MATH 3000

Seriously would advise against taking this class if you want experience proof-writing. Ken Ono is a fine professor; he's pretty solid at explaining things, but the structure of his course is pretty terrible. Math 3000 is supposed to introduce you to basic math logic and intro to proof writing, but Ken Ono focuses a majority of the class on random proofs from number theory. Out of the 6 or 7 units we cover in the class, only two relate to the curriculum of the class - the rest survey elementary number theory and complex arithmetic. I took Basic Real concurrently with this course and learned how to write proofs 3 weeks into the course, so by the time we even got to math logic in this course, it wasn't even useful to me. I doubt that anyone in that class who didn't have outside experience with proof-writing really came out of that class knowing how to write a formal proof well.

This all would've been okay if we at least learned the other material well. For the homeworks, he assigns problems to people to present during discussion. When assigned a problem, you have to go to office hours for him to give you the solution to the answer. So basically there is no reason to do the homework on your own as you will be fed the answer directly from him in OH or indirectly from a classmate in discussion. While this certainly made homeworks easy, this is not the best method for practicing the material. The exams are also useless because a majority of the questions are straight memorization. The short answer questions in particular are useless because many of them just have you recite the proof of some isolated, long-winded number theory theorem he covered in class. This makes the exams really easy as well if you just put in the effort to memorize the notes, but that's kind of useless for learning.

As a person, Ken Ono is highly egotistical. A lot of people like him because he comes off as that cool, fascinating math professor, but his lecture style comes off as show-offy. He seems to care more about coming off as intelligent by displaying knowledge of the material he's supposed to be teaching us rather than facilitating actual understanding.

I'd say if you're taking this course to prepare you for Basic Real or Survey of Algebra, this will not help at all. It will just be a relatively easy class with an annoying professor. If you don't really care about learning anything and you want an easy A, then this is a good course.

If you're debating whether you should take Math 3000 at all or just go directly into Basic or Survey, I would look at the professors for all 3 classes. I've heard good things about other Math 3000 professors, so Ono's class is likely not representative of the course in general. On the other hand, I also know some professors spend a good amount of time at the beginning of Basic and Survey to introduce students to proof writing while others just kind of jump right in. In my personal experience, Thomas Mark (Basic Real), Evangelia Gazaki (Basic Real, Advanced Linear), and Craig Huneke (Intro to Abstract Algebra), are all great professors to have for your first proof based course, so if either of them are teaching I don't think it is necessary to take Math 3000.

Professor Ono is great! He's really smart and pretty famous, so if he has any flaws they are 1) he's a little full of himself (though he seems so earnest that I wasn't bothered by it really) and 2) often in his lectures, he'll be so above you intellectually that he won't think to address the kinds of questions that the whole class has. This said, the class was super worth it to take. I felt like I learned a lot and it really does a good job achieving its goal: acting as a transition to higher mathematics. You won't regret taking it with Ono, I think.
It's important to know that the tests are MUCH easier than you think they are going to be after the lectures; especially in the early lectures, he very quickly starts talking about pretty advanced stuff. Just try to keep up generally understanding the things he talks about, and make sure you memorize everything he asks you to, and you'll do great on the test.