<p>I would talk to current students and find out who the best teacher is (out of the staff teaching 53, H53 and 53M) and take class with him/her. Teaching in intro math classes ranges from good to abysmal, and you may do better in the harder class with a good teacher than the ‘easier’ class with the bad teacher. </p>
<p>It depends on your major. If you are geared towards engineering, and none of the teachers is significantly worse than any of the others, 53 may be the way to go. If you are thinking of doing math for your undergradute degree (particularly if you are interested in doing graduate work in math, applied math or theoretical physics), the honors math courses would be useful for you.</p>
<p>Other Berkeley people may disagree with me on this, but I thought prof Zworski (for Math 53) was quite good.</p>