A truly awesome professor! As a freshman entering college, he was very welcoming and cognizant of the fact that a lot of us were nervous about college exams or grading schemes.

He does everything he can to make the class easier to understand and to make himself accessible to students. His lectures are engaging and funny, and he encourages collaboration.

He did give us practice tests for the first midterm and final because 'incoming freshmen are probably super anxious about their FIRST college midterm/final'. He didn't give one for the second midterm but there were a lot of practice problems available. His exams are very fair. I did have background taking AP Calc AB in my junior year of high school, but given the time gap and the difference between high school and college, Gannon does a fantastic job explaining hard calc concepts in simpler and more entertaining ways. He'll often start with an involved example and derive the theorem or trick he's teaching for that class in the beginning, which drawed me in; if you want a quick class where you just get the formula or whatever, you can watch the recordings for those. I do highly recommend going to lecture, though, because his are fun.

I'll say that if you're a high school student who took calc already and know most of the concepts especially in the beginning of the quarter, don't be the person to ask "can I use [concept] that we haven't covered yet but that I learned in high school?" He got a bit flustered after 4 or 5 people asked something along those lines in one of the initial weeks, and I get it; he's trying to teach to people who haven't seen calc, and someone asking questions like that comes off as a bit of a smartass. Just don't bother, there are plenty of ways to demonstrate to him that you have a calculus background.

He's great.

I doubt I'll ever have an instructor as well rounded as Tommy G. He explains the material clearly and his tests are very reasonable. Some reviews on here complain about a very difficult final...I don't think it was harder. It was just later in the year so the material naturally got a little difficult. That being said, from an instruction POV, this was the perfect math class.

Now onto the experience
He's funny. He's talented. He's handsome.

Tommy G does his best to make everyone feel welcome in the class. Never have I intentionally attended so many consecutive classes throughout the quarter. He gave out candy, took pictures with us, cracked jokes, and gave very entertaining lectures. He's admittedly a bit geeky, but he's a perfect professor. When I took him, he was teaching 33a (linear algebra) and 31A (calc ab). I decided ah, since I need linear algebra..i'm going to kill to get him. Low and behold, it turns out he's not even teaching 33a in 2023-2024. I have never been so disappointed by anything.

If you can't tell, pretty much the entire class loves him. You're making a big mistake if you don't sign up for this class. Wish I could retake this, love you tommy

He is one of the best professors in Math. His lectures are straightforward, engaging, and enjoyable. He is an enthusiastic teacher and keeps you hooked for the entirety of the class. His office hours are great, and he helps you develop intuition to avoid confusion. He is very lenient and allows exploration of various ways of approaching the problem. Also, he is okay with unfinished arithmetic as long as we know how to solve the question. I definitely would take his class again. 10/10 recommend.

As someone who took AP Calc AB, this class was mostly review but the professor does go over it as if you have no prior experience of calculus. The hardest part of this class might have been the final, since the midterms felt easier compared to the final.

His class was made up of quizzes in discussion sections every two weeks which were solid practice for the midterm. There was also weekly homework turned in through gradescope. There are also two grading schemes, one where both midterms count and the other where only one midterm counts.

MY GOD. I loved this professor. He's new here I think, but oh my god this class was such a great way to start my quarter here at UCLA. Also his name is Tom Gannon, not Gannoth, not sure why they did that but thats besides the point. Amazing lecturer. The homeworks were doable as long as you paid attention during class. Me personally I never took a single calculus class in high school, so that's probably why I got an A- (I'll explain in a bit). The course consisted of biweekly quizzes which were VERY fair and basically reflected on the homework from the previous week. The midterms were very doable for me, all you needed to do was study the homework problems and understand conceptually as well. It wasn't too stressful. However, the final was pretty hard, at least for me. I think I got like a 70 on the final but ended up with 2 90's on the midterms, which is why I dropped from an A to an A-. Honestly, if you took calculus before in high school then it wouldn't have been as hard, but I thought the final was unimaginably hard and nothing compared to the midterms. He does give us practice tests tho, and those are extremely useful because sometimes he literally just copied an exam question (literally the exact same number, problem, and everything) and it would help for the midterms and finals. I got lost quite a few times in his lectures I guess, I think he spoke a bit fast but everything would get cleared up if I just went to one office hour. He's super nice and funny, and I would definitely take him again and recommend him to any person taking Calc 1. The grading scheme was pretty fair too, and he had 2 different ones (and would choose the one that helps u the most). Overall, 9/10 class (just because the final was really hard in my opinion compared to the midterms), but if I could, I'd definitely take him again.

Highly recommend Tom Gannon if you're taking calculus, especially if math isn't your favorite subject. The lectures are recorded, homeworks are relatively short, quizzes are online, and midterms/tests are fairly easy (with a cheat sheet allowed). Outside of attending or watching lecture, you won't spend more than 1-2 hours on this class. Gannon is a great explanatory teacher who makes the concepts easy to understand, and a semi-funny lecturer as well. The TAs are useless, but Gannon is very active on Piazza/OH and answers almost all questions himself.

goat.

Tom Gannon is one of the sweetest and best professors I have had at UCLA!

He genuinely cares about students and it shows in his lectures and tests. He records lectures, but his attendance is still really good because he engages with students and even jokes during lectures. He teaches incredibly clearly and answers questions online really quickly. The homework is doable, but it's easy to lose a few points for random things - I believe he does drop the lowest grade. Tests had little to no curveballs.

The best professor at UCLA in my opinion. 31A isn't a hard class, but can be a bit challenging, but Gannon is super helpful, funny, and clarifies everything. Lectures aren't boring, they aren't super fast-paced, they're perfect. Loose grading schemes so you can afford to bomb a midterm.

In my opinion, the worst thing about taking Gannon is having to come back to reality with worse professors next quarter.