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Back to Mathematics for Machine Learning: Linear Algebra

Learner Reviews & Feedback for Mathematics for Machine Learning: Linear Algebra by Imperial College London

4.7
stars
11,932 ratings

About the Course

In this course on Linear Algebra we look at what linear algebra is and how it relates to vectors and matrices. Then we look through what vectors and matrices are and how to work with them, including the knotty problem of eigenvalues and eigenvectors, and how to use these to solve problems. Finally we look at how to use these to do fun things with datasets - like how to rotate images of faces and how to extract eigenvectors to look at how the Pagerank algorithm works. Since we're aiming at data-driven applications, we'll be implementing some of these ideas in code, not just on pencil and paper. Towards the end of the course, you'll write code blocks and encounter Jupyter notebooks in Python, but don't worry, these will be quite short, focussed on the concepts, and will guide you through if you’ve not coded before. At the end of this course you will have an intuitive understanding of vectors and matrices that will help you bridge the gap into linear algebra problems, and how to apply these concepts to machine learning....

Top reviews

HE

Aug 8, 2021

the instrutors were too good and their explination for the concepts was to the point and it made me realize things in linear algebra I didn't know before although I studied it in school of engineering

C

Mar 31, 2018

Amazing course, great instructors. The amount of working linear algebra knowledge you get from this single course is substantial. It has already helped solidify my learning in other ML and AI courses.

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2176 - 2200 of 2,363 Reviews for Mathematics for Machine Learning: Linear Algebra

By Avinaash S

Sep 9, 2020

The lecture material in this course is great, and the quizzes are a lot of fun and it provides good resources for learning. However, the programming assignments are a pain due to lack of guidance and the grades are penalized due to minor things like indentations as opposed to actual math errors. This isn't a python course, its a math course, and grades should be awarded and penalized based on the math skills one has acquired throughout the course, not on the programming or whether an indentation is off. I highly recommend the course to learn linear algebra but I strongly encourage the instructors to improve the programming assignments or alter the assessment methods.

By MR T

Apr 24, 2020

It must be difficult to pitch the level of these courses.

I have been taught Data Science whilst on an apprenticeship but didn't feel the maths was taught rigorously enough and hoped this would fill gaps of in knowledge.

The breadth of the concepts covered on the course achieved that but a lot of research was required from other resources to clarify certain topics which is why I think a beginner rating for this course might not be fair.

If you are not confident with maths, this course is achievable but expect to devote time to on other sites.

The PDF supplement is concise but useful for reference

By Rivka S

Feb 14, 2023

This course was very mediocre. The design of the course material was largely theoretical with little insight into the practicality and usability with regard to real world mathematical problems. Toward the middle of the course, there was a feeling of lack of preparedness for the questions that may be presented in the assessments. Week 5 was a lot more hands on, less theoretical, but still lacked some foundational understanding that underpin the topics. Overall, there needs to be a lot more attention to the practicality and applicability of the material to better support the student experience.

By Anne R

Jan 18, 2022

This course was helpful in reviewing topics in linear algebra and focusing on the usefullness of projections and eigen problems in manipulating vectors. If you have taken a linear algebra course previously you should find the course pretty easy. If you have not taken a linear algebra course before, this course may be much more difficult to complete unless you are prepared to use other resources to help manage the course topics and assignments. I was hoping for more challenging course assignments but understand that much of it is self-assessing what you are learning as you go along.

By Constantin N

Aug 1, 2022

The topic is presented really interestingly and encouraging, but then it becomes very cluttered or very abstract. The worst part is that after some 5 minute video about one concept you're supposed to answer a quiz with calculations you haven't even gotten the formula or an example. Those problems are mentioned several times in the dicussion board. It's a shame since the teacher sincerely likes this topic but fails to convey it in a illuminating manner.

If you're up to look up other examples after every lesson, this course is okay, but it's not worth the 50 € subscription.

By Meng Y

Jul 26, 2020

Sometime the course does not clarify some principle. Also, I still cannot understanding that why the eigenvectors have relationships with page rank and why can we use the probability of reaching the link to each page as a vector. I cannot understand the relationship. Plus, the final quiz contains something that I have not learnt in the course, such as damping. I still cannot understand the Quiz2-5. I learn much in courses week 1-4, but I am much confused about the week 5. Thank you for listening.

By Shreyas S

Apr 30, 2020

Fiirstly, going with the positives , the instructors were clear and effective in teaching the subject. Also,the feedback from the assignments were also good .Video quality was amazing.

I also felt that it was a very brief course, not worth an average Indian father's one week income.Also there was no option for Audit. Also, most assignment were substandard and involved lot of calculations which I felt is a waste of time. The coding assignments were also pretty simple and straight-forward.

By Anweshita D

Jun 29, 2018

Your discussion forum really needs to be better. It seems to be the only place where any sort of doubt clearing can be done and very rarely have I seen TA's answering unless it's a grading issue. The problem with this sort of answering is that if any coding concepts are unclear, either they are solved by trial and error or after going through Google multiple times. And for a course that is paid for, I shouldn't have to make this much of an effort just to have my doubts cleared.

By Steve

Jul 4, 2020

The course starts well and in general the first instructor does a good job trying to help the student develop an intuition of the concepts. However, weeks 4 and 5 are extremely weak. Very important concepts like eigenvalues and eigenvectors are poorly explained. The final quiz on these concepts asks questions that were never discussed or explained in the videos. I found I needed to go elsewhere on the Internet (like 3Brown1Blue) just to help me get through some of the quizes.

By Alois H

Feb 18, 2021

Teaching quality is good overall, except for a few jumps towards the end, where it's hard to follow. Quizzes and assignments well designed.

Unfortunately, and contrary to other courses I've taken, the forum seems completely un-monitored (as of May 2019), so don't expect much help from there.

Overall it's a good start of the specialization. Sadly, the teaching quality of the other two courses (multivariate calculus and PCA) is way below the standards of this one.

By k i

Jun 28, 2021

Without about intermediate knowledge on vectors, you would be having a tad difficult time doing this course. I have already studied Linear Algebra in my University, attaining an A grade and found the explanation for some of the parts a bit confusing. It is not bad by any means, but just that I believe a more structured/concise explanation for some of the terms might be more accessible for beginners or students who have never learned about Lin Alg before.

By Adam T

Nov 7, 2021

The course was informative on most of the Linear Algebra you need for machine learning. The programming assignments and quizzes are mostly relevant to what you learn beforehand. However, some of the videos feel rushed and I found it difficult to take notes in time without having to replay the videos. There is also a lack of written content after each video describing the content covered, which would have been a godsend for me with my method of learning.

By Matthew H

Mar 16, 2021

Definitely enjoyed some parts of the course but in general, the explanations are brief, requires spending significant time outside of videos on Youtube, discussion boards etc as they skip or miss key points for a beginner to grasp Linear Algebra concepts. Happy that I completed the course, but a lot of improvements should be made by including course notes that supplement common queries/misunderstandings students have in relation to the course materials.

By sina g

Oct 19, 2023

This course is good for those who want to have a basic knowledge on what's going on behind all the magic that happens when they only write some lines of code and it gives them a model that can predict many things....BUT if you're a data scientist or a mathematician OR you want to be in future, and you want to have a deep knowledge on what's going on behind all of the codes and models and... you write, this course is not made for you.

By Xinhui Y

Sep 8, 2020

This course is not very hard for students with some maths foundations like me, but the programming assignment is too hard, even though I knew some basic Python knowledge. Two lecturers sometimes could not explain one concept clearly with some typical examples. I could only learn by doing assignments or use formulas to calculate without real understanding. This course is only for some basic concepts but not solid learning.

By Chika

Jun 13, 2019

The videos were well structured, but the quiz sometimes were far more difficult than the practice questions in video. I had posted on forum but no comment nor reply. Quiz answers were not elaborate enough to understand after making mistakes. So I had to ask my father who's extremely good at maths many times, for explanations. Without hi help I might not have been able to understand as well. Need improvement.

By Hamady G

Feb 19, 2023

Cette formation m'a permis de comprendre beaucoup de chose , en particulier les valeurs propres, les vecteurs propres , l'alebre lineaire ! Mais je veux me perfectionner professionnelement dans le domaine de la datascience , malheureseument je n'ai pas de moyen pour payer une telle formation . Je sollicite une aide financiere aupres de vous afin de me permettre a trouver une telle opportunite !

By Zax

Apr 13, 2021

This class fluctuates between impossibly hard, because a lack of instruction and examples were provided and too simple, because the same question is asked repeatedly. There is also very little mention of machine learning, despite the name of the specialization/course. That said, it was still the best survey course of the linear algebra concepts most relevant to machine learning.

By Ali R A

May 10, 2020

The course starts off well enough, but by week 4 the intuition for certain concepts is not imparted well at all, and the correspondence between notation from the lectures and that used in the practice quizzes breaks down badly.

I gave it 3 stars instead of 2 stars because the geometric intuition that is imparted is quite good, even though at times the notation is sloppy!

By STEWART, B

May 15, 2023

Let down by final test on page problem. Just not covered well in the lecture in order to make the inuitions needed to answer the questions fully. Test interaction pretty annoying. When resubmitting it clears all the previous correct answers and jumbles up the order of the answers, just petty and time consuming to re-fill the questions you already got correct.

By Nate C

Jan 26, 2019

Having no background in linear Algebra made it difficult to complete the quizzes, assignments and exams. Even with the instruction (which was good) I found the hands on portions to be different from what was being explained in the videos. I will instead have to take the key concepts and do more research on my own to fully understand them.

By Eslam A

May 14, 2022

Let me first thank you all for the effeors that you put to make this course avaialbe on Coursera. The teachers are passionate and they have their unique ways of sharing their knowledge. However, I think some warp ups are needed after each cocept as at some point i got confused and did not know what we were doing this and that.

By Fernando B d M

May 14, 2018

Like most of Coursera's courses there are no staff members available in the forums (which is extremely shameful for Coursera - repeating the same boring pattern over the years). Don't even try it if you have never seen linear algebra or python before. Otherwise, it's useful for practicing a few concepts or refreshing others.

By Mattia P

Mar 30, 2018

Nice course, with many insights. Sometimes the topics are given too quickly, I would have rather preferred less arguments but discussed more thoroughly. Nevertheless, I think this is a good one, especially if you've already got some background and you're looking for some general content to build upon it using academic books.

By Huy T

Jun 17, 2021

Overall, I learned some new stuff in this course. The programming exercises were interesting. However, the instructors really should provide more explanations regarding the calculations, formulas, and exercises' instructions and feedbacks. In many occasions, I had to looked up explanations online to solve the homework.