He reads off the slides in lectures. Homework is much easier than what he teaches. He's also rude and does not accept criticism. If you want to email him for help, save your time because he doesn't care to help his students. Never seen a math professor not touch a marker to do problems and only reads off the slides.

First of all, he isnt a professor, but an instructor. He basically just copies and pastes his slides from the text book and isnt good at explaining at all!! The average on the first midterm was a 62%. AND he refused to tell us what was on the first midterm for some reason, being all mysterious, and for what?? So we would fail?! I do not recommend!

This is one of the worst classes I have taken! This professor only reads from the sides and rambles, not thoroughly explaining any topic. Beware if you have a question, he will not only be unwilling to help but also make you feel stupid for not understanding the concept. If you have the option to take any other professor, I would strongly recommend

PLEASE STAY AWAY!! Lectures were beyond confusing, he just yaps and reads off the slides. Exams were extremely difficult with LOTS OF PROOFS AND VERIFICATION PROBLEMS, in a math course for non-engineering students!!

This is his first time teaching, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, but as of this quarter... he's a bad lecturer. He reads off the slides and doesn't explain the topics well. I had to depend on Edfinity to teach me.

By far worst professor I've had at UCSD. Copied and pasted the textbook straight onto the slides and never provided any examples. When he finally decides to pick up a pencil he erases it and the slides are left empty. Better off learning the material on youtube than going to the lectures. Overall very unorganized class.

Truly seemed like he didn't care about students, made claims about the importance of Office hours, but he literally is on his computer facing away from us the whole time and if you ask him for help he pulls out lecture slides on his ipad and gives them to you. He also doesn't release the answers for practice midterm until the day before the midterm

Useless lecture notes and lectures. Homework and practice exam solutions are not helpful at all. Discussion attendance is worth 10% of the grade, so that's nice.

One of the worst professors. Pastes screenshots from the textbook on his slides and uses a laser pointer to read them. No sun solving in class. What he teaches in class differs from the homework which differs from the exam.

Lectures are completely useless... better off using YouTube. He explains things in such unnecessary depth and with too many proofs. almost no examples of problems in his lectures. It is extremely difficult to understand questions on midterms and finals and nonsensical answers. DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS!

Extremely dry professor, just copy-pastes materials from the slides. Mumbles so you can't really hear him unless you are near the front of the class. Doesn't record lectures so you can't actually make out what he's saying. If you have to take his class either grind out podcasts from other professors or watch vector calc videos on YouTube.

This prof doesn't know how to teach. His lectures are useless. He literally puts pages of the textbook on the slides and just reads them during lecture. He doesn't do example and instead goes into the technical details that are not even related to the homework. There is no podcast so you have to attend his useless lectures at 8am.

Son of the beach.

bie na zhe jie ke, kuai pao. kaoshi nei rong he jiao de wan quan wu guan.

I took AP pre-calc and AP Calc AB and got 5's on both, So i thought math 20a would be light work. This professor just screenshots textbook pages and uses them as his lecture slides. He teaches the concepts as if they are more difficult then they are, and makes the concepts way deeper then they need to be making his lectures hard to understand.

It's nearly impossible to understand his overly complicated and boring lectures. He puts screenshots of the textbook on the slides and read them in class. His exams are also hard and unrelated to the slides he read in class. Overall, he's a pretty bad prof. Avoid him if you don't want to be miserable.

He makes topics much more complicated than they need to be, class is far too proof-heavy, especially on tests for Calculus I. Additionally, He reads solely off of the slides and does not explain or give many examples other than the ones copied and pasted from the textbook. Better off learning elsewhere online, do not take this professor.

very odd structure, midterms are dangerously different from homework and lecture slides, with a higher focus on proofs. do not take this professor!!

Useless lectures and homework that don't even prepare you for the exam. No podcast but ig it's not needed if all he does in class is reading off the slides. No cheat sheet on the exam and he doesn't even tell you want to study for. I have to rely on another professor's lecture to lean the content. DO NOT TAKE his class!

This is a bad prof who over complicates everything he teaches. He crams too much stuffs into the slides and rushes over them in class. The homework is different from lecture and the exam is also very different from homework. Very disorienting

you can't understand him bc he just mumbles at the front of the room. but that doesnt matter since he reads the words off the slides, then when NOBODY understands it, just moves on. he ignores student's questions and just tells them he doesn't have time to answer (wed have time if we WEREN'T DOING RANDOM BS) hw and exams different from lecture too

He often rambles during lectures, and his slides are so dense that it's difficult to follow his reasoning. The class focuses heavily on proofs and overly complex methods for simple concepts like the chain or product rule, while the exams are largely disconnected from what's taught. I would not take this class if you have any choice not too.

WORST MATH TEACHER PREFESSOR i had in my life. I WILL always get A+ in school and never thought I will say I want to drop math in my life before meeting him.

He saids the test is gonna be based on the lecture and if someone ask, he says “ I was not gonna teach you guys this because I was gonna put this on the test”. basically he doesn't teach stuff based on lectures and wants us to prove stuff in math 20A. I see other math 20A professor have a test that is actual math 20A. class average is fail.

An intro calc class that is entirely proof based without any teaching on how to use proof “language”. Very little explaining going and difficult use of notation that make the slides near impossible to follow without a degree in math.

JUST CURVE THE MIDTERMS GAOJIN GAOJIN PLEASE MY MOM IS KINDA HOMELESS CURVE THE MIDTERM HOMEBOY PLEASE PLEASE AN AVERAGE FAIL IS NOT COOL. HAVING A FAIL AS THE CLASS AVERAGE DOES NOT MAKE YOU THE BEST PROFESSOR IN THE MATH DEPARTMENTS GAOJIN, IT JUST SIGNIFIES SOMETHING ELSE.

retarbed, making me distrubed and annoyed. Barely understandable English, referring to curves as "this one" and frequent mistakes in ppts. Asked us to purchase a textbook but is not related/referred to in the course at all.

I love this professor, I am giving him a five star, one star a time!

Teaches calc 1 at a completely inappropriate level, focusing on proofs that wouldn't even be taught in a standard calc 2 or 3 class. Spends no time on practice problems just theoreticals and then the tests are not what he taught in class. Very difficult to follow slides and lecture.

He's a nice guy but it's just sooo difficult. Gaojin if you're reading I hope you know we all agree that we like you as a person. We are just not capable of keeping up with you.

his lectures are hard to understand and full of proofs. he is a nice and funny person, but he overestimates his students way too much; he makes it difficult to learn because he blames the textbook for making mistakes when his slides are literally copy and paste from it. if you take this class, ochem tutor will be ur bff

I cried all day before my midterm. DONT take his class if you want to feel miserable and extremely upset. His tests are 10x harder than the homework and lectures. He will make your life unbearable. His class is way outside of the scope of 20A. PLEASE TRUST ME AND TAKE SOMEONE ELSE!!!!!

Tips to survive: look at his PPT, skip the proof section. If a proof question occur in the test, just let it go. It is intellectually impossible to remember all his proofs.

Very rough. Even with a background in AP Calc, I'm struggling in this class. He mumbles and is hard to understand , and he just points at screenshots of content. Very proof heavy which makes no sense because it's literally math20a but its like we do theoretical calc. instead of doing basic calculus problems, we prove them...

The way he speaks is very unclear. He is very heavy on proofs, but puts none of it on the exam.

I'm quite decent with math and I've been putting in quite a good amount of time studying for his class, but it's impossible to keep up with the fast pace and dense materials. I just cannot relate the exam problems to the class content. He's overcomplicating everything in class but put none of those on the exam. Why bother teaching them then?

He claims that his slides and lectures are exactly what the test is based on, but the test is only vaguely modeled after them. I went through his slides and studied my lecture notes, practiced the Practice Midterm given to us, and focused on the problems he explicitly said would be on the test, and I feel like I just bombed my midterm.

horrible, terrible, never take ever even if ur life depends on it

Don't do it.

He's lowkey bad. He spends all the time in class to talk about theory and proof stuffs and doesn't do examples.

Considering dropping out of engineering, and also considering dropping out of college because of this class. No matter what background you have in calculus you will fail this course

No words can describe it.

I am confused why he teaches. He should be a researcher or something because he is really bad at teaching. didn't hear a single person talking good about his class and teaching skills and at this point its the schools fault for letting him teach

Don't do it

never take this beach

this is not an exaggeration, he is the worst professor I have ever had. I feel bad saying this because he is nice, but do not ever take his class. I just transferred here and if this is the type of professor I should expect at ucsd I am seriously regretting my decision. spends way too much time doing proofs, and little examples in class.

Does not know how to teach. Take the class with any other teacher or even take it over the summer if you have to. It seems like he wants us to fail with how little he prepares us for the tests. His exams are incredibly difficult and some questions are barely related to calculus at all. I think he gets joy out of giving his students depression.

Do not take under ANY circumstances

Class is unrelated to exams.

Hes a chud

He cannot teach and uses the most difficult possible 20a problems and what he teaches in class have little to do with the midterms and you will need to study on your own. Its not even worth going to class as all he does is read slides poorly which you can do on your own. The average grades on the midterms was failing across the whole class.

The course was absolute hell to go through. Professor He clearly understands his material and what he is trying to teach but hes trying to teach it like we all already know everything. I have no problems with the guy, hes probably great, but he clearly is better fit for teaching a higher math class. Bottom line: DO NOT TAKE 20A with this guy.

take his class if and only if you want to experience what hell truly feels like. you'll be helpless in a way never experienced before.

he sucks so bad, and every day i woke up to go to his class i wish i did not. he barely speaks english and is very UNCLEAR when he speaks. he teaches, but fails to teach. even the TA's are unsure what he is doing. he teaches proofs and problems that are not on the test. DO NOT TAKE! SAVE YOURSELF!

I used AI to explain one of the solutions on the midterm (since he is unable to) ... The AI model hallucinated. Half the class dropped. He can't speak English to save his life. Godspeed to you all who will take him.

I can't even put to words how bad this course is. His accent makes it hard to listen to and when you ask questions they don't get fully answered. I tried studying for both midterms based on what he said what was going to be on it and it didn't help it just made it worse. The proofs are taught only in lectures and not even that well. Don't take him.

Professor He is very proof heavy, relies on difficult application problems from the textbook that occasionally HE struggles to solve, and doesn't teach very clearly. At all. I have never witnessed anyone overcomplicate super simple concepts/rules, like chain rule, to that impressive of a degree. He's a nice, funny guy who should not be teaching.

I believe the prof knows his stuff, however he has a hard time explaining it to those who dont know the content as well as he does. Homework is easy compared to exams, so on test day, its a large jump in difficulty. Very proof heavy, even if you feel like you did good in ap calc, this class may still kick you. Great guy, not the best teacher.

Save urself

RUN DO NOT TAKE HIM he is so not understanding and makes the tests SO MUCH HARDER than actual math 20a content. ucsd has to curve the class because when > 50% class is failing it says more about the teacher than the students.

take another professor

I spent appro whole day and night to finish the 27 pages practice test, but final test makes me fell like a clown, lecture is confusing, homework is useless, teacher is arrogant. double effort for half the result. oh, and no curve.

do not take him. reads off slides and hardly does examples, tests had nothing to do with anything in class. the average for the midterms were failing grades.

Really tough exams!

Run asap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Do not take Math 20E with Gaojin He. I've never hated a math class in my life but he managed to make this class so boring and much harder than it's supposed to be. His exams are full of proofs and theorems and his homework's are tedious. DO NOT TAKE A CLASS WITH HIM

Save yourself

The absolute worst professor I have ever had in my entire education. Incredibly messy slides and focuses on teaching proofs instead of building intuitive understanding. Does almost ZERO examples and when there are examples done they are already solved which takes out the learning part of the class. DO NOT EVER EVER EVER take a class with this prof!

Genuinely think hes the worst professor to ever exist. I can't believe UCSD actually hired him as if the world had no other better option for calc 1. His lectures are useless, he does not teach you anything. His tests and exams are way too difficult. Any positive review of him here is a troll review btw.

he's the worst teacher ive ever had in my life. i took calc in high school and i think i knew less after this class than i knew before... his lectures are terrible and he only focuses on useless proofs and his tests are insanely hard and cover irrelevant topics not even taught in class. avoid him at all costs

Teaches completely outside the course scope with exams unrelated to any homework or lectures. Only covers proofs with limited examples teaching nothing about the content. He had an average below failing on all exams. Refuses to curve claiming his class is too easy. He needs to be investigated by the math department. DO NOT TAKE ANY CLASS WITH HIM!!

Very bad lecture with very difficult exams. Do not curve and don't provide any practices. So you will not get to know anything about the exam before taking it. Tons of proofs with limited examples to help us understand. Very harsh grading scheme. He makes the course way more difficult than it should be.

Wish I just dropped the class and took it later with another professor. As engineering majors why are we doing this in 20A. cant switch my major anymore and will have to retake the class all because exams were not what we learned in class, proofs are not 20A curriculum, and he points at the screen without explaining and doing any example problems.

Lectures are terrible. You can look up his podcasts to see how he teaches. Refuses to take accountability and instead bashes students and the UC System for why his class seems so hard. The tests in other 20a courses at UCSD are 10x easier. There's a reason as to why he is transferring schools next year.

Worst decision I ever made in my life. He's ruining my academic progress and plans. Compared to Bowers ( good professor, teaches 20a curriculum, provides retakes), he is a nightmare ( no curves, not 20a material, can't lecture, is not lenient, 80% of your grade is exams, which btw have nothing to do with lecture content.)

There is a reason why he's teaching the rest of this year and going to UC Santa Barbara. In addition, half his lectures for 20a next quarter got canceled... It is so bad.

Lectures are completely useless, midterms and final is nothing what's on the test.He says “we should be lucky” about grading policy but YOU DID NOT CURVE GOAJIN WE SHOULDN'T BE LUCKY ABOUT ANYTHING. No empathy for this guy. He is angry at the math department but we all dislike him, maybe he should do some self-reflecting on who's really at fault.

Please don't take this prof. most lectures are overcomplicating proofs way out of the syllabus, which was extremely confusing. midterms and finals were completely different to what was taught in class (average across both midterms a fail). Claims this class is too easy and refuses to curve. Genuinely the worst math teacher ive ever come across ever

terrible teacher, terrible lecturer, cannot string a single coherent sentence to save his life. makes tests unnecessarily difficult and proof-heavy, posts no review material that is actually relevant to the course, and generally does his best to make your life as miserable as possible. nice guy but terrible terrible terrible professor.

1/4 of the class failed... (NOT NORMAL) Also, class size severely decreased as people dropped as weeks went on. Nightmare of a class, pray for the ones who survived and for the ones who didn't.

1/4 of class failed, absolute goober that just points at the slides with no explanation whatsoever, tests didn't cover what we saw in class in the slightest. STAY AWAY

Horrible class. Nothing from class nor homework was on midterms and final. I was able to fully solve other math 20a finals but not this professor's, you can never expect the questions. My class' fail rate was 25%.

Absolute no correlation of lectures and homework into exams. Cannot teach to save his life, mumbles and goes extremely fast. Only focuses on proofs and never solves anything WHICH HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH 20A. No curve, not understanding, not helpful, and simply cannot learn from him given how he overcomplicates the basics

Maybe he should stick to research or teach any course but mathematics. EXTREMELY difficult to learn from him. EXTREMELY hard to do well on the class. No matter how hard you studied, get prepared to fail. Worst course ever, how is he allowed to teach at a top notch university even

Imagine paying thousands of dollars of tuition and moving across the country for college just to be taught by this guy. Waste of time, waste of effort, waste of my humanity. Take any other professor

the homework has 0 correlation to what the exams are like. he is very open that the homework is pointless but is required to be completed for a grade. TA's can't even help prepare you because they themselves don't know what is going to be on the test. his teaching is so confusing and focuses on explaining proofs rather the application of methods.

90 bad reviews should say something. I don't know why the math department isn't getting involved?

Gaojin is a passionate professor who knows what he is doing but gets swept up in his teaching and forgot that his students don't have the same level of understanding as he does, so he teaches criteria that is way out of the scope of 20a

Averages for exams were always around 58%. All the content was review for me, yet he overcomplicated concepts to the point where info felt new. Slides are your friend; he just reads off them during lecture. Grading for exams was fair, but I studied for 20+ hours. The final saved me, since he gave us more time per question compared to midterms.

Very very tough class.

There is a reason why his 20A class got cancelled for winter quarter. He makes the class insanely more difficult than it should be. Hard to understand and hard to do well. Exams don't correlate to any practice we do.

If you want to pass this class you have to teach yourself basically the whole syllabus because god knows his lectures aren't going to help, but still this man insists on making your life hell so none of the material he gives will ever be up to the same difficulty as the exams, so no matter what you always feel underprepared

Based on the survey, only students with higher background in math but placed into this class ( international students or placement issues) passed. It was extremely difficult on exams. And very hard to understand and learn from professor and slides.

The lecture and lecture notes were helpful. He also often invited students to ask questions so we wouldn't be confused later on. If you don't want to deal with any sort of mathematical proofs do not take this professor. Every test had at least a problem involving proofs and the final was no exception. He is lenient on test grading though.