Professor
Robert Greene
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Most Helpful Review
Alright. I'm a Math major who takes upper division Math classes and only aim for Honor or hard classes. So anybody who's the same with me or at least looking for a good professor, listen up. He's very motivating and encouraging a professor. Even most of Math TAs like him. His lectures are disorganized from times to times, but that's his style. He gives you a lot of intuitions about what's going on, you have to understand for it, after all, he's half-artist, the man plays violin. His homework is extremely difficult but it's very focused; it gives you insights on topology. His exams aren't so hard, they're doable, IF AND ONLY IF you do and understand the homework. Trust me, the exams are 5 times easier than the homework, so don't freak out. I mean, I took this class before 131A, which is a prerequisite, and I got A. Prof. Greene helped me a lot to understand things. He's like my guru now. He's very caring as well. His personality is a bit funny, but he's not cold. Upper division students might find this smart man as a great professor whilst lower divisions ones just can't stand his lecture style. There you go; it's my opinion.
Alright. I'm a Math major who takes upper division Math classes and only aim for Honor or hard classes. So anybody who's the same with me or at least looking for a good professor, listen up. He's very motivating and encouraging a professor. Even most of Math TAs like him. His lectures are disorganized from times to times, but that's his style. He gives you a lot of intuitions about what's going on, you have to understand for it, after all, he's half-artist, the man plays violin. His homework is extremely difficult but it's very focused; it gives you insights on topology. His exams aren't so hard, they're doable, IF AND ONLY IF you do and understand the homework. Trust me, the exams are 5 times easier than the homework, so don't freak out. I mean, I took this class before 131A, which is a prerequisite, and I got A. Prof. Greene helped me a lot to understand things. He's like my guru now. He's very caring as well. His personality is a bit funny, but he's not cold. Upper division students might find this smart man as a great professor whilst lower divisions ones just can't stand his lecture style. There you go; it's my opinion.
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2022 - As a disclaimer, I am writing this before I take the final and receive a grade for the class to be as non-biased as I can be. First time writing a review here, so I'll try to update what grade I got. Greene is an incredibly funny and down to earth guy who is great to talk to. In office hours, he really takes the time trying to explain certain concepts and ensuring you understand everything. His homework sets are challenging, but fair and the week of time is enough to be able to completely solve them. However, there are some flaws with his class in my eyes. At least for me, and some of my other classmates, Greene's lectures can be a bit difficult to follow and his hand writing is a bit messy. Greene will often go onto tangents about material not related to class or sometimes not baby you through a process/proof because it is simply natural to him. The guy has been doing math longer than I've been born, so it's expected some of the stuff he's teaching is just second nature to him. For someone who has never taken analysis though, this can be challenging to fully understand what he is saying. I also personally don't mind him going on tangents, but others do. Greene's hand writing also makes it hard to sometimes read what he is teaching, his notes, or the homework assignments. A few times the homework assignments have had typos, but Greene always makes sure to correct them via email. For me and many others, Greene's notes are a god send. His notes are concise and have a nice flow to them making it easy to learn the material through them. However, it still runs into the issue of messy hand writing. So from time to time you'll be squinting your eyes. Greene also uses a separate email from his myucla email to send out various things because his myucla email doesn't work. This is fine and all, but many times his emails would go to my spam folder randomly. MAKE SURE TO BE IN A CONSTANT HABIT of checking your spam folder if you take a class with him, so you don't miss out on his emails. His emails usually have notes, homework, and study guides attached to them. Greene's myucla is also a bit disorganized, but not terrible. Greene labels all his notes and such via the date he gave the lecture or published them. This is fine, but makes it difficult to exactly find the topic you want to review or take a look at. Our class ourselves had to make our own drive with the notes labelled for ease of access. The midterms are killer for Greene. The questions themselves aren't too hard, but with only 50 minutes to do them and some of the proofs being quite long. Most often run out of time. The average was around a 35% on the first midterm and a 50% on the second midterm. Unsure how he's gonna grade the distribution at the end of the class, but that's how it was for the midterms. To have success on the midterms, I highly advise you go back through each note set and make sure you can do the important proofs by memory. I also recommend doing this for previous homework. The name of the game here is speed and most of Greene's midterms problems come from his lecture notes and homework assignments. I always felt Greene's midterms were fair, but really tested if you could discern what the question was asking in time. On a separate topic, our TA was Nicholas. The TA strike is still ongoing, so we did not have him for all of the quarter. Nicholas is an INCREDIBLY hard grader as a TA and does most of the homework and midterm grading. He's extremely good at making sure your arguments are rigorous, but not so great for your homework or midterm scores. The class is graded on some distribution, not discerned how it is, but it can be a bit unmotivating for some. Nicholas graded the 1st midterm, while Greene did the 2nd and the averages definitely shows the rigor in grading between the two (although part of it is also due to people knowing more of what to expect for the 2nd midterm). Overall, Nicholas is a great TA who does a great job explaining stuff in detail and making sure you can prove stuff rigorously. He is an incredibly harsh grader as a result, but a nice guy. Certainly a good TA to have, but just be prepared to have a great amount of attention to detail. Overall, I think Greene's 131AH class has been incredibly enjoyable. You can tell he really cares about his students and is passionate about the material. I do think following the class only from his lecture can be difficult at times. Consulting outside sources and referencing his notes HEAVILY will be your key to success.
Fall 2022 - As a disclaimer, I am writing this before I take the final and receive a grade for the class to be as non-biased as I can be. First time writing a review here, so I'll try to update what grade I got. Greene is an incredibly funny and down to earth guy who is great to talk to. In office hours, he really takes the time trying to explain certain concepts and ensuring you understand everything. His homework sets are challenging, but fair and the week of time is enough to be able to completely solve them. However, there are some flaws with his class in my eyes. At least for me, and some of my other classmates, Greene's lectures can be a bit difficult to follow and his hand writing is a bit messy. Greene will often go onto tangents about material not related to class or sometimes not baby you through a process/proof because it is simply natural to him. The guy has been doing math longer than I've been born, so it's expected some of the stuff he's teaching is just second nature to him. For someone who has never taken analysis though, this can be challenging to fully understand what he is saying. I also personally don't mind him going on tangents, but others do. Greene's hand writing also makes it hard to sometimes read what he is teaching, his notes, or the homework assignments. A few times the homework assignments have had typos, but Greene always makes sure to correct them via email. For me and many others, Greene's notes are a god send. His notes are concise and have a nice flow to them making it easy to learn the material through them. However, it still runs into the issue of messy hand writing. So from time to time you'll be squinting your eyes. Greene also uses a separate email from his myucla email to send out various things because his myucla email doesn't work. This is fine and all, but many times his emails would go to my spam folder randomly. MAKE SURE TO BE IN A CONSTANT HABIT of checking your spam folder if you take a class with him, so you don't miss out on his emails. His emails usually have notes, homework, and study guides attached to them. Greene's myucla is also a bit disorganized, but not terrible. Greene labels all his notes and such via the date he gave the lecture or published them. This is fine, but makes it difficult to exactly find the topic you want to review or take a look at. Our class ourselves had to make our own drive with the notes labelled for ease of access. The midterms are killer for Greene. The questions themselves aren't too hard, but with only 50 minutes to do them and some of the proofs being quite long. Most often run out of time. The average was around a 35% on the first midterm and a 50% on the second midterm. Unsure how he's gonna grade the distribution at the end of the class, but that's how it was for the midterms. To have success on the midterms, I highly advise you go back through each note set and make sure you can do the important proofs by memory. I also recommend doing this for previous homework. The name of the game here is speed and most of Greene's midterms problems come from his lecture notes and homework assignments. I always felt Greene's midterms were fair, but really tested if you could discern what the question was asking in time. On a separate topic, our TA was Nicholas. The TA strike is still ongoing, so we did not have him for all of the quarter. Nicholas is an INCREDIBLY hard grader as a TA and does most of the homework and midterm grading. He's extremely good at making sure your arguments are rigorous, but not so great for your homework or midterm scores. The class is graded on some distribution, not discerned how it is, but it can be a bit unmotivating for some. Nicholas graded the 1st midterm, while Greene did the 2nd and the averages definitely shows the rigor in grading between the two (although part of it is also due to people knowing more of what to expect for the 2nd midterm). Overall, Nicholas is a great TA who does a great job explaining stuff in detail and making sure you can prove stuff rigorously. He is an incredibly harsh grader as a result, but a nice guy. Certainly a good TA to have, but just be prepared to have a great amount of attention to detail. Overall, I think Greene's 131AH class has been incredibly enjoyable. You can tell he really cares about his students and is passionate about the material. I do think following the class only from his lecture can be difficult at times. Consulting outside sources and referencing his notes HEAVILY will be your key to success.
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2023 - Taking this class is very like a roller coaster. The beginning about Fixed Point and Contraction Mapping is easy, if you took 131AH and has the topology mindset. The second part -- about Inverse Function Theorem and multivariable derivatives -- is hard, because the dense proof presented here, and the frequent use of linear algebra. The third part is about Winding Numbers -- a very interesting topological invariant that gives you a taste of homotopy in algebraic topology. I think this is the most beautiful part of the course (also most geometric and topological). The last part is about Riemann integral and Fourier Series, which are I believe the easiest section of the course. In general Professor Greene took a very intuitive path to lead you down into the world of differential analysis through powerful topological mindset developed in the previous course. Strongly recommend to take if you wish to enjoy the beauty of mathematics.
Winter 2023 - Taking this class is very like a roller coaster. The beginning about Fixed Point and Contraction Mapping is easy, if you took 131AH and has the topology mindset. The second part -- about Inverse Function Theorem and multivariable derivatives -- is hard, because the dense proof presented here, and the frequent use of linear algebra. The third part is about Winding Numbers -- a very interesting topological invariant that gives you a taste of homotopy in algebraic topology. I think this is the most beautiful part of the course (also most geometric and topological). The last part is about Riemann integral and Fourier Series, which are I believe the easiest section of the course. In general Professor Greene took a very intuitive path to lead you down into the world of differential analysis through powerful topological mindset developed in the previous course. Strongly recommend to take if you wish to enjoy the beauty of mathematics.
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