Zuoliang Hou

Professor Hou is a great math teacher. After having taken classes with him over the course of 3 years, he is one teacher that I can rely on. His lecturing style may be quick but each lecture is very clear. He breaks things down and explains concepts thoroughly, plus he draws really awesome pictures/graphs to go with almost everything. He seems very conscious of his English skills, but he speaks clearly albeit with a slight accent. On the board he is not only legible (which, in the math department is hard to find) but he writes nice and big and always steps away for you to copy down the notes. Although he may make a few mistakes during class, he doesn't make many (always double check with the textbook). His courses are the few math classes where I studied more often from my notes than from the textbook. For all of the courses, he has a different strategy for grade breakdown, but it never strays too far from a standard h/w-midterm-massive final mold. His course website always is up-to-date with assignments, assignment solutions, and dates of tests/exams. He usually posts practice midterm(s) and final with solutions and gives a little review of topics before each. He may seem kinda awkward, that is because he is. Thus, he may seem unapproachable, but do not fear, you can usually find him napping/wearing awesome slippers in his office during office hours because nobody goes. He ha…

This is the first semester I take with Prof. Hou. t has been my best experience in the math department. he is really great. As a previous reviewer points out, he is the most straightforward Prof you'll find in the dept. Also, he is very nice and approachable. I am not particularly great in math, and furthermore when i took this class, i had so much going on, still i was able to do better because his lectures were so clear, and he was very helpful. i would absolutely recommend him to another student, as I think he is the clearest professor i've had. he does a good job in teaching, and he tests on what he teaches, no funky business. I wished i'd taken calc III or IV with him because i would know what those classes are actually about. instead i took those classes with terrible professors that were obsessed with making us learn stuff that wasn't even on the book, as a result i actually ended up learning this stuff in another class that wasn't math. Briefly, my suggestion if you happen to be wondering about any of Prof. Hou's class is that you should absolutely give it a try.

Dr. Hou offered an ideal Calc III experience, for the first fifteen weeks or so of his class. When I alighted in the basement of the Math building at 9 AM for his first lecture, I was charmed by the clarity of his presentation and by his accent, which adds rather than detracts from the class. After conquering the first few problem sets, I stopped going to lecture, but was able to score reasonably well on the problem sets (which he either gives you a grade or an exemption from if you turn in reasonably late) and exceptionally well on both the midterms because Dr. Hou's expectations were so transparent. With the confidence of James Cook on the Big Island of Hawaii, I sailed into the final on three hours of sleep, having spent the last night packing my boxes and wishing my floor would stop playing Mario Kart so I could go to bed, sat down next to a shifty, distracting TA, and found myself completely overwhelmed by a test that was significantly harder than either of the midterms. I handed my test in with a modicum of confidence, thinking maybe a particularly voluptuous curve would save me from Captain Cook's fate, but two days later, I was rewarded for my sloth with a very gentlemanly grade, thus fucking up my entire semester academically and making me look like a quantitative doofus to future employers. Ah, what could have been.

First off, don't even bother with calc II unless your major requires it. No matter how strong a math student you think you are, Calc II will be very difficult, no doubt about it. Taking this class with Hou does not make this any better. Hou does not speak english very well, and has little sympathy for his students. He teaches at a very fast pace, and gets very irritated when students ask a lot of questions. Eventually I decided to stop going to this class because it made me feel horrible about myself. It is not a stretch to say that his class inspires low self confidence. Very few people in my class seemed to actually understood anything that went on, and many lived at the math help room.

Like another reviewer said, the negative reviews have no real basis. I've had Hou for a full year, and I really enjoyed the class (and I'm not a math major). His explanations are usually clear and understandable, despite the 9AM class time. There are two midterms: the first one is somewhat easier than the second. His reviews give a pretty good estimation of the actual test. Be prepared to think rather than just spit out formulas. No "real" HW, but weekly quizzes straight from the suggested problems. Just a tip: if there's one problem you can't seem to get right for hours, there's a 99% chance he will put it on the quiz (so find a friend!). Listen to his lectures carefully, and you may be able to catch gems like "verse visa" and "choose arbitrary".

By-the-book (literally), fair, and utterly unremarkable professor. Mind you I'm writing this review more than a year after the course, but it was really quite ordinary, about what you'd expect from a large lecture where you do the problem sets, take the tests, and you're done. I got the tools I needed for more advanced classes and I have no complaints. Problem sets were weekly with one dropped, entirely fair. Lectures were boring when I went and followed the textbook almost to the letter. Professor Hou's English was fine, and he's nice enough. As I recall, the midterms were much easier than the final, which incorporated some not-in-the-textbook material introduced in the last lecture, which I didn't attend. Oops.

Oh my goodness, DDDDD: is the only accurate representation of this class/ professor. Hou zooms through the lectures without pausing to see whether we understand or not (which I, even as a math major, often didn't) and if someone asks him a question he acts annoyed. I remember one time he was going over solutions to a practice midterm, and JUST barely finished before class was over. Then, he proceeded to tell us, "Well, I had time to finish all the problems on the practice midterm, so you guys should have time to finish the midterm too." ...Wait, what? No, Zuoliang Hou. No.

Of all the classes I took, this one is hardest to evaluate. First off, the class itself is VERY tough, so don't go into it expecting it to be otherwise. Professor Hou is a relatively young instructor, he just finished his Ph.D from MIT. So clearly he's brilliant. He is amiable, wants his students to learn/do well, and has a extraordinary grasp on his subject. However, he likes highly theoretical aspects of math, and this is somewhat reflected in his teaching style. He forgets sometimes that he's teaching undergrads, and that not everyone has his level of mathematical knowledge. His speech is a bit accented still, but nothing that actually causes problems. He does not put proofs on his exams, which is a huge blessing. His problem sets however are quite difficult, and sometimes feel they have little to do with what shows up on the exam. Although he is a good instructor, and will become better I believe the more he teaches, I'd steer clear of this math class if you can, especially if you aren't a math major. If you are a math major, you'll probably love it.

Many students find the content of Calculus II to be difficult, so difficulty understanding the material is probably due at least in part to the nature of the material. I found Prof. Hou a good, fair professor. He was neither exceptionally good nor exceptionally bad. Prof. Hou was thorough during his lectures in that he covered example problems of varying difficulty (easy to introduce the topic, difficult when reviewing for an upcoming midterm or final). Some other reviewers have commented on his tendency to leave a problem undone and to tell the class to "finish it on your own." I did not think this occurred frequently. In addition, because of the number and variety of problems we covered during class, he probably couldn't have finished every intricate problem during class. He did provide many opportunities for office hours (some said he was condescending during office hours; I never found him so, so if you're having trouble, don't be afraid to talk to him). I did not have a problem with Prof. Hou's accent, but the problem in communication was that he did not know how much more he knew than did the class. He's a very bright guy, and at times (especially toward the end of the semester with sequences, series and the rest), his explanations were non-intuitive and confusing. There was a very generous curve, and Prof. Hou's grading in general is very fair or lenient. He's definitel…

I took Hou for Calc 3 and Calc 4. I generally disagree with most of the negative statements about Hou thats written below me. He is a young MIT graduate who just started teaching here. He's extremely intelligent and a really nice guy. Of course there is a language barrier, and his spelling is off here and there but he doesnt mind stopping during lectures if you have questions. I have heard of some horrible stories about other math professors, but Hou is a fair man. Don't expect to breeze through this class, you will have to study and you will have to do your homework, but one great thing about Hou is NO WEBWORKS. For both Calc 3 and Calc 4, I found that his first midterm was significantly easier than the second midterm, so you should probably do as best as you can on the first midterm. His miterms are fair, and his reviews do help. He will discuss the major topics that will be on the exams. He's a really nice guy, which is why I dont understand why all these people are hating on him. Most other math professors are terrible, which is why i decided to take Hou again for Calc 4.