The best thing about this class was definitely the recorded lectures. The class was at 9am so getting to class on time was kind of challenging but the professor recorded every single lecture and would upload the day of. The worst thing about this class was the professor's indecisiveness. He would change his mind every week and was unsure of many things. It is understandable since this was his first year but it made the class extra challenging for no reason. Personally, I had not taken Calc AB in high school and I was confused most of the time but Khan Academy was definitely a very useful tool. His office hours were definitely useful in terms of explaining the homework however the room was very very small and the students would have to sit outside the room to be able to at least listen to what the professor is saying. The tests were manageable since he used most of the materials from the homework and the practice problems however he expected us to be able to finish them in 50 minutes even though each problem had over 4 parts. Overall, the professor was definitely unlucky since it was his first time teaching and because of the TA strike but he could have managed the class better. I do not suggest him to someone who has not taken calc AB before.

Math 31A is essentially AP Calculus AB(4), which I took so I will admit my review is different from someone who's first calc class is this class. Firstly though, this class didn't require the purchase of a textbook (pdf provided and I didn't really use), and a calculator was not required to buy as well but I already had Ti-36 Pro in case for homework which was sometimes helpful, which meant that there really wasn't any crazy numbers beyond the skill of college freshmen. As you see from the other reviews, the the TA strike this quarter really messed up the second midterm and the final.

Lectures : It was manageable but challenging at times, and note that the Professor has the habit of intentionally skipping over the algebra (which made it more difficult sometimes for me) and going pretty fairly fast, so keeping up and being able to quickly know what step/tricks he used to simplify is important, but don't worry too much, but the way he does it means you'll either be having a good time or a bad time.

Homework : Basically, you'll be thanking how much time you get for the required homework and how it's worth 25% of your grade, for as along you have someone to review over with, it's easy points; do well on these as these points are very helpful, but don't be cocky, you actually gotta know the general content

Tests : At least for this quarter, the tests are essentially 75-90% the same questions picked from the Homework (mostly not the requires ones) and the few pdf's of "Extra Practice Problems", with a some from the lecture, obviously you actually want to learn the content, but doing the extra problems can make the whole difference. The actual format is 5 questions with many parts, with the final having more parts. Make sure to know the Theorem's as best as you can in terms of the wording and format. The Final had a lot of repeats from previous tests so it helps

Discussions/Office Hours : Depends on your TA as usual, but they're very helpful for asking questions about homework and doing practice problems. Typical stuff and no problems here. I've only been to Office Hours once, but it is indeed a small room, but it's great for getting explanations for certain key problems

TA Strike : Lot's of stuff were up in the air regarding testing, grading, etc as a result, and so the second midterm ended up 2/5 questions where % = 2(Question 1 + Question 2)/100 points, where Q1 + Q2 has a max of 50 points and +10% at the end of it. Finals was originally similar in the 2/5 questions, but eventually everyone's exam including the second midterm was graded normally (he was able to get graders before the strike ended) so things worked out but it was hectic

Overall Thoughts : Manageable, challenging, and quite a bit of chaos and confusion, but the Professor was fair and reasonable when it came to the end of it, but I wouldn't be surprised if this ended up being hard for many.

This guy can make even the most simple concepts seem extraordinarily complicated. He is one of the most confusing professors that I've ever had. If you take his class, I would suggest subscribing to Khan Academy or some other learning platform where they will actually show you how to solve the problems rather than skipping straight to the answer with no further explanation.

I really loved 131A with Professor Wu! He is an amazing professor, during lecture he used many colored chalks and helped build intuition for the harder concepts. He also always provided midterm/final reviews and during office hours he was very approachable and helpful. Although the class is one of the hardest math courses, this class really helped me build strong foundations in proof writing and core concepts I still use. It was overall a very rewarding class, so if you have the option to take 131A with Wu, I highly recommend. You will learn a lot and are in good hands :)