I know Math 32B is supposed to be one of the hardest math lower divs but this teaching team has made this class INTOLERABLE. The professor said she made the final harder on purpose because the class average on MT2 (84%) was "too high". She also gave us a not-so-hard practice final and explicitly said that she had made the final harder than the practice lol.

And unfortunately these are the only two things that she has made clear throughout a 10-week course.

No curves, no class notes, HW solutions were full of typos and one of the TAs was yelling at people for not putting their pencils down one second after the midterm ended.

DON'T TAKE THIS CLASS

The least helpful professor I have ever had. Reads straight from the textbook during lectures yet somehow makes it less straightforward. Is incapable of answering questions since she barely seems to understand the material and even less how to teach it. The tests are hard (approximately zero partial credit) as they usually are in 32B, however, unlike other 32B professors she doesn't curve. The homeworks are graded extremely strict (partial credit practically doesn't exist) and the grade is 90% based on your exams.
I have gotten A's in every class at UCLA so far but will end up with my worst grade yet here. Take literally anyone else for this class.

This was Wern’s first attempt at teaching, which was pretty obvious the first few classes. The bad reviews are understandable as we were basically guinea pig test subjects, but I can’t blame her that much, other than the final she gave (I knew it was gg when I looked up 3 hours in and basically saw 90% of the class still taking the exam.) Wern was pretty nice and patient though. Overall, I wouldn’t really recommend taking her classes in the near future, at least until she gets more experience.

While I went into this class knowing that it's one of the hardest pre-major math classes, I felt as though it was a lot more difficult than it was supposed to be. The caliber of difficulty of our final was absolutely insane compared to the examples we did in class and the practice final we were given. I'm not aware of the curve yet, but I believe the average for this class is about 75%, meaning that lots of people will have to retake it if it isn't curved up. While Wern is extremely kind and patient, I'm super frustrated with this class and I would recommend taking it with a different professor.

I would say the first part of the class isn't too bad- homework was a bit long but midterms were reasonable. Lectures weren't that helpful, they came straight from the textbook so it was honestly easier to learn by doing notes on the textbook. With that being said, the final was HORRIBLE. She made it so unnecessarily hard, and it didn't reflect the level of difficulty that was shown in previous exams. She also doesn't curve and laughed when our MT1 average was around a 70%.

I know this class is supposed to be hard but this is just ridiculous. If you want to understand during lectures, make sure you already taught yourself the concepts before you go into lecture because the lecture will be more of a review/you already need to know fundamental concepts of the lesson to follow along in the lecture. Midterms are ridiculous. What usually saves people's grades in these types of math classes is partial credit-she does not even give that. In my opinion, my grade in this class does not reflect what I actually know/understand in multivariable calculus because she just gives 0 points on questions right away. Also horrible at answering emails from my experience. Needs to upload notes or make slides or something because lectures are so hard to follow. You need to be a god at math to do well in this class. As someone who honestly is very sharp and can understand things fast, this class has me questioning my entire existence at this school and self-worth.

I have a reasonable understanding of the content of this class thanks to Professor Leonard on Youtube, quizlet, chat GPT, and the textbook. I am quite sure that I would've received the same grade regardless of whether or not I attended lectures. Wern welcomed all the questions I asked in class but didn't explain concepts very well at all. She read straight off a sheet (consisting of content straight from the textbook) and wrote out things assuming that we knew what was going on when fundamental concepts were not explained. The homework load was initially so high that I spent 12-15 hours a week on the problem sets. The first midterm and final was ridiculously hard and question structures that I had never seen before came up pretty consistently. Unless you're willing to do a lot of self teaching and spend the majority of your quarter at a desk or watching khan academy, I'd heavily advise against this class.

These other reviews are way too extreme and are not accurate at all when it comes to Wern's abilities as a professor. Math 32B is known to be a pretty challenging lower-division math class and Fall 2023 was Wern's first time being a professor and despite that, I actually feel like she did a pretty good job.

The homework was long and tedious at times but that's more so a reflection of the content and difficulty of this course rather than Wern. Our averages for both the 1st and 2nd midterm, which were around 78% and 85% (if I remember correctly), were significantly higher than most other 32B classes in the past; hence, there was no need for a curve. The exams were all designed to be very doable and matched the content and level of difficulty covered in class, the homework questions, and the practice exams (with the exception of the first midterm having a trap/trick question that was annoying I will admit). Though Wern was not a super confident professor who at times made calculation errors or didn't create her own notes/presentation, she did a thorough job covering the important concepts in the course given the intense pace of the quarter system. I'm not sure I would agree with any of the reviews dissing her for following the textbook when that's the whole foundation/basis of this course.

There were times when HW deadlines needed to be pushed because we were getting behind schedule, but this was a direct result of students not having a good understanding of various content covered in prerequisite courses and Wern was simply trying to accommodate and adapt to those students' needs by extending deadlines. Though there were times when she was unable to explain super abstract concepts in a very clear manner, she always tried her best to answer questions and take any constructive feedback given (which, in my opinion, is already a huge step up from most of UCLA's math department, to say the least). Amongst the other 5 math courses I have taken a UCLA, Wern is most definitely one of the better professors I have encountered.

so TLDR, I would in fact recommend taking a class with her if you feel confident as a student about your abilities to put effort into a class and take time to understand the inherently difficult concepts in math 32B as a course.

I think in general this class is a tough one math wise, especially if you are used to just plugging in numbers to things and going about the problems that way, as I was, especially in the last chapter and a half or so, it gets a little conceptual and can be tricky. Though I personally did not, I think going outside the lectures and textbook on your own would help a lot in this class, from visualization to other things, just because, as other people may have mentioned, the textbook does an okay job with the concepts, and the lectures are basically just the textbook examples and explanations, sometimes with further insights that could be confusing (sometimes were for me). Discussion worksheets were always pretty hard and too long to finish in class, but they were often a little outside the scope of the course, and if you took it to office hours it could be explained pretty well after the fact, and it was nice that it was graded on completion, and that you basically had a full day following your discussion to do so. Tests were generally dfficult but doable to some extent, but it'll vary. My theory is that depending on the performance on the previous exam she will edit the next one so that it "balances out" (i.e. our first midterm was easy our second midterm was pretty hard, which is the opposite to her fall quarter), but the practice exams help A LOT. For the final or any exam, I suggest going over past work and stuff, especially practice problems suggested that AREN'T on the homework (I think one year one of the test questions was literally one of those problems). The homework itself is technically 10 problems, which some can be super confusing and unecessarily difficult, but people on the Campuswire site can be helpful, or friends, but be careful as it can be graded in my opinion, a little harsh.

OVERALL TL/DR: She is pretty kind and willing to help in her multiple office hours, but sometimes it can be confusing. Go to her lecture and see if you like how she explains things, if not; you can skip lectures and do fine as long as you learn elsewhere. Get the discussion worksheets (online, you don't have to go) and go if you want to meet people to help you out. Do the practice she gives out. Good luck!

Based on the reviews I read from last quarter I thought this class was going to be the end of me, but it really was NOT THAT BAD. Listen, 32B is a really difficult math class and I found it to be the hardest math class I've ever taken. But that's not the professor's fault, its just a hard class. Based on what I've heard, she's definitely improved since the last quarter and I think she'll keep improving every time she teaches! Now for the specifics, I don't think she's a very good lecturer (YET!) but I still found going to class to be the best for me, though you can just self study if you want. For the midterms, I didn't think they were that "hard" content-wise because she gave practice midterms before-hand so you knew exactly what the test would look like, the tests just generally had harder functions (esp trig), though even then she didn't expect us to know any trig identities. The main thing that made the midterms really difficult was time, in which I would very, very highly recommend doing the practice problems that she gives outside of just the homework. If you're struggling with the concepts or doing it slowly, it will make a difference. All in all, not the best professor I had but absolutely not the worst, and you will absolutely get out of the class what you put into it, so make sure you study :).