Math 120A by nature is a very painful class (just imagine all the tedious derivatives and cross products) as well as having a lot of things to memorized. Dr. Willis midterms always have about 20-30% just based on reciting theorems/definition and maybe 10% on conceptual understanding through true false. The homework assignments were not easy but with the help of TA and his class notes, they were manageable. The exams focus heavily on conceptual understanding and the calculation/algebra required were not terrible on the exam. On the final a brief formula sheet was provided, but for the midterm, need to memorize formulas.

Professor Willis loves to focus on conceptual understanding of the materials. That is to say, his lecture and exams incorporate a lot of these kinds of materials. It's overall a not difficult course, but the curve is also not very good.

33B material wise wasn’t the hardest lower-div math class. Willis made the class easy to understand and engaging enough through COVID. Exams were fair, not too long and not very difficult except for the final which was more difficult than the HW or Midterms.

I truly loved taking this class with Professor Willis. He is always willing to help and take the time explain the concept (in lecture and office hours). He is a very passionate mathematician which makes his office hours very interesting. I HIGHLY recommend him for this course! (ps: my lecture were bruin-casted for this course)

One of the best math professors I've ever had. He was very straightforward and always tried to reformat explanations if someone found it unclear. Just make sure you study accordingly and do the practice exams. Your grade is just 10% homework, 25% for 2 midterms, and 40% final. There are never many tricks on the exams and they're written very fair so overall the class was a dub and you should definitely take him if you can.

Honestly this was probably the best math class I've ever taken. Willis explained everything so thoroughly and made these complex topics so much easier to understand--it's honestly like having a good friend explain things to you. He was very approachable and helpful during lecture and in office hours. His lectures were engaging and I really enjoyed his humor (often dry). I highly recommend going to office hours because I always felt like I learned a lot from them and it really helped nail down the material for the exams. Homework was not tedious at all and was graded fairly. Midterms and Final were really straightforward; I think the hardest part about them was timing. I feel like I learned everything I could in this course, and highly recommend.

Tough class, but Mike is a solid prof. The lecture notes are gold. My only complaint is that we got some really tough homework problems and there were sometimes mistakes in assignments or misleading hints.

He was decent! (I took the class last year for four weeks with Petersen, and Willis is much better at teaching this course IMO). The dude's notes are insanely well written, but the homework can be pretty rough in some weeks and we don't really get solutions afterward from the TA so the learning experience from that is cut a bit short. I also say his explanations of class concepts were definitely not as good in the later half of the course, but then again the material is significantly more difficult at that point.

Willis is a fantastic math teacher. This class is perfectly designed for an introductory math class. While I am a math major, I feel like this class would be manageable for people of any major. There are only two homework assignments each week, one of which should be an easy 100. Both Willis and the TAs are very good about answering questions about the lecture and the homework. The midterms and the finals are not a walk in the park, but they are not designed to trick students and are pretty fair overall. Sometimes Willis explains concepts in a long-winded manner, but he is always open to clarifying when students get confused.

If you need to take Math 31, Willis is the teacher you want to be taking it with.

Professor Willis was an engaging professor. I thought he did an adequate job, teaching Math 31A. I would preface my review by saying that I took AP Calculus in my junior year of high school, got a 4, and didn't take a math course in my senior year. I definitely think I would've been more confused if I didn't take AP Calc/had some sort of calculus background, but the course was a good review. The professor was a little confusing at times during the lecture, but he would go back and try to clarify things better if you ask. I went to two of his office hours and he basically just went over any homework problems we were having difficulty with. I would recommend taking Math 31A with Professor Willis as he was a great professor to have during my first quarter!