TAKE JUKKA! Truly one of those rare instructors you wish you could have again and again. His lectures are incredibly clear and explains difficult content in an incredibly effective, simple manner. He also provides an extraordinary amount of student hours on a weekly basis and especially in the week before a midterm. Overall, he was amazing and I wish I could take him for 31B!

Funny, engaging, and informative. He hosts a near-endless number of office hours, so if you feel lost you can always stop by and ask a question. On our first midterm, the class did pretty badly overall so he gave us the ability to earn some credit back.

This class is considered the easier alternative to Math 31A but the difference was under Jukka there was a much more significant workload. For example, my roommate who was is Math 31A had a significantly lower amount of homework problems. The extra discussion every week was used to take weekly quizzes that were ok in difficulty. IMPORTANT: uses Iclicker for attendance so could not skip class and just watch the lecture recordings. ALSO IMPORTANT: Jukka overcomplicates EVERYTHING with proofs and the reasoning behind certain rules but never allocated class time for actually helpful examples. This are all my problems but there were good parts, these are warnings.

This class was a rough ride for me. Jukka is an amazing guy, but quite frankly, he is too smart to be teaching this class. He based everything on the theory of the math, and he only used the most formal definitions and whatnot, which made the class very confusing for someone who was new to calc. There is virtually no "heres the formula, heres how you use it, and heres an example problem" within the class, but there is a lot of "heres why this exists, heres the proof of how it exists, and obviously it works but that’s for you do figure out in the homework". If you're into theory it could be interesting, but if you just need to knock out the math class, it was hard.
Next: homework. Homework was HORRENDOUS in this class. He gave one assignment each week, averaging between 40 and 50 questions, which was just wild. And nothing got graded until the very, very, very end of the quarter, so you had no way of knowing what your grade was until it was posted on my.ucla at the end.
I did pass the class, but everything I learned I taught myself. In all honesty I could have made better use of office hours, I heard they were helpful, but if you didn’t understand how to do the math in the first place then going to lecture was practically useless since all it taught you was why the math works.
Jukka was, however, a great guy. He was very forgiving and understanding of different situations, both for myself and for my peers. He made sure partial credit was applied, and he even did half of our quiz for us over zoom when he was out sick with COVID. Take from this review what you will, but if C's get degrees, then someone who is bad at math (me) is able to pass this class (with some difficulty). I do know a few people who did not pass though, so... yeah.

Jukka quotes:

“I love Lego. I have always loved Lego. And I will love Lego till the day I die.”

“Folks, you’ve come to the right place. I’ve got you! You’re safe now. Everything’s fine. Everything’s fine.”

“That’s just a quick preview. If you don’t understand, relax. You’re stressing me out.”

“Folks, this would be the time. This would be the time to put down your drinks and put out your cigarettes and focus.”

“Practice midterms? Have you met me? You’ll have so many practice midterms you won’t know what to do with them.”

“Look. Let’s talk for a second. I feel like we never talk anymore these days.”

“Folks, have you ever been in the real world? It sucks out there! I hate the real world.”

“When you don’t do those pre-class activities sincerely, when you just plow through them, you hurt me on the inside.”

“Are you seriously playing solitaire? Come on man. Really?”

“Last time we introduced the two most important concepts of human civilization: eigenvectors and eigenvalues.”

“Equations text you in the middle of the night! They want to be your pal so badly!”

“And by the way, if you think that I’m sweating out of my gloves, you’re absolutely correct. It’s horrifying.”

First of all, let's denounce the first comment as I agree with the second comment:
- "I would argue that the aspect of 'support' comes from the fact that the extensive homework (which is due at the end of each week, making it manageable if you start early) actually allows you get in lots of practice."
What are you insinuating? That those who do argue that the homework is extensive are lazy? You do realize that we have other classes to attend, other essays to write, other homework to complete for other classes right? Completing 50 guaranteed to 58 questions per week and studying for the weekly quizzes is too much. Forget about the discussion work, as we only have to do some of it to get complete credit. Fix your diction and tone.
- ". . . he will take so much time out of his week to not only give extensive office hours to those struggling, but to craft study guides for midterms and finals that really prepare you for the exams. . ."
Almost every professor creates study guides. Come on now. Be realistic.
- "Jukka is the type of person to check in with you and tell you to not worry when you're stressed. (He actually cares about you as a person!)."
This person is just boosting at this point. He doesn't check in with you when you're stressed.
- "He gave us an extra credit opportunity to make up our midterm grades."
He basically had to because after the midterm, students swarmed to him asking him to curve it or make a make up one. He also reached a bunch of emails. So "gave" or was "obliged," which is the better choice?
Closing statement, this class will take a whole lot of your time. I have no idea what the first person was on. If you like learning from slides and NEVER seeing a problem being solved by hand in lecture, this is the class for you. If you like to have to go to discussion just to see problems solved by hand, this is the class for you. Essentially, this was a class to support us but no support existed. No hate to the professor, but his teaching methods are not it.

I would 10000000% recommend Jukka!! The class is insanely easy because he is an excellent teacher! The content is very easy and he is extremely concerned about student learning. You will learn a lot from this class. The coding portion isn't that bad, so don't be too scared. You get plenty of practice problems before exams which allows you to prepare yourself. There are hardly any curveballs in the class. He truly tests you on content that has been covered. Overall, take this class with Jukka if you can!!!
Also, I am selling my textbook! email me at ************* if interested!

If you have to take 30B, take Jukka. Although he assigns a lot of work, I found that his active learning activities helped me engage with the class material. Jukka gives weekly quizzes but you get two attempts. He goes over the questions and answers the day it is due. It is very clear that he cares about his students and is very passionate about his job. He held many review sessions before the midterm and the final, which was basically going over which types of questions would be on the tests. He offers many extra credit opportunities. Overall, this has been my favorite professor so far at UCLA!!

If you are in the Life Science 30 series, taking Jukka is a must. He is probably the most fun, engaging, and interesting professor I have had at UCLA, and college in general (I went to FSU too). Jukka really cares about the student's success, as he posts his near daily office hours meetings, lectures, and related course materials. Every night, you could expect an email from Jukka detailing the roadmap for the week and upcoming assignments that must be completed. He has two separate grading schemes, of which the one that is chosen is the one that will give you the highest grade in the class. Now, there is a lot of work to do in his class, as every week you can expect three post class activities, post class reflections, pre-class activities, and pre-class reflections, followed with a weekly homework that is fairly time consuming, and a lab that involves coding. If you take the time to complete these, which are tedious (even Jukka says this), it will help you absorb the materials even better, making the midterm and final much more manageable. Additionally, 5 minutes before our final exam, Jukka walks in the room, states that this will be a walk in the park and that we should thank him, and proceeds to leave. Although it wasn't, I still appreciated the reassurance. Overall, take Jukka, he's the best.

No because the way before I took this class I thought the reviews were weirdly obsessed with Jukka but GUYS I'm telling you he's such a good professor. This class is so so manageable to get an A in, he explains everything so well and so thoroughly that the only way you don't get one is if you slack off (like me..). Anyways! I will say there is a lot of busy work and you probably will forget an assignment here and there because of how much there is—3 classes a week, and per class, there's a pre-class activity, pre-class reflection, and post-class reflection. Luckily each one is worth so little of your grade and you can have late submissions. If there's one thing I can recommend DO THE PRE-CLASS ACTIVITIES. It's not like LS 7 where the readings and Achieve is so annoying—no these are actually pretty short and so so helpful, so take the time to do it. It makes lecture so much easier. Each lecture was only 50 minutes for us but somehow he covered a substantial amount of material each class without it ever feeling like too much or overwhelming. I also sobbed in a bush for 3 hours after the final because I studied the entire quarter's worth of material the week before finals and didn't have enough time to review everything, but I still somehow ended up with an A- because he grades super generously. Plus the capstone project is literally worth free points it's so easy. I also loved my TA Lucy she was the best. This class is a slay and you should take it with Jukka 100%