RAHHHH this class is wayy too hard for what we learn. It's taught super confusingly, and things are not explianed as they should be. Professor tries to be helpful to the students by being very excited and passionate, but the truth is it is a really really frusterating class because it feels like we are not given the support to adequately finish the difficult homeworks. Not a good class. Textbook is also confusing. Recommend a different professor.

I enjoyed Professor Hester's class, but I do understand some of the criticisms others have shared. The homework was very challenging, but it was good practice for the exams. I also didn't find the professor's online notes very helpful (although I didn't rely on them much of the time because the textbook was a pretty good resource).

But aside from that, Professor Hester was genuinely very helpful. He's very eager to help, and every lecture, he insisted that everyone ask questions. In fact, as part of every homework assignment, he wanted us to ask a question, even if only tangentially related to the course. I found this helpful for two reasons: i) this was a good opportunity to ask big-picture questions about the course or just random math questions, and ii) it was a great way to get general advice for things like succeeding in the course, or even advice for pursuing graduate studies.

Some general advice for anyone who wants to take this class:
- There's a lot of overlap with Math 142. I took 134 and 142 the same quarter, and it made absorbing material feel much easier.
- Read the textbook. Prof Hester's lectures follow the textbook pretty closely. On top of that, the textbook is also written pretty well (although the version I got through Inclusive Access had some weird typos, so you may want a different online version to compare with).
- Know how to do the homework problems. If you know how to do the hw, then you'll be prepared for the exams. This class isn't proof-based, so there are only so many types of problems that can be asked.
- Ask questions. As discussed above, Prof Hester cares about his students, so he's always happy to take questions

A lot of my classmates did not like Professor Hester for the reasons that they mentioned in the reviews above and below mine. And to be fair, some points are valid. He does give time-challenging exams, and a good amount of self studying does need to be done for this course. The homework is long and hard - I had to personally ask for extensions a few times, though he kindly did give one/two extra days for it in response.
If someone were to ask me about recommending this course, I actually would recommend this course, but not necessarily for everyone. If you are a student that focuses on learning about challenging + rewarding material more than grades, wants to have a class that focuses on asking good questions about differential equations, and has good self-study and mathematical aptitude (make sure you know calculus (single and multi)+linear algebra well), then taking Math 134 with Professor Hester is for you. On the other hand, if you are looking for a more simpler, easier course with manageable workload and are not exactly passionate about learning mathematics, then this course is not for you.

Personally, since I wanted to focus more on learning the material than the grade itself, I actually did enjoy the course. The course is a bit challenging as you focus on explaining systems qualitatively, rather than calculating stuff as was typical in lower division courses. But if you keep up with the pace, you will really learn a lot about describing differential equations (reading the textbook is important, but thankfully, the author of the textbook explains stuff in a somewhat casual manner, making it easier to read than other dense math textbooks).

The grade distribution was 25% homework (one drop), 25% midterm, and 50% final (if scored better on the final, midterm grade gets replaced with final). Note that getting an A is possible even if you can't finish the entire exam in time, which actually did happen to me (I left like 10-15% of the exam blank due to not enough time).

Overall, just know what type of attitude you have in studying before taking this professor. He is challenging, but he cares about his students and does attempt to listen student feedback, even if things do not always go perfect. And also, this is his first time teaching Math 134 for W24, though he did teach Math 135 several times. Hope this review gives you a different perspective on what to expect!

Professor Hester is a nice guy but didn't seem very experienced. In his lectures, he just read off of the textbook (which wasn't easy to understand at first glance), and stuggled to simplify or clarify information when people had questions. He flat out refused to record his lectures, and posted the sloppiest, most bare-bones notes I've ever seen. Homework was challenging, but manageable. There weren't many resources online to help supplementary learning. His exams are ridiculously challenging from a timing perspective. Most of the students I know in the class only finished about 50-60% of the first midterm, and only 70% of the final despite knowing how to complete all of the problems. HW due dates were weird; instead of the usual 11:59 on friday night, we had HW due on Tuesdays at 10PM sometimes. Professor Hester was absent from class on many occassions, and frequently held office hours ending only a few hours before the homework sets were due. I would never recommend this class to anybody, and honestly thing UCLA needs to find a more suitable professor to teach it.

I felt the lectures were often hard to follow and it took a lot of extra studying from the textbook on my own to understand the content well enough to answer the questions on the homework. I felt that HW questions were chosen poorly at times too. I felt the timing of the last homework was also rather unreasonable with not much wiggle room.

horrible canvas notes. not recorded. hard to read his writing on the board. exams are unreasonably long, too many questions, can't finish in the given time. honestly felt like lectures only covered 30% of the material needed for the homework. wouldn't recommend this prof to anyone honestly. hope there is someone better to teach this class

This class was a lot more difficult than I originally anticipated, and I believe that the class felt the same way considering the lower averages for the two midterms. The professor made sure to answer any and all questions, but in doing so he would fail to finish his planned lecture. Towards the end of the quarter, it became almost required to attend the office hours to finish the rest of the lecture. While the homework itself wasn't too long, it didn't give a good idea of how the exams would go.

There needed to be more practice questions that followed the same format as the exam. I had to reread a lot of the questions to understand what was being asked of me. Some exam questions were freebies as long as you included the right definitions and theorems on the cheat sheet. That was the main use of the cheat sheet since most of it came down to applying what was covered in lecture and homework assignments.