MATH 31B
Integration and Infinite Series
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Requisite: course 31A with grade of C- or better. Not open for credit to students with credit for course 3B. Transcendental functions; methods and applications of integration; sequences and series. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
well i learned a lot... he went over stuff in great detail. i guess the last person on this wasn't listening, because he told us we can write whatever we want on his evaluation because he was leaving ucla. but his tests were hard. and the negative points made the test even harder. the lowest score on the final was a 0%... so someone who actually goes to ucla... made it all the way to math 31B... and couldn't even get 1 points out of 100 ... on a FINAL! ...
well i learned a lot... he went over stuff in great detail. i guess the last person on this wasn't listening, because he told us we can write whatever we want on his evaluation because he was leaving ucla. but his tests were hard. and the negative points made the test even harder. the lowest score on the final was a 0%... so someone who actually goes to ucla... made it all the way to math 31B... and couldn't even get 1 points out of 100 ... on a FINAL! ...
Most Helpful Review
Professor Richthammer's 31B was my first math class at UCLA so I didn't know what to expect. I thought he did a great job teaching up until around the 6th week of class. After that the material just gets more and more confounding and I think he tried his best to clarify it for us. Homework was a lot of work. Nine homework assignments due every Friday (drops lowest 2 if I remember correctly). He wrote his own problems (we never used the book) and so there were definitely challenging questions. He does his best to explain anything you don't understand if you go to OH or if you email him. The two midterms were pretty straightforward. I thought his grade curves were justified. The final was a monster. It was originally out of 120 or so but he set the total to 85. Even with that the class average was a 59%. It's a challenging class and the material isn't easy, especially the first time around, but he's overall a good professor. If you're planning on taking him for 31B, all I can say is make sure you do the homework in its entirety.
Professor Richthammer's 31B was my first math class at UCLA so I didn't know what to expect. I thought he did a great job teaching up until around the 6th week of class. After that the material just gets more and more confounding and I think he tried his best to clarify it for us. Homework was a lot of work. Nine homework assignments due every Friday (drops lowest 2 if I remember correctly). He wrote his own problems (we never used the book) and so there were definitely challenging questions. He does his best to explain anything you don't understand if you go to OH or if you email him. The two midterms were pretty straightforward. I thought his grade curves were justified. The final was a monster. It was originally out of 120 or so but he set the total to 85. Even with that the class average was a 59%. It's a challenging class and the material isn't easy, especially the first time around, but he's overall a good professor. If you're planning on taking him for 31B, all I can say is make sure you do the homework in its entirety.
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Most Helpful Review
Horrible teacher. Got his examples wrong all the time. There's a reason the only times more than thirty people showed up to class were midterms and when homework was due. Also despite what other reviews from earlier terms claimed he provided no practice tests for my class. Didn't help that my TA was inept too. I implore you, take it from someone else.
Horrible teacher. Got his examples wrong all the time. There's a reason the only times more than thirty people showed up to class were midterms and when homework was due. Also despite what other reviews from earlier terms claimed he provided no practice tests for my class. Didn't help that my TA was inept too. I implore you, take it from someone else.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2019 - Allow me to be the voice of dissent for this professor: While she isn't herself a bad human being, and I actually rather liked the few interactions I had with her personally, this class was by far the least material I have understood coming out of any math class. I got a B, which was fine by my standards, it's actually exactly what I wanted to get, but I was about 90% self-taught. I went to all but one of her lectures during the first six weeks, and ultimately ended up getting a 51% on the first midterm. After discontinuing my attendance at lectures, I scored a 79% on the second midterm using basically just the textbook and Khan Academy (and while this doesn't sound high, the mean scores on our tests were VERY low). The previous reviews were correct; you are allowed a cheatsheet and calculator on the exams, but do not expect this to single-handedly give you an edge. Most of the material is based on mechanical reproductive skill, not memorization. To this end, I would not recommend taking this class with professor Salanevich. It isn't hard, but you absolutely will not understand the material in her lectures unless you teach yourself the material before the lectures and use them as a review (which are very unclear, disappointing reviews).
Winter 2019 - Allow me to be the voice of dissent for this professor: While she isn't herself a bad human being, and I actually rather liked the few interactions I had with her personally, this class was by far the least material I have understood coming out of any math class. I got a B, which was fine by my standards, it's actually exactly what I wanted to get, but I was about 90% self-taught. I went to all but one of her lectures during the first six weeks, and ultimately ended up getting a 51% on the first midterm. After discontinuing my attendance at lectures, I scored a 79% on the second midterm using basically just the textbook and Khan Academy (and while this doesn't sound high, the mean scores on our tests were VERY low). The previous reviews were correct; you are allowed a cheatsheet and calculator on the exams, but do not expect this to single-handedly give you an edge. Most of the material is based on mechanical reproductive skill, not memorization. To this end, I would not recommend taking this class with professor Salanevich. It isn't hard, but you absolutely will not understand the material in her lectures unless you teach yourself the material before the lectures and use them as a review (which are very unclear, disappointing reviews).
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2024 - You should not take Ocal if you could help it. He is horrible at explaining the concepts you need to learn because he recites it exactly for what it is in the textbook. This results in most students learning/teaching themselves from the textbook.(dw organic chemistry teacher will save u) He is nice and outwardly positive as he often asks if students have questions but most of the time you'll be more confused than anything to even be able to ask a question. He also does not respond to emails and to address any issues with homework and grading you'd have to attend his office hours. If thats an issue for you I'm just saying for a heads up. His grading is pretty understandable as a curve is often applied and there are different ways he weighs your exams to make sure you get the highest grade possible. However, unless you like to teach calc 2 to yourself/have smart friends to help you I would strongly advise you to take a different professor.
Winter 2024 - You should not take Ocal if you could help it. He is horrible at explaining the concepts you need to learn because he recites it exactly for what it is in the textbook. This results in most students learning/teaching themselves from the textbook.(dw organic chemistry teacher will save u) He is nice and outwardly positive as he often asks if students have questions but most of the time you'll be more confused than anything to even be able to ask a question. He also does not respond to emails and to address any issues with homework and grading you'd have to attend his office hours. If thats an issue for you I'm just saying for a heads up. His grading is pretty understandable as a curve is often applied and there are different ways he weighs your exams to make sure you get the highest grade possible. However, unless you like to teach calc 2 to yourself/have smart friends to help you I would strongly advise you to take a different professor.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2022 - I found that Scavia was neither a good nor bad lecturer. He taught at a breakneck speed, and if I did not come to class without at least skimming the textbook section, I was lost. Oftentimes it felt like he was talking to the whiteboard rather than lecturing the class, and did not always pause to answer questions. He does have a moderately thick Italian accent, but that was rarely an issue for me. - The topics in this class are fundamental for many majors, so it is pertinent that you understand his lectures. Luckily he lectures directly from the textbook, just less clearly. I also spent hours upon hours learning from YouTube University, which was critical to understanding lecture. - Scavia expects you to have not just a decent grasp of the materials needed for this class, but a superb grasp. I came into this class with a pretty poor mathematical background. There were some instances involving trigonometry, integration methods, or factorials that I never learned in high school, but had to quickly learn to keep up with the pace of his class. If you have a good mathematical background (took 31A or AP Calc BC prior) unlike me, however, you should be comfortable with the first half of this class. The second half (Series) builds upon the first, and requires quite a bit of memorization and conceptual understanding. - Speaking of conceptual understanding, Scavia lectures and tests in a very theoretical way. His lectures included proofs of the concepts, involving greek characters/mathematical symbols that he did not explain the meanings of - he assumed we knew what they meant already. My advice for these confusing parts of lecture is to just ignore it as it will not be on the homework or tests. - There were a few occasions where I asked Scavia (over email) to clarify a topic I was unfamiliar with, and he said "Check chapter _ of the textbook" which was not helpful. Similarly, his office hours were frequent, and very similar to his lectures, which is either good or bad depending on how you like his teaching style. There were instances where he would say solving some problems with certain methods "takes just a bit of magic," which was funny, but not very helpful. - Regarding his tests, there were two midterms worth 20% each, a final worth 45% (and homework at 15%). The tests were difficult. Problems were an amalgamation of concepts across several homework sets, so being able to do the homework (which is straight from the textbook) is critical. Tests were both multiple choice and free response. Multiple choice was more conceptual and often had trick questions, and he was very stringent with giving partial credit on the free response questions. - Overall, Scavia is a professor who is efficient and concise, to the detriment of the majority of his students.
Fall 2022 - I found that Scavia was neither a good nor bad lecturer. He taught at a breakneck speed, and if I did not come to class without at least skimming the textbook section, I was lost. Oftentimes it felt like he was talking to the whiteboard rather than lecturing the class, and did not always pause to answer questions. He does have a moderately thick Italian accent, but that was rarely an issue for me. - The topics in this class are fundamental for many majors, so it is pertinent that you understand his lectures. Luckily he lectures directly from the textbook, just less clearly. I also spent hours upon hours learning from YouTube University, which was critical to understanding lecture. - Scavia expects you to have not just a decent grasp of the materials needed for this class, but a superb grasp. I came into this class with a pretty poor mathematical background. There were some instances involving trigonometry, integration methods, or factorials that I never learned in high school, but had to quickly learn to keep up with the pace of his class. If you have a good mathematical background (took 31A or AP Calc BC prior) unlike me, however, you should be comfortable with the first half of this class. The second half (Series) builds upon the first, and requires quite a bit of memorization and conceptual understanding. - Speaking of conceptual understanding, Scavia lectures and tests in a very theoretical way. His lectures included proofs of the concepts, involving greek characters/mathematical symbols that he did not explain the meanings of - he assumed we knew what they meant already. My advice for these confusing parts of lecture is to just ignore it as it will not be on the homework or tests. - There were a few occasions where I asked Scavia (over email) to clarify a topic I was unfamiliar with, and he said "Check chapter _ of the textbook" which was not helpful. Similarly, his office hours were frequent, and very similar to his lectures, which is either good or bad depending on how you like his teaching style. There were instances where he would say solving some problems with certain methods "takes just a bit of magic," which was funny, but not very helpful. - Regarding his tests, there were two midterms worth 20% each, a final worth 45% (and homework at 15%). The tests were difficult. Problems were an amalgamation of concepts across several homework sets, so being able to do the homework (which is straight from the textbook) is critical. Tests were both multiple choice and free response. Multiple choice was more conceptual and often had trick questions, and he was very stringent with giving partial credit on the free response questions. - Overall, Scavia is a professor who is efficient and concise, to the detriment of the majority of his students.
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