Professor

Tom Gannon

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4.9
Overall Ratings
Based on 28 Users
Easiness 4.6 / 5 How easy the class is, 1 being extremely difficult and 5 being easy peasy.
Workload 4.9 / 5 How light the workload is, 1 being extremely heavy and 5 being extremely light.
Clarity 5.0 / 5 How clear the professor is, 1 being extremely unclear and 5 being very clear.
Helpfulness 5.0 / 5 How helpful the professor is, 1 being not helpful at all and 5 being extremely helpful.

Reviews (28)

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Feb. 17, 2023
Quarter: Fall 2022
Grade: A

not sure why his name is gannoth on here but tom GANNON is a goat he is really engaging, funny, records lecture, and is super understanding. Manageable homework. it was my first math course at ucla and i loved it

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Dec. 29, 2023
Quarter: Fall 2023
Grade: A

Short Version: If you have this professor as an option for this class, please please PLEASE choose him — you will have no regrets.

To preface, I’ve taken college calculus before during HS junior year, but I had such a bad teacher that I dropped it 2nd semester and since then pretty much forgot the whole thing.

Now the long version: Professor Gannon is the best. He’s super fun with his lectures, extremely understanding of what college freshmen are going through, puts in the effort and time to explain content thoroughly, and goes out of his way to make the class a memorable one. Though it’s only my first quarter at UCLA, I can say with no doubt that he has set an extremely high bar to beat. This was the only class where I truly wanted to attend every lecture because they were so engaging (if you can’t make lecture, he posts recordings of them on Bruin Learn).

The class had weekly HW assignments and quizzes (all easy and very reasonable — you can drop 2 of the lowest scores for each). We had 2 midterms — both were also very reasonable and we had a practice exam for the first one where questions from it actually showed up on MT 1. The final in my opinion was more difficult than the 2 midterms but was still very fair and doable (I actually did the best on the final exam in terms of score wise so…). He also gave us a practice exam for the final but the whole class thought it was ridiculously hard (he didn’t write the practice exam, it was written by another professor in 2019), so it wasn’t as helpful as I anticipated because most questions were unrepresentative of what actually came up on the final. From the 2 midterms and final, I can say that Professor Gannon is definitely not the type to try and stump his students; in fact, he even says in class that he won’t put super “hard” questions on the test.

In terms of communication, he’s a 10 out of 10. He’s super responsive by email and answers questions posted on Piazza (our Q/A platform) within 24 hours and usually sooner. He was even answering them by the next day over winter break and on Christmas day — that’s the amount of dedication he has for his students.

Some other miscellaneous perks that I’m not sure if other professors will give: 1) extra 12 hours to submit HW/quizzes after the deadline in case of tech issues, 2) 2 grading options where one counts both midterms and the other only counts one midterm but the final weighs more — whichever gives you the higher grade is your final grade, 3) 3x5 notecard double-sided for midterms and 8.5x11 paper single-sided for the final, 4) you can request regrades for both of the midterms and the final if you think you were graded incorrectly, 5) Professor Gannon is willing to make it easier to obtain a grade (ie. for the F23 quarter, he lowered each grade boundary by 1% so a 92 was an A and an 89 was an A- etc.), 6) on exams, he is very lenient with unfinished arithmetic and the methods you use to solve problems (except some like L'Hopital's where he will explicitly state in class not to use).

TLDR — please take MATH 31A with Professor Gannon, you won’t regret it.

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Nov. 2, 2023
Quarter: Fall 2022
Grade: A

Hands down the best professor at UCLA. Weekly quizzes super helpful in understanding the content of this course. Midterms and final were an accurate representation of the homework we were assigned. 31A with Gannon is 100% worth it.

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March 1, 2023
Quarter: Fall 2022
Grade: A+

Great professor

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Jan. 10, 2024
Quarter: Fall 2023
Grade: A

For reference, primarily, I did take AP Calc AB in high school so this class was relatively all review to me. But Gannon is THE GOATTT and I'm pretty sure damn near everyone in my class would agree with that. I could only hope to have more math profs like him; he was so clear in his lecture, generally just a chill and funny guy, and really wanted his students to do the best. His voice is also so satisfying like it scratches this itch in my brain and I just love it. I am so grateful for this guy for making my first college math course a fun, engaging, and relatively easy and understanding time.

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Jan. 7, 2024
Quarter: Fall 2023
Grade: A

Best math professor/ teacher I've ever had in my life. I was intimidated out of calculus back in high school and started the class with pretty much no understanding. Prof Gannon knows how to break down the material to make it digestible for first-time calculus students like me and managed to make it engaging at the same time. He truly does everything in his power to help you succeed: he provided lecture recordings, dropped the two lowest homework grades, responded virtually on Piazza in addition to OH, allowed a cheatsheet (index card for midterms and one side of a full-size paper for the final) and even came on campus the weekend before finals to host a study session. I wouldn't consider the class easy, especially with my background, but Prof Gannon truly was the best professor for it and I would pick him anytime for as long as he continues teaching.

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Feb. 20, 2023
Quarter: Fall 2022
Grade: A-

MY GOD. I loved this professor. He's new here I think, but oh my god this class was such a great way to start my quarter here at UCLA. Also his name is Tom Gannon, not Gannoth, not sure why they did that but thats besides the point. Amazing lecturer. The homeworks were doable as long as you paid attention during class. Me personally I never took a single calculus class in high school, so that's probably why I got an A- (I'll explain in a bit). The course consisted of biweekly quizzes which were VERY fair and basically reflected on the homework from the previous week. The midterms were very doable for me, all you needed to do was study the homework problems and understand conceptually as well. It wasn't too stressful. However, the final was pretty hard, at least for me. I think I got like a 70 on the final but ended up with 2 90's on the midterms, which is why I dropped from an A to an A-. Honestly, if you took calculus before in high school then it wouldn't have been as hard, but I thought the final was unimaginably hard and nothing compared to the midterms. He does give us practice tests tho, and those are extremely useful because sometimes he literally just copied an exam question (literally the exact same number, problem, and everything) and it would help for the midterms and finals. I got lost quite a few times in his lectures I guess, I think he spoke a bit fast but everything would get cleared up if I just went to one office hour. He's super nice and funny, and I would definitely take him again and recommend him to any person taking Calc 1. The grading scheme was pretty fair too, and he had 2 different ones (and would choose the one that helps u the most). Overall, 9/10 class (just because the final was really hard in my opinion compared to the midterms), but if I could, I'd definitely take him again.

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Dec. 22, 2023
Quarter: Fall 2023
Grade: A+

If you have him as an option!! Pick him!!!
He is one of the best math teachers I ever met. Quick summary: 1) he is funny and passionate, and his classes are never boring (classes are recorded); 2) his tests are pretty easy, our 1st midterm is the practice midterm he gave us (I learned calculus before so everything was pretty easy; few particular friends don't think so); 3) he gives a HW (due on SAT 8 am) and a quiz (due on Mon 8 am) every week, definitely not a lot of work. 4) I didn't go to OH so I have no idea.

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Dec. 9, 2023
Quarter: Fall 2023
Grade: A

Highly recommend Tom Gannon if you're taking calculus, especially if math isn't your favorite subject. The lectures are recorded, homeworks are relatively short, quizzes are online, and midterms/tests are fairly easy (with a cheat sheet allowed). Outside of attending or watching lecture, you won't spend more than 1-2 hours on this class. Gannon is a great explanatory teacher who makes the concepts easy to understand, and a semi-funny lecturer as well. The TAs are useless, but Gannon is very active on Piazza/OH and answers almost all questions himself.

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March 15, 2024
Quarter: Fall 2023
Grade: A

goat.

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MATH 31A
Quarter: Fall 2022
Grade: A
Feb. 17, 2023

not sure why his name is gannoth on here but tom GANNON is a goat he is really engaging, funny, records lecture, and is super understanding. Manageable homework. it was my first math course at ucla and i loved it

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 31A
Quarter: Fall 2023
Grade: A
Dec. 29, 2023

Short Version: If you have this professor as an option for this class, please please PLEASE choose him — you will have no regrets.

To preface, I’ve taken college calculus before during HS junior year, but I had such a bad teacher that I dropped it 2nd semester and since then pretty much forgot the whole thing.

Now the long version: Professor Gannon is the best. He’s super fun with his lectures, extremely understanding of what college freshmen are going through, puts in the effort and time to explain content thoroughly, and goes out of his way to make the class a memorable one. Though it’s only my first quarter at UCLA, I can say with no doubt that he has set an extremely high bar to beat. This was the only class where I truly wanted to attend every lecture because they were so engaging (if you can’t make lecture, he posts recordings of them on Bruin Learn).

The class had weekly HW assignments and quizzes (all easy and very reasonable — you can drop 2 of the lowest scores for each). We had 2 midterms — both were also very reasonable and we had a practice exam for the first one where questions from it actually showed up on MT 1. The final in my opinion was more difficult than the 2 midterms but was still very fair and doable (I actually did the best on the final exam in terms of score wise so…). He also gave us a practice exam for the final but the whole class thought it was ridiculously hard (he didn’t write the practice exam, it was written by another professor in 2019), so it wasn’t as helpful as I anticipated because most questions were unrepresentative of what actually came up on the final. From the 2 midterms and final, I can say that Professor Gannon is definitely not the type to try and stump his students; in fact, he even says in class that he won’t put super “hard” questions on the test.

In terms of communication, he’s a 10 out of 10. He’s super responsive by email and answers questions posted on Piazza (our Q/A platform) within 24 hours and usually sooner. He was even answering them by the next day over winter break and on Christmas day — that’s the amount of dedication he has for his students.

Some other miscellaneous perks that I’m not sure if other professors will give: 1) extra 12 hours to submit HW/quizzes after the deadline in case of tech issues, 2) 2 grading options where one counts both midterms and the other only counts one midterm but the final weighs more — whichever gives you the higher grade is your final grade, 3) 3x5 notecard double-sided for midterms and 8.5x11 paper single-sided for the final, 4) you can request regrades for both of the midterms and the final if you think you were graded incorrectly, 5) Professor Gannon is willing to make it easier to obtain a grade (ie. for the F23 quarter, he lowered each grade boundary by 1% so a 92 was an A and an 89 was an A- etc.), 6) on exams, he is very lenient with unfinished arithmetic and the methods you use to solve problems (except some like L'Hopital's where he will explicitly state in class not to use).

TLDR — please take MATH 31A with Professor Gannon, you won’t regret it.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 31A
Quarter: Fall 2022
Grade: A
Nov. 2, 2023

Hands down the best professor at UCLA. Weekly quizzes super helpful in understanding the content of this course. Midterms and final were an accurate representation of the homework we were assigned. 31A with Gannon is 100% worth it.

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MATH 31A
Quarter: Fall 2022
Grade: A+
March 1, 2023

Great professor

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MATH 31A
Quarter: Fall 2023
Grade: A
Jan. 10, 2024

For reference, primarily, I did take AP Calc AB in high school so this class was relatively all review to me. But Gannon is THE GOATTT and I'm pretty sure damn near everyone in my class would agree with that. I could only hope to have more math profs like him; he was so clear in his lecture, generally just a chill and funny guy, and really wanted his students to do the best. His voice is also so satisfying like it scratches this itch in my brain and I just love it. I am so grateful for this guy for making my first college math course a fun, engaging, and relatively easy and understanding time.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 31A
Quarter: Fall 2023
Grade: A
Jan. 7, 2024

Best math professor/ teacher I've ever had in my life. I was intimidated out of calculus back in high school and started the class with pretty much no understanding. Prof Gannon knows how to break down the material to make it digestible for first-time calculus students like me and managed to make it engaging at the same time. He truly does everything in his power to help you succeed: he provided lecture recordings, dropped the two lowest homework grades, responded virtually on Piazza in addition to OH, allowed a cheatsheet (index card for midterms and one side of a full-size paper for the final) and even came on campus the weekend before finals to host a study session. I wouldn't consider the class easy, especially with my background, but Prof Gannon truly was the best professor for it and I would pick him anytime for as long as he continues teaching.

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0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 31A
Quarter: Fall 2022
Grade: A-
Feb. 20, 2023

MY GOD. I loved this professor. He's new here I think, but oh my god this class was such a great way to start my quarter here at UCLA. Also his name is Tom Gannon, not Gannoth, not sure why they did that but thats besides the point. Amazing lecturer. The homeworks were doable as long as you paid attention during class. Me personally I never took a single calculus class in high school, so that's probably why I got an A- (I'll explain in a bit). The course consisted of biweekly quizzes which were VERY fair and basically reflected on the homework from the previous week. The midterms were very doable for me, all you needed to do was study the homework problems and understand conceptually as well. It wasn't too stressful. However, the final was pretty hard, at least for me. I think I got like a 70 on the final but ended up with 2 90's on the midterms, which is why I dropped from an A to an A-. Honestly, if you took calculus before in high school then it wouldn't have been as hard, but I thought the final was unimaginably hard and nothing compared to the midterms. He does give us practice tests tho, and those are extremely useful because sometimes he literally just copied an exam question (literally the exact same number, problem, and everything) and it would help for the midterms and finals. I got lost quite a few times in his lectures I guess, I think he spoke a bit fast but everything would get cleared up if I just went to one office hour. He's super nice and funny, and I would definitely take him again and recommend him to any person taking Calc 1. The grading scheme was pretty fair too, and he had 2 different ones (and would choose the one that helps u the most). Overall, 9/10 class (just because the final was really hard in my opinion compared to the midterms), but if I could, I'd definitely take him again.

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0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 31A
Quarter: Fall 2023
Grade: A+
Dec. 22, 2023

If you have him as an option!! Pick him!!!
He is one of the best math teachers I ever met. Quick summary: 1) he is funny and passionate, and his classes are never boring (classes are recorded); 2) his tests are pretty easy, our 1st midterm is the practice midterm he gave us (I learned calculus before so everything was pretty easy; few particular friends don't think so); 3) he gives a HW (due on SAT 8 am) and a quiz (due on Mon 8 am) every week, definitely not a lot of work. 4) I didn't go to OH so I have no idea.

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0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 31A
Quarter: Fall 2023
Grade: A
Dec. 9, 2023

Highly recommend Tom Gannon if you're taking calculus, especially if math isn't your favorite subject. The lectures are recorded, homeworks are relatively short, quizzes are online, and midterms/tests are fairly easy (with a cheat sheet allowed). Outside of attending or watching lecture, you won't spend more than 1-2 hours on this class. Gannon is a great explanatory teacher who makes the concepts easy to understand, and a semi-funny lecturer as well. The TAs are useless, but Gannon is very active on Piazza/OH and answers almost all questions himself.

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MATH 31A
Quarter: Fall 2023
Grade: A
March 15, 2024

goat.

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