Take him, he's literally the BEST professor I have ever taken so far (this is my second quarter at UCLA). Homeworks are easy and have reasonable difficulty, I normally spend only 1-2 hours on them. Midterms and finals also have reasonable difficulty. His explanations are concise, and he goes through relevant examples to make us understand better. His lectures and notes are the best (I literally never bother opening the textbook, besides for HW, because his teachings are that great). You'll never regret taking his class.

100% the best professor I've ever taken at UCLA. the man is an angel and the most understanding and chill prof.

Literally said if the final was bad I will curve so you all get A's....Legend

I took this during COVID, so my experience may differ.

Honestly a super chill, adorable, and kind dude. You can tell he wants the best for his students.

As for his teaching style, I really enjoyed it in the sense that it was super straight forward—multivariable can we pretty confusing, and he laid out the formulas for us and didn't do the proofs for them. He also did literally two (extremely easy) example problems probably per lecture. Honestly we finished early most of the time. Again, super great for a base level understanding of the material. The only issue came to the midterms. The first one was insanely easy, esc. given that we have 24 hrs. The second was mediocre, BUT you can lose 15-30% on each problem because they barely give ANY partial credit. This honestly screws your grade over low key. Again, you have 24 hrs so I would not stress about this too much. The final was pretty difficult but I spent hours and hours on it and worked through it. You can do textbook problems to practice, esc the further insight ones towards the end of each section (but i didn't find those extremely helpful, just better than the simple hw problems he gives). Overall I would recommend this class. Super funny guy too.
(Side note: He is kinda spotty with responding to emails.)
Also, Clark was my TA and he was alright, basically just read off slides the entire time so it wasn't extremely helpful but gave a nice review of the material.

people are so mad in these reviews and for what. prof. nam is an absolute angel! he's literally the sweetest guy and was always so happy during lecture. he is super concise but explains everything super well so you really have a good understanding of the material going into hw and exams. our lectures always finished early or right on time, and he never went off on useless tangents or did confusing proofs. his first midterm was too easy (98% median). his second midterm was normal difficulty (86% median). his final was slightly harder but still had a 76% percent average. everyone who is complaining that the first midterm was fair but all of the other exams were not just wants an easy A with 0 work. 98% median on an exam is not reasonable and shows that the exam was not effective at gauging knowledge. 86% median for the second midterm is still a high median and most professors would view the exam as too easy. also, people are acting like the difficulty of the final came out of the blue when he literally warned us that it would have difficult problems several times in lecture.

overall, math 32a, like every other math class at ucla, takes work to succeed. if you are not willing to put in the work and study, you will be disappointed by your grade, regardless of the professor. nam is an absolute legend and you should take him if you have the chance. you will not regret it!!

edit: changed average to median; i misremembered the data type. the review on here that is referencing my review and saying that my midterm averages are incorrect is likely from a student from a different lecture , which i believe had medians of 96% and 84%. also, if we're calling each other out, i would like to say that using your circumstances to your full advantage is very important . if you want and A, and that means taking all day on a final when you are afforded 24 hours, then that's what you have to do! personally, i took 6 hours( with breaks) to do the final and got an A. if i had really focused, i could have done it faster. once again, i think it just comes down to work put in vs return. complaining that people worked harder (took all day on the final) and then got a higher grade seems illogical to me. lastly, there was study material of comparable complexity to the final--the further insights/challenges in the textbook--which nam specifically highlighted as useful study material.

overall: im not a petty person so i never do this, but i will literally bite anyone who hates on nam which is why the kids are fightinggg rn

The man is actually adorable. He's great at lecturing and is amazing at answering questions by students. Overall he is great. However, Each test got progressively harder. I got a 98 on the first midterm, 87 on the second midterm, and then 77 on the final. The final is ridiculously hard but I have friends who got high 90s. I would take him again for sure but would definitely study harder.

went pretty well until the final which was very difficult (and he did not curve iirc). He is still an excellent professor and very funny, I would absolutely recommend you take his class

Professor Nam is great, honestly. He's totally willing to help if you're struggling, and his lectures are easy to understand. He doesn't use slides, just takes notes as he goes along, which I find more helpful anyways. Recordings and the notes are uploaded afterwards. Would totally take another class with Prof. Nam.

I would like to say that Nam is a great guy and a good teacher. I think the homework is very manageable and his first two midterms were quite fair. That said, the final was brutal and brought my grade down an entire letter. And he didn't curve. I would take Nam, but just know that the final is going to be the hardest thing you'll ever take in your entire life.