MATH 3354

DISCLAIMER: I took this course completely online during the pandemic.

This course is not too difficult if you have reasonable experience with higher mathematics (e.g., proofs, abstraction, etc.), but I would not say that it is easy, either. If you are struggling with the course material, Professor Pun provides ample assistance both in her office hours and on the Piazza discussion board. If, on the other hand, you find the material relatively straightforward, there are plenty of problems in Pun's assignments that are reasonably challenging when approached alone. Additionally, Pun's offers extra credit problem sets that go beyond the course material and introduce concepts generally covered in Introduction to Abstract Algebra (4652). There are quite a few definitions, theorems, and examples that you are expected to learn over the semester, but it is certainly doable if you consistently study your notes and complete the assignments. Once again, talk to Pun if you are ever having trouble; she is very friendly, and more than happy to help.

One great aspect of this course is Pun's notes on OneNote. They are easy-to-access, well-organized, and incredibly neat. Writing your own notes is by far the best way to study the material, but I often found myself flipping through her notes instead of my own when working on assignments. When I took the course, Pun required participation on a Piazza discussion forum, and the forum was very active as a result. In fact, you could generally get an answer to any question within an hour, either from other students or from the professor herself. This cultivated an active and supportive environment that made the course much, much easier. I highly recommend participating in Piazza discussions if you have the chance.

Overall, I highly recommend taking this course with Pun if you have the chance. You will learn a lot of basic-but-fundamental material---at a good pace from a friendly and clear professor. And if you put in adequate effort both in and out of class, you should end with a reasonable grade, as he does her best to give you the best grade possible considering your various homework, exam, and extra credit scores.

Took this class Fall 2020.

I think Pun is not a bad professor--I think she makes a great effort in helping students--posting written up versions of class notes, offering extra credit, and hosting extra review sessions. That extra effort, however, did translate into expectations that were not properly adjusted at times.

Pun is a pretty hard grader, but the problem sets were graded by graders, whom she warned us "were not always through" and told us to consult her answer problem sets. However, this still did not give enough of an understanding of how exactly she would grade on exams, and she often showed no leniency whatsoever, telling us that if we didn't do well, it was because we didn't study enough or didn't read her solutions, disregarding the fact that even if we tried on the exams, if it wasn't exactly what she wanted we might as well as have not done the problem.

In addition, she did not curve the class, rather her "curve" was just adjusting the weighing of different things (7 homework assignments since 2 were dropped, the two midterms and the final). Given the averages on the first two exams were both below 65% iirc and she had to change the grading policy to a more completion based approach about 4 weeks in, it is not surprising that she told us if we had gotten a definite grading scale at the end of the semester, most of us would have failed, but honestly I didn't really appreciate the implication that she's doing us some kind of favor by barely adjusting her own teaching and grading habits so most of us don't fail.

I don't doubt that the class is inherently difficult, but Pun definitely exacerbated the difficulty unnecessarily with how much she expected and her general unwillingness to take any kind of criticism(as evidenced by the fact that she thought it was necessary to write a full on 3 page essay responding to our course evaluations). It is also worth noting that most people ended up choosing to take the class for credit instead of for a grade. I think if you have to take the class with her, it is not the worst but just be aware of what you're getting yourself into.

I took this class online during professor Ying Pun's first semester teaching the class, and I think she did a fine job under the circumstances. She was very helpful and held office hours often to help with any concepts that may be confusing. However, I strongly dislike the fact that this class had live, timed exams. I think that all upper-level MATH courses should allow students time to consider problems completely and look over all of the information they have learned throughout the semester to do so with take-home exams. Professor Ying Pun mentioned that this was a result of MATH department policy, but I had other classes with take-home exams, so I am unsure if this is true. Professor Ying Pun also required us to post a minimum number of Piazza posts over the course of the semester, which I thought was a little silly.