I do not recommend this class. I wasted my time attending lectures because I would not learn anything. Concepts were overcomplicated and not explained well. Also, the class itself was always rushed and at the end, she taught so many chapters in a span of so little time and put those concepts on the final exam

We were given a practice exam for midterm 1, and the concepts that were covered by the practice midterm were identical to what was covered on the actual midterm. Great, right? Fast forward to midterm 2, we were given another practice midterm. Since the first practice midterm was enough to do well on midterm 1, you would assume the second practice midterm would be enough to do well on midterm 2 as well, right? Unfortunately, no. The second midterm consisted of three problems. The first two being worth 30% each, and the last one being worth 40%. The practice midterm was enough to do well on the first two problems, but not the last one. The last problem was actually something we went over only once during lecture for no more than 5 minutes, WEEKS ago. There was nothing even slightly similar on the practice exam. Dozens of students emailed her about this, but she announced through Canvas that she would be keeping the raw scores. Her excuse was that the practice midterm was only to get you used to the format of the midterm, but if so, then why was the midterm 1 identical to the first practice exam? Why was it not the same case for midterm 2? As you can probably tell by now, she's just making up invalid excuses that don't even make sense to justify herself. Oh, and the final exam? I'm not even gonna get into that -- just know: it was significantly harder than midterm 2 because half of it went over concepts that were not mentioned on the practice final. Besides exams, she also wastes a lot of time during lectures. She answers 5-10 questions per lecture and takes her sweet time doing so. Most of the time, she's not even able to properly answer people's questions, so she just ends up wasting time for no reason at all. This resulted in us falling behind 1-2 weeks in material. How do I know? Well, my friend is taking an equivalent course at UCSD, and he's weeks ahead of us. Well, he was weeks ahead of us... until now. Trigonometry was what we covered in the last two weeks of the quarter, arguably being the hardest part of precalculus. She rushed through ALL OF IT, in an attempt to catch up, leaving many of us confused of the material. How do I know she rushed through it? Well, I checked in with my friend at UCSD, and apparently, we ended up in the same section as them at the same time. We were 1-2 weeks behind not too long ago, so what happened? Oh yeah, she rushed through it, VERY quickly. As if the quarter system didn't already make things move fast... The only good thing about this course was that the homework was easy. Once a week and only 10-15 questions. The homework does help on exams, but you need more practice than that because obviously, she loves to switch things up for no apparent reason other than to try and have us fail.

Don't take this class if you don't have to. I took precalc in high school and thought taking this class as a refresher would be helpful but it was a waste of time and lowered my GPA. Meng was relatively new when I took this class so I'll give her that but I later realized when I took one of her other classes that it is just easier to read the textbook than watch any of her lectures. Exams felt extremely unfair in my opinion.

I'm leaving a review now that I've wrapped up my first year at UCLA. Despite not taking pre-calc in high school, I felt this class was easy. Professor Meng was a decent lecturer—her grading scheme, detailed in the other reviews, made it so that you'd receive the highest grade possible given your performance on the midterm and final exams (partial credit was awarded very generously on these). Attendance was not required for lectures or discussions, but I still attended regardless.

Don't let the other reviews scare you away, as long as you stay on top of things you should be fine. I recommend seeking out additional resources online (e.g. Khan Academy) and going to office hours if you're having trouble with material. Overall, this class well prepared me for Math 31A.

Big thanks to the fall '23 TAs who held final review sessions! I found those super helpful.

Lectures were just her solving problem after problem on the chalk board that is legit. I made the mistake of not going to discussion, i highly advise you don't do that and actually go to discussion. Also this class is not "easier" than 31A so if you don't have to take this class don't.

All the lectures for this class are recorded which means attendance is not necessary nor are there Clickers for this class. Same with discussion sections. This class moves at a pretty average pace, and having taken Precalculus in high school, it was just a review of previous material. Homework (textbook required) is very manageable, and did not take me more than 30 minutes for one assignment a week. Prof. Weng in my opinion was a bit harder to understand and if I had not previously taken this course I may have struggled, but the TA sessions helped to clarify unclear information. Compared to other mathematics courses (especially Math31A), this class is definitely on the easier side.

It's hard to say if you recommend a math class because you kind of have to take them, but this professor specifically was okay. She is kind of hard to understand and goes through some things too quickly. When someone ask a question I feel like most of the time she never answered it directly.

- There is a textbook for the homeworks, but she gives a PDF for it
- She records lectures
- Discussions are helpful and attendance is not required
- No calculators for the class
- She has 3 different grade schemes so you can get the best grade as possible

Homework: They would get posted on Sundays and you have until Friday at 11pm to turn them in, but she had a 24-hour grace period so really you have until Saturday. Your grade would be posted the following week and it's based on correctness. The 8 highest homework scores out of 10 will be counted to your grades. Most of the time there was about 10 questions (sometimes with part a-c). They weren't too bad, most of the time I would finish Monday nights after lecture. If I struggled I would go to tutoring and they do it with you.

Midterms: There are two in-class midterms. She gives practice midterms that week that are similar. About 3-4 questions with multiple parts.

Final: Similar to the midterm she gives a practice final. Some multiple choice, the rest free-response.

I got an A the first midterm, C the second, failed the final, and a 100 on the homeworks, but I still passed the class so you will be fine. I recommend just getting help when needed because the professor is not the best.

The class was fine up until the second midterm and the final. For the second midterm, she put a type of question that she went over once in the lecture. Not in homework. We had no practice on that type of question and it was the question with the most points. As for the final, for two weeks she went over chapter 4. On the very last lecture of the class, she quickly rushes over ch 6 and ch 7, chapters which needed heavy computational skills. The final consisted of mainly Ch 6 and Ch7. We were screwed.

Horrible professor who overcomplicates lessons. The midterms covered none of the material she went over during lecture. She assigns homework every week and it’s due Friday at 11 pm, but there’s a 24 hour grace period and you can submit it Saturday before 11 pm with no point deduction. The final was horrible, it basically only had the last sections she rushed over in the last lecture before the final. The only good thing about this class is that she curves it at the end.

I am honestly surprised that I got a C- in this class. I took this class because I had not taken a math class during my senior year of high school and wanted to freshen up on the basics and gain a better understanding of calculus. The lectures taught me absolutely nothing, I barely went because every time I would go I would leave more confused. You have to essentially teach yourself the entire course. The study guide that she gives out for the first midterm is the only study guide that is actually helpful. The study guides for the second midterm and for the final were pointless. The professor also crammed so much information during the last week of classes and everyone was so confused. This class was so stressful and the final was on the very last day of the quarter. Lets just say that I spent all of finals week crying because I wanted to go home so badly but had to take a final for a class that I learned absolutely nothing from. Protect your peace and don't take this class.