Conley is a teaching gem in the math department and really knows his stuff. Lectures were always super clear and he had no shortage of clearly and with detail writing and explaining the intuition behind the proofs, which made this class one of the most interesting math courses yet. His lecture notes were very clear as well and he fielded many questions, some even beyond the scope of the class. Before exams, he also may host >3 hour review sessions.

For the class itself, it is a long 10 week grind. Weekly assignments can be brutal at times, reaching 20-25 pages (though admittedly could be shorter if you could write succinct proofs), so become a Latex god or write extremely neatly and clearly, and really brush up on logical reasoning/proof techniques. Homework assignments sometimes featured UCLA Basic Exam questions as well, but they were broken down manageably so you could answer them with the class material (and still get the fun of solving a Basic). Exams in hindsight actually seemed not too bad relative to the material, but it is a proofs class, so I’m biased as they now seem obvious to me. Either way, understanding the key details of definitions and applications of theorems is crucial for this class (he allows 1 page cheat sheet for MT2, and 2 page for final), as the test questions can be tough.

One more thing that I appreciate a lot about this class is the insane attention to detail. Conley isn’t going to let some poor proofwriting slide by his class; he notes small but extremely crucial details that ultimately improved my proofwriting so much. Don’t come into this class thinking you’ll get close to 100s like you have in your lower divs, and be open to the small deductions and feedback he gives, which is ultimately the best preparation for future upper divs.

On the other hand, one thing I found somewhat frustrating was the delay/lack of feedback at times. There were no solutions to the homework provided and often took a while to grade at times, but it’s understandable given the amount of material. Again, it’s important you understand logical statements and definitions extremely well so you can assess yourself if you’re on the right track at times.