Current instructor

Xianghong Gong

/5Adjusted rating
/5RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 1.76/5 from 63 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

What students say

Original student reviews · all captured dates

MATH 319
Quality 1/5Difficulty 4/5
Professor Gong is the worst professor I have had at Madison. He is hard to understand, and lacks knowledge of the course. Every lecture he would make mistakes fix one number and then move on. We had a sub and the sub was reading his notes and said "this lacks fundamental knowledge of calculus." I had to teach myself the whole course. Avoid.
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MATH 319
Quality 1/5Difficulty 5/5
I almost hate how hard the tests are for no absolute reasons. he isnt even great lecturer. avoid if you can or be ready to treat a 3 credit course like 5 credit course
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MATH 319
Quality 1/5Difficulty 5/5
Professor Gong is Hilarious in the fact that he might be the worst professor I have been taught by. No guidance in lectures (which are not even worth going to), and exams that are comically hard compared to all of the practice problems he gives. I would avoid him with a 10 foot pole.
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MATH 319
Quality 1/5Difficulty 4/5
Avoid if you can at all. Very difficult to understand and very quiet even with a microphone. His accent makes understanding almost impossible. He does not do a good job of explaining in class, often makes mistakes on the blackboard during proofs, and does not bother to go back and explain what went wrong. You are better off not going to lecture.
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MATH 319
Quality 1/5Difficulty 5/5
Professor Gong seems like a nice person, however he is very very very bad at explaining anything to do with the material. Do not take his classes unless you have to like I did. If you do get stuck with him, just be prepared to read the textbook and teach it to yourself!
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MATH 319
Quality 1/5Difficulty 5/5
He is the worst professor that I have ever met in UWMadison. He does not care about studens at all. He does not explain any concepts. He just prints material from textbook and writes them on the board. He is also a tough grader. You will lose many points even if you get a minor mistake in the exam. By the way, I do not think he can speak English.
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Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.

Classes with Xianghong Gong

Covers special functions, series, metric space topology, and differential calculus in normed spaces.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

Xianghong Gong receives criticism for disorganized lectures that are difficult to follow. Reviewers note that definitions are unclear and it is hard to distinguish proofs from counter-examples until the lecture ends.

historical GPA · grades

Spring 2022–Spring 2026

Recorded teaching history

Explore courses taught by this instructor →
Browse recorded courses
TermCourseTitle
Fall 2026MATH 522Analysis II

Teaching history may be incomplete. Course pages contain course-specific feedback and citations.

Instructor identity & provenance
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