MATH 33A
Linear Algebra and Applications
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Enforced requisite: course 3B or 31B or 32A with grade of C- or better. Introduction to linear algebra: systems of linear equations, matrix algebra, linear independence, subspaces, bases and dimension, orthogonality, least-squares methods, determinants, eigenvalues and eigenvectors, matrix diagonalization, and symmetric matrices. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
5 of 10
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2021 - Take everything you read here with a grain of salt. This is probably the worst class I've taken at UCLA but it honestly was due to outside factors. Dr. Lee was pretty sick for most of the quarter so the class was definitely on the backburner- communication fell off the face of the earth and the class was pretty uninteractive. We were supposed to have quizzes for each lesson with a flipped classroom but we basically stopped having them after like week 6 or something and honestly they really helped me keep up with the content. Midterm 2 wasn't graded until the last day of grades being due (with no answer key uploaded) and the last homework assignment was abandoned. I also hate flipped classrooms and basically didn't attend live lectures for the last 5ish weeks as I felt they were pointless. Overall though, tests were pretty fair, homework wasn't too hard, we had infinity attempts for quizzes and everything and he tried his best. At the end he said he even gave a light curve because the averages were a bit lower than expected (which is honestly unheard of for covid era 24hr tests ngl.) The lectures gave me enough information to succeed and even though I wish it were more engaging, I don't doubt that he'll be a better professor when he is at full strength.
Spring 2021 - Take everything you read here with a grain of salt. This is probably the worst class I've taken at UCLA but it honestly was due to outside factors. Dr. Lee was pretty sick for most of the quarter so the class was definitely on the backburner- communication fell off the face of the earth and the class was pretty uninteractive. We were supposed to have quizzes for each lesson with a flipped classroom but we basically stopped having them after like week 6 or something and honestly they really helped me keep up with the content. Midterm 2 wasn't graded until the last day of grades being due (with no answer key uploaded) and the last homework assignment was abandoned. I also hate flipped classrooms and basically didn't attend live lectures for the last 5ish weeks as I felt they were pointless. Overall though, tests were pretty fair, homework wasn't too hard, we had infinity attempts for quizzes and everything and he tried his best. At the end he said he even gave a light curve because the averages were a bit lower than expected (which is honestly unheard of for covid era 24hr tests ngl.) The lectures gave me enough information to succeed and even though I wish it were more engaging, I don't doubt that he'll be a better professor when he is at full strength.
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Most Helpful Review
His accent was difficult to understand sometimes but if you just follow his notes on the board, you usually understand what he is trying to convey. Additionally, the material in 33A isn't that hard to understand in the first place. The amount of homework he assigned was reasonable. He also assigned weekly quizzes during discussion sections so you had to go. The first midterm was fair, basically if you review the homework, you're good. The second midterm was harder and more theory based. The final was also pretty hard and it had a 53% average. Overall, he was a fair teacher and it shouldn't be too difficult to pass his class.
His accent was difficult to understand sometimes but if you just follow his notes on the board, you usually understand what he is trying to convey. Additionally, the material in 33A isn't that hard to understand in the first place. The amount of homework he assigned was reasonable. He also assigned weekly quizzes during discussion sections so you had to go. The first midterm was fair, basically if you review the homework, you're good. The second midterm was harder and more theory based. The final was also pretty hard and it had a 53% average. Overall, he was a fair teacher and it shouldn't be too difficult to pass his class.
Most Helpful Review
His accent is horrible; I'm still not used to it. But his exams were fair, as they were all computational (except the final, which included 1-2 proofs out of about 11 problems). I agree that the material in 33A doesn't really start to sink in until after the first midterm. The average for the midterms was usually in the C range for our class, so it's not hard getting an A. He doesn't put your homework scores or midterm grades online, so you go into the final with no knowledge of where you rank in the class. I went to class once a week for about 20 minutes, but went to my discussion every week, because my TA was really helpful. I highly recommend going to Professor Liu's "reviews"; he basically tells you what to study for the exams.
His accent is horrible; I'm still not used to it. But his exams were fair, as they were all computational (except the final, which included 1-2 proofs out of about 11 problems). I agree that the material in 33A doesn't really start to sink in until after the first midterm. The average for the midterms was usually in the C range for our class, so it's not hard getting an A. He doesn't put your homework scores or midterm grades online, so you go into the final with no knowledge of where you rank in the class. I went to class once a week for about 20 minutes, but went to my discussion every week, because my TA was really helpful. I highly recommend going to Professor Liu's "reviews"; he basically tells you what to study for the exams.
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2020 - I started with the class during the COVID epidemic, so perhaps the lectures are different in real life. However he zoomed through classes, speed-running through his own notes leaving the students in the dust. While an accent shouldn't affect one's judgement of a professor, he does have a heavy accent and by the time I could figure out what he said he was 3 pages ahead in his notes. This class is one that will be useful for a long time and I would rather not take it for an entire quarter than to take it with a professor wherein my concepts would remain broken. He takes doubts happily and maintains a cheery mood, but asking for reiteration of a topic would remain to be useless since he would end up skimming through it again. He is a great person with a passion for math however his teaching as a professor could have some major improvement! Despite knowing the starting of the class decently well, his explanation counterintuitively shattered them!
Spring 2020 - I started with the class during the COVID epidemic, so perhaps the lectures are different in real life. However he zoomed through classes, speed-running through his own notes leaving the students in the dust. While an accent shouldn't affect one's judgement of a professor, he does have a heavy accent and by the time I could figure out what he said he was 3 pages ahead in his notes. This class is one that will be useful for a long time and I would rather not take it for an entire quarter than to take it with a professor wherein my concepts would remain broken. He takes doubts happily and maintains a cheery mood, but asking for reiteration of a topic would remain to be useless since he would end up skimming through it again. He is a great person with a passion for math however his teaching as a professor could have some major improvement! Despite knowing the starting of the class decently well, his explanation counterintuitively shattered them!
5 of 10
