MATH 241B
Xianzhe Dai
2.9
108 reviews

108
2.9
MATH4A . 5 Years Ago

Dai's personality is nice and he tries to be funny. It's like he was a failed stand up comic and decided he would try teaching and incorporate his "comedy there." The students that attended lecture would pity clap him. His lectures were the powerpoint word for word, with huge matrices. His explanations would skip HUGE steps. Take CLAS.

9 helpful 0 unhelpful
MATH4A . 5 Years Ago

This guy was amazing in class, personality is amazing (this guy is a legend), and class was manageable up until the final. The final had material on it the we never covered! There was practically no curve. Since the final is worth 55% of the grade if you get screwed on the final you're done. So he made the final super hard on purpose. Never again.

10 helpful 1 unhelpful
MATH4A . 5 Years Ago

He spends too much time explaining theorems and not enough showing how to solve problems so I learned all of the material in CLAS. The midterm and final are really straightforward and there arent any curveballs. Its definitely possible to get 100% on both of them if you make sure you get how to do all the practice problems he gives you.

1 helpful 7 unhelpful
MATH4A . 5 Years Ago

Professor Dai illustrated everything very clearly during the classes. He is a very logical and knowledgeable person, having accent but can be accepted. For those people who say this class is hard, think of how much work you paid for this class. If you are not a stupid and pay enough for this class, then you will succeed.

3 helpful 18 unhelpful
MATH4A . 5 Years Ago

Professor Dai cannot teach at the level that should be expected at a University of this caliber. Lectures and lecture notes are borderline useless and most sections will not be helpful as well. The only way I got through this was with CLAS. You basically have to teach yourself the entire course. Use 3B1B on youtube and if you can, do not take Dai.

8 helpful 0 unhelpful
MATH4A . 5 Years Ago

He doesnt go in depth at all (he barely speaks English) and then tests on things that were never discussed, in homework, on quizzes, or in the textbook. Also, quizzes and homework were worth basically nothing so if you did poorly on the midterm or final, youre screwed. Not a good or fair teacher at all.

10 helpful 1 unhelpful
MATH4A . 5 Years Ago

As a 1st quarter freshman, I just want to say that college marks a severe drop in the quality of education we receive. Dai is not a great teacher, as the comments below have affirmed, but this applies to most of my professors in general. You just do everything by yourself and show up to the tests. You pay for a degree, not an education. Pathetic.

13 helpful 1 unhelpful
MATH4A . 5 Years Ago

Everyone has already mentioned how his lectures suck and he how doesn't teach. But I'd also like to add that his grading is really really weird and brutal. I got a poor grade on the final and idk if the class will be curved or not. I hope there's just a high school style curve where he just adds percentages to grades, but idk if that will happen.

8 helpful 0 unhelpful
MATH4A . 5 Years Ago

Dai's lectures were alright, and so was the homework. The final was horrible, and nothing like the practice problems (even though the midterm was exactly like the practice problems he gave us..). I got an A- on the midterm and had 100% on everything else but the final is worth so much so my grade still sucks and I don't know if he curves.

7 helpful 0 unhelpful
MATH4A . 5 Years Ago

The tests weigh 85%. Miss a number? You are screwed. Almost 1k students, what do you expect to learn?

9 helpful 1 unhelpful
MATH4A . 5 Years Ago

He seems like a nice person, but his lectures just don't cut it if you want to do well. The reason I'm going to get an A is that I signed up for CLAS, and if you want an A, do the same. With CLAS the class is easy. Bonderson was awesome. Dai though will walk through easy stuff really slowly, then explain completely new concepts in a few minutes.

2 helpful 0 unhelpful
MATH4A . 5 Years Ago

Worst professor I've ever seen. He won't even explain concepts clearly before he actually talked about it. Spoke very slow and spent a long time on easy ones and almost skipped hard ones. So regretful taking this class.

7 helpful 0 unhelpful
MATH4A . 5 Years Ago

It's a math class and you see more letters than you see numbers. He only teaches the concepts and not how to do problems so it's really up to you to actually learn and be able to apply that knowledge to the problems on the midterm and Final. If you're a bio major, go take stats instead honestly, don't even stress

5 helpful 0 unhelpful
MATH4A . 6 Years Ago

He tries to make you remember stuff with dumb phrases that don't make sense or aren't memorable

3 helpful 0 unhelpful
MATH4A . 7 Years Ago

Dai is a really funny and seems to care about his students, but he wasn't very good at explaining the material and answering his students questions. I attended the lectures only for iClicker. Reading the textbook and attending CLAS was really helpful for his class. If you do take him, make sure you do the homework seriously.

7 helpful 0 unhelpful
MATH4A . 7 Years Ago

He knows his stuff, but can't seem to express it clearly. If you make enough of an effort to review his notes and read the textbook, you'll pass. Also just do the HW and iClicker stuff, its free points.

2 helpful 0 unhelpful
MATH4A . 7 Years Ago

absurd tests. who assigns a hundred problems in a textbook for the study guide, and then puts two questions on the final that none of those problems would help you with...

4 helpful 2 unhelpful
MATH4A . 7 Years Ago

He can be a little confusing and its hard to stay awake for lectures, but he does his best. He seems to care about the students. I ended up learning a lot outside of class with section, CLAS, and the homework. It isn't too difficult if you work hard to understand the key concepts at the beginning.

5 helpful 0 unhelpful
MATH4A . 7 Years Ago

Lectures are mandatory but you are better off trying to teach yourself from the textbook. He's that bad.

4 helpful 0 unhelpful
MATH108A . 7 Years Ago

His homework for this class could be a bit excessive sometimes. 10 problems isn't bad, but writing everything out can take a while and there were always like 1-2 hard problems per set. Exams are straight off of the homework problems, but make sure you understand the tough ones. Dude threw the hardest ones in the final and wrecked everyone.

7 helpful 2 unhelpful
MATH4A . 7 Years Ago

People love to rant about Dai mainly because he has a heavy accent. But apart from that, his lectures are very straightforward and easy to follow. The course itself can be quite easy as long as you focus in class and do make use of CLAS (get Vince Zaccone if you can). Do the homework and focus in class. You'll be fine.

2 helpful 3 unhelpful
MATH4A . 7 Years Ago

Professor Dai, to put it mildly, made us Dai. His lectures and curriculum are poorly organized. He tries to be funny with bad memes and Star Wars references (sometimes Transformers) but wastes time doing it. His homework makes the class seem easy, but then he destroys you with his tests. For the love of all that is good, don't take his class.

14 helpful 0 unhelpful
MATH4A . 7 Years Ago

Don't listen to all of the bad reviews, this professor is great. He gives lots of examples after introducing concepts and is very patient when asking questions. He also tells a lot of math jokes that are pretty dry but that is what makes them funny. As long as you pay attention in class,you should be just fine.

1 helpful 12 unhelpful
MATH108A . 7 Years Ago

Do the homework! Ask as many questions as you can about how to do the homework. Hard class by nature, but midterms and final are based directly from homework problems. Cool dude.

1 helpful 5 unhelpful