Overall a rather standard professor. Lectures are fast-paced but I don't blame him given the amount of material covered. The midterms were not bad but the final was extremely difficult, though it was curved to an 80%.

Siddarth teaches like a mathematician. What I mean by that is that he focuses on proofs and larger overall mathematical concepts, avoiding complex numerical calculations and just using equations which is at times the opposite of what you will need as an engineer or physics type major. I am not a mathematics major and so this was super frustrating as our final was bruuuutal and focused heavily on theoretical problems with less than half of the test being actual computation ...not reflective of the course material at all. He seemed like a nice guy for the most part, but just didn't know how to teach this class at all.

Sidd is a really decent professor who gives engaging and decent lectures. My main complaint would be his exams are hard & too much homework. However, he curved it so the median is B+. Thank you so much and have a great time at UCB!

Venkatesh was not the best lecturer. He also last-minute cancelled the final study session which sucked.

Professor Venkatesh is great. I accidentally submitted a blank exam for one of the midterms, but he emailed me asking if it was intentional. I was able to send him my completed exam without penalty (with proof that it wasn't edited since the exam date). Some people found that he talks too quickly during lectures, but he will slow down if asked.

I feel like the previous reviews aren't fair as they were likely written out of anger after taking the final. Although the final was difficult, Siddharth made up for it by curving it such that the average was an 80% (which was the average for the other two midterms). The median final grade in the class was a high B, which is similar to, if not better than, other classes in the math department. I felt that Siddharth did a good job explaining the concepts in a way that was easy to understand, however, I wish he did go more in-depth as it felt as if he was teaching the class at a high school level sometimes. The problem sets were assigned directly from the textbook and were often very tedious and covered things that were not tested, and were graded for accuracy, which I was not a fan of. The midterms were very easy as he did a good job communicating exactly what he expected us to know in the lecture and through his study guides. The final was a bit of a curveball in terms of difficulty and complexity of the problems, but there wasn't anything on there that we hadn't learned. Overall, I would recommend taking a class with Siddharth since I feel that he will only get better as a professor since this was his first year.

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tl;dr - messy-ish lectures, difficult tests, not a lot of homework, overall pretty challenging, semi-clear professor

It was my first quarter at uni, so I wasn't prepared for the quarter system. I generally felt like it was just a lot of information thrown at me that I didn't have time to process. There were a range of 8 to 15 homework problems a week, and if you understand the material, it wasn't too bad, but they took me hours, and they were even questions, so I couldn't check my answers, either. The homework was graded fairly, though, with 50% of the homework grade being based on completion and the other half on accuracy. The lowest three homework grades were dropped. There were also three open-note quizzes and the lowest quiz was dropped. It was an online class so asking questions was really difficult for me. Similar problem? Go to your TA's in person office hours. Biggest mistake was not going earlier in the quarter. Honestly wasn't expecting to pass the class, but the tests were not awful. I think I got a 53% and an 88% on the midterms, and then around an 80% on the 40% final. They're difficult because they're not open note and there's no equation sheet, so you have to have everything memorized. There's a lot of time during each test to check answers, so it's not a time issue. You either know how to solve the question, or you don't. Venktaesh also doesn't post answer keys, until almost the whole class asks for them, so be aware of that for regrade attempts.

I'd take this class again, because I think it was probably more of the material that got me than bad teaching. Keep in mind though, Venkatesh doesn't offer any extra credit, while a few other math 32a teachers did.

Overall, I would recommend avoiding Siddarth. I rarely found the lectures helpful and felt as though he would spend way too much time explaining concepts rather than going over examples. He also constantly cancelled lecture right before it began, which was annoying because it would often be at least a week before he uploaded it. This lead to lectures being out of order and overall disorganized. I will say I do feel bad because he seemed to be dealing with some rough things this quarter such as sickness and many emergencies. I found the midterms and final particularly difficult and honestly nothing like the reviews he put out. The homework wasn't too bad and he would go over problems in the OH. My TA, Mark Kong, was probably the least helpful person ever so also avoid him if you can.

I thought Venkatesh was actually a good professor, though he went through a lot of content quickly. When posting homework he also provided the actual questions (so we didn't need to buy the newest edition of the textbook) which was really nice. Midterms weren't too bad, though the final was ridiculously hard comparatively (I think the class average was a 67%?). Would take again.