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

As someone who did not take the normal math sequence from 32A-B to 33A, I would say this class was a challenge but manageable. Professor Shin teaches to the best of his ability under a 50-minute class period each day (to think about it, only getting chapters worth of content into ~20 lectures is pretty difficult) but encourages us to look at the textbook for further clarification and for some concepts that weren't able to be covered in class. I would note here that sometimes the notation is different but as long as you can connect the dots you'll be fine. The homework itself is pretty doable and not insanely difficult, and I love how his CampusWire allows for you to ask for help when necessary. He also cracks some snazzy jokes and is really nice during office hours, as he's not hesitant to go through problems you're stuck on in-depth.

The main challenge here would be the big exams and the T/F questions. These relied on having a solid understanding of concepts such as theorems and definitions, and I would say are tough. Sometimes, they require piecing together two theorems or two concepts that may go beyond what you're used to in class. However, if you get them wrong and you go through it, you'll definitely understand how you're wrong and it'll teach you big time! The other midterm/final questions were pretty decent, so I won't review them as in-depth as the T/Fs.

For tips, I would recommend studying the T/Fs at the end of the chapters and to do all the homework problems, as THIS familiarizes you with the possible exam questions and concepts covered. I would also recommend not being hesitant to ask for help via CampusWire, discussion, and/or office hours. Lastly, I would say to attend lectures (though this may not work for everyone) because you're able to understand the concepts as he writes them down in a sequential matter rather than seeing them all at once via Canvas.

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!

I might be bad at math but linear algebra did not make any sense to me after the first midterm. I'm not sure if I wasn't paying attention enough, but I felt like Shin didn't explain the topics after the first midterm that well. Me and other people I know in the class had to reread the textbook multiple times because we didn't feel like the lectures were that helpful in explaining the concepts. However, his midterms and finals were still incredibly fair since they were extremely similar to the homework and you could drop a midterm. As long as you understand the homework really well, especially the computational questions, you should be able to get an A in the class. Be prepared to self study a lot though, it definitely is not an easy A math class where you don't have to put effort in.

Shin is a very reasonable professor with clear expectations. His lectures are clear to understand and he posts lecture notes after, so you don't really need to show up. His exams were very fair. If you studied the notes and did the homework, you should do well in the class. Highly recommend this class with Shin.