Justin Forlano
Department of Mathematics
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3.9
Overall Rating
Based on 17 Users
Easiness 2.9 / 5 How easy the class is, 1 being extremely difficult and 5 being easy peasy.
Clarity 3.9 / 5 How clear the class is, 1 being extremely unclear and 5 being very clear.
Workload 3.8 / 5 How much workload the class is, 1 being extremely heavy and 5 being extremely light.
Helpfulness 3.9 / 5 How helpful the class is, 1 being not helpful at all and 5 being extremely helpful.

TOP TAGS

  • Tolerates Tardiness
  • Is Podcasted
GRADE DISTRIBUTIONS
18.6%
15.5%
12.4%
9.3%
6.2%
3.1%
0.0%
A+
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
C-
D+
D
D-
F

Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.

52.2%
43.5%
34.8%
26.1%
17.4%
8.7%
0.0%
A+
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
C-
D+
D
D-
F

Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.

ENROLLMENT DISTRIBUTIONS
Clear marks

Sorry, no enrollment data is available.

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Reviews (16)

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2 of 2
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Quarter: Fall 2022
Grade: C+
April 4, 2023

This class is what I would call a doozy. I went into it moderately confident I would pass but came out of the final doing the mental calculations on how much I would need to request as a regrade to pass. I don't consider myself the strongest at math however, I got an A in Math 31A, B, and Math 32A so I felt at least a little bit prepared before I enrolled.

I don't ever learn directly from lectures anyway but I will say the room we had caused the microphone to glitch quite a bit so I couldn't hear the recordings and would have to go to the lecture in person to be able to get the info (that is not his fault tho).

Homework was a set of problems and 5 would be graded. In my opinion, the homework was graded a bit too easily which meant that I would think that I understood the material far more than I did. I basically got 100% for the homework portion of the class. THE HOMEWORK IS NOT LIKE THE TESTS.

Now onto my downfall in this class. The tests.

The first midterm was in my opinion relatively fair. Did I do well? No, but that's more on me for focusing on other classes than this one. But there's the second grading scheme, right? And that one takes your best midterm score only, so all I had to do was do better on the second one and it would all work out. I'm sure you can see where this is going.

So I studied like crazy for the second one and got a saucy 48%-- worse than I did on the first but higher than a lot of the folks I spoke to. Forlano refused to release any averages or stats for the second midterm because he claimed it was "not representative" of how people did-- so I can't say for sure how it went for others. While I will concede that the first midterm was fair, the second one was crazy. The lecture hall was full until the end and I remember looking around and seeing half the people around me with a good portion of their test blank with like 10 minutes remaining-- madness.

So it was safe to say I was not overly excited to see what the final had in store.

The final was once again quite difficult but I will say I was able to pull a 71% off somehow. When I calculated my grade it would have come out to about a C- raw score so he put some type of curve on it for the class-- hooray.

Overall, he's sort of funny in lectures and pretty nice during office hours but I wouldn't take this class again. Even if I would have gotten a better grade it caused me too much stress at the end of the year worrying about whether or not I would screw my GPA. If you're gonna do it I would put all your effort into the first midterm and then do a little prayer for the final.

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Quarter: Fall 2022
Grade: B
Verified Reviewer This user is a verified UCLA student/alum.
Jan. 3, 2023

Forlano is a very reasonable professor, and I would definitely take him again if given the chance. His explanations are very helpful, but they definitely take a bit to click. For example, almost every integration technique we learned in this class was introduced with the concept of Riemann sums, which seems trivial when first introduced. Looking back though I feel taking everything from a very base level of understanding made the very difficult-to-grasp topics a lot more digestible than how I have seen other profs attempt to explain them. At the end of the day, math 32B is going to be pretty damn difficult no matter who your professor is, and I think Forlano was solid.

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Quarter: Fall 2022
Grade: C+
Jan. 1, 2023

PLEASE, WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT TAKE MATH 32B WITH FORLANO!!! I MEAN IT. Whatever score he currently has on Bruinwalk, IT IS TOO HIGH!!! Even if his score were to be ⅕ stars, it is still too high. I’m being completely serious. Although he seems like a decent guy, and I wish no ill will upon this man, Forlano has to be one of my least favorite math professors/teachers I have EVER taken.

Let’s start with his lectures. I can assure you that watching paint dry or grass grow would be a better use of your time and will contribute more to your life than attending Forlano’s lectures. In all fairness, he was instructing decently the first two weeks. Although he may have taught a little too fast, it was at least comprehensive. But once we hit Week 3, that is when Forlano cranked up the difficulty to 11, and things just got MUCH worse. In every lecture, he was teaching new topics at a neck-breaking pace. He tried cramming so much information into one lecture that it was just infuriating to sit through. And his writing. It was like trying to decipher hieroglyphics. Why does a “c” look like an “s”? Why does a “u” look like an “h”? Why does the triangle look like a circle?!? There were instances when he couldn't read his own handwriting! Literal preschoolers have more legible handwriting than Forlano. And what’s worse is that multivariable calculus relies on drawings to develop a better understanding of the material. But with Forlano, you’re at a complete and utter loss.

Onto his homework. They're honestly pretty brutal. Again, the first two weeks of assignments were not bad. But afterward, they just got more and more cumbersome. Granted, he assigns a decent amount of problems (ranging from 5-8), but the amount of work that goes into each problem is so time-consuming. There isn’t much else to say, just that they’re pretty annoying.

So for the exams, the first midterm wasn’t too bad. While the concepts were pretty complex, they were problems we tackled before in previous homework or class problems (except for a particular one that was a total enigma). But overall, it was fine. The second midterm is a different story. I have not met a single person that did well on that exam. And the final was on par with the second midterm (while maybe not as unfair, the number of questions made completion more taxing).

Now, I know some of you may have read this and still thought, “Oh, he doesn’t seem too bad compare to other professors.” But the thing is, I cannot even put into words how much I dislike his class. I can write an entire book about why I did not like this class, but I still feel like that wouldn’t be enough. Whether it be the lectures, exams, homework, or discussion sections, I never felt like I learned anything. Despite how much you’d try to catch up as a student, trying to learn from Forlano was a combination of not learning anything at all and feeling constantly behind. I’m tired, if you’ve reached this far you’re also probably tired, so I’ll just leave you with this: just don’t. Don’t take Forlano. If you take any other professor, then you’ll be fine.

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Quarter: Winter 2022
Grade: A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Verified Reviewer This user is a verified UCLA student/alum.
July 20, 2022

I took MATH 32A with Forlano but there isn't a page for that class so I thought I would add my review here.

Overall, I think his class is pretty good. MATH 32A is definitely hard but he tries his best to ensure that students understand the content. There is no forced curve which means that if you get 90%+ you'll get an A- or higher, but the specific boundaries for an A is dependent on overall class performance. I took the class when the math department was online for the winter quarter so all my exams were online. I thought they were all quite straightforward, albeit long and if I had to do a test of the same length in person, I definitely would not have finished. The homeworks start off simple but they progressively get harder. Towards the end, a lot of the questions showing up I did not know how to solve based off of what we were taught in class. Luckily, he lets you drop two homework scores so that was good. Overall, a pretty decent professor.

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Quarter: Winter 2021
Grade: A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
April 7, 2021

This is a tough class, but Forlano is a great choice and makes it much easier to get through. His lectures are good and explain the essential parts of the material well, and he does many relevant examples. His first two tests were pretty simple, with a lot of questions being exactly like examples from the lectures with different numbers. The final kicked it up a little bit, but not in a way that felt unfair. More like combining multiple skills from the class into one problem. Homework load was very light compared to other math classes I've been in, with 5-8 questions due every week as the only assignment. Overall, I would strongly recommend Forlano for this class.

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Quarter: Winter 2021
Grade: A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
March 28, 2021

quizzes were tough due to the time constraint, but I was able to do well on the midterms and final due to it being 24 hours, although the second midterm and final took me well over 6 hours. Forlano is a super nice guy. His lectures were very hard for me to get through, but looking back, he is very good at explaining concepts and drawing. Class is hard, but I would recommend it.

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Quarter: Fall 2022
Grade: C+
April 4, 2023

This class is what I would call a doozy. I went into it moderately confident I would pass but came out of the final doing the mental calculations on how much I would need to request as a regrade to pass. I don't consider myself the strongest at math however, I got an A in Math 31A, B, and Math 32A so I felt at least a little bit prepared before I enrolled.

I don't ever learn directly from lectures anyway but I will say the room we had caused the microphone to glitch quite a bit so I couldn't hear the recordings and would have to go to the lecture in person to be able to get the info (that is not his fault tho).

Homework was a set of problems and 5 would be graded. In my opinion, the homework was graded a bit too easily which meant that I would think that I understood the material far more than I did. I basically got 100% for the homework portion of the class. THE HOMEWORK IS NOT LIKE THE TESTS.

Now onto my downfall in this class. The tests.

The first midterm was in my opinion relatively fair. Did I do well? No, but that's more on me for focusing on other classes than this one. But there's the second grading scheme, right? And that one takes your best midterm score only, so all I had to do was do better on the second one and it would all work out. I'm sure you can see where this is going.

So I studied like crazy for the second one and got a saucy 48%-- worse than I did on the first but higher than a lot of the folks I spoke to. Forlano refused to release any averages or stats for the second midterm because he claimed it was "not representative" of how people did-- so I can't say for sure how it went for others. While I will concede that the first midterm was fair, the second one was crazy. The lecture hall was full until the end and I remember looking around and seeing half the people around me with a good portion of their test blank with like 10 minutes remaining-- madness.

So it was safe to say I was not overly excited to see what the final had in store.

The final was once again quite difficult but I will say I was able to pull a 71% off somehow. When I calculated my grade it would have come out to about a C- raw score so he put some type of curve on it for the class-- hooray.

Overall, he's sort of funny in lectures and pretty nice during office hours but I wouldn't take this class again. Even if I would have gotten a better grade it caused me too much stress at the end of the year worrying about whether or not I would screw my GPA. If you're gonna do it I would put all your effort into the first midterm and then do a little prayer for the final.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Verified Reviewer This user is a verified UCLA student/alum.
Quarter: Fall 2022
Grade: B
Jan. 3, 2023

Forlano is a very reasonable professor, and I would definitely take him again if given the chance. His explanations are very helpful, but they definitely take a bit to click. For example, almost every integration technique we learned in this class was introduced with the concept of Riemann sums, which seems trivial when first introduced. Looking back though I feel taking everything from a very base level of understanding made the very difficult-to-grasp topics a lot more digestible than how I have seen other profs attempt to explain them. At the end of the day, math 32B is going to be pretty damn difficult no matter who your professor is, and I think Forlano was solid.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Fall 2022
Grade: C+
Jan. 1, 2023

PLEASE, WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT TAKE MATH 32B WITH FORLANO!!! I MEAN IT. Whatever score he currently has on Bruinwalk, IT IS TOO HIGH!!! Even if his score were to be ⅕ stars, it is still too high. I’m being completely serious. Although he seems like a decent guy, and I wish no ill will upon this man, Forlano has to be one of my least favorite math professors/teachers I have EVER taken.

Let’s start with his lectures. I can assure you that watching paint dry or grass grow would be a better use of your time and will contribute more to your life than attending Forlano’s lectures. In all fairness, he was instructing decently the first two weeks. Although he may have taught a little too fast, it was at least comprehensive. But once we hit Week 3, that is when Forlano cranked up the difficulty to 11, and things just got MUCH worse. In every lecture, he was teaching new topics at a neck-breaking pace. He tried cramming so much information into one lecture that it was just infuriating to sit through. And his writing. It was like trying to decipher hieroglyphics. Why does a “c” look like an “s”? Why does a “u” look like an “h”? Why does the triangle look like a circle?!? There were instances when he couldn't read his own handwriting! Literal preschoolers have more legible handwriting than Forlano. And what’s worse is that multivariable calculus relies on drawings to develop a better understanding of the material. But with Forlano, you’re at a complete and utter loss.

Onto his homework. They're honestly pretty brutal. Again, the first two weeks of assignments were not bad. But afterward, they just got more and more cumbersome. Granted, he assigns a decent amount of problems (ranging from 5-8), but the amount of work that goes into each problem is so time-consuming. There isn’t much else to say, just that they’re pretty annoying.

So for the exams, the first midterm wasn’t too bad. While the concepts were pretty complex, they were problems we tackled before in previous homework or class problems (except for a particular one that was a total enigma). But overall, it was fine. The second midterm is a different story. I have not met a single person that did well on that exam. And the final was on par with the second midterm (while maybe not as unfair, the number of questions made completion more taxing).

Now, I know some of you may have read this and still thought, “Oh, he doesn’t seem too bad compare to other professors.” But the thing is, I cannot even put into words how much I dislike his class. I can write an entire book about why I did not like this class, but I still feel like that wouldn’t be enough. Whether it be the lectures, exams, homework, or discussion sections, I never felt like I learned anything. Despite how much you’d try to catch up as a student, trying to learn from Forlano was a combination of not learning anything at all and feeling constantly behind. I’m tired, if you’ve reached this far you’re also probably tired, so I’ll just leave you with this: just don’t. Don’t take Forlano. If you take any other professor, then you’ll be fine.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Verified Reviewer This user is a verified UCLA student/alum.
Quarter: Winter 2022
Grade: A
July 20, 2022

I took MATH 32A with Forlano but there isn't a page for that class so I thought I would add my review here.

Overall, I think his class is pretty good. MATH 32A is definitely hard but he tries his best to ensure that students understand the content. There is no forced curve which means that if you get 90%+ you'll get an A- or higher, but the specific boundaries for an A is dependent on overall class performance. I took the class when the math department was online for the winter quarter so all my exams were online. I thought they were all quite straightforward, albeit long and if I had to do a test of the same length in person, I definitely would not have finished. The homeworks start off simple but they progressively get harder. Towards the end, a lot of the questions showing up I did not know how to solve based off of what we were taught in class. Luckily, he lets you drop two homework scores so that was good. Overall, a pretty decent professor.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Winter 2021
Grade: A
April 7, 2021

This is a tough class, but Forlano is a great choice and makes it much easier to get through. His lectures are good and explain the essential parts of the material well, and he does many relevant examples. His first two tests were pretty simple, with a lot of questions being exactly like examples from the lectures with different numbers. The final kicked it up a little bit, but not in a way that felt unfair. More like combining multiple skills from the class into one problem. Homework load was very light compared to other math classes I've been in, with 5-8 questions due every week as the only assignment. Overall, I would strongly recommend Forlano for this class.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Winter 2021
Grade: A
March 28, 2021

quizzes were tough due to the time constraint, but I was able to do well on the midterms and final due to it being 24 hours, although the second midterm and final took me well over 6 hours. Forlano is a super nice guy. His lectures were very hard for me to get through, but looking back, he is very good at explaining concepts and drawing. Class is hard, but I would recommend it.

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2 of 2
3.9
Overall Rating
Based on 17 Users
Easiness 2.9 / 5 How easy the class is, 1 being extremely difficult and 5 being easy peasy.
Clarity 3.9 / 5 How clear the class is, 1 being extremely unclear and 5 being very clear.
Workload 3.8 / 5 How much workload the class is, 1 being extremely heavy and 5 being extremely light.
Helpfulness 3.9 / 5 How helpful the class is, 1 being not helpful at all and 5 being extremely helpful.

TOP TAGS

  • Tolerates Tardiness
    (8)
  • Is Podcasted
    (9)
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