Silk is a great teacher for this class. She is knowledgable and her tests are fair. Make sure you attend lecture and learn the lecture notes well cause her questions come straight from that. I always had them printed and reviewed them for the midterm and final which really really helped cause I got an A on both. The reading is optional(in my opinion) cause the lecture highlights what you need to know from the readings. She taught this class with another Prof. Levine(also great and fair teacher)