finished the class with a 97.2% and got an A.

This class isn’t easy, especially if you don’t know how to tackle the homework. A lot of the textbook problems show up on the midterms and final, but Shin doesn’t cover all the concepts in class. Honestly, I had to self-learn at least half the material. The homework is tough, but solutions are available online, which really helped me optimize my learning. It’s so challenging that Shin gives 3 homework drops and 3 quiz drops—out of just 10 assignments and 6 quizzes.

The first midterm is the hardest, mainly because of the true/false questions. As a freshman, this was my first math course at UCLA, and I underestimated those T/F questions. They’re 20 out of 100 points on the midterm, and you have to memorize the theorems. The textbook explanations and proofs were tough to follow, so I focused on understanding and memorizing the concepts throughout the course. Shin barely takes the time to explain proofs like the Gram-Schmidt process or linear regressions. Instead of breaking down how they work, he just gives us the equations to use for the problems.

Long story short, if you want to do well, be prepared to self-learn from the textbook.

I think the rumors of this class being easy are greatly exaggerated. It is relatively easy compared to other STEM classes, but I do think it requires some work--unless you're already pretty good at math, you can't just walk into the test without any prior prep. I took this class after I took 33B first, since last quarter, 33A filled too fast for me to get a seat. I came in already familiar with how to use matrices to solve a system, so the first two weeks were very easy for me. However, comparing the two classes, I think 33B (especially with Wang) is SIGNIFICANTLY easier than 33A, and I think that's because this class is taught with a lot of theorems that are difficult to remember. I would say half of class is spent talking about theorems and the other half is spent going over examples. The mathematic work in this class is computationally incredibly simple and easy. However, it might take some practice to remember when to use which set of steps, and which theorems to apply. The majority of true/false questions (two per week on each quiz, ~5 on each midterm, and ~10ish on the final) are based on concepts, so your theoretical knowledge has to be pretty good, unless you're good at guessing. The majority of the points I miss always come from getting the true/false wrong. My best advice to you is to just grind the true/false at the end of each chapter in the textbook.

In terms of class logistics, there's *supposed* to be one quiz a week (none after midterms) and one homework set a week (none after midterms), but I think we ended the quarter with 8 homeworks and 6 quizzes somehow. He continues teaching up until the last day of class and assigns an additional optional homework assignment for week 10 for extra practice, and I recommend doing that even though it doesn't need to be submitted. You drop the lowest two quizzes and lowest homework, and if enough people fill out the survey for the class, it gets bumped to three quizzes and two homeworks. There are two grading schemes, including one where you drop your worst midterm, which is helpful. The second midterm is harder than the first one imo, so you should grind harder for the first one just so that you can drop the second one if necessary. You get one double-sided index card for the second midterm and the final, which is helpful too.

Ultimately, I barely scraped by with an A (93.1%) but I only studied for a day before each test. Those days, I did have to lock in for the entire day and stay up late/wake up early, which is why I found this class more difficult than advertised, but considering how it was doable to cram everything into one long extended study session, I think that makes this class relatively easier than others. Do with that info what you will, but I would recommend not doing what I did.

BRIAN SHIN IS THE ABSOLUTE GOAT. sorry to say this but we don't deserve him. Genuinely amazing professor who likes to teach and wants to make sure you understand the material. It helps that linear algebra isn't too hard to begin with, but the workload is very light, with extra practice problems listed with the problem sets. Go to his office hours, he's so helpful and can break everything down for you. Lectures are recorded, lecture notes are posted, textbook and solutions can be easily found online. 2 midterms, with questions somewhat easier than problem sets obviously meant to test your conceptual knowledge.
I was sick the entire week leading up to the 2nd midterm but thank the GOAT for having an alternative grading scheme that just looks at your top midterm grade.
10/10 imagine if every professor was like him

Brian is such a fair teacher, and if you go to lecture, do the homework (I did all the recommended questions!), and also go to discussion you will be fine!!! Epitome of how profs should be :3

Quick summary: Shin is NOT like what the past reviews said, idk if he changed or what but think twice before taking his class for 33A. (Haven't take final yet so I put incomplete for the grade)

Reason why:
1. Shin's lecture is based on textbook, true, but he is expecting all students to read all chapters of all materials he mentioned in class. This means that even if he just talked about how simple reflection & rotation look like on graph during the lecture, he is expecting you to know and use formula for orthogonal projection on hw and mt1 on week 4, but this content will not be covered in lecture until week 6.

2. Still the lecture problem, Shin likes to break complete chapters into pieces and jump back and forth between theorem and formula from multiple chapters. I feel the only kind of students who can always follow up with his lecture are students who alreay taken 33A. And he has the habit of directly using order of theorem from textbook instead of their actual name, for exmaple, he would say "we use theorem 1.1.1 here" instead of "using basic row operation", making his lecture even more confusing.

3. If the above two are bad, here is the worst: Shin does not tell you what he is expecting you to learn by yourself. The only clue you will get is his hw cause you likely don't know how to do most of the hw problem by just going to lecture. You really have to dig into those problems and see what extra formula or theorem should be used to solve them, then you can start guessing which formula or theorem Shin would expect you to know for exams. (Oh and he did not allow cheat sheet for mt1 and the class average was a disaster, so he allowed an index card for mt2 but made T/F question even harder to compensate) You might think asking him about this will solve the prblem, but NO. There was a student asking him explicitly about a method he never mentioned but appeared on hw multiple times and seems important and convenient enough to be discussed during lecture, but he answered back with "No, we are not going to talk about this", and later this appears on mt LOL.

Final advise: If you have to take Shin's 33A for whatever reason, at least try to enroll in Latha's section. He is our TA and he is soooooo nice and helpful. I honestly think he is a better lecturer than Shin for this course and he helped a lot.

TEST IS HARD

Shin is the GOAT. Exams are mostly straightforward and predictable. As long as you can do the lecture problems he does in class you can pull through with a B+/A- on the exams. True/false are a bit tricky and honestly i threw those bc I had other classes to study for. He assigns 2 question take home quizzes every week, but I would just make friends and so each of you can take turns opening the quizzes first each week. He also dropped 2 homeworks and a quiz I think which was cool. Hw & take home quizzes are graded on accuracy. Would take again.

Shin was a great professor for Math 33A! He was clear, understanding, and always helpful. His lectures were based on the textbook but explained much better, so I did not have to read it for this class. The quizzes were pretty easy, too, but the homework was fairly challenging. However, if you can do the homework problems, the exams should be fairly easy, too. Shin's exam grading structure is pretty standard to the 33 series (you can drop one midterm for greater weightage on the final). Doing ALL homework problems (even the optional ones) is how I prepared for the exams. Overall, I thought the first midterm was VERY easy, with the second one being a bit harder (more computationally challenging/time-consuming). The final was fair but not easy. The true/false is somewhat difficult/requires intuition beyond the lecture notes. However, Shin is definitely one of the better (and easier) 33A professors with fair grading and tests so I would recommend taking the class with him.

Dr. Shin is fantastic. He's a very clear, straightforward, and entertaining lecturer. If you're coming from either of the 32 series classes, this class is really easy. I got an A- because I had a really rough quarter, so I barely studied and did not keep up with the work. If I could get an A- barely putting in effort, you'll be fine if you study. This class is very "applications based" in the sense that you're doing work without really understanding what it is you're doing, why it's useful, or why it matters. It's a lot of memorizing how to do problems and just understanding the nuances of how problems change. The homework is the most difficult part of the class. If you can do the homework, you should be fine on exams. The quizzes are reflective of the multiple choice questions on exams, and that's about it. Discussion is optional in the sense that there's no participation grade. I don't think you need to read the textbook, but I found it helpful to go over theorems in a different way. Overall, a great class, although it's very different from the 32 series where you really need to understand the concepts in order to do well.

Honestly? Shin is a pretty damn good professor. I'd say that he's probably the only Math 30 series professor that I've liked. While the content can be conceptually difficult, he breaks down definitions, steps, and problems in a way that is extremely digestible. It's obvious that he really cares about student learning and is passionate about what he does.

The class was set up in a way that I believe really promoted learning instead of just cramming. We had 10 homework assignments (two lowest dropped), 7 online quizzes (two lowest dropped), and 3 exams (one of the midterms could be dropped). Some of the homework assignments were a bit challenging, but they were relatively short and could--for the most part--be completed by integrating concepts from his lecture notes and the textbook. He maintained a class Campuswire in which students could help each other on the assignments and exam preparation, and both him and the TAs were quite active on it, too. Also, he provided lots of extra practice problems for each HW assignment, which is probably the best way to review/practice for exams. The quizzes each had 2 multiple choice questions and a time limit of 10 minutes; they were a great way to get quick feedback on your understanding of the content without impacting your grade that much. I believe the exams were fair, but they were not necessarily easy. The two midterms were quite similar to the homework but were very time-pressured and computationally-heavy. The final was a lot less time pressured, but some of the true-false questions were very tricky because they relied on intuition not explicitly covered in class or the textbook. Ultimately, the exam averages were typically around the low 80s, which is pretty standard for STEM courses.

Whether you are a physical science/engineering major or someone who wants to take this class for a minor/your personal interest, I'd highly recommend taking it with Shin. One thing I will say is that if you aren't a physical science/engineering major, this class may not be the easy A that you'd expect it to be. I'm a Cogsci major who took this class for personal interest (without having done Math 32A/B), and I had to work really hard to get below average on the first midterm and slightly above average on the second midterm and final. You definitely still have to try, but it'll be worth it in the end!