Mess is brilliant, but he has extremely weak interpersonal skills. For that reason most students are thrown off by his lectures and hate him. I realized after the first week that his lecture is nothing more than him reading from the book. My advice: if you're like me and you can teach yourself from the book, then take his class, do the homework and never go to lectures when he teaches. His midterms and final are easy since you just have to regurgitate proofs and demonstrate a minimum understanding of the material. The course itself doesn't cover much, so people complaining about the class are retarded. I don't think of myself as super smart, but I still got an A doing just that.

Worst class I ever taken in my life. His lectures are far beyond most people's understanding of math. Now I'm quite sure his lectures are correct, but they're extremely difficult for an average college student who has not seen number theory and pure mathematics. He looks at math from a theoretical perspective and this does not help us at all. I taught Math 32A material myself because I couldn't make sense of his lectures. His exams mostly consist of random proofs in the book, most of which are extremely difficult to understand. As for the professor himself, Professor Mess is definitely a genius but he cannot fill the gap between his and our intelligence. Avoid him as possible!

His class is absolutely ridiculous. The lectures do not help at all because he fails to convey his point across. This means that you are left with only your TA and the book to grasp some knowledge of what might be on his tests. Pray that you have a good TA that has good office hours and has review sessions. The homework does not help much except for the fact that it gives you some incentive to look in the book for that week. He loses the homework on a regular basis so don't be surprised if yours just happens to not return to you. Also, for my class, he did not even bother to put the final homework assignment into the grade book. But that's not the worst part. He didn't even bother to put in the FINAL into the grade book. So, if you are in his class and he tells you what exactly is going to be on the final but, come the day of the test, that's not what's on it, do not stress out because there is a good chance the final won't even be taken into account for your final grade. I do not think it is by accident that his name is Mess. It has been his destiny to be a poor math "teacher." I luckily passed but I still strongly advise not taking him. In most cases, taking math is a must, but if you would rather have a good grade and take math the next quarter when you can avoid Mess, I would definitely take that into consideration. He is not worth the trouble, and anybody who says otherwise probably did/does not have an active social life.

well, i just got my final grade but I try to be fair. At the beginning of the quarter, you think he is the worst professor you have ever had. probably he would be! In the lecture, he would try his best to teach the material, but you would get lost anyway since he has really bad communication skills. As the previous review mentioned, you should read the book before each lec. First midterm, you would hate mathematics and Mess, but on the 2nd midterm you would feel much better, and the final would be the easiest for you since you would get used to his exam's style. just memorize and practice proofs and "show that" questions as many as you can since 3 of the 4 questions would be something like that. Overall, I would not recommend him to anybody, but if you have to take him ,as I did, just don't give up and do your best, he's not that bad if you get used to him.
with all of his bad qualities in teaching, he is overall a nice guy to be honest. and the best thing in his class is that he gives at least 23% of the class A- or above and 58% B- or above. so you have a good chance of getting a good grade even if you have done bad in his midterms(which overall is just 20% of your final grade, the other 20% is HW and final is 60% which I think it was good b/c that way you have lots of room to recover!)

I am quite shocked by the reviews here at bruinwalk. I thought professor Mess was a really good professor. Although most of my classmates seemed to be lost in his lectures, I thought his lectures were excellent in addition to the textbook. YOU HAVE TO READ BEFORE THE LECTURE or else you'll find them very confusing. I'm not trying to sound like an arrogant snob, but I find it quite intimidating that people here just don't seem to care about what he's trying to teach; most of them seem to have a weak mathematical background. He lectures from a straight up theoretical perspective and doesn't teach out of the book. Just as the previous reviews say, he is quite eccentric, but eccentricity is often associated with brilliant minds. His midterms were very straightforward, most problems came straight from the book examples. His final was somewhat fair, most of the problems are found in the textbook and he tells you what the study beforehand. He is also helpful, but you have to take the initiative of going up to him and ask him a question. If you don't want help, then he won't give you help. It's as simple as that, and the same applies to any professor at UCLA. If you're not a math major, or not strong in math, then the good news is that the midterms are way easier than following his lectures and again, very straightforward. If you're a math major, TAKE THIS CLASS! You'll find this class more interesting and challenging, and ultimately more rewarding.

A lot of people here claim that you should "avoid him if you can." Naturally, I couldn't, so I decided to take him. Whoops. I'm not sure if math professors here are any better than him, but I can say with absolute certainty that I really wish my high school math teachers taught this class, because they at least explained the material.

I feel kind of bad for him some times, but at the same time, I feel kind of bad for myself sometimes, too. So I don't know. If you don't want to be stressed for no good reason, I suggest you don't take this class.

In fact, regardless, I suggest you don't take this class.

(Maybe if he shaved I might like him better? :/ I'd feel like a mean slimeball if that were the case...)

His lectures are usually unclear. His homework assignments do not help you on any of his tests. Avoid him if you can.

Horrid. Memorize as many proofs as you can and spit them out on the day of the test. Then if you're not a math major, forget about them. On the second midterm, (I took W'09 32A with him) one question asked us for the definition of a continuous function. This is a ridiculously irrelevant question to answer, and it has the mathematical rigor of an upper division analysis course. In fact, I just learned the answer to this question one year later in Math 131A this quarter (W'10). Basically, he cares way to much about definitions and proofs, when this class is supposed to teach you how to compute things in 3D like max's, min's, lines, planes, and such. Lecture is awful if you want to learn the material; the only thing it's good for is trying to get his hints about what's going to be on the test.

This class was pretty horrible, i'm not going to lie. Mess is a horrible teacher, but he is a nice guy. I agree with the preview review, if you know how this class works, you might (maybe) do well. My advice is to go to class (even though it feels useless) and write down all the proofs and examples he does in class. Then memorize them, and memorize the proofs from the homework as well.

good luck !

Pure memorization will get you through this course. All exams consisted of random proofs in the book and homework problems. His lectures are very confusing. But he occasionally ends class early, so that's nice.