Lei Chen

This professor has taught: MATH410, MATH411, MATH734, MATH848P, MATH848T

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Lei Chen MATH411 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/24/2024	Pros: - Very willing to help you out in office hours, not as much over email. She might just say come to office hours. - Makes exam reviews and usually posts a video going over it. - SOME exams were like her exam reviews. The ones that were, were comprised of review sheet problems and/or homework problems and basically identical. Cons: - 1st midterm was NOT similar to the review! - Didn't post review video for the final exam review sheet even though multiple people asked and she only went over it on the very last class (which was 2 days before our final exam). - Lectures can be rough and disorganized. She will often ask US if something is correct. I often got lost in a proof of a big theorem because she didn't usually tell us where we were going and how we would get there. She is usually 3 minutes late. So reading the textbook was a MUST for me. - Her notation is not exactly the same as the Fitzpatrick textbook. - She was out of town probably for at least 4 or 5 classes, but she did post a video lecture. - At the beginning of the semester some homework assignments were posted late so we didn't have the full week to do it like we usually do. She also wanted us to turn in our homeworks in paper at first, but then she finally set up Canvas. - Didn't disclose grade cutoffs at the beginning of the semester and the cutoff for A+ ended up being 99! - Assumes some things are trivial in lecture so doesn't go over the whole proof, but often times it wasn't exactly trivial for me. Other info: - Weekly homework assignments come straight from the textbook, usually 6 problems/week. - When you study for her exams, prioritize the review sheet she makes and know the homework problems, but ALSO make sure you know all the other Theorem statements and definitions, etc. - Use Mean Value Theorem when in doubt lol! (Seriously.)
Lei Chen MATH411 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/16/2024	She's quite unorganized when it comes to lectures. She often writes down theorems and her proof is not completely fleshed out. However, she does provide more concise proofs compared to the book which especially are useful if it could show up on an exam. The homework is textbook problems which aren't very hard, and she is very helpful in reviewing them and your proofs during her Zoom office hours. She also didn't know how to use ELMS at the beginning and wanted us to hand in our homework in class but after some pushback, she allowed online submissions. Her exams are very similar to her exam reviews, so make sure to meticulously go over every single problem. Also, go over problems from the textbook as those can show up as well. She also held extra office hours for each exam as well. However, unlike previous reviews, she didn't seem to curve.
Lei Chen MATH411 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/13/2024	Really nice professor.
Lei Chen MATH411 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/12/2024	Chen is a really good professor. Her lectures are hard to follow because some of her proofs are not formally written or completely elaborated, but she knows what she is saying and will provide digestible proofs for important problems that you will need to learn how to emulate on the exam. The exams are very similar to the practice exams, but she will also take problems from the textbook. She has 10 extra credit points per exam, but the averages were in the low 70s for the semester. It's also really important to do the reviews the exams contain a lot of those questions. For an exam when she asks for you to "compute" it means to "prove", so keep that in mind. She's helpful during office hours, provides feedback on your proofs, and answers all your questions. She also held extra office hours before each exam to clarify questions. Take Lei Chen for any class she teaches, as you'll likely get a good grade.
Lei Chen MATH411 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 04/30/2024	This class is VERY HARD. I spend roughly 20 hours a week on this class, but it was well paid-off. Unfortunately, while Dr. Chen is very sweet and nice, she is an extremely disorganized lecturer. Oftentimes it feels like she does no prep work before lecture and is figuring things out on the fly. She has weekly homework, which the average ends up being around 100% on. She does very hand-wavy proofs, but she's okay with you doing hand-wavy proofs too. I quit showing up to class and just learned from the Fitzpatrick book instead. The class is very fast paced, so be prepared to spend a lot of hours doing practice problems. The exams are fairly difficult, both ended up having an average of around 70%. She makes you prove theorems from the book on test, so you have to make sure you know how to prove the book's theorems as well, or at least have the general outline.
Lei Chen MATH410 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/12/2022	I will try to keep this review short, as the other reviewers can sum it up. Her lectures could be better and could do some work. Reading the respective section of Fitzpatrick beforehand was necessary to gauge her lectures well, as they often seem unplanned, and the proofs sometimes seem hand-waved. I wouldn't say she's a bad lecturer, just that the proofs done in class are not always done with full rigor, and the additional commentary can [sometimes] make the lecture hard to follow, which is why I stopped showing up to the lecture after a while. Homework can be quite difficult. However, she's extremely helpful and super approachable during office hours and will answer any question with full rigor and critique proofs quite well. I found her to be quite a nice person in general as well, apart from just the subject matter being discussed. She does an excellent job of easing students into theoretical mathematics and is quite lenient with grading exams - full rigor is only sometimes expected, even for full credit. There are a lot of extra credit opportunities and a curve, which makes it easy for the final grade to be indicative of your actual understanding of the course content at the end of the course, and she drops quizzes and the lowest exam. As another reviewer here mentioned, the exam reviews are close to the exams themselves, and even the extra credit questions are not of unreasonable difficulty, warranting relatively high-class averages. If you can understand all the homework problems and do the reviews, it is quite fathomable to score a minimum of a B in the class and an A with some extra studying.
Lei Chen MATH410 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/09/2022	Goated in the sauce, for different reasons than being a good prof. As the other reviews may say, she is disorganized and doesn't really seem to plan a lecture, so some lectures are not very easy to follow. She also likes to offhandedly mention a lot of comments on the proof instead of doing them, which are pretty confusing unless you have selective hearing. However, she's nice and gives some genuine help in OH, where if you have a particular question on homework or about a comment in the textbook, she is pretty smooth about answering it. The TA graded homework somewhat roughly but that's to be expected given the upper level nature of the course. The real thing she provides is that her reviews are almost essentially the exam itself. If you can do confidently finish the reviews for each exam, they will more than prepare you for the exam. Additionally, she's very lenient about the nature of proofs, where as long as you can explain reason even without being rigorous, you can get a lot of the partial credit for each problem. This is enhanced even more by the fact that she has 10 extra points for midterms, giving even more Leiway. The means on the first midterms for our quarter are at least 80%, so this made 410 a much more bearable experience for me. TL;DR Lei Chen for 410 is a very solid option and it wouldn't be bad to try taking her for this course.
Lei Chen MATH410 Expecting a B- Anonymous 12/20/2021	A little disorganized in lectures, so there is maybe a 30% chance you will not know what she is talking about in class. She always answers questions, so if you are confused ask her a question. Her office hours are much more helpful than the average professors office hours. The homework's are pretty difficult, but as long as you can do her exam reviews, the tests will not be hard at all. She genuinely does not want anyone to fail the course. Her whole motto is that MATH410 is for learning, not failing so as long as you can show that you have learned material, you will pass. The 10% curve at the end was also helpful. Not the best, but far from the worst.