Wu is not as bad as people say. He is very accommodating and listens to students’ feedback regarding his teaching style. Homework’s are SUPER easy if you just ask him how to do it on Piazza. He responds super fast and will go through the whole problem you need help on and even give the answers. My advice is to do ALL of the homework problems (even if they aren’t submitted for grading) and ALL of his notes’ examples because he literally just copies and pastes the exact questions onto tests. We had a cheat sheet for the final, so I just copied down homework problems/note examples I had trouble with, and i literally just rewrote what i had onto the final. But our saving grace of this class was the TA William Chang because he would post all homework solutions and host review sessions. It may be more difficult if you don’t have a TA similar to him.

For context, I took both AP Calc AB and BC in highschool and this class made me question whether or not I even had a solid foundation in AB. The tests are unnecessarily difficult and his lecturing style is very hard to follow. It was very different from the Calc AB I learned and mastered in highschool. I would not recommend this class to someone who has never taken Calc AB, and for those who have and are retaking it, I would suggest you enroll in another class.

Wu was good! This class was difficult in the beginning because I hadn't taken calc in high school. The first half of the quarter feels like a review of high school calculus which is hard to keep up with if its entirely new to you. Homework is LIGHT but theres lots of practice available if you want it. Wu is really great about asking for feedback and actually taking it. if you have a problem and bring it up, he will definitely do his best to fix it. The second half of the quarter is much easier than the first half and the second midterm was much lighter as well. My TA was William Chang and he made the course a million times more understandable. I dont know if i would have gotten through the first half of the class without William's help. He posts answers to the homeworks with solution steps which are really helpful. He also hosts midterm reviews and made a discord where he answers questions. Wu also has a similar program where he answers individual questions (that can be posted anonymously) and theyre available for everyone to use. math 31a was rocky at the beginning as i think everyone was getting their footing with the course (wu, the TAs, the students...), but it is really ending on a high note. Not sure what the final will look like as its too early, but I'm confident that it will be fine.

Professor Wu is incredibly knowledgeable and formulaic, and he responds really well to feedback. You might have trouble if you've never taken any calculus, as he tends to cover material extremely quickly in lectures so you will probably have to do a bit out outside work, but the class is well structured and he takes test material from the homework sets and example lecture problems. If you want to do well, make sure you know how to do the homework as the vast majority of your grade is midterms and the final. I found the discussion sections rather useless unless you have some question you want to ask the TA, but really you can find the answer to most questions online. He doesn't make you buy any textbook which is nice and all his lecture notes are in one PDF which is helpful. I would take this class with Professor Wu again.

I feel like a lot of people are being dramatic in their reviews for this class. Math 31a with Wu wasn't that terrible and considering everything that was going on at the time (TA strike) I think he did the best he could. Sometimes he does overcomplicate certain topics, ( I think he did so with limits) but overall it was a pretty solid class. Also, he curved the first midterm so that if you got a certain number of points he would just give you 100% :)

I do not recommend, TBH I could have gotten a better grade in this class but it honestly was really difficult for me considering the lack of clarity and communication. The professor was really unorganized and instead of simply solving problems he wrote paragraphs of proofs complicating the most straightforward things and on the exams, each question had multiple parts AND he made you state the theorems. The worst factor that affected my grade the most is that for the 2nd midterm and final (bc the TA strike) instead of shortening the tests he made us do all 5 very long questions with many parts and chose two random ones to grade and we didn't know which ones. This class is not thattt bad but it was really hard to adjust to first semester of college. If it comes very easy to you you will be fine but if you didn't take calc in highschool please don't take this class.

The best thing about this class was definitely the recorded lectures. The class was at 9am so getting to class on time was kind of challenging but the professor recorded every single lecture and would upload the day of. The worst thing about this class was the professor's indecisiveness. He would change his mind every week and was unsure of many things. It is understandable since this was his first year but it made the class extra challenging for no reason. Personally, I had not taken Calc AB in high school and I was confused most of the time but Khan Academy was definitely a very useful tool. His office hours were definitely useful in terms of explaining the homework however the room was very very small and the students would have to sit outside the room to be able to at least listen to what the professor is saying. The tests were manageable since he used most of the materials from the homework and the practice problems however he expected us to be able to finish them in 50 minutes even though each problem had over 4 parts. Overall, the professor was definitely unlucky since it was his first time teaching and because of the TA strike but he could have managed the class better. I do not suggest him to someone who has not taken calc AB before.

Math 31A is essentially AP Calculus AB(4), which I took so I will admit my review is different from someone who's first calc class is this class. Firstly though, this class didn't require the purchase of a textbook (pdf provided and I didn't really use), and a calculator was not required to buy as well but I already had Ti-36 Pro in case for homework which was sometimes helpful, which meant that there really wasn't any crazy numbers beyond the skill of college freshmen. As you see from the other reviews, the the TA strike this quarter really messed up the second midterm and the final.

Lectures : It was manageable but challenging at times, and note that the Professor has the habit of intentionally skipping over the algebra (which made it more difficult sometimes for me) and going pretty fairly fast, so keeping up and being able to quickly know what step/tricks he used to simplify is important, but don't worry too much, but the way he does it means you'll either be having a good time or a bad time.

Homework : Basically, you'll be thanking how much time you get for the required homework and how it's worth 25% of your grade, for as along you have someone to review over with, it's easy points; do well on these as these points are very helpful, but don't be cocky, you actually gotta know the general content

Tests : At least for this quarter, the tests are essentially 75-90% the same questions picked from the Homework (mostly not the requires ones) and the few pdf's of "Extra Practice Problems", with a some from the lecture, obviously you actually want to learn the content, but doing the extra problems can make the whole difference. The actual format is 5 questions with many parts, with the final having more parts. Make sure to know the Theorem's as best as you can in terms of the wording and format. The Final had a lot of repeats from previous tests so it helps

Discussions/Office Hours : Depends on your TA as usual, but they're very helpful for asking questions about homework and doing practice problems. Typical stuff and no problems here. I've only been to Office Hours once, but it is indeed a small room, but it's great for getting explanations for certain key problems

TA Strike : Lot's of stuff were up in the air regarding testing, grading, etc as a result, and so the second midterm ended up 2/5 questions where % = 2(Question 1 + Question 2)/100 points, where Q1 + Q2 has a max of 50 points and +10% at the end of it. Finals was originally similar in the 2/5 questions, but eventually everyone's exam including the second midterm was graded normally (he was able to get graders before the strike ended) so things worked out but it was hectic

Overall Thoughts : Manageable, challenging, and quite a bit of chaos and confusion, but the Professor was fair and reasonable when it came to the end of it, but I wouldn't be surprised if this ended up being hard for many.

This guy can make even the most simple concepts seem extraordinarily complicated. He is one of the most confusing professors that I've ever had. If you take his class, I would suggest subscribing to Khan Academy or some other learning platform where they will actually show you how to solve the problems rather than skipping straight to the answer with no further explanation.