Professor Johnson is the most unhelpful, condescending, and hypocritical person I've ever met.

The lecture notes were extremely disorganized and often did little to clarify the material. There were no practice exams, and the homework was not representative of the exams, which made it very difficult to know how to prepare effectively. Multiple students reached out to ask how she recommended preparing for the exams because they genuinely wanted to improve in the class, but these questions were largely ignored. Her explanation for not providing practice exams was essentially that she did not want to create additional questions beyond those used on the actual exams. I found this extremely frustrating and lazy, especially when students were actively asking for additional resources and guidance so they could succeed.

Her attitude toward students who could not attend lectures live was also particularly disappointing. She made passive-aggressive comments during lectures and would sometimes stop the recordings before answering questions at the end, seemingly because students watching the recordings had not attended live. This felt like an unfair assumption that students who did not attend synchronously were somehow less engaged or less deserving of access to the full lecture. There are many legitimate reasons a student may be unable to attend live. I worked two jobs to support myself during the course, so attending every lecture live was not always possible, but I consistently made the effort to watch the recordings and keep up with the material. Other students may have work or family obligations or may even be participating from different time zones. Not attending a lecture live does not mean that a student does not care about the course, and I found the apparent assumption otherwise both unfair and dismissive.

I also found some of her policies hypocritical. She complained about having to grade homework while she had a cold and explained that this was why grading was taking longer, yet students who were sick were not given the same flexibility with deadlines. Overall, I felt there was very little effort to support students who were struggling but genuinely trying to improve, and interactions with her often came across as dismissive and condescending.

Professor Johnson is probably one of the worst professors I have had at UCLA. The homework’s easily took around 10-12 hrs and ended up having nothing to do with the exams. The midterm averages were drastically low and was extremely unhelpful when it came to revision. Honestly, don’t take this class with her or Biswal. Save your time and sanity instead.

Professor Johnson is alright. However, her hw are hard/time consuming there were some coding assignments but it was completely useless since it's never been on her exams. She can be impatient during office hours and is often rude/condescending/never really give a clear explanation. I would not take any of her class again. Just focus 90-95% of her lecture notes and 5-10% of her hw problems and you should be good for her exams

She's pretty nice and helpful in person but overall not the greatest professor and a bit disorganized. She doesn't give practice exams (only math prof I've ever had that doesn't and I'm a senior) but her exams are pretty manageable overall if you read through her notes. Overall, she's fine, but I'd only take a course with her if she's the only option.

Dr. Johnson is definitely a good professor as she made this modeling class much easier than it could be (than other 142 instructors). Even though she didnt give practice midterm and final, these two exams are actually very EASY, especially the final. You can easily get above 105/110 in the final if you study for just one day before the exam, all very straightforward and easy questions. Also, the pace of this class is VERY VERY SLOW, so that you can have much more than enough time to digest the materials. In fact, 10 minutes is all you need to go through the notes for a new lecture, and no need to go to the class, as she will post her notes on bruinlearn. The project is also a free full-mark component that made up your final grade.

The only bad thing is the homework. They are very time-consuming, and the coding problems are not related to the exams at all. For example, you might be asked to write great bunch of codes to establish a complicated fertility model, and the simulations and results can be completely wrong if your coding background is not strong. But the good thing is, we now have GPT to write some difficult codes for us, so generally speaking it is fine. Also make sure to collaborate with your friends and classmates on the problems, as it is allowed and encouraged.

Overall, this is relatively an easy math upper-division course compared to other hardcore classes. For class like 131B and beyond, you might have to devote much to studying in order to get a decent grade. For this class, however, you dont have to. Definitely an easy class, even an easy A class.

As a professor, she was pretty good. Even though she did not post a practice midterm or final, they were both pretty easy to do if you read through her notes. She was very open to helping during her office hours, but the homeworks were significantly harder than any material covered in lecture. I got a 90 on both the midterm and final and a 100 on the project but ended with an A- because the homeworks tanked my grade. The TA was not that helpful during discussion.

1. No practice exams, may easily bomb if you take it easy
2. Need careful review after class, as TAs do little help
3. Requires strong self-study ability to do well in the class (this class is not as easy as it supposed to be)