yooooo, okay I retook this class and honestly still don't know if i'll get above a C. this class is hard in and of itself, and learning it from Liu makes it just so much worse. the one piece of advice i have for those who are forced to take him: GO TO THE TEST BANK. he recycles problems from his old midterms, basically word for word, and just changes the equations/numbers. so definitely go through the old tests and see what types of problems there are and learn how to do them. he seems like a really nice dude but i never went to office hours so i wouldn't really know. also never really went to lecture because he was so hard to understand.

This class was the hardest class I have taken at Ucla so far. Going to lecture was useless- His accent was almost impossible for me to understand and he skipped many steps in lecture. The midterms were doable, I would recommend going to the test bank because he repeats the same format ever year. The final was a CHALLENGE. Make sure you master Green’s, Stoke’s and divergence theorem before the final. Overall I would ONLY recommend this class if you like to teach yourself the material.

Liu's accent is strong, but he knows the content and doesn't make his class too difficult. His tests are relatively simple, b/c they are computation based; if you understand the material, it's almost always extremely clear how to approach the problem, and the rest is just computation. To be honest, I thought his class was somewhat boring b/c I felt like I was just a calculator rather than a real problem solver. Still, you need to understand the concepts well enough to know how to do the calculations correctly w/ the right numbers. If you want straightforward tests w/ no proofs, Liu is what you want. The price is that you'll have to deal w/ his accent.

32B with Prof Liu is the most straightforward this class can get. All the tests are computational, and the two midterms are especially straightforward. With some practice from the textbook, you should be fine with those tests. The final, on the other hand, was brutal. I had no idea what was going on, but that's ok because that's why the curve exists. The final is cumulative and is much more complicated, although it is still computational (but seriously, it's nothing like the midterms somehow). His tests are getting harder each year because I took tests from the test bank from the years before and they are NOTHING compared to the ones we took. But still, practice and you should be good for the midterms. Do well on these so that you have a safe net before the final, which has an average of around 50% (+/- 5%). Also, he never posts any grades online and only gives out info about the distribution, which is kind of frustrating but you still know where you stand in the class. To give you some perspective, I stood in the top 50% on the first midterm and top 25% on the second midterm. I'm pretty sure I messed up A LOT on the final, but I still got out with an A-, so we see where midterms are useful. I think (I'm not sure) his curve is much more generous than that of other professors, so taking Liu is a good bet in my opinion.

I loved Liu because his tests were completely fair and 100% computational. Liu teaches and tests material straight out of the book which makes this class simple and easy to follow along, even without attending lectures. He was a decent/average lecturer but half the time in class he would be deriving or proving a theorem which would I guess be helpful for those actually interested in the subject, but it never appeared on tests, which made me question why I even bothered to go to lecture on some days. However, he shines in the parts of the lectures when he actually does examples and computational problems since he can sometimes show you shortcut and/or show you how to solve it properly. Also, the examples he does in class can be very similar to what he gives on exams. To summarize, I thought taking Liu was an excellent experience as there was no BS in the class as everything was straightforward and computational. His lectures were useless half the time but in the few times he does examples, they were quite helpful.

If you can, don't take his class!!! Professor Gang Liu is not a good professor at all. He has strong accent and his class is very boring. The worst is that his tests (midterms and final) are very very hard. If you didn't do well in one midterm, the second scheme is 90% of the final, but the final is extremely difficult. Even I tried hard in this class, I still didn't get a grade I expected.

I always liked math and solving math problems which is why I took 32B, lol just kidding.
Math 32B is just another math class that all engineers and physical science majors have to go through that teach tools and concepts that they will probably never use later on in their academic career, since we have computers to do all the integral calculus that we will ever see in the future. When going into the class, I had absolutely forgotten everything that learned in 32A and integral calculus that I learned in high school. Good news for people like me, since all the tools that you need to know are taught in this class so don't worry about getting a question on stuff from 32A on the exams. There weren't any hard integrals on the tests either and if there was an impossible to compute looking integral, then there is always a trick that is taught in class to figure it out easily. Gang is also super nice and helpful at office hours. He has a bit of a thick accent but can pretty much understand everything he says and is a decent lecturer.

Stuff you learn and have to do in this class:
1st part of the quarter: Just your usual integrals problems, if you know how to compute integrals, then the first part of the quarter should go really smoothly. It is just a bit intimidating at first since you are now dealing with multiple variables. X, Y and oh my goodness, Z too, NOOOOO! Not a big deal if you put some practice into it.

2nd part of the quarter: Here is probably the new stuff that 32B gets a bad rep for. You learn about change of variables which is a bit confusing at first but it becomes pretty easy to notice the pattern how to do these problems. Line integrals and Surface integrals are the next but are also pretty doable. Just learn how to parametrize all your standard shapes, cones, spheres, cylinders, etc, and these problems should get pretty easy to do.
And last but not least are the three notorious family of theorems, Green's, Stokes, and Divergence Theorem. Everyone makes a big deal about these three but they are a culmination of everything you learn in 32B (so should be clear and understandable to most people at this point in the class) and can be simply be looked as another way to compute line and surface integrals that look impossible but are now easily solvable with these three theorems. Just learn how to use these very well for final since final is heavy on these three.

Reason you are still reading this freaking long review: EXAMS and GRADING SCHEME

1st grading scheme:
Weekly homework assignments, worth 10%
2 midterms, worth 20% each
Final, worth 50%

2nd grading scheme:
Weekly homework assignments: worth 10%
Final, worth 90%

This quarter
Medians
Midterm 1: 14/20
Midterm 2: 13/20
Final: 23/50

Midterms are only 5 questions which are worth 4 points each. Midterms are definitely doable and can be really easy if you do the homework and practice, since the midterms are almost similar to the homework problems, some are even easier than the HW. So make sure to do very well on these tests. I screwed up on the first and got 8/20 but made an inspirational comeback with the second and got 18/20. So I basically had the class median going into the final. So I definitely needed to depend on the 90% final scheme.

The final has 12 questions with 10 4 point questions and 2 5 point questions. The 5 point questions are not necessarily the hardest on the final so they are most likely just randomly picked to make the final out of 50 points. I thought one of the 4 point questions was literally impossible to solve on the final. But that is okay since you only need to correctly solve about 8 out of 12 of the questions to do really well and get an A in the class despite possible past midterm failures which should not have happened in the first place. But everyone screws up sometimes so whatever, lol. Final features a lot of the three theorems that you learn at the end of the class so if you know how to use these theorems, you will most likely find many of the problems on the final really easy to do.

The best part of Gang's tests are that there are NO PROOFS OR LITTLE TO NONE CONCEPTUAL QUESTIONS.

Final remarks: Test grades are pretty low but again, if you do the homework that is assigned and practice, especially those last three theorems, you should be able to get an A in this class for sure and that last grading scheme is there just in case you don't take this advice early on. 90% of the grade is a lot for a single test but have a very good chance to do well on I, especially if you know those last three theorems, really can't stress it enough. Gang's 32B is probably one of the better math classes that I have taken since he really isn't the type of professor to shaft you with hard tests that nobody but the smartest kids can solve.

Good professor, organized and had good pacing. The final was hard but doable.

Overall, Liu is a decent lecturer. He's well organized and sufficiently covers everything you need to know. His accent is pretty strong, whether you can understand him is going to vary. I was fine with it but a couple of my friends had trouble at times. Even if you can't understand him at times you'll be fine writing down what he puts on the board.

He goes over a lot of examples in class, which is a plus for me. It's very helpful in understanding how to use the theorems/formulas in your homework and tests. He gives quite a bit of homework but I found that they were a bit tough at times, but all doable. He also makes mistakes every now and then but fixes them quickly once it's pointed out.

His tests are very hard, especially the final. The questions are all computational. Each of his two midterms is five questions, and you WILL be pressed for time. I was barely able to finish the midterms and I typically have good pacing when it comes to tests. On the other hand you'll definitely have enough time on the final but the questions are harder.

I only went to OH once toward the end of the quarter but he was pretty helpful with the question I had. He definitely isn't an easy professor, but he isn't unreasonable, and you really learn the material in his class.

Selling Rogawski 3rd edition for $30!!! Text if interested **********