Professor Dai is a funny person and seems like a really nice guy. He is very knowledgeable about the material, but is simply not skilled at conveying this information to his students. Lectures are convoluted and never finish on time, the homework is rather buggy, and the midterms are difficult as they do not reflect the homework or classwork.
Understood material pretty well but could've studied more. Failed both midterms. Grading rubric too tough. He doesn't prepare you well for the exams and the hw/quizzes are in no way related to the tests. Test questions are tricky & convoluted. People go to lecture for iClicker points but it's not worth your time.
His English is not that good. As for teaching, he is ok. But he gives hard tests.
Dr. Dai 's class style is humorous. He will show examples to every point he mentions in his class. He is patient to explain the concepts you don't understand, after class or in his office hours.
Not bad.
Very poor lecturer, often uses terminology and calculations without explaining how and where they came from, and what they mean. Pray you get a good TA.
Lectures are confusing. Very few examples and lots of powerpoint slides where he explains the proof and theorem in the most confusing way possible. Very unclear on whats on the midterm and what we need to know. Hes funny and nice, but is just not the greatest of professors
Lecture is practically useless, and be prepared to get lost really easily since he literally tells you the theorem and then expects you to take it for granted from that moment onward, rarely giving a comprehensive proof or explanation for why the proof works. Exams are very tedious (final had large fractions), but also very easy.
The exams were very detailed so it was hard to get full points on every problem. The material wasn't too difficult, but it was asked in confusing ways. He's funny and I enjoyed going to lecture and section, I just wished his exams were more straight forward.
Simply reads off the powerpoint slides during lecture. Exams are very thorough and therefore not easy. Homework is not very helpful in preparing for the exams -- go to section!
Dai's lectures consisted of him flipping hastily through confusing/unhelpful PPT slides (never enough time to get notes down), online homework problems usually had no connection to things 'taught' in lecture (everyone I knew in the class used yahoo answers on the daily), and test questions were often excessively tricky. Would not recommend him.
I didn't think he was a bad professor at all. He is a little hard to understand at times but he has a good sense of humor and is always willing to help. If you have trouble understanding him TAs or CLAS is very helpful too. Definitely go to review sessions before midterms and the final because there is a lot of vocab in 4A.
Even if you fully understand the material, you'd most likely receive an unsatisfying grade from trick questions on midterms/finals. I would not recommend
Funny but not that good of a professor.
One of the worst professors I had at UCSB. His lectures were slow and confusing. He lost me many times. He would spent a bunch of time on one concept and then skip the next one. Quizes were useless and repeated each other. Tests were all trick questions that didn't actually test a students knowledge of the material. Stay away at all costs.
my favorite math professor! make difficult materials clear and simple. Just do your hw, you'll be fine.
Very organized. Good clear lecturer, doesn't move too fast.Wants student feedback. Lots of difficult homework, but the midterms and final are exactly like the homework. Clear expectations of students. Final worth 50% of grade. Very helpful at office hours. Tells math jokes to cheer students up a little. Though he's tough, overall very good teacher!
He's an amazing professor! He's very clear; his notes are posted online but go to class so you can see the examples. If you go to lectures and do the hw, you should be fine. The final was harder than the midterm but not impossible. He's also hilarious with his Euler jokes!
Class kind of derailed after we ran out of webwork assignments. Final was pretty tricky, especially after being told it would look exactly like our HW (which it only slightly did) I managed to get full points in the class up to the final, but after the final I got a B overall. However, he is hilarious, and seems to actually care about his students.
He is a fantastic professor and his lectures are really interesting. I really did not like my TA, and I slacked on my homework which is why I did not do as well as I thought I would. If you take this class, definitely go to all the lectures and you will be fine.
Professor Dai is one of the better math professors. He made learning the information easy and relatively straightforward (at least for a math class.) The exams were homework based: the midterm was extremely easy but the final was actually really difficult. Overall I think that he's a professor worth taking--if nothing else than for his Euler jokes!
Good professor. Midterm was easy, final was relatively hard.
Clearest math prof ever; makes everything seem straightforward. Cracks a lot of jokes in class. It's not one of those classes where you go for fun, but his lectures are definitely more bearable than a lot of other classes. Basically, he rewards the people who study hard, so make sure you do that because you really only have so many assignments.
Very funny guy and good at explaining the material. Problem is he makes the final extremely difficult. I did well in everything but the final and ended up failing the class even though I knew the material.