Professor
Chenchen Mou
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2017 - This review is for MATH 32A. Mou is not an interesting professor. He does not use slides are animations, preferring instead to draw out diagrams and writing on the board. This means class goes slowly, but at least if you zone out, you can just check the board for anything you missed. His tests are disproportionately dependant on proofs, and I can almost guarantee his delta-epsilon proofs will get you a poor grade on the test. However, he tries to be helpful and spends the week before the final just covering topics that students have trouble with. Overall an OK professor. Edit (6/7/2018): MATH 32A has been added as a course taught by Professor Mou. I have edited this review to be on the correct course (formerly was on MATH 170).
Fall 2017 - This review is for MATH 32A. Mou is not an interesting professor. He does not use slides are animations, preferring instead to draw out diagrams and writing on the board. This means class goes slowly, but at least if you zone out, you can just check the board for anything you missed. His tests are disproportionately dependant on proofs, and I can almost guarantee his delta-epsilon proofs will get you a poor grade on the test. However, he tries to be helpful and spends the week before the final just covering topics that students have trouble with. Overall an OK professor. Edit (6/7/2018): MATH 32A has been added as a course taught by Professor Mou. I have edited this review to be on the correct course (formerly was on MATH 170).
AD
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2020 - I wanna start out saying I took this class during the COVID-19 Pandemic so this may not be reflective of the actual course in class. With that said, I found the material of Math 134 interesting but did not like this course, despite its difficulty. I had a two year break between Math 33B and Math 134 and it was not a problem. Professor Mou is a VERY slow lecturer. We did not finish all the material covered in the Math Department's outline and between the first and second midterm, 4 sections were covered (literally in the same chapter). In general, this was a very easy course and required very little studying. His tests were pretty easy and was very similar to the homework and in some cases EXACTLY the homework. Overall the breakdown for the course was as follows: 50% HW (9 assignments - Lowest two dropped) 12.5% Midterm 1 12.5% Midterm 2 25% Final OR 55% HW (9 assignments - Lowest two dropped) 15% Midterm 1 or Midterm 2 30% Final Overall, he was a really nice professor and genuinely great person. However, his lectures were very hard to follow and I would honestly watch the Cornell equivalent youtube series instead. He pretty much reads the textbook and does not offer too much more information on top of it. His homework assignment were pretty easy and did not take too much time. The midterms and final, like stated above, was pretty easy and fair and he does not reverse curve. He grades things pretty fast too. There was on average a one week return on assessments and homework (the final was graded and returned in 5 days). In terms of Office Hours, he was somewhat helpful but overall, I was still confused by his explanations. Our TA was absolutely amazing (shoutout to Ryan) and knew what he was talking about. During discussion he clearly explained everything and during office hours he was more than happy to help. Overall, I would recommend this class if you want an easy A but it is going to be slow and boring sometimes.
Spring 2020 - I wanna start out saying I took this class during the COVID-19 Pandemic so this may not be reflective of the actual course in class. With that said, I found the material of Math 134 interesting but did not like this course, despite its difficulty. I had a two year break between Math 33B and Math 134 and it was not a problem. Professor Mou is a VERY slow lecturer. We did not finish all the material covered in the Math Department's outline and between the first and second midterm, 4 sections were covered (literally in the same chapter). In general, this was a very easy course and required very little studying. His tests were pretty easy and was very similar to the homework and in some cases EXACTLY the homework. Overall the breakdown for the course was as follows: 50% HW (9 assignments - Lowest two dropped) 12.5% Midterm 1 12.5% Midterm 2 25% Final OR 55% HW (9 assignments - Lowest two dropped) 15% Midterm 1 or Midterm 2 30% Final Overall, he was a really nice professor and genuinely great person. However, his lectures were very hard to follow and I would honestly watch the Cornell equivalent youtube series instead. He pretty much reads the textbook and does not offer too much more information on top of it. His homework assignment were pretty easy and did not take too much time. The midterms and final, like stated above, was pretty easy and fair and he does not reverse curve. He grades things pretty fast too. There was on average a one week return on assessments and homework (the final was graded and returned in 5 days). In terms of Office Hours, he was somewhat helpful but overall, I was still confused by his explanations. Our TA was absolutely amazing (shoutout to Ryan) and knew what he was talking about. During discussion he clearly explained everything and during office hours he was more than happy to help. Overall, I would recommend this class if you want an easy A but it is going to be slow and boring sometimes.