Jukka is honestly one of the best professors I have had at UCLA thus far. He truly cares about his students' success and learning. His practice exams are very intuitive and put you on the right path to being successful in his class. If more professors were like Jukka, students would not only learn efficiently but be much happier. I wish I would have taken him for 30a. He is so understanding and helpful, especially in office hours, and overall just a very kind person.

The most quirky professor ever, my favorite of freshman year. He is extremely receptive to student feedback in his anonymous suggestion box. He holds 4 office hours a week where he helps you with homework, and his midterms and finals are not difficult at all as long as you complete his review materials (even if you don't pay attention in class).

TAKE THIS CLASS WITH JUKKA KERANEN!!!

I took 30B with Steve Bennoun, and let me just say...30B was really difficult! This review is written on behalf of my experience with him, but by comparing my friends' experiences with jukka keranen, this man is an actual angel in disguise.

In regards to 30B, I do appreciate the TAs and lab sections but I have to be brutally honest, they are not helpful when so many students need help. Sometimes TAs and LAs are hyper-fixated on one student and by the time they get to you, they don't even really help. I can't really truly say that was the case for my lab section, only the fact that sometimes it takes a while for them to come to you. As a result, I feel that lab sections are truly not the most helpful option but they are a better resource than nothing. I don't really see coding too much in my career, but I will say that it is really cool to say that I have coding experience. I never in a million years would have EVER thought I would have to code, but here I am! I am not completely sad about it, but I would prefer it to be more like other normal discussion sections because coding in itself is insanely hard, but the material in class is SO MUCH HARDER.

There are SO many questions I have in class that I have to type on a new document because my professor (bennoun) couldn't answer all of them in the given time. Then, I have to "magically" somehow create some time in the midst of all my other responsibilities and come to office hours or even pray that a PLF session or PSS section works with my schedule (this quarter it ABSOLUTELY did not and was an absolute nightmare, I struggled so so much). In addition, The labs..The problem solving sessions... little to not helpful at all. There are too many students who need help and these TAs cannot handle all of the concerns or questions to the best of their abilities. I know whole-heartedly that many of these TAs understand the material conceptually, but when it comes to TEACHING other students, it really takes a single, one-on-one type of meeting for a student to be successful in this course with these sessions. There needs to be even more TAs available PER session. That way, one student is not stuck having to figure out the material with their hand in the air for more than 30 minutes. At this time, the student may get so frustrated, leave and never come back and deem it useless. I think these resources have amazing potential but they need to be reconstructed better, truly. Yes it is cool to see the connections for what we are learning in labs, but it is not helpful for exams AT ALL. If our final exams are going to be based on comprehension of what we are learning, then these "labs" should be tailored to that.

30B can be a very enjoyable and interesting course if these structural issues can be fixed, so that you don't have students overwhelmed and struggling with these exams. I have really bad test anxiety and it is so frustrating that it takes a mountain of students to complain before accommodations are considered (not to talk of the IMMENSE amount of material we needed to somehow memorize for the final). The material conceptually is not hard, but I have to be honest, it is TOO MUCH. It is way too much material covered in a short amount of time, and we as students are not even aware of what exactly it is that we need to study for specifically. There is no guide, nothing. “Figure it out yourself”, or magically “create time” to seek answers or help for topics on the exam that we BRIEFLY or even NEVER went over in lecture. Truly, it is not impossible to do well in this course, but the instructors have to realize that this is not the ONLY course that students have to worry about. The time it takes to master these concepts does not come naturally to everyone, especially those students that did not have a good foundational background in AP Calculus. I took AP Calculus, and man did I still struggle not because the material was hard to understand conceptually, but because of the poor way the lectures are worded, the poor way the classes are structured, and the immense amount of material we basically memorize for the exam. It's really sad because I can only imagine just how many students were overwhelmed by this. For me personally, the stress was so bad that I needed to schedule a CAPS appointment. Please consider doing something next quarter and even for many years after this year.

The labs..The problem solving sessions... little to not helpful at all. There are too many students who need help and these TAs cannot handle all of the concerns or questions to the best of their abilities. I know whole-heartedly that many of these TAs understand the material conceptually, but when it comes to TEACHING other students, it really takes a single, one-on-one type of meeting for a student to be successful in this course with these sessions. There needs to be even more TAs available PER session. That way, one student is not stuck having to figure out the material with their hand in the air for more than 30 minutes. At this time, the student may get so frustrated, leave and never come back and deem it useless. I think these resources have amazing potential but they need to be reconstructed better, truly.

Jukka is THE GOAT HOLY MOLY he is legit the best professor I ever had. The 30 series for math is very weird because it touches on several topics that are somehow related to each other rather than focusing on one topic like calculus or linear algebra does. 30B in particular can be tricky without prior knowledge of linear algebra. The course is half a continuation of the concepts learned in 30A, and then the other half is linear algebra. However, Jukka is an inccredible professor. Winter quarter for me was difficult for a multitude of personal reasons and I often did not have the motivation to go to my classes, but Jukka always made his lectures feel worthwhile. I would miss a couple of weeks, but immediately catch up after attending a single lecture. I of course recommend going to each of his lectures, but in case you fall behind, Jukka makes it very easy to catch up. I wound up learning a lot in this class and doing well on his tests, despite how rough my winter quarter was. When he lectures, he speaks with a lot of enthusiasm that can honetsly convince anybody to care about the course material. Dude has to be one of the most charismatic people I have ever seen. 1000% recommend taking this class with Jukka (30 series is also easier than calculus, guaranteed)

If you’re debating whether to take Bennoun or Jukka, without a doubt choose Jukka. Every other student I know who chooses Bennoun over Jukka always regrets it. Bennoun is a lot more boring and keeps the same tone throughout lectures, while professor Jukka is super funny, super engaging, and presents the energy to students that makes them want to show up to class. Highly recommend this class, and he hosts office hours nearly every day. Funniest and most engaging professor I’ve had at UCLA yet. I didn’t do so hot on the midterm but I got a B+ on the final, this was because of a mental experience at the time. Anyone can get an A- in this class with effort minimum

I took LS30A during my summer quarter and waited to take the LS30B until my winter quarter. At the beginning of the class, I was very nervous because I was not able to recall all the information that I had learned in LS30A, but since the first day, Professor Jukka was helpful and understanding by providing practice problems that would refresh my memory in case you could not remember all the information in LS30A. I believe that the reason I enjoyed this class so much despite it being a math class was due to Jukka's teaching style, he always found a way to make the topics easy to understand. At the beginning of every lecture, he would set time aside to revive the information from the lecture before, this way making it easier to understand the connection between each lecture. Overall he is a great professor and if you have to take this class, you better try to take it with him. His midterms and Finals are challenging but fair, there is nothing in the final that he did not go over in greater detail, besides he often hosts review sessions before the midterm and final to make sure that all his students are on track to get an A. It is clear by the way that he teaches that he actually cares about the education of his students and wants us to succeed

Amazing dedication both to helping students that struggle while keeping more advanced students engaged. Lectures and slides are given with brilliant clarity. Office hours are helpful and enjoyable. Makes pop culture references and jokes to keep things from becoming monotonous and is about to drop a sick new mix-tape.

All I want to say is that if you have taken Calc and did well in it, really consider not taking this class. You might be under-challenged. I was convinced to take it by a friend who was premed who told me my GPA >>> Challenging myself. Not true at all imho.

I understand that many people, including my friends, had a completely different experience than me in the class. We all agree that Jukka was a real G. Professor Flippy was amazing as well: he was a great teacher who made the class 100x better with his presence. Jukka was almost as good, which is still saying a lot.

I regret taking this class because:
a) I was bored with the material
b) The lab / coding is really just busy work and I hated it

I liked taking this class because:
a) I loved all my classmates, they were really vibrant and fun people
b) the prof is iconic

Some people had a great time, others didn't, and for various reasons. It was fun sometimes, but towards the end it was really a slog :\

Legend

I didn't even have Jukka but I only heard great things about him lmao