MATH 61
Introduction to Discrete Structures
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Requisites: courses 31A, 31B. Not open for credit to students with credit for course 180 or 184. Discrete structures commonly used in computer science and mathematics, including sets and relations, permutations and combinations, graphs and trees, induction. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Summer 2021 - Math 61 for the Summer 2021 term was originally taught by Prof. Ozel. When Ozel left in the middle of Summer session A due to issues with his visa, Prof. Enakoutsa came in to substitute. Enakoutsa did a nice job teaching Math 61. Enakoutsa, while not the clearest lecturer (I strongly preferred Ozel's lectures to Enakoutsa's), genuinely cares about his students' learning and provides a lot of office hours for students to ask questions. He encourages students to unmute themselves in lecture to ask clarifying questions. While his answers aren't always the clearest, Enakoutsa is committed to improving his teaching ability. He takes student feedback on his teaching seriously. His tests were rather straightforward and 24 hour open note. During the end of the course, Enakoutsa sent an angry email to everyone about one of his students' evaluations on his teaching (allegedly it said Enakoutsa interrupted students in lecture ...). He could have responded in a calmer, less defensive manner.
Summer 2021 - Math 61 for the Summer 2021 term was originally taught by Prof. Ozel. When Ozel left in the middle of Summer session A due to issues with his visa, Prof. Enakoutsa came in to substitute. Enakoutsa did a nice job teaching Math 61. Enakoutsa, while not the clearest lecturer (I strongly preferred Ozel's lectures to Enakoutsa's), genuinely cares about his students' learning and provides a lot of office hours for students to ask questions. He encourages students to unmute themselves in lecture to ask clarifying questions. While his answers aren't always the clearest, Enakoutsa is committed to improving his teaching ability. He takes student feedback on his teaching seriously. His tests were rather straightforward and 24 hour open note. During the end of the course, Enakoutsa sent an angry email to everyone about one of his students' evaluations on his teaching (allegedly it said Enakoutsa interrupted students in lecture ...). He could have responded in a calmer, less defensive manner.
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Good class, he is very thorough at explaining the subject, the midterms are simple, the final a little tricky. He doesn't assign much homework but you should do them, helps a lot for the class. Overall the material is an easy concept to understand, so it shouldn't be too bad. goodluck
Good class, he is very thorough at explaining the subject, the midterms are simple, the final a little tricky. He doesn't assign much homework but you should do them, helps a lot for the class. Overall the material is an easy concept to understand, so it shouldn't be too bad. goodluck
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2021 - Professor Gannon is my absolute favorite professor in my 2 years at UCLA. Words cannot describe how much I wish I could take every class with him. Gannon made me feel like I was attending a little “fireside chat” in every lecture. The lecturing environment was supremely chill and relaxed compared to every other math class I’ve been in. You can tell that Gannon keeps his students engaged and gives them the intrinsic motivation to learn math. It’s just his charm. Homework assignments were rather difficult compared to other math classes I’ve been in. There was one particular problem on an assignment that took me 8 hours to figure out. To be sure, though, that problem was an outlier. A few problems on each assignment are graded for accuracy, while the rest are graded for completion. He also gives extra practice problems on each assignment, and I highly recommend you do them. I probably spent an average of 8 hours on each assignment. Homework assignments are designed to be harder than exams. The exams in this class were fair but hard. Gannon finds ways to interconnect multiple concepts we learned in single problems. It is essential that you remember every theorem in class and pay attention to how the material from one lecture may connect to material from the others. I leave this class feeling like I learned a lot and confident in what I learned. Grading (there were 8 homework assignments in total): 20% Homework (Best 7 scores); 25% Midterm 1; 25% Midterm 2; 30% Final exam or 20% Homework (Best 7 scores); 35% Best midterm score; 45% Final exam And in case you were wondering, his beard is as luscious as it appears in his profile pic, perhaps even more. What a stud.
Spring 2021 - Professor Gannon is my absolute favorite professor in my 2 years at UCLA. Words cannot describe how much I wish I could take every class with him. Gannon made me feel like I was attending a little “fireside chat” in every lecture. The lecturing environment was supremely chill and relaxed compared to every other math class I’ve been in. You can tell that Gannon keeps his students engaged and gives them the intrinsic motivation to learn math. It’s just his charm. Homework assignments were rather difficult compared to other math classes I’ve been in. There was one particular problem on an assignment that took me 8 hours to figure out. To be sure, though, that problem was an outlier. A few problems on each assignment are graded for accuracy, while the rest are graded for completion. He also gives extra practice problems on each assignment, and I highly recommend you do them. I probably spent an average of 8 hours on each assignment. Homework assignments are designed to be harder than exams. The exams in this class were fair but hard. Gannon finds ways to interconnect multiple concepts we learned in single problems. It is essential that you remember every theorem in class and pay attention to how the material from one lecture may connect to material from the others. I leave this class feeling like I learned a lot and confident in what I learned. Grading (there were 8 homework assignments in total): 20% Homework (Best 7 scores); 25% Midterm 1; 25% Midterm 2; 30% Final exam or 20% Homework (Best 7 scores); 35% Best midterm score; 45% Final exam And in case you were wondering, his beard is as luscious as it appears in his profile pic, perhaps even more. What a stud.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2020 - Honestly, best online notes available I've had yet for a math course. You can take these notes and understand the material in a rather short amount of time because of how well-written they are. Homeworks are difficult, but going into tests after them makes the tests feel easy by comparison. He also has a VERY generous grading scheme for individual tests. Overall, this class was a good experience and very welcomed given my experience with past math professors.
Winter 2020 - Honestly, best online notes available I've had yet for a math course. You can take these notes and understand the material in a rather short amount of time because of how well-written they are. Homeworks are difficult, but going into tests after them makes the tests feel easy by comparison. He also has a VERY generous grading scheme for individual tests. Overall, this class was a good experience and very welcomed given my experience with past math professors.
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Gieseker was not a bad professor, but not a great one either. The material was taught in a semi-straightforward (if boring) way. The midterm and final mirrored the homework material and the stuff we learned in class well (no surprises). My TA was incredible and basically made the class easy (Duncan). He is accessible, there was a grading mistake on one of my tests and he quickly corrected it. There's a little confusion on whether your homework counts towards the final grade, during my class, it didn't, but it was still helpful for the tests. If you have to take Math 61, your experience will be fine with this guy
Gieseker was not a bad professor, but not a great one either. The material was taught in a semi-straightforward (if boring) way. The midterm and final mirrored the homework material and the stuff we learned in class well (no surprises). My TA was incredible and basically made the class easy (Duncan). He is accessible, there was a grading mistake on one of my tests and he quickly corrected it. There's a little confusion on whether your homework counts towards the final grade, during my class, it didn't, but it was still helpful for the tests. If you have to take Math 61, your experience will be fine with this guy
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2023 - im going to be honest, a lot of people make him seem worse than he is. i will admit he does go a little too fast in lecture sometimes and he doesn't like to record lectures, but if you can do the homework pretty well, the tests should be okay. his practice midterms are a lot harder than the actual midterms. that being said, i didnt do too well on the midterms (mt1 i got an 88% and mt2 i got a 70%) but i still scored slightly above avg for both exams. hes a good guy with good intent and i do think both his and the TAs' office hours do help with this class a lot. the one gripe i have about this class is the fact that his homework system is based on any problems on his lecture notes that he doesn't get to in class, and 90% of the time when he asks the class if he should skip a problem in lecture and assign it to hw, the class begs him to skip it (idk why they do, maybe they think theyll somehow know how to do it for hw w/o any practice in lecture). overall, for discrete, hes an average prof. if his exams were horrible, unbearable, etc. then i wouldnt take discrete w him again. would i still take discrete w him again? perhaps, im not sure because i havent taken the final yet. hes a really nice guy and, like i mentioned earlier, his office hours are rly helpful. he just kind of brushes thru a lot of things in lecture rly fast which can be kind of annoying. tl;dr: im pretty meh about him and the only reason i dont completely hate it is bc his tests arent too difficult (although i def couldve scored better)
Fall 2023 - im going to be honest, a lot of people make him seem worse than he is. i will admit he does go a little too fast in lecture sometimes and he doesn't like to record lectures, but if you can do the homework pretty well, the tests should be okay. his practice midterms are a lot harder than the actual midterms. that being said, i didnt do too well on the midterms (mt1 i got an 88% and mt2 i got a 70%) but i still scored slightly above avg for both exams. hes a good guy with good intent and i do think both his and the TAs' office hours do help with this class a lot. the one gripe i have about this class is the fact that his homework system is based on any problems on his lecture notes that he doesn't get to in class, and 90% of the time when he asks the class if he should skip a problem in lecture and assign it to hw, the class begs him to skip it (idk why they do, maybe they think theyll somehow know how to do it for hw w/o any practice in lecture). overall, for discrete, hes an average prof. if his exams were horrible, unbearable, etc. then i wouldnt take discrete w him again. would i still take discrete w him again? perhaps, im not sure because i havent taken the final yet. hes a really nice guy and, like i mentioned earlier, his office hours are rly helpful. he just kind of brushes thru a lot of things in lecture rly fast which can be kind of annoying. tl;dr: im pretty meh about him and the only reason i dont completely hate it is bc his tests arent too difficult (although i def couldve scored better)
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2022 - Disclaimer: I don't consider myself good at math. Hazel's teaching is pretty good. She's clear at showing what format she wants proofs to be in and makes sure to go over many examples that pop up in the homework, so as long as you look at her examples, it won't be too bad. I found it a lot easier to listen to lecture than try to understand the textbook for this class, while the opposite was true for my other math classes. She also recorded her lectures. She "assigns" many homework problems, but you only have to turn in three or four per section, so most of them are extra practice. The problems themself aren't hard, but because this was my first proof-based class, I didn't find them easy, either. I would definitely do the extra problems because similar ones appear on tests. The lowest homework is dropped. Her tests were pretty straightforward in terms of difficulty; there were only one or two problems where I was like "bruh". For Midterm 1 and the Final, she had a combination of open-ended questions and multiple-choice, while Midterm 2 was all open-ended. The lowest midterm is dropped. Attending discussions is mandatory because there are weekly worksheets you complete with other people. However, she drops the lowest four worksheets, so you only have to go half the quarter. Overall, I think this class was pretty good, though that might be because I took it while most things were still online. I would take Hazel's class again if given the choice.
Winter 2022 - Disclaimer: I don't consider myself good at math. Hazel's teaching is pretty good. She's clear at showing what format she wants proofs to be in and makes sure to go over many examples that pop up in the homework, so as long as you look at her examples, it won't be too bad. I found it a lot easier to listen to lecture than try to understand the textbook for this class, while the opposite was true for my other math classes. She also recorded her lectures. She "assigns" many homework problems, but you only have to turn in three or four per section, so most of them are extra practice. The problems themself aren't hard, but because this was my first proof-based class, I didn't find them easy, either. I would definitely do the extra problems because similar ones appear on tests. The lowest homework is dropped. Her tests were pretty straightforward in terms of difficulty; there were only one or two problems where I was like "bruh". For Midterm 1 and the Final, she had a combination of open-ended questions and multiple-choice, while Midterm 2 was all open-ended. The lowest midterm is dropped. Attending discussions is mandatory because there are weekly worksheets you complete with other people. However, she drops the lowest four worksheets, so you only have to go half the quarter. Overall, I think this class was pretty good, though that might be because I took it while most things were still online. I would take Hazel's class again if given the choice.
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