Professor

Jukka Keranen

AD
4.5
Overall Ratings
Based on 245 Users
Easiness 3.9 / 5 How easy the class is, 1 being extremely difficult and 5 being easy peasy.
Workload 3.4 / 5 How light the workload is, 1 being extremely heavy and 5 being extremely light.
Clarity 4.4 / 5 How clear the professor is, 1 being extremely unclear and 5 being very clear.
Helpfulness 4.7 / 5 How helpful the professor is, 1 being not helpful at all and 5 being extremely helpful.

Reviews (245)

6 of 17
6 of 17
Add your review...
Feb. 5, 2018
Quarter: Fall 2017
Grade: A

I took Math 3C with Prof. Keranen(or Jukka, as he preferred us to call him), and thoroughly enjoyed it. He's a hilarious, intelligent guy. We talked about Portal in class for 5 minutes one day.

His class is slightly more abstract and mathematical than others, but I found it engaging, interesting, and not extremely difficult. He goes out of his way to answer students' questions fully and to ensure that students know what is on the exams.

The material itself for 3C is a bit of a hodgepodge of random mathematical concepts thrown together, but it still gives you a better understanding of math as a whole. Jukka is a 10/10 professor and if I have the chance I will definitely take a class with him again.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Feb. 16, 2018
Quarter: Winter 2017
Grade: A

Very funny professor, always had some good jokes. He really cares about students understanding and does a LOT of extra office hours. His tests are tough but he really tries to give everyone the necessary tools to succeed. By far the best math professor I've had at UCLA.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
March 24, 2018
Quarter: Winter 2018
Grade: A

***LS 30A and LS 30B***
Your overall course grade will be determined by the better of the following two:
1) 5% Clicker + 10% HW + 15% Labs + 25% Midterm + 45% Final Exam
2) 5% Clicker + 10% HW + 15% Labs + 15% Midterm + 55% Final Exam

What other professor actually lowers the homework load by 2/3 because of student reviews?!!!!!! And goes to bat with the LS office for us when the labs are too hard!!!
Definitely take Jukka for the LS math series, his tests are way clearer(and funnier) than any of the other professors and he gives sooooo many practice problems plus makes a study guide that shows exactly how many problems there will be, what order they'll be in, and EXACTLY what skills each one will test.
He makes his own slides and gives actual math examples (which you'll find the textbook extremely lacking in) for all the theories we learn. I've heard his office hours are useful unless there's too many ppl asking very different questions.
Labs can be challenging, especially in LS30B, but that's the LS core's fault, not Keranen's. They involve coding graphs or functions to better understand the systems we're learning. They do help to connect concepts, but the lady making them seemed to forget halfway through the quarter that most people had no prior coding experience. They give you the coding syntax needed for each lab in the beginning of the quarter, but that tapered off until TA's had to share everything and if they didn't you were screwed. This quarter they stuck in a super easy coding basics quiz for 3% of the lab grade, then the rest is 9 labs (1 a week except lab 7 was suuper long and difficult so was due a week later at the last minute) but only the 7 best lab grades count.
My TA for LS30B was Daniel Sun, he was nice but explained pretty slow. During the last quarter, discussion sections were structured 1st going over hard/important problems from last /next homework, then starting the lab with whatever time was left. Each lab takes maybe up to 2 hours to complete depending on prior experience or lab difficulty. Homework is due every Friday and also took around 2 hours.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
April 3, 2018
Quarter: Winter 2018
Grade: A

**LS 30 A+B**
Take Jukka! Very cool professor and very helpful. Grading scheme is so helpful. He really wants you to succeed. He listens to his students and shortened the homework when we complained. He literally tells you what types of questions are going to be on the midterms and finals and gives practice questions for each type. He put so much time into his slides.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
April 13, 2018
Quarter: Winter 2017
Grade: A

In the very first meeting, Jukka told us that he wouldn't make 32A as difficult as 32B and we don't need to worry about proofs. On the final 8 out of 10 questions were somewhat related to proofs lol. Nevertheless, Jukka is very clear on the lecture subject and is willing to help. He would give you a lot of "hints" in OH before the final.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
May 22, 2018
Quarter: Fall 2017
Grade: A

Jukka is literally the best; he genuinely cares about his students and is extremely helpful and funny! The only bad part about this class is the lab component, but that is only like 1% of your overall grade. Jukka makes the rest of the course a breeze! I would recommend Jukka because he also literally tells you exactly the types of questions that will be on the midterm and final - there will be no surprises. Just make sure you work on doing the homework accurately and getting your labs right and you should score high.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Sept. 18, 2018
Quarter: Spring 2018
Grade: A

Although I liked Dr. Keranen as a person, his lectures were incredibly confusing and often only covered vague conceptual material rather than example problems. He even acknowledges student complaints about how he doesn't use enough examples. This aspect of his class makes it tough to prepare for exams; the first midterm had an average of 60% and a low of 5%. He purposely made the second exam easier to balance it out, but since you can use a grading scheme selecting only one midterm, this made a mess of the overall curve. The homework assignments were long and tedious, and usually required me to do outside research for certain techniques and ideas. My TA was also very unhelpful. The one good thing about this class was that if you consistently went to office hours Jukka would basically tell you everything on the exam. I went into the final with a good idea of 60% of the questions. He also has practice exams that are somewhat representative of the midterms and final (i.e. they are very difficult).
My final scores:
Midterm 1: 43/50
Midterm 2: 49/50
Final Exam: 96/100
Final Score: A

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Oct. 18, 2018
Quarter: Fall 2017
Grade: B

Jukka was funny and engaging, though his midterm was slightly difficult!

Helpful?

0 1 Please log in to provide feedback.
Nov. 5, 2018
Quarter: Fall 2017
Grade: A-

Jukka has an accent that can be hard to decipher, but overall it is not too distracting from learning the material in lecture and it honestly made the lectures more fun. Jukka is so funny in his lectures. I attended one of his office hours and he was communicative to me, and he is fair with tests and wants students to really learn. He communicates well through the CCLE announcements page and through emails. I was sad having him as my professor when most of my peers had Garfinkel, but I think having Jukka was not a detriment to my learning experience. I really really studied the practice exams he uploaded before finals which was good because the final was basically that exam with different numbers. Always always do the homework. Get people's phone numbers in your class to help out with the lab because not doing labs or not understanding them will really hurt your great at the end of the quarter.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Nov. 8, 2018
Quarter: Spring 2018
Grade: A

This is for Math 174E (a bit of a jump up, I know, but it's not listed here.) Jukka is an incredibly entertaining yet informative lecturer. He explains concepts very clearly and has slides that are easy to follow, using intuitive examples to guide understanding of those concepts further. Despite what some people might say, he is extremely approachable and more than fair in his teaching. There was a conflict during our class that I couldn't remember, around the time of one of the midterms- I think it had to do with him having to cancel several office hours before the midterm, as he would be away on a business trip. He actually offered his students individually the choice to take the midterm either on the regularly scheduled day, or the Tuesday after, and would have held extra office hours before the "makeup" to help struggling students. This shows that he is willing to go above and beyond what's expected of him as a professor despite him really not having to do this just for a few missed office hours.

Despite this, the class did have flaws. It is far too easy, with each midterm, and even the FINAL, being extremely similar to the practice midterms (although no answer key was given out). In fact, you could predict half of the final just by looking at the practice midterm questions that were not similar to what you got on the actual thing. Math 174E is supposed to be an "easy" course, but you pretty much didn't even have to put in effort to get an A here. If Jukka made the class a tad bit more challenging while keeping everything else intact, it would have been one of the most valuable classes I've taken at UCLA. But as it stands, it is still a good class with a good professor.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 33A
Quarter: Fall 2017
Grade: A
Feb. 5, 2018

I took Math 3C with Prof. Keranen(or Jukka, as he preferred us to call him), and thoroughly enjoyed it. He's a hilarious, intelligent guy. We talked about Portal in class for 5 minutes one day.

His class is slightly more abstract and mathematical than others, but I found it engaging, interesting, and not extremely difficult. He goes out of his way to answer students' questions fully and to ensure that students know what is on the exams.

The material itself for 3C is a bit of a hodgepodge of random mathematical concepts thrown together, but it still gives you a better understanding of math as a whole. Jukka is a 10/10 professor and if I have the chance I will definitely take a class with him again.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 31A
Quarter: Winter 2017
Grade: A
Feb. 16, 2018

Very funny professor, always had some good jokes. He really cares about students understanding and does a LOT of extra office hours. His tests are tough but he really tries to give everyone the necessary tools to succeed. By far the best math professor I've had at UCLA.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 31A
Quarter: Winter 2018
Grade: A
March 24, 2018

***LS 30A and LS 30B***
Your overall course grade will be determined by the better of the following two:
1) 5% Clicker + 10% HW + 15% Labs + 25% Midterm + 45% Final Exam
2) 5% Clicker + 10% HW + 15% Labs + 15% Midterm + 55% Final Exam

What other professor actually lowers the homework load by 2/3 because of student reviews?!!!!!! And goes to bat with the LS office for us when the labs are too hard!!!
Definitely take Jukka for the LS math series, his tests are way clearer(and funnier) than any of the other professors and he gives sooooo many practice problems plus makes a study guide that shows exactly how many problems there will be, what order they'll be in, and EXACTLY what skills each one will test.
He makes his own slides and gives actual math examples (which you'll find the textbook extremely lacking in) for all the theories we learn. I've heard his office hours are useful unless there's too many ppl asking very different questions.
Labs can be challenging, especially in LS30B, but that's the LS core's fault, not Keranen's. They involve coding graphs or functions to better understand the systems we're learning. They do help to connect concepts, but the lady making them seemed to forget halfway through the quarter that most people had no prior coding experience. They give you the coding syntax needed for each lab in the beginning of the quarter, but that tapered off until TA's had to share everything and if they didn't you were screwed. This quarter they stuck in a super easy coding basics quiz for 3% of the lab grade, then the rest is 9 labs (1 a week except lab 7 was suuper long and difficult so was due a week later at the last minute) but only the 7 best lab grades count.
My TA for LS30B was Daniel Sun, he was nice but explained pretty slow. During the last quarter, discussion sections were structured 1st going over hard/important problems from last /next homework, then starting the lab with whatever time was left. Each lab takes maybe up to 2 hours to complete depending on prior experience or lab difficulty. Homework is due every Friday and also took around 2 hours.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 31A
Quarter: Winter 2018
Grade: A
April 3, 2018

**LS 30 A+B**
Take Jukka! Very cool professor and very helpful. Grading scheme is so helpful. He really wants you to succeed. He listens to his students and shortened the homework when we complained. He literally tells you what types of questions are going to be on the midterms and finals and gives practice questions for each type. He put so much time into his slides.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 32A
Quarter: Winter 2017
Grade: A
April 13, 2018

In the very first meeting, Jukka told us that he wouldn't make 32A as difficult as 32B and we don't need to worry about proofs. On the final 8 out of 10 questions were somewhat related to proofs lol. Nevertheless, Jukka is very clear on the lecture subject and is willing to help. He would give you a lot of "hints" in OH before the final.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
LIFESCI 30A
Quarter: Fall 2017
Grade: A
May 22, 2018

Jukka is literally the best; he genuinely cares about his students and is extremely helpful and funny! The only bad part about this class is the lab component, but that is only like 1% of your overall grade. Jukka makes the rest of the course a breeze! I would recommend Jukka because he also literally tells you exactly the types of questions that will be on the midterm and final - there will be no surprises. Just make sure you work on doing the homework accurately and getting your labs right and you should score high.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 3C
Quarter: Spring 2018
Grade: A
Sept. 18, 2018

Although I liked Dr. Keranen as a person, his lectures were incredibly confusing and often only covered vague conceptual material rather than example problems. He even acknowledges student complaints about how he doesn't use enough examples. This aspect of his class makes it tough to prepare for exams; the first midterm had an average of 60% and a low of 5%. He purposely made the second exam easier to balance it out, but since you can use a grading scheme selecting only one midterm, this made a mess of the overall curve. The homework assignments were long and tedious, and usually required me to do outside research for certain techniques and ideas. My TA was also very unhelpful. The one good thing about this class was that if you consistently went to office hours Jukka would basically tell you everything on the exam. I went into the final with a good idea of 60% of the questions. He also has practice exams that are somewhat representative of the midterms and final (i.e. they are very difficult).
My final scores:
Midterm 1: 43/50
Midterm 2: 49/50
Final Exam: 96/100
Final Score: A

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
LIFESCI 30A
Quarter: Fall 2017
Grade: B
Oct. 18, 2018

Jukka was funny and engaging, though his midterm was slightly difficult!

Helpful?

0 1 Please log in to provide feedback.
LIFESCI 30A
Quarter: Fall 2017
Grade: A-
Nov. 5, 2018

Jukka has an accent that can be hard to decipher, but overall it is not too distracting from learning the material in lecture and it honestly made the lectures more fun. Jukka is so funny in his lectures. I attended one of his office hours and he was communicative to me, and he is fair with tests and wants students to really learn. He communicates well through the CCLE announcements page and through emails. I was sad having him as my professor when most of my peers had Garfinkel, but I think having Jukka was not a detriment to my learning experience. I really really studied the practice exams he uploaded before finals which was good because the final was basically that exam with different numbers. Always always do the homework. Get people's phone numbers in your class to help out with the lab because not doing labs or not understanding them will really hurt your great at the end of the quarter.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 31A
Quarter: Spring 2018
Grade: A
Nov. 8, 2018

This is for Math 174E (a bit of a jump up, I know, but it's not listed here.) Jukka is an incredibly entertaining yet informative lecturer. He explains concepts very clearly and has slides that are easy to follow, using intuitive examples to guide understanding of those concepts further. Despite what some people might say, he is extremely approachable and more than fair in his teaching. There was a conflict during our class that I couldn't remember, around the time of one of the midterms- I think it had to do with him having to cancel several office hours before the midterm, as he would be away on a business trip. He actually offered his students individually the choice to take the midterm either on the regularly scheduled day, or the Tuesday after, and would have held extra office hours before the "makeup" to help struggling students. This shows that he is willing to go above and beyond what's expected of him as a professor despite him really not having to do this just for a few missed office hours.

Despite this, the class did have flaws. It is far too easy, with each midterm, and even the FINAL, being extremely similar to the practice midterms (although no answer key was given out). In fact, you could predict half of the final just by looking at the practice midterm questions that were not similar to what you got on the actual thing. Math 174E is supposed to be an "easy" course, but you pretty much didn't even have to put in effort to get an A here. If Jukka made the class a tad bit more challenging while keeping everything else intact, it would have been one of the most valuable classes I've taken at UCLA. But as it stands, it is still a good class with a good professor.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
6 of 17
ADS

Adblock Detected

Bruinwalk is an entirely Daily Bruin-run service brought to you for free. We hate annoying ads just as much as you do, but they help keep our lights on. We promise to keep our ads as relevant for you as possible, so please consider disabling your ad-blocking software while using this site.

Thank you for supporting us!