Great guy, probably the best 218 teacher if you want to get through the class. The tests are fair and he legitimately cares about his students. However, it's a common final, which is harder than his midterms because the entire department makes it. Make sure you do well on the midterms and weekly quizzes, they're not bad at all if you study.

By far the easiest Math 218 teacher. Fairly simple weekly quizzes and no mandatory homework.

Great teacher! He mentions the material from the previous class each class, so if you miss a few, it's not hard to keep up. He is willing to work with you if your grades slip. Slight accent, but not awful like some others I could name! He teaches using a good mix of theory and examples. Wish I'd taken him for 226 too.

Very fair teacher. The class has a lot of difficult concepts, but he provides examples on the board, definitions, and a review to connect the different lessons together. He gives lots of opportunities for points with homework, do-able quizzes, and a fair midterm. Extremely smart; makes small jokes that can easily be missed but hilarious if caught.

Doesn't do examples in class which would be helpful, lectures usually aren't that necessary to go to. Quizzes and midterms he gives are relatively easy compared to what I hear from other math126 professors. Very understanding and helpful during office hours.

Not the best but not the worst professor. Midterms not hard if you really study and pay attention. Final is hard(that's a given). If you miss class dont worry, he takes 5-10 min in the beginning to review material from last lecture, just dont miss too much. Helpful during office hours. Go to SI. Read the book. Do the hw and you're set!!!

A good learning experience.!!

great prof

He was one of the most understanding professors I have had at USC. He works very hard and is willing to put in time. Office hours are incredibly helpful.

Not bad, I found his lectures easy to follow and sometimes very insightful. Homework varied quite a bit in difficulty. The midterms and final were very straightforward. I didn't find him as engaging in office hours though, the TA was much better at helping with conceptual questions. A warning: the course assumes knowledge of matrix algebra.

Mancera was pretty good. He's sometimes kind of boring and hard to follow. I learned most of the material by reading the textbook and from the TA (Fan, she was awesome!). He really likes to help his students though so feel free to ask him questions after lectures or during office hours. It's unclear whether the course was curved or not curved.

Way better than most reviews give him credit for. If you aren't lazy and are willing to put effort in, he isn't bad. Lectures are a little boring, but he explains things fairly well. Office hours are nearly a must. He is super friendly, and he will like you more if you show up to OH. Not only that, but they are very helpful for learning material.

Professor Mancera is really kind and really does care, it is just a bit difficult to understand his lectures sometimes. He allowed us to have a cheat sheet on all three exams (2 midterms and a final) and for each test, there is a take home portion that can be done in groups and is really not too difficult. Nathakhun is the best TA also!

This professor is great! His lectures sometimes are a bit dry but the subject is fairly easy, he gives you practice for exams and makes it easy to pass the class. If you are confused in his class he will explain it to you again. Really quirky, cool guy!

The lecture deviates from the textbook a bit, which mostly contains proof of the theorem and is inspiring. You should spend at least three hours in doing the assignment. However, the professor is very generous in midterm grades. We don't have a final, instead we have a final project. He is also very generous in grading the final project.

His lecture is a little bit unclear but most of contents are from textbook. If you can preview the textbook before lecture, you will find what he is talking is fairly easy. He has a lot of homework(including programming), and most of exam problems are coming from hw problems(from textbook). The average for midterms are about 90(very high). No final

For differential equations, Mancera is an amazing and caring professor! These comments are either outdated or higher courses. The quizzes and homework are manageable. He also works around the classes scheldule. Some of the lectures are redundant but it just helps you prepare for the material. Funny but shy man! 9/10

He cared that we understood concepts and was very generous with homework and grading . I'm really happy I had the opportunity to take his class and plan on taking more of his courses.

Awesome. Very clear and to the point. Thanks. I look forward to take more of your classes.

Second class with Dr. Mancera, would happily take more if he taught them. Homework assignments were pretty long, final project was a group project but was also fairly intense. He turned the final exam into a take-home and it was only 4 questions. Overall he is a great professor, best I have had at USC so far.

Take Mancera for MATH458. He is pretty clear in lectures and helpful in office hours. Weekly homework isn't easy due to proofs and MATLAB but as a tradeoff not only does the TA give a bunch of hints (so go to discussions!), the exams are way easier than HW. That being said, don't expect a curve since exam averages were in the low to mid 80s.

A very nice application of numerical analysis. !

Had him in fall 2019. I'm not sure if it was a weird semester or something, cause that class was an absolute joke, and no I'm not being cocky (never took stats before). Grading was 1 midterm, homework, 10 quizzes, and 3 projects that were just straightforward problem sets. Concepts are simple until the very end but at that point grading was done.

LOVE HIM. he paces his lecture well, and he is a very reasonable and kind professor. he would love to help you outside of class and schedule meetings to help to answer your questions. his homework, quizzes, and exams are all closely related to the lecture material we went over, and the difficulty level is about the same. highly recommend!!!!!!!!!!!

FANTASTIC PROFESSOR!! This was the 3rd class I've taken with Dr. Mancera and I have absolutely no regrets he is by far one of the kindest and most patient professors I've had at USC he is excellent at explaining the subject material at all levels of complexity and can be very generous with grading. 100% recommend.

Had weekly hw straight from the textbook. Unlike other professors, the problems on the weekly quizzes, midterm, and final were similar in style and difficulty to the hw. So do the hw and understand it instead of copying answer key and it'll be hard to get below a B+ with his generous grading scale. Only downside in this class was the TA was awful.

Mancera is a nice guy who is a lenient grader. His lectures are fairly easy to follow and understand. However, he gives a 20-problem homework every week which is time consuming and is based on the stuff he is about to teach next week. This is a pain, but on the flip side, the quizzes and tests (1 midterm and final) were an absolute breeze.

At first, I wasn't a fan of his class because his lectures are slow and didn't cover the most material. I did a lot of learning on my own and took my own textbook notes. However, he really cares about his students and wants to give us As. The material is also easier than other MATH225 courses because it's more computation-heavy than proof-heavy.

Dr. Mancera is a great guy and more importantly very well-versed in the field of mathematical statistics. I hope to take future classes with him down the road.

I like how he teaching students by showing examples instead of merely articulating concepts. His quizzes and tests are super easy, and the students can work on homework in groups. Easy class, easy A.

A lot of homework but if you actually do the problems properly it's impossible to do badly on the exams. Quizzes are easy too. You kinda have to teach yourself concepts from the textbook to learn stuff he skips. Super caring and wants everyone to understand so lectures are a bit slow but easy to follow. A drawback was bad communication with the TA

Professor Mancera lectures using examples rather than teaching the concepts from the book, so it is easy to get lost in class. But you can tell he honestly cares about his students and always encourages them to go to office hours for extra help. You learn more from the homework so as long as you do that, the tests are pretty easy. Recommend

He makes you feel comfortable learning math, and gives you enough preparation and hints for the midterm and final (and extra credits!). Homework is not much once distributed within a group of 4. He cares about you and is willing to help you as much as he can. Plus the grading is clear so even with many quizzes there isn't much pressure.

Would suggest reading the chapters in the textbook instead of attending lecture since he skips a few things. Do all problems in group HW for good practice. Reviews & hw are exactly like the quizzes & midterms. Final was hard but he gave us up to 7.5% extra credit which was really generous. Nice dude, achievable A.

Like many others have said, it is easy to get lost during lecture. I recommend learning and studying the material from the textbook as the quizzes will be based on the homework problems and you'll have a better time understanding the concepts. The exams aren't too bad as long as you do the practice exams he gives you.

the best prof ever

Professor Mancera is super helpful, and really cares about his students. He takes the time to stop the class to ask for questions, and thoroughly explains the topics when someone is confused. He lets you do the homework in a group, but make sure you know how to do all the questions because they will show up on the test.

He seems to really like students who love the subject--he cares a lot for those students. His lectures are ok but I would recommend attending every lecture so that you don't fall behind. If you fall behind, you won't be able to catch up.

TA was such a complete joke, but Prof is easy and cares about students. He's better than a text-to-speech bot that's reading the textbook, but they say the same things lol. for real just read the textbook and go when there's a quiz or test

Professor Mancera is an amazing professor who cares about his students very much. His lectures are fun and not dull at all. He answers students questions patiently. Reasonable grading scale. However, TA is a complete joke. I genuinely do not like the TA.

Mancera never makes anyone feel dumb for not knowing. He emphasizes putting in work to see success. Read the textbook + do the review problems (not many) + you will do very well. Get Ivan as TA he makes it 100% better. Don't HAVE to go to the MWF lectures, try to. Quizzes on tues disc, in-class work on thurs so those attendances affect your grade.

He's done a good job this semester. His exams are much easier than any other professor's. And except for discussion work finishing in class, this course has no other homework at all, which is fantastic. I enjoy his teaching

I took math 125 with Professor Mancera in the fall. Overall, he is a pretty nice guy and care about students. However, I would not say he is great at delivering the concepts well enough to the students even though he is very knowledgable in math. Grade is mainly based on group works, quizzes, and exams. There's hw but he doesn't collect.

Very generous grade breakdown, you get a C as long as you have above 51% in the class. The lectures aren't that helpful or engaging, so you would need to teach yourself a lot. But he makes it easy to succeed, he curves the midterms and even let us redo a section that everyone failed for some extra points. The new TA Ivan is amazing and helps a lot.

Easy quizzes, nice professor, generally accessible outside of class, particularly during office hours.

He genuinely cares about his students and takes extra time to connect with everyone on an individual level. He also takes the time to explain concepts and their applications to the real world.

Professor Mancera is a good lecturer and always posts notes and resources online for students to take advantage of. Homework is challenging and time-consuming, but students can work in groups to split the workload. Exam preparation materials are provided in advance, and he is very open to answering questions one-on-one through office hours.

Probably the best math experience I've had at USC thus far. Lectures are clear and easy to follow, and the prof himself is super sweet and always around to help outside of class. Tip: if you find yourself taking him, make sure to participate in lectures; he has been known to give easy grade bumps on exams to those who leave an impression on him.

Pretty good at explaining. Really nice guy. Tests are straightforward and similar to the HW and practice problems.

He's approachable and loves students that put effort into the course. Go to office hours and interact with him! His lectures can be very confusing but reading the textbook and going to discussion clears things up. Do all the homework questions. They really help for midterms and quizzes. His exams are straightforward and are similar to his practice

Professor Mancera was kind and understanding to students. There are bi-weekly quizzes and hws (the lowest score of each are dropped) and a final project, and he helps with the midterm and final via practice exam. He is friendly and willing to accommodate students via email and office hours. Overall, taking Math458 with this professor was splendid.

I took 407 with him, good professor but man are his lectures confusing sometimes. All of the problems on tests/quizzes are straight from the textbook and you're honestly much better off learning from there. His lectures are super proof heavy whereas none of the quizzes or tests ever use proofs, its all just practice problems using the identities.

Class isn't easy, but the content won't be easy regardless of the professor. Mancera gives good lectures, is a chill grader, and the practice tests are pretty representative of the exams

Exams are mostly easy, final caught me off guard a bit more but he is generous with partial credit so getting an A wasn't too difficult. Group homework and a group project in the class.

I deserved much lower than a B- when I took this course, he curves generously. Weekly quizzes in discussion and 2 midterms. His lectures are very boring and sometimes hard to pay attention to but he means very well and cares about his students, and just about everyone will pass the class.

Great professor, really knows his stuff and is always willing to help outside of class. Very friendly and looks out for you. Lectures could be a little more engaging

Exams reasonable, not very hard. Very nice guy. Class could use a bit better organization but otherwise was good.

Super caring and patient. Sample questions and homework are very relevant to exams and the difficulty is manageable and reasonable. I used to be afraid of math but Professor Mancera was good enough for me to take MATH 407 and MATH 408 in a row.

Very patient and reasonable tests and practice questions. Clear criteria and easy-to-follow lecture.

One of the most caring math professors I've had and he offers extra credit opportunities. He truly wants all students to do well and you will get a good grade if you put in effort. He posts good lecture notes online and he also gives out good practice before all the exams also.

Mancera's lectures are clear, and he's approachable. The exams are tough but doable with good preparation. Unstuck study and the textbook are helpful for self-study.

Prof. Mancera is the best!!! He was super accessible outside of class, gave extra credit and practice problems, and was genuinely invested in the success of his students. What he expects on midterms and finals is clear with given problems, and he is super understanding.

USC唯一真神, BEST Professor in the world

Take him if you have a chance. 458 is hard but with Prof.Mancera --- it is completely doable. A very genuine and nice person, respect his students, try his best to not overwhelm us. Flexible with everything. Publish his class notes on brightspace which is an extra plus.

Goat, gives 5 bonus points in final exam, no attendance, easy quiz and project, and group homework. Very kind and fun guy, easy A!

Fun professor that notices your presence. If you want him to hear you out on grading nuances, make sure you are present at lectures and show your effort. Homeworks are group work; make sure you get a group of 4 or you'll be overexerting yourself! One complaint would be that he's sometimes difficult to reach during OH, but other than that, great guy

Absolute Goat, 458 is an easy A with him

His explanations can be a little confusing in class but his midterms generally were similar to his practice midterms. He is very willing to help but can be a little hard to reach. He is a fair grader. Some things you may need to figure out on your own, but it isn't super difficult.

Did not have him but had the pleasure of working with him and helping him. At his office hours, he is really thorough and helpful, and it's always packed. He is a very caring professor, and if you have questions about a grade on an exam, he can hear you out, as long as you've attended lectures and put in effort. Great guy and professor, take him.

Genuinely a mindful and good-intentioned professor. He sets his expectations clear and early and as long as you keep up with the work, you'll do well. Didn't go to a lot of his office hours however the times I did go were always useful and insightful to prepare for exams. He'll do his best to help you succeed, you just have to reach out to him.