This is one of the worst classes I've ever taken at UCLA. All the concepts are completely irrelevant to mathematics. You're better off taking regular calculus as you'll actually learn helpful things. If I could go back in time I would take the regular math series. Do not let everyone pressure you to take this because it's life science. The professor is so hard to understand and even attending every single lecture and sitting by the front learning things during lecture was so difficult. My class's biggest complaint was that she did not write the midterm and it was presented with things we didn't even learn and things we learned but in a different format. If you must take this take it with Bennoun but honestly this whole class and the concepts are ridiculous. The grading scheme made it so that the final replaces your midterm which was probably the only good thing about that class. The homeworks is only one every week and isn't the worst. Overall, do not take this class withthis professor even if you survive this class, 30B is just worse.

I switched majors because of this class. Don't do this to yourself. It is not real math. Avoid this professor.

I disliked this class so much. If it weren't for the grading scheme, I literally would've failed. I think the reason why I struggled was because it was difficult for me to understand her because of her speech impediment, so I would suggest sitting more towards the front. I literally had to teach myself all of the material. She does take attendance through iclicker. The only good thing about this class was that the homework is graded on completion.

liked the class but the class work and homework was not reflective of exam difficulty, recommend WITH A DIFF PROFESSOR

I took AP Calc which was the only reason I had any idea of what was going on. I knew all of the content and can honestly tell you there was no amount of studying that could have ever prepared you for the final (and all the billion of the students who took that final agree). This was more work than 30A mainly because of the labs. The labs are extremely ill structured and you're going to lose many points there. I got fairly good scores on it only because I went to TA office hours. This course felt so disorganized because one TA would tell me yes this code is right and the next would disagree (This is because of lack of instructions from professor). I urge you to take another professor because everyone talks over Shevtsov. The homework is just annoying. Please take someone else. A lot of Shevtsov's homework was coding, so you were learning nothing that would help you on the midterm or final. I knew this content very well and still ended up with this grade. It's not the hardest content in the world but you will be screwed over badly in the midterm or final.

This class was.. quite a rollercoaster. If you have taken calc (ex. I took AP Calc BC), the first half of this class will be a breeze. They spend like a month teaching you what a derivative is while avoiding the word "derivative", and then it all derails into some weird math (my friends and I nicknamed it "fake math"). Many parts of it are quite conceptual (like the word problems they give) and can be confusing at first.
* to be fair to this class, I barely paid attention during lecture (partly because it was somewhat hard to understand), so my experience may be somewhat biased. I relied on prior calc knowledge and studied the lab worksheets and homework to get by.
If you're a bio major, I would recommend taking the other math series (I think it's 31/32 or the 3 series) over this class. If you don't have a background in coding, the python labs aren't explained too well and you may need to spend extra time figuring it out. I've heard from others that these labs weren't even important and they never used what they learned in this class ever again.

Don't take this class/prof unless you absolutely have to. Certainly harder than 30A but as long as you fully complete HW, attend lecture, put 100% effort into labs (they grade labs fairly hard) then you will pass. I literally got a 50% on my midterm and a 40% on my final and still passed so you will be ok as long as you do the work, but don't actually expect to learn anything.
PSS and OH sections are almost always completely busy so I'd recommend talking to a friend whose taken the class before OR making friends in lecture to work thru practice exams with. The best advice I can offer anyone taking this class is to just complete everything. HW and labs can get super overwhelming since you're expected to do a lot of lab work on your own. Literally every single point counts in this class though so as long as you complete all assignments, you can pretty much fail the exams and be OK

This class was absolutely horrendous DO NOT TAKE IT AT ALL COSTS. The lectures were not helpful at all, I attended all of them and was thoroughly confused after each one. The PSS sessions were what got me through, but they are waaaayyy to crowded at often times you do not get your questions answered. The homework was also not helpful at all when it came to solidifying my understanding since the wording of the questions was confusing, it involved way too much coding compared to actual practice questions, and often asked you to write out explanations instead of solving anything. The labs were also a testament of how well you could code, not how well you understood the material. Shoutout to my TA who helped me with every question. The Final was a nightmare by itself. Nothing could have prepared me for it, I could have skipped the last month of lecture and performed the same. The questions were obscure and involved writing out explanations instead os solving; I only used my calculator twice during the whole test. The final asked about topics we never fully covered and omitted topics that the class placed heavy emphasis on. All past practice tests that were given were useless in preparation for this final, along with all material. Dr. Shevstov is funny, but that does not make up for all horrible this class was.

This class was absolutely horrible and it was the bane of my existence. The lectures are very confusing and Dr. Shevstov does not post the slides beforehand, which makes lectures unnecessarily more difficult. The labs were not helpful at all, since they were composed of coding, and the coding took minimum 2 hours outside of class time for me to finish, on top of discussion time. The labs did not at all contribute to my understanding of the class material, and they in fact waste time that I could have been utilizing to actually learn class material. Note that there was no coding on any of the exams. Additionally, the homework assignments were not helpful at all. The good thing was they were graded on completeness (not correctness), but it felt like a waste of time because the problems were often overly simple or unrelated to what we needed to know. The homework problems were from the textbook. Plus, the homeworks were horrible especially the second half of the quarter, since we started being assigned more than 20 questions per homework, and the last week of class before finals, we were assigned 30 QUESTIONS of homework, which was infuriating. The one beneficial thing was the Problem Solving sessions, so if you do end up taking this classes, you REALLY SHOULD go to these sessions because they provide good practice problems that are truly reflective of the material of the class and exams, as the questions are from previous exams. The midterm was good, as it was reflective of what we had learned so far. However, the final was horrible, because many questions asked things we had no clue how to do. This being said, although this class is unnecessarily difficult, it is possible to do well if a lot of work is put into it. I definitely recommend doing what you can to avoid taking the LS 30 series, but if you have to take this class, make sure to especially spend a lot of time studying for the exams, are they carry a lot of the class grade.

I’m not gonna lie, when I took 30a, I thought that it couldn’t get worse. However, Jane got out a pickaxe and drove her electric scooter past rock bottom. While Jane is a very fun professor, she is not very clear in her descriptions of class materials, and all in all attending lectures is not very useful except for sitting next to someone who actually understands what is going on. The homework often does not reflect what we are learning in class, and the tests to be honest don’t either. All in all, I would have to say that you should only take this class if you absolutely have to, and if you do, please take Jane’s class purely so that you can attend Problem Solving Sessions. The TAs and Las are very knowledgeable and helpful, and this is an excellent resource for learning the material (despite the fact it is supposed to be a review). Labs are fairly straightforward with coding, but they are very particular on what they want to see, so make sure to check with your TAs to make sure you are doing it right. I would not retake this class, but it helped to make me appreciate spring break, when I can finally dissociate it away, all the more (pressure makes diamonds smth, smth).