. His homework was fairly difficult as he included problems of his own, but they were good preparations for the tests. Although the tests were difficult, they weren't impossible as they were the same level of complexity as the homework questions he wrote. I was glad to go to lecture since he made it fairly fun. Math is hard, but it can be fun when taught by people like Killip. I would recommend taking his classes, and I took him again for 32b.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: A
June 26, 2020

I took this class online during COVID 19. Although the material itself is not terrible (easier than the 32 series but harder than 33b), I highly recommend that you DO NOT take this class with Killip. His pre-recorded lectures were vague and hard to follow (although he did provide some comic relief by telling himself "concentrate!" as he lost his train of thought every 3 seconds), so much so that I decided to stop watching them altogether by the 2nd week and read the entire textbook instead. He regularly did not show up to his own office hours, and was often unresponsive to emails or posts on questionsly, so prepare yourself to be frustrated and have unanswered questions if you take this class. The midterms were 90 minutes long, which considering the circumstances I thought was pretty unfair, but the material on them was definitely doable if you studied. We had a 24 hour final (because the math department forced him to), and although it was noticeably more difficult content-wise than the midterms, we had more time so overall it was easier. The only good thing about this class was the notes the TAs posted from their discussion sections. That's literally it. I would absolutely not take this class with Killip due to his bad lectures and overall lack of interest in helping his students.

Helpful?

2 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: A
June 23, 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.

Helpful?

2 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Verified Reviewer This user is a verified UCLA student/alum.
Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: A
Aug. 27, 2020

I took this class online because of COVID. Lectures were prerecorded. The professor would post them a couple hours before lecture time and answer questions in lecture time. Lectures were very confusing and hard to follow. I had to spend way too much time in discussion+reading the textbook to understand the material. Homework and quizzes took way too long each week and were extremely difficult. However, midterms(1.5 hrs) and the final(24 hrs)were doable. I'd avoid taking him if possible.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: A
June 22, 2020

I took this class in an online format due to COVID19. Killip posts prerecorded lectures and he is on zoom during the assigned lecture time to answer questions, which I thought was really nice of him. However, I feel like a lot of the material during lecture was quite complicated, sometimes he taught us proofs that I thought were unnecessary to know in this class. A lot of times I have to look into the textbook to understand the class material. I'd say that the midterms were not too bad, but the final was a little brutal. It was supposed to be a 24 hour final taken in 3 hours, but I ended up using 6+ hours, and I think most people did too. Grading consists of weekly quizzes, weekly homework, midterms, and final. For the quizzes and homework, sometimes they're easy, and sometimes they're hard. However, I don't think it's hard to get an A. As long as you understand the concepts well, do the homework, and go to office hours when you have questions, you will be fine. Shout out to my awesome TA Bon-Soon for explaining concepts clearly and making this class doable.

Helpful?

1 1 Please log in to provide feedback.
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Verified Reviewer This user is a verified UCLA student/alum.
Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: A
Dec. 25, 2020

Nice guy, but boring lectures.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: A
July 9, 2020

This was taught during the quarantine so ill allow some room for improvement and try to not be too critical. I was initially told that this class was pretty easy and the other reviews of this professor made it seem like it would be easy, however, im assuming that because this was not in person like it normally would be that this class was much more difficult. I found the lecture recordings to feel unbearably long and overall unhelpful with the class material. It required much more individual reading and practice than i think a class of this kind should. I just feel that i have fallen behind others who took this class in person and had access to a better learning experience.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: A
July 2, 2020

Recorded lectures were not very useful. Ended up just learning all the material in discussion every week.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: B-
June 27, 2020

I took 33A with a different professor during winter quarter and didn't pass, then took this class with Killip this past quarter (covid/remote learning).
I think out of all profs you could pick for linear algebra, Killip is a pretty solid bet. He explained things much more clearly than the other professor I took. He had useful tricks/pneumonic devices and was pretty good at explaining the intuition behind otherwise complex topics.
Imo, the textbook for this course is no good so it's better to have a prof like Killip who will explain things clearly for you. He did seem to lean on the textbook more as the quarter went on, and concepts got more difficult, so I had a harder time. But overall Killip is solid.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: A
June 26, 2020

All of the lectures for this class were prerecorded and the often consisted of going over the proof for concepts and formulas that are used. The proofs are nice because understanding where a formula comes from can be useful, but often the proofs were very complex and confusing. I would highly recommend reading the textbook before/after the lectures. The quizzes were pretty easy overall but some were a lot harder than others. The midterms were very straightforward and the final was a lot harder. Everything in the class builds on itself so make sure to understand the content of the first couple weeks. Overall a pretty solid math professor.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Fall 2017
Grade: A
June 5, 2018

Killip was absolutely my favorite professor. He was engaging and interesting, and it was obvious that he loved what he was teaching. Most math professors here turn out to be as confusing as the material they teach, but Killip was straight-forward, well-organized, and effective at teaching multi-variable calculus. His homework was fairly difficult as he included problems of his own, but they were good preparations for the tests. Although the tests were difficult, they weren't impossible as they were the same level of complexity as the homework questions he wrote. I was glad to go to lecture since he made it fairly fun. Math is hard, but it can be fun when taught by people like Killip. I would recommend taking his classes, and I took him again for 32b.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
1 of 2
3.0
Overall Rating
Based on 26 Users
Easiness 2.4 / 5 How easy the class is, 1 being extremely difficult and 5 being easy peasy.
Clarity 2.5 / 5 How clear the class is, 1 being extremely unclear and 5 being very clear.
Workload 2.5 / 5 How much workload the class is, 1 being extremely heavy and 5 being extremely light.
Helpfulness 2.8 / 5 How helpful the class is, 1 being not helpful at all and 5 being extremely helpful.

TOP TAGS

  • Needs Textbook
    (7)
  • Is Podcasted
    (6)
  • Useful Textbooks
    (8)
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