She honestly is such a legend. Loved 33a with her.

The recent reviews are more accurate representations of her class. She's def not the GOAT. She's rude when people ask questions in class and she's made people feel dumb for asking for clarification and gets exasperated when she herself asks a question in class but we're all too busy trying to write down all the notes (your hand will hurt during lecture and you will get soooo many pages of notes per lecture). She isn't clear in her explanations, she does a lot of proofs in lecture but makes it more confusing because she does the proof first and then tells you the theorem so you're lost for like 10 minutes while you're copying down the proof for something you don't know what you're trying to prove.

Don't even get me started on her midterms. Personally, I don't do the best on math test when I only have 50 minutes but I don't know how other people work. Her midterms are 4-5 questions for 50 minutes which is like 10 minutes for a multiple part question. Like that doesn't even give you enough time to sift through all the info she's thrown at you in the past few weeks let alone complete all the basic math she makes you do. Her tests use double digit numbers which are ridiculous when you're trying to multiply matrices, so you spend half the time doing long multiplication. Ugh f dis class. Still got a B but studied so fucking hard and understood everything.

In conclusion, the way her class is set up is atrocious but relative to other 33A profs, or math professors in general, she's above average.

Honestly Visan isn't as great as everyone makes her out to be. She can be rude in lecture and overcomplicates the topics that she teaches. She'll ask the class what the answer for a certain example problem is and when someone doesn't answer immediately she gets really mad. Some people find this entertaining but I did not. In lecture she just writes proofs on the board the whole time and rarely does examples. Your hand will cramp from so much writing. Her midterms are reasonable and you can do well on them if you study. Homework isn't too bad. The final was pretty difficult mostly because it had a lot of nasty fractions and square roots in the calculations. Overall, not a super hard class but Visan could do a better job of explaining things more patiently and clearly.

Visan is an effective professor for Math 33A - she generally has a good mix of theory/examples in class and is able to explain concepts well. However, the averages on the midterms/finals were pretty high (in the 70s and 80s), so there wasn't a strong curve in this class. The midterms were only 4 problems each, so missing just one problem hurts your grade a lot. Overall, Visan is a good choice for 33A, but know that you will definitely have to put in the effort in order to get a good grade in this class.

Professor Visan is definitely the best math professor that I have had at UCLA. While her notes may seem a bit confusing during class (they're mostly definitions and proofs), if you read through your notes again, it's much clearer. The concepts of Math 33A are not difficult, but it's definitely necessary to understand them to do well. Exams are computational (except there was a few true or false questions on the final-which is another reason to definitely know and truly understand theorems). Although they are generally computations done before in class or on the homework, sometimes there are a few minor curveballs thrown in to make sure you know the theory and thus can figure out how to do the computations. Honestly, the hardest part about the class is doing better than everyone else on the exams-since it's fairly doable, a lot of the class gets an A, so make sure to still take the class seriously if you want to get an A. The exams all had averages around 70-75% and ~25% of the class would still get an A. The grading scheme is 10% homework, 20% per midterm, and 50% final. I definitely recommend taking Professor Visan (but just know her class fills up really quickly! It was full by around 2 PM on the day of freshman first pass and she does not give PTE numbers since the class was so full that people were sitting on the steps of the lecture hall).

SHE IS THE G.O.A.T. I have never made an account to write a bruinwalk review but this professor is so good that I just have to do it. She is the best math professor I ever had at UCLA (compared to her husband, Killip lmao). In lecture, she might seem really strict but personally, I like this about her because that's how you know that she means business in teaching. During her office hours, on the other hand, she is a completely different person. She is so nice and patient with answering your questions so I recommend going there if you need help. She is extremely clear and brutally efficient at getting you know exactly what you need to know for the midterm and final. She doesn't teach you nonsense that you'll never see again in the tests. The midterms were very easy conceptually and were purely computational. The hard part about the midterms are that they are EXTREMELY computationally heavy within a small 50 minute time frame and so it's easy to make arithmetic mistakes and get the question wrong. The killer for these tests are solely arithmetic mistakes. The final is also easy conceptually but also has intense computations. For the final, it was almost exactly like her practice final and she spent the whole last lecture going over how to do questions that did show up on the test. It is no exaggeration that she does everything possible to have you do well. The only really major concern you'll have with this class is that she prepares ALL of you really well for her tests. That means you'll probably have a decently challenging time trying to be within the top 25-30% of students to get an A as the math department have quota's for people getting grades and you're competing with other students who also know the material really well. Despite that, I still HIGHLY RECOMMEND her class. 10/10 would take again. Visan's the homie <3

Monica Visan is a great professor. She is stern, sharp, and does not put up with any ruckus in the class. That being said, she is a very kind lady -- she's funny and serious at the same time. You can tell she cares about her students. Not to mention, she is a mathematical genius. Just don't ask a dumb question in class or you will get toasted.

Her lectures involve lots of writing (and she can write fast). You will likely fill up a notebook. The notes are very helpful though -- the exact problems she does in the notes appear as test questions.

33A is pretty tough. The first few weeks you will be trying to figure out what is going on. But soon, you will get the hang of things.

Her tests are very fair and heavily computational. The midterms are more difficult than the final as they are pressed for time, but they never have any proofs or anything unordinary.

All in all, difficult class, good professor, would recommend.