Honestly, now that it's the end of the term, it seems like our assignments were graded by 2 different people a lot of the time. In fact, I think the TA was grading the HW and the professor was trying to grade our exams most times, so it felt like when one topic/assignment was graded well, the corresponding exam ones should have also been graded similarly but weren't. This was otherwise a tough class in general, I mean it has a reputation as being one of the hardest classes but it's also required if you want to major in math at all.

The professor was really, really nice and tried to be as helpful as humanely possible but unfortunately, I cannot recommend taking this class with him based on this term. He made himself available when he could, but he was also just absent a lot of the term with some other stuff he was dealing with, so we had a substitute as well for some weeks, sometimes unexpectedly. Sometimes the HW wouldn't be posted on time, and our assignments were not graded in time for us to use them for studying. When we did finally get them back, some of the comments left on the exams/HW were also kind of...abrasive? They were not kind, constructive, or really explanatory; they also felt a little judgy rather than aiming to help guide you in a better direction or deeper understanding. There was no clear answer or response for what we did wrong per se, just what didn't make sense to whoever was grading or what we didn't manage to prove/complete. I'm sure some other students had a great time and received helpful feedback, but in my case, it was not helpful and actually makes me not ever want to really try this class again if I can help it, or any class similar to it. The HW and exams were long, the lectures were sometimes not paced well, and there was definitely room for concept simplification or improvements to give us the actual building blocks to better writing proofs. The textbook was unhelpful for me, personally.

BRIAN IS MY FATHER

I love Brian Shin, great professor!

Side rant:
Unfortunately, his TA this quarter was terrible. During an exam, I asked for clarification on a problem and he told me I did it completely wrong. I ended up panicking as I had no time left and tried to bs some work and ended up boxing something else as my answer. When I got my grade back, I actually had everything done correctly and would have gotten full credit if the TA had not said anything. It was quite frustrating as this quite literally was the reason I did not get an A in the class. I only got one point for that problem even with all my original and correct work, but since it was not boxed, I got zero credit. The TA also tried his very best to make sure I did not get any credit for his own ego which sucked as the professor seemed to be chill with giving me credit. I did fine on the final but that midterm score dropped me down and I ended with an 89.5%. Shin didn't round me up and ik that might not be valid to complain about, but given my situation it did really suck. I won't name-drop, but I hope that TA just learns to just accept when he's wrong lol.

Other than that, homework is doable, exams are fair and his grading scheme is fair. Shin is always willing to help, just don't doubt yourself and ask the TAs for help on an exam.

Shin is one of the best profs you could take this class with!! He is funny and SO clear. Classes were recorded, 2 mandatory midterms (with a grading scheme that favors both or one), and final was easy. Homework every week, quizzes (2 true or false questions) almost every week.

I might be bad at math but linear algebra did not make any sense to me after the first midterm. I'm not sure if I wasn't paying attention enough, but I felt like Shin didn't explain the topics after the first midterm that well. Me and other people I know in the class had to reread the textbook multiple times because we didn't feel like the lectures were that helpful in explaining the concepts. However, his midterms and finals were still incredibly fair since they were extremely similar to the homework and you could drop a midterm. As long as you understand the homework really well, especially the computational questions, you should be able to get an A in the class. Be prepared to self study a lot though, it definitely is not an easy A math class where you don't have to put effort in.

Brian Shin is a great professor. Honestly, this class was lowkey easy since the material and computations were not hard. The problems are mostly row reducing, formula based, and mathematically computational. There was one problem set of homework assigned each week that was due the following Monday. He gives a list of problems from the textbook, but only 2 per lesson was turned in and graded on accuracy. I recommend doing ALL of the problems to do well on the midterm and final. The homework was harder than the exams. They involved more complexity and required additional knowledge than what he covered in lecture, such as theorems or formulas in the textbook. I found doing the previous problem of the homework helpful. For example, if he assigned #2, I would do #1 to get a sense of what to do for #2. Homework was very manageable. There was a 2 question quiz almost at the end of every week that were mostly true and false.

There are two midterms that consisted of 5 free response problems and 5 true and false. The free response problems are easy if you do the homework since they are much more basic and less complex than the homework problems. Final involved about 10 free response and 10 true and false. The true and false questions were my weakness. They involved much more intuition and studying outside of class. I would look at all the theorems in the textbook, not only the theorems he mentions in class. He let us use a notecard for the 2nd midterm and final. I did worse on the first midterm due to the true and false questions because I did not go over the theorems in depth. I thought the true and false on the second midterm were easier because I studied the theorems as I did my notecard. You can see both midterms on Gradescope, but he doesn't allow you to see the final unless you schedule an appointment next quarter. Most of the free response problems on the final were also on the midterms, but he added some additional free response.

Lecture is recorded through Bruincast. In lecture, he goes over theorems, formulas, etc. and does some examples but not a lot. Homework is where you need to practice. He teaches material decently well. However, there are some things he doesn't cover in class, but these things never show up on the midterm or final. I would just ignore whatever he doesn't mention in class even if it's in the textbook. He states all material in the textbook can be on the exams, but he never puts them anyway. Students would ask if a certain thing would be on the midterm, and he always stated anything in the textbook is fair game. The textbook goes over the material in depth, so I didn't find it useful to read. I would only go over the theorems or definitions in boxes.

Attendance wasn't recorded in discussion. Discussion only consisted of doing problems from worksheets. I didn't find discussion that useful as I could do the worksheet another time and some of the worksheet problems were much more complex than needed. 2 homeworks and 2 quizzes were dropped. If 60% of class fills out the course evaluation, then an additional homework and quiz was dropped.

As someone who did not take the normal math sequence from 32A-B to 33A, I would say this class was a challenge but manageable. Professor Shin teaches to the best of his ability under a 50-minute class period each day (to think about it, only getting chapters worth of content into ~20 lectures is pretty difficult) but encourages us to look at the textbook for further clarification and for some concepts that weren't able to be covered in class. I would note here that sometimes the notation is different but as long as you can connect the dots you'll be fine. The homework itself is pretty doable and not insanely difficult, and I love how his CampusWire allows for you to ask for help when necessary. He also cracks some snazzy jokes and is really nice during office hours, as he's not hesitant to go through problems you're stuck on in-depth.

The main challenge here would be the big exams and the T/F questions. These relied on having a solid understanding of concepts such as theorems and definitions, and I would say are tough. Sometimes, they require piecing together two theorems or two concepts that may go beyond what you're used to in class. However, if you get them wrong and you go through it, you'll definitely understand how you're wrong and it'll teach you big time! The other midterm/final questions were pretty decent, so I won't review them as in-depth as the T/Fs.

For tips, I would recommend studying the T/Fs at the end of the chapters and to do all the homework problems, as THIS familiarizes you with the possible exam questions and concepts covered. I would also recommend not being hesitant to ask for help via CampusWire, discussion, and/or office hours. Lastly, I would say to attend lectures (though this may not work for everyone) because you're able to understand the concepts as he writes them down in a sequential matter rather than seeing them all at once via Canvas.

finished the class with a 97.2% and got an A.

This class isn’t easy, especially if you don’t know how to tackle the homework. A lot of the textbook problems show up on the midterms and final, but Shin doesn’t cover all the concepts in class. Honestly, I had to self-learn at least half the material. The homework is tough, but solutions are available online, which really helped me optimize my learning. It’s so challenging that Shin gives 3 homework drops and 3 quiz drops—out of just 10 assignments and 6 quizzes.

The first midterm is the hardest, mainly because of the true/false questions. As a freshman, this was my first math course at UCLA, and I underestimated those T/F questions. They’re 20 out of 100 points on the midterm, and you have to memorize the theorems. The textbook explanations and proofs were tough to follow, so I focused on understanding and memorizing the concepts throughout the course. Shin barely takes the time to explain proofs like the Gram-Schmidt process or linear regressions. Instead of breaking down how they work, he just gives us the equations to use for the problems.

Long story short, if you want to do well, be prepared to self-learn from the textbook.

I think the rumors of this class being easy are greatly exaggerated. It is relatively easy compared to other STEM classes, but I do think it requires some work--unless you're already pretty good at math, you can't just walk into the test without any prior prep. I took this class after I took 33B first, since last quarter, 33A filled too fast for me to get a seat. I came in already familiar with how to use matrices to solve a system, so the first two weeks were very easy for me. However, comparing the two classes, I think 33B (especially with Wang) is SIGNIFICANTLY easier than 33A, and I think that's because this class is taught with a lot of theorems that are difficult to remember. I would say half of class is spent talking about theorems and the other half is spent going over examples. The mathematic work in this class is computationally incredibly simple and easy. However, it might take some practice to remember when to use which set of steps, and which theorems to apply. The majority of true/false questions (two per week on each quiz, ~5 on each midterm, and ~10ish on the final) are based on concepts, so your theoretical knowledge has to be pretty good, unless you're good at guessing. The majority of the points I miss always come from getting the true/false wrong. My best advice to you is to just grind the true/false at the end of each chapter in the textbook.

In terms of class logistics, there's *supposed* to be one quiz a week (none after midterms) and one homework set a week (none after midterms), but I think we ended the quarter with 8 homeworks and 6 quizzes somehow. He continues teaching up until the last day of class and assigns an additional optional homework assignment for week 10 for extra practice, and I recommend doing that even though it doesn't need to be submitted. You drop the lowest two quizzes and lowest homework, and if enough people fill out the survey for the class, it gets bumped to three quizzes and two homeworks. There are two grading schemes, including one where you drop your worst midterm, which is helpful. The second midterm is harder than the first one imo, so you should grind harder for the first one just so that you can drop the second one if necessary. You get one double-sided index card for the second midterm and the final, which is helpful too.

Ultimately, I barely scraped by with an A (93.1%) but I only studied for a day before each test. Those days, I did have to lock in for the entire day and stay up late/wake up early, which is why I found this class more difficult than advertised, but considering how it was doable to cram everything into one long extended study session, I think that makes this class relatively easier than others. Do with that info what you will, but I would recommend not doing what I did.

BRIAN SHIN IS THE ABSOLUTE GOAT. sorry to say this but we don't deserve him. Genuinely amazing professor who likes to teach and wants to make sure you understand the material. It helps that linear algebra isn't too hard to begin with, but the workload is very light, with extra practice problems listed with the problem sets. Go to his office hours, he's so helpful and can break everything down for you. Lectures are recorded, lecture notes are posted, textbook and solutions can be easily found online. 2 midterms, with questions somewhat easier than problem sets obviously meant to test your conceptual knowledge.
I was sick the entire week leading up to the 2nd midterm but thank the GOAT for having an alternative grading scheme that just looks at your top midterm grade.
10/10 imagine if every professor was like him