3.5
Quality3.4
Difficulty38%
Would Retake87
Reviews38%
Would Retake
87
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
36
4
16
3
13
2
10
1
12
What Students Say
“The class was a pretty easy class”
MATH3A - 5.0 rating“Very clear and writes great transparencies, which he posts on the web”
MATH3A - 5.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
31%
Textbook Required
48%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.99 avg changeRatings by Course
MATH111
5.0
(1)MATH232A
5.0
(1)MATH137A
5.0
(1)MATH8
5.0
(1)MATH3C
4.8
(8)Difficulty by Course
Math118C
4.7
Math111A
4.4
MATH115A
4.3
MATH232A
4.0
MATH3B
4.0
Reviews (87)
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his grading system is all f***ed up but other than that an interesting funny professor
His lectures are extremely well structered. This guy really know his stuff, but the class material can be really difficult. Make sure to KNOW ALL the proofs before his exams.
yeah.. he's good. ummm.. yeah.
so-so
Darren is smart. He likes to intrigue. Intrigueing makes him happy. Teachinhg makes him unhappy, because teaching makes students smart.
He's very smart but he's not a good teacher. He's mean to poor performance students. If you don't know the background stuff on ur question well. Don't even think about show up in his office. " Sorry, I can't help u" or "That's ur problem." He would say. The final question was 50% fr the midterm.
yeah ..he's good teacher
Hes clear n funny. I think hes great
I love Professor Long. He is really good at getting the concepts across and his daily joke helps make the class bearable. I totally recommend him to anyone finishing up the three series.
Long is a total ****. Tells super funny british humor jokes in the middle of class and is a really good teacher too. He teaches in a way you can understand instead of how most research prof's teach to the 2 smartest kids in the class
One of my midterms was the same problem, repeated with small variations 4 times. I got 40/40 - it was easy. The point is that between the first and second midterm he hadn't taught enough to make a midterm that wasn't redundant. You won't learn much, but you'll have a good time.
Hands down best prof I've ever had. Jokes range from pretty funny to hoky but at 8am it all helps.
The class is easy, he tells jokes and lets us out early. Midterms are easy but the final was hard.
He's a funny guy. When he stands there looking at the chalkboad he looks like he's vaguely disgusted with the very fabric of the universe. He's very clear and gives a good understanding of the subject. The homework was uber-hard, but I didn't do it because I took the class P/NP.
Great Teacher and interesting. He always takes the time to answer questions and go over stuff to make sure that the class is able to comprehend
Really great teacher, he's very enthusiastic. One of the best professors i've had. He does a good job clarifying difficult material (class is hard!) & is a pretty rad guy overall.
He's pretty easy (comparing this to other upper division math courses here!), very understanding (he let me turn in homework late once), funny, and enourages participation quite a bit - which is important because math professors tend to whip through proofs without caring if you get it much.
He's an incredible professor. Initially scary, but actually a sweet guy when you go talk to him. Course suckz!
Pretty awesome dude. British accent, definitely easy to understand. Told a pretty hilarious joke almost every class. Good teacher, pretty hard tests. Overall very fair and straight forward class. Definitely recommend him if you have the opportunity
Great Professor. tested us ONLY on material that he presented in lecture. Great guy that is really helpful during office hours. Even though it was an 8am class he told a funny joke almost every lecture. explained concepts superbly.
Very hard tests, two tries per homework question (weekly assignments), and will sneak trigonometric substitutions into every problem he can. He is also very rude when individually approached. I received a c minus in his class even after taking calculus in high school
3/5 of the material on Professor Long's midterms were never taught or explained in class. CLAS is a must in order to pass the class. The 2 midterms were extremely difficult but the final was fair.
Incredibly difficult course for those not comfortable with trigonometric identities (almost as much emphasis is placed on them as is on integration). Yes he tells jokes but they are not worth getting a non-passing grade in this course. He is also rude when approached individually. This is the first math class I have not recieved above a B in...
Great Professor! Extremely helpful during office hours. If you go every week you will get a good grade because he wants his students to succeed. Only about four homework problems per week, which is very fair. He also tells hilarious jokes that are great to tell your roommates at dinner.
Always willing to help. Doesn't get frustrated. Makes lectures interactive. Quizzes every class but it keeps you on top of your notes and making sure you understand the curriculum.
Great teacher. Fun. He takes a break every class from the Calc to tell a joke. Makes lecture more interesting and fun. He is very clear and easy to follow. Tests are not too hard,but still challenging. Great class.
Easiest math class! He wants the class to succeed and doesn't give trick problems. Identical to the webwork. Class average on the first midterm was 88
class was completely useless. did not understand a single thing in lecture. CLAS taught me more than he did and ever planned to. The tests are not like webwork. got -20% on my test for writing answer in same format as webwork. tests are only 5 questions and each one is out of 5. a single mistake (forgetting to write "span") will lower your grade 4%
Absolutely superlative teacher. He has an incredible command over the material and is extremely funny! He is tough but fair. By far the best Math prof I have ever had.
Going to class was useless. I got a %100 on the first midterm and went to every single class and still ended up with a C since he lowered everyones grade at the end since too many people did well(My only C all year). I didnt like this guy, the class seemed too easy to be true and in the end it was.
Hilarious professor! Keeps you interested. Definitely unusual to have a math teacher like this, in the best of ways. He's awesome.
This professor assumes that we know everything and his hw has nothing to do with his lectures and his hw is ridiculously hard with stupid numbers
Sensational. Makes the math so clear.
The lectures are extremely clear and organized. He takes it really slow, almost too slow sometimes, fields all questions, and makes very clear explanations when things may be hard to understand. The homework can be difficult but that's why we have section. The midterms are difficult but doing the practice problems on webworks makes them manageable.
At times, Prof. Long seemed more interested in cracking a joke than continuing with the lecture. Absolutely terrible lecturer. The only good part was that he posted his lecture slides online.
Darren is a wonderful teacher. Clear, knowledgeable and enthusiastic. I hope I get to take another class from him in the future.
GREAT professor! Awesome. He made lecture enjoyable. I definetely recommend taking calculus with him. Tests fairly.
Horrible Teacher. Even if you do well in the class you aren't guaranteed any grade. He doesn't teach you anything in class and the tests are stupidly hard. The only part of his class worth anything are his jokes.
In the beginning this class seems promising, very entertaining with his daily jokes, however have knowledge of calc before you take the class because he assumes everyone knows. The CLAS was very helpful, Attend the midterm reviews and you'll do fine but the final was what we learned in class but much much harder and he doesn't curve
Great teacher, although you need to pay attention. Posts lectures online, answers all questions well, there a practice sheet for midterms. Final exam was totally straighforward.
He has a great European accent; explains the calculus very clearly but deems it "lowbrow math" and expects you to have mastered precalc concepts and equations. Class was an overview of concepts we needed to know to do homework on a basic level, and all the lectures were online. However, tests were VERY difficult, especially the final.
Professor Long is hands down the most funny professor I have ever had. Great personality which was the only reason I attended lecture. All the problems on his tests he does in lectures beforehand. Easy class if you try. It is worth taking an 8 AM just to have Prof Long!
Not a very hard class, but I think that way because CLAS was extremely helpful! I would rather have attended only CLAS than the actual lecture, where I did not learn much. The final was pretty hard. Sometimes Prof. Long puts problems that he did not talk about on his tests, but most problems are from homework.
I have mixed feelings about this professor. The class was difficult up from for me as he expected us to know a decent bit of calculus. But he got better later on. Wildly entertaining with his jokes. I initially hated math but left loving it because Darren focuses on teaching applications, which make the subject incredibly interesting!
The class was a pretty easy class. Homework was complicated though but do-able. There is always help. The TA's are very helpful. He is a FUNNY professor. Always tells jokes during lecture. I loved his class!
It took me a few classes to become used to the professor's lecturing style, but then I quickly fell in love with the material. Some of the homework isn't easy, but his exams are fair. He really wants you to think and learn from the homework. If you put in the time, you will learn a ton from this class.
Excellent professor. Attend lecture and take good notes, do the homework and you will be fine. Very clear and writes great transparencies, which he posts on the web. OVerall couldn't be better.
Hands down the worst professor I have ever had to try to learn from. I went in expecting to learn calculus and he just assumed we already knew it. He did not respond to emails whatsoever and was rude during office hours. Unhelpful and overall a terrible professor. I would never willingly take his class.
An excellent professor and a sweet guy. He really cares about the students and what you learn. You don't need to read the book that much, unless it is to clarify something in lecture, though these are pretty clear. He is very passionate about this material! If you go to his office hours and talk to him he can clarify anything.
I loved math until this class came along. His accent made it difficult for me to understand, and he assumes that students know everything as he's writing on the overhead
Prof. Long is the best math professor I've had at UCSB. His class was appropriately challenging, and the homework was a perfect preparation for the midterm and final. His lectures were entertaining and engaging. I want to have him again for upper div courses.
His sections are mandatory which is really annoying since I found them to be unhelpful. His lectures are dry, he often skims over material that is important later on in higher levels of math. One decent thing though was that he stopped class every lecture to tell a joke.
Prof. Long is really good at teaching math, very knowledgable, especially felt this after taking a relatively small class MATH 117. But his homeworks are hard, and his final exam is beyond expectations. He is a hard grader. Doesn't use Gauchospace tracking your grade, and the final grade would be confusing. Can't find him after the end of the class
He is a tough grader, and he does not seem to like teaching. His office hours are not useful, but he is an amazing lecturer. I believe that in this class I actually learned how to think like a mathematician, which is still helping me now. His grading scheme for each problem is this: "perfectly right", "right but lacks clarity", "wrong (no credit)".
Professor Long is a very condescending man who doesn't care to answer questions he doesn't deem worthy. He doesn't wear a mic in a class of 150 students and his accent makes it even harder to hear him if you don't sit close enough to the front. Sections are mandatory and lectures aren't, but the midterms/final are based on in-class work.
Long D is not the best professor when it comes to learning everything you need to know in class. He is pretty hard to hear since he speaks so quietly and he isn't exactly eager to answer a lot of the questions we have to ask him during class. His jokes aren't bad tbh but he kinda stops them a few weeks into the quarter.
Hes a super nice guy, but not the greatest lecturer. His exam problems mostly come from lectures and the homework, although he seems to pick the most difficult ones. By far not the worst professor, but there may be better ones.
Long is definitely not the worst math professor you could have, but certainly no where near the best. The thing with Long is he is such a brilliant man that he assumes all of his students know everything that he does, and consistently skips crucial steps and explanations. He would end class early basically every day, good luck with Darren.
Quiet speaker and criticizes students that ask questions. No office hours. He is knowledgeable but does not explain crucial steps in the concepts hes teaching. Im a math major, but he made me hate the subject for a brief period. The exams have the most difficult versions of the problems on it and you dont have enough time to finish the midterm.
The lecture is so boring and useless. The assignments and tests are really difficult than examples in class. Its really terrible.
The concepts covered in Professor Long's class are conceptually difficult, but I think he did a great job of providing us with the materials to succeed. This class is not an easy A. You will have to spend time on the homework and put in a lot of effort to master concepts Long presents. His office hours help! I'd take him again.
terrible teacher. wouldnt wear a microphone and was so quiet. he was so sassy whenever asked a question and did problems way too hard and confusing on the board that we werent tested on
I took Long for Math 3b and had a fine experience. The communication between him and his TAs was not great it seemed, as a lot of the things on the exams were not on my TA's review sheets. He told a joke at the midway point of every lecture, which gave something to look forward to. Only reason I got a B+ was because I failed the 2nd midterm lol.
Made students feel stupid after asking a question. Remember how teachers always said, "There's no such thing as a stupid question?", well he made it seem like the opposite, and that every student's question was stupid. Some of these students really wanted to learn. There were most times where he didn't know how to solve a problem. Not passionate.
Also, what bothered me the most was that he literally ended our hour and 15 minute lecture 15-20 minutes early every time by jokingly saying he's exhausted. This is one of the main reasons why we didn't cover some of the most important concepts such as improper integrals and Taylor series. When you add up the lost time, huge waste of tuition money.
Sensational professor. Makes tough material accessible and his lectures are funny and engaging. But he expects you to work.
I realy liked this guy. Gave old school lectures on a chalkboard. They went by quickly but the notes were great. Tests very fair, TAs helpful. Tells a joke most classes which helps.
Not an easy A. I got a 5 on the AP Calc AB exam and had to work for a B+. 1st half of the quarter is review of AB so I did really well but seriously struggled with new material because lecture is more confusing than helpful some times. Only section is mandatory and used to answer HW questions. Utilizing TAs and CLAS is really important!
Prof. Long is mathematically brilliant, is a captivating lecturer, and tells amazing jokes. One highlight: "Life philosophy: It's never too late to beef up your obituary". However, he refuses to answer questions, obfuscates his office hour times, and limits Webwork attempts to three per question, disincentivizing learning. Smart man. Bad teacher.
Professor Long is a really funny guy but I don't think he understood what being accommodating meant with regards to covid. With weekly 5 min quizzes worth 60% of our grade... I'd say kinda difficult especially online. He's fairly clear with his teaching but his grading scale was awful and unreasonable. I'm sure he'd be better in person
Terrific even though in the era of covid. Posts lecture notes (which are super-clear) and went at a steady pace. Answers all questions and very good in office hours. The 5-minute quiz isn't fun but I understand why he did it.
Dr. Long helped me understand linear algebra instead of just regurgitating stuff for tests. Attend class(zoom!), do homework, do practice problems you'll be fine. He has a system of five minute quizzes which makes it hard to cheat so dont count on chegg. He tests you on concepts so understand what you are doing and why. Great professor!
5-min quizzes are worth 60% and final is worth 40%. Quizzes are really nerve-wracking. It's unclear what grade you have in the class until the final is over since there is no numerical grade for quizzes. If you do the weekly hw and attend lectures, you will do well. Not a bad prof, just didn't like the grading scheme
An amazing teacher. His teaching style made so much sense to me and the way he constructs things in class made the class entertaining. He really loves and understands his subject. Very glad I took this class.
Run. Teaching differential topology in undergraduate math analysis class and the final exam is like a nightmare. It is literally the worst class I have ever taken, without exaggeration.
Teaches graduate level math with no curve. Tests are rote memorization with no thinking involved, just have to hope you got lucky and memorized the exact random proof that he talked about once. Is of little to no help in office hours, just acts like your question was nonsense and just moves on. Changed textbooks 3 times without telling class or TA
Absolutely excellent. The math is not easy, but it's upper division and his lectures were clear and well presented. Test were fair and based upon homework and classwork.
If you take this class with Long, expect to learn nothing, feel super stressed, waste a lot of time, and get bad grades.
Astounding in his immediate responses to say he can do nothing to help a student in need, or completely ignore the emails when it is not reasonable for him to say that. Does not care at all if his students learn anything, just shows up, lectures, and leaves. No communication, posts nothing online, he simply does not care. Actual lectures are fine.
Worst Professor I've ever had period. Doesn't care about students. Was able to find YouTube videos that explained concepts in a quarter of the time with infinitely more clarity than he had in lecture. Tests are extremely difficult. Grading scheme leaves no room for partial credit, you either get full credit or no credit.
Amazing professor. He lectures slowly and clearly and is very interactive. He always asks students for the next step of proof and guides students to complete the proof. Homework is a bit heavy and not easy, but it is manageable if you attend lectures. You can tell he has a lot of mathematical wisdom by the way he teaches. You will never walk alone.
Best professor *ever*. Makes you think about how you should be thinking about the material and how you should be thinking about mathematics. Excellent in office hours.
(Fall 2023) He explained group theory decently well, although he went really fast; we finished the core material by Week 6, and spent the remaining time doing representation theory (grad level math to unprepared undergrads). Really funny guy though, and his tests were brute memorization so easy to game (not fun studying for though).
Professor Long is very good at explaining the material by going through proofs pretty carefully. His tests are reasonable difficulty as well. However, his grading criteria is extremely opaque, and he also did not upload the final exams for us to view how we actually did.
He is super super helpful in Office Hour. He's a tough grader but it is very fair. If you understand everything in class then you are guaranteed to get a good grade.
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
31%
Textbook Required
48%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.99 avg changeRatings by Course
MATH111
5.0
(1)MATH232A
5.0
(1)MATH137A
5.0
(1)MATH8
5.0
(1)MATH3C
4.8
(8)Difficulty by Course
Math118C
4.7
Math111A
4.4
MATH115A
4.3
MATH232A
4.0
MATH3B
4.0