I enjoyed 110 more than 100. It was much less theoretical.

I will say that the S2020 distribution reported to Bruinwalk seems a little skewed, because many people opted to P/NP (thus people who took LG were very confident in their ability to get an A, typical BioE pre meds).

Same advice for BE100 applies. Prof. Kamei is very clear in office hours.

Dr. Kamei is my favorite professor in the BE department. He always makes himself available to help students. Yes, this class is hard. However, I felt that it was much less theoretical when compared to 100. Do all of the practice problems in every PSet. Do all of the extra problems that he gives you. Put in the time and effort (If you are able to do so) and you will do well in the class.

Dr. Kamei truly cares about making the degree we get a worthwhile one. I will always trust him to write a fair test and act in the best interest of the BE department.

In terms of the shift to online learning, I felt that Dr. Kamei handled it fairly well. Lectures are mandatory, PSets were still due regularly, and both midterms and the final were still held. In response to the protests occurring during finals week, Dr. Kamei did agree to make the final "no harm" after being asked to do so by students. Dr. Kamei is receptive to students and overall a pretty genuine dude.

I've never seen a prof with a bigger stick up his ass. When I asked for an extension on one assignment (during first spring covid quarter no less), he told me that bioengineering "wasn't for me" and I shouldn't drop out. He's been the single biggest obstacle to me getting a degree at this school.

...don't trust his bruinwalk reviews--he makes his lab minions write positive ones and attempts to get the bad ones taken down.

"When you work hard and push yourself, a transformation occurs like becoming a Super Saiyan and this is no different." This was a real line from the syllabus and unfortunately for many, this wasn't the case. However, just as the series has become a Super Saiyan bargain bin, you too can go Goku mode in 110.

First, you need to make sure your math skills are up to par. The class itself is a major diff eq check, but really that's the easy part. The computations are rarely too complex asides from the rare triple integral/integration by parts problem which may be unfortunate time sinks. But besides these exceptions, you start noticing patterns that eventually speed up the steps. As you progress through the course, the math starts becoming...instinctual (as long as you make sure to put in the practice). Soon enough, you'll enter the exams with the Ultra Instinct to weave through the computation and spend the actual effort on setting up the problems.

However, just like Goku, you need to properly train to achieve this state. As of now, Kamei still gives out the solutions to his PSETs as he did in 100, but you can't rely on them too heavily just like in 100. Too many people fall into this trap and those who didn't learn from 100 will experience greater consequences as the solutions are more convoluted and can be between 100-200 pages long. The 100-200 pages are slightly deceptive though because he often includes alternate ways of solving his problems and usually doesn't simplify into constants making the computation seem much more daunting than it really is. When using these solutions, it's worthless to try and understand each and every step, especially when the majority of it is computation steps you would just slap a Greek letter to simplify with. To properly use the solutions that he gives, you want to make sure to focus on the intuition of how the problems were setup. Even if you are completely lost in a problem, you want to at least go back to how he set it up, see the final answer, and try to reach the general form of the answer on your own instead of blindly copying down the steps to get to it. I would also suggest that you note down the mistakes you made or your knowledge gaps after seeing the solution, so that you remember them when you actually get to the exams. Understandably, it is difficult when trying to get the PSETs submitted on time so copying will occur. However, still try your best to at least have an idea of what's going on so you can get through the additional problems properly. By the time you get through them, you will identify shortcuts along the way and have a good foundation to get through his exams.

Hopefully, after that proper training you would recognize the levels of effort required to get through his different problem types and should strategize accordingly. On the outside, it's like the Tournament of Power - an all out battle royale of problems to run through. However, it's always best to deal with the Krillins first and go all out for the big bads like the 33 point 16-inch Slugger sausage problem. Generally, I would say it's best to answer all of the short answer questions and ~11 point questions first as fast as possible to maximize the time you get for the heavy hitting questions. Don't dwell too much on questions if you get stuck - especially if you are running out of time. You don't want to miss out on the points for much easier setup in another question because you spent too long trying to gather energy for a hypothetical spirit bomb that you hoped you would get you past the problem. It isn't worth it when there are sections of the larger problems that are easier to do. Furthermore these problems are really just fusions of smaller and weaker problems. As long as you recognize that these are problems within a problem, you can just focus on solving the individual diffusion, reactor, or binding problem by itself. You may not be able to completely solve the individual problems with only the information in the section, but as you solve the other sections to the best of your ability, you will find the Potara earings (linking variables) that fused these smaller problems into the 33 pointer that it's presented as.

So after all that, you are a Super Saiyan. As an upper div, this class does require more effort than some others but as long as you spend the time on it, it becomes a relatively straightforward class. The material builds off of itself much more cleanly than 100 and by the final, many things should become second nature. The lectures are pretty good but with the 4-6pm time slot, it's difficult to stay awake and really absorb the information when he throws so much content at you in those 2 hours. Best thing I could say is try and at least transcribe everything he writes in a legible form so you can at least follow the order of work. Some people suggest reviewing the lectures before and after in their entirety, but in my opinion, it's like going Kaioken and burning yourself out before the real training. With so much covered, I personally found it more helpful to try and tackle the PSETs while referencing what you wrote down in the lecture slides as the steps do reappear in the problems. You don't have the exact same situations which helps build the intuition as you see what concepts apply and don't apply.

Cool class, but it's going to take more than one Senzu bean to get through it and you can't just wish out an A.

Hardest class I've taken at UCLA, I have a hard time imagining a class more difficult. Tests are incredibly difficult, and you can't finish them on time unless you have all the material completely down and have practiced everything over and over again. This class demands your full attention and time, which just isn't realistic. Some of the answer keys for the weekly problem sets were over a hundred pages long, and almost every question requires almost all of the concepts learned in the course, especially towards the end. Professor Kamei isn't a bad lecturer, but the lectures aren't very engaging. Advice for students taking the class: review each lecture before the next one or you'll fall behind, make a list of everything you need to memorize and update it regularly, start the problem sets as soon as they're released (they will take a long time), and start studying for the tests at least a week prior. When studying for the tests, approach each problem carefully and write down the exact strategy that the answer key uses, and note down exactly what you missed. ChatGPT was a great resource for making problem-solving strategies and decision trees for each type of problem. Please remember that how you do in this class doesn't define you or define whether you belong in engineering -- you will find other classes that you find more interesting and will do well in. Good luck!

One of the worst classes in the major but not as difficult as 100 in my opinion, but that could just be from knowing how brutal Kamei's exams are and being able to better prepare for them. Exams are without a doubt the most difficult I've ever experienced at UCLA, and it's almost impossible to completely understand all of the content that you could be tested on, usually 100-200 page solution documents. This clearly shows in the test averages (all of which are Fs). Blames his unfair tests and scores on students. This class will make you feel the most stupid you've ever felt. 1/4 of class usually fails. Kamei is good as a lecturer but every other aspect of this class is intolerable. Can't believe the department still won't do anything about 100 and 110.

I am being 100% serious when I say that this class made me contemplate suicide. I spent two hours the day before the final researching various methods. I went to the staircase of my dorm building to try to figure out if I could feasibly throw myself down it in a way that'd kill me instantly instead of making me tumble down nine flights (it looked pretty impossible, so I didn't try). I went through the various prescription medication I had and looked into toxicology reports to try to determine if the amount I had left would be certainly lethal (also no, unfortunately I take my medicine as directed without skipping doses, so I did not have enough left). I want to die and/or drop out because of this class.

About a fourth of the class failed in 2024. I think I will join them in 2025. He definitely provides enough resources for practice (there's a ton of past tests, additional problems, etc.) but the problem is that it just takes me so long to do each question that there's no feasible way that I'll ever get through it all. If you're a good student, you'll probably do fine if you understand the questions and do sufficient practice. If you struggle and need additional support, you'll fall through the cracks.

This class moves so fast and asking a TA to explain a problem step by step along with logic for how we got there can take up the entire hour-long office hours session. When there are other people who understand the material better who have more relevant questions, it makes me feel terrible for taking that time away from them, so I've just stopped going. It's impossible to cover all the problems for each problem set in the time given even if nobody else comes to office hours.

Someone asked for a tutor to be provided by the department and when Dr. Kamei announced this to the class, he sounded kind of dismissive. He highly discouraged us from seeking out this additional resource. As a result, I never went to this tutor either, for fear that I would be judged, or that he'd find out somehow and attribute me failing to this.

The content just moves too fast. He skips over steps in lecture and I just feel too embarrassed to ask him to go back and explain to me like I'm five. He doesn't record videos which makes it difficult to go back and review since we only get the audio and there's a lot of writing on the board. It's very difficult for me because I feel like I learn best primarily by reviewing videos and being able to slow down/pause/immediately go back and relisten. This class makes me feel like I don't belong at UCLA or engineering. I want to die.

Horrible person, good lecturer. Sucks at grading and blames his students for low test scores even though each year the averages drop. OH is not helpful, full of kids asses trying to one up each other. He’s not funny. So much material and little time to understand it.

Professor Kamei is undoubtedly the best professor that I EVER had at UCLA. His class is hard but he also gives you everything you need to succeed and he truly wants the best for UCLA bioengineer students. There is ALOT of math and ODEs in this class but he teaches you everything you need to know. Similar to BE 100 the HWs are graded but you have the answer key. You are guaranteed an A if you actually do the HWs on time (and not copy the answer key), do all of the extra problem sets that he gives you and take the practice exams in a testing condition (timed and not looking at notes). If you do all of that you are basically guaranteed an A.

This quarter our class had an exceptionally low average. Mostly because people don't pay attention in lectures and just copy the HW answer keys.

He is also very very helpful in office hours and also makes funny jokes during class.

This class is undoubted one of the hardest in the major but professor Kamei is also actually amazing and the grade you get is very representative of the effort you put in.

Initially I didn't like this class as much as BE 100, but around halfway through the quarter I changed my mind. I think the material comes together much better than BE 100, because BE 100 is a lot of separate topics taught one after the other, and 110 feels more like we are gradually learning more pieces that eventually combine to a whole. Once I did enough practice problems, I actually gained a pretty good understanding of how to approach each type of problem. This class is very math heavy (LOTS of diffy q + laplace transforms later in the quarter), but Kamei teaches you the basics if you've forgotten.
Again, as with BE 100, go to office hours. Even if you don't have questions about the homework because you haven't looked at it yet, someone will have them. Just listening to other people's questions and seeing how they approach the problems, and writing down Kamei's advice, makes actually doing the problems sets so much easier.