**Extenuating circumstances warning** I took the final for this class in the middle of a raging virus epidemic (which is still going on as I speak), so perhaps the situation can speak more or less for itself depending on when you read this. However, I strongly believe that a person's true colors show during times of intense distress and difficulty and Sherry Gong is something of a hero. She had sent us almost a hundred emails constantly trying to help us and figure out a solution to online finals while also being fair and accommodating to the fact that every one of her students were affected in different ways. She not only made the final exam collaborative and open book, but also offered real time personalized help on the practice exam and final. She even accounted for the fact that in an almost 200+ class there may be people who have less friends than others and went and found groupme collaborating groups and other resources for their benefit. I have, in my life, seldom had a teacher who cares this much about the well being of her students in times of incredible anxiety and distress. As grateful as I am to the medical professionals and other society members who help us through times like these, I don't think teachers get enough credit for the amazing work they do. Thank you Sherry and no matter what grade I receive in this class, your commitment to our success in times of hardship is something I will never forget.

One of the BEST profs at UCLA!! Take her if you have a chance 100%. Can be sometimes confusing/delves too much into the high-level concepts, but, overall, a very helpful and engaging lecturer. Her exams are almost exactly as her hw, she grades very fairly and, overall, she is THE QUEEN OF MATHEMATICS. Sherry, I love you. My decision to pursue Applied Math was solidified because of u.

I don't say this lightly: she is an amazing professor. S-tier.

Obviously we had a pandemic interrupt the last week of class and finals, so I won't really be talking about her final that much. Suffice to say she handled the situation mercifully and was very helpful throughout the crisis.

The midterms were completely fair questions. The questions were no more or less difficult than the medium-hard textbook questions, and there were no "tricks." Straight forward, an easy A/B if you study.

Homework was sometimes kind of tedious, but I did all of the assignments in <2 hrs and got a 90% in homework overall, so don't worry about the time.

The lectures got increasingly difficult to understand conceptually, starting around directional derivatives, but even without a super solid understanding of the background it was easy to pick up the procedures we had to do. With about an hour of extra studying per week I was able to fill in all the blanks.

Sherry is really REALLY smart. You will see this in her lecture style, as she loves to stick to proper mathematical convention and uses academic terms (think "a priori" lol). This isn't actually a negative, I thought it was a good way to get more comfortable with proper notation and commonly used terms.

The only negative is that sometimes the lectures weren't planned out thoroughly enough and there were a few times where she would just erase the board and rewind like 30 seconds, but that became less frequent as the quarter went on.

Very good prof for this class, would take again.

Sherry Gong is extremely helpful and kind. As many of the other winter 2020 reviews have already described, she went out of her way to ease out the struggles of students amid the coronavirus pandemic. I've not heard of any other professor who is so deeply invested in their student's welfare. She doesn't care about grades and emphasizes on learning - this even showed in the way she designed a collaborative final for us. This might sound dramatic but I will never forget Professor Gong's generosity.

Would definitely recommend taking this professor for 131A. Her lectures are really clear and she’s always willing to further explain concepts. She really cares about students learning the concepts effectively and is super helpful.

I have mixed feelings about this class. Sherry's homework assignments and midterms were extremely easy but her final was freaking hard. This kind of off-set everything. Additionally, she promised that she would not make the final intentionally hard to lower the average, but honestly, she did. Sherry, however, is still very caring and gentle. She's very easy to approach and her office hours were helpful. In the future, I hope she makes her exams consistent.

I love Sherry Gong!! This quarter was absolutely crazy because of Covid-19 but Sherry was very on top of everything and made sure all her students had an equal opportunity to succeed. Im not going to lie, she made the final collaborative and it saved my grade. I ended with an A an I probably should have gotten an A- or even a B+ but instead of letting the epidemic hurt students, she gave us an opportunity. Throughout the course she also didn't assign that much work, midterms were pretty straightforward, and lectures were actually really good because she can tell when the class is confused. If you get the chance, absolutely take this class with Sherry. She is a GODSEND!!!

I wasn't a huge fan of Gong's lecture style, but maybe it's just because analysis isn't my thing. She's a sweet person and really wants you to learn the material rather than worry about grades. The exams were pretty fair and workload wasn't too bad. Grade is equally divided among weekly homeworks, two midterms, and the final. She lets you get some extra credit points back on the midterms. Overall would recommend for 131A.

I honestly had an easier time reading the textbook over attending her lectures. I still don't know what I received in the class and it's been two weeks since the final. The midterms were fair and she offered extra credit on them, but the final made no sense because of how easy the rest of the class was in comparison.

I agree that sometimes it is better and more understandable to read the text book. But, her class is the type that you only have to spend around one hour each week to get an A. Her midterms are very easy. But finals are comparatively hard, with great emphasis on optimization problems and Lagrange multipliers. That being said, if you do all of the homework, the final is not difficult.