Professor

Oleg Gleizer

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Easiness 2.6/ 5
Clarity 2.1/ 5
Workload 1.7/ 5
Helpfulness 2.4/ 5
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2021 - I had mixed feelings about this class. Gleizer was clearly passionate about mathematics, but this class's lack of organization made 31A my most stressful course this quarter. Grade breakdown was initially: 50% homework (6 homeworks, lowest score dropped), 10% midterm 1, 10% midterm 2, 30% final. It was eventually changed to: 50% homework (5 homeworks, lowest score dropped), 16.6% midterm 1, 16.6% midterm 2, 16.6% final. We were initially supposed to cover 6 chapters, but by Week 4, we were still on Chapter 1. In the end, we only covered 5 chapters, and this ended up changing how final grades would be broken down. To compensate for our falling behind, Gleizer decided to post 2 one-hour-long lectures every Friday. On top of somewhat rushed, very long homework assignments, I found the content of this class very overwhelming. Gleizer actually managed to lose one entire lecture and part of another, and he didn't rerecord the content. He told us that some of the lost content wouldn't be on any exams, but it ended up being on the midterm. For the first midterm, he actually gave us less than a week's notice regarding when the exam would be, which I found inconsiderate. I guess while Gleizer is a very witty, passionate instructor, I can't help but admit I was disappointed with this class. Neither Gleizer nor his students could have known we would fall behind, but the rushed nature of this course, on top of the addition of extra lectures, made me feel I was forced to commit more time to this course than initially described. I unfortunately don't feel prepared for MATH 31B.
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Easiness 2.2/ 5
Clarity 1.8/ 5
Workload 3.0/ 5
Helpfulness 2.9/ 5
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2023 - Professor Oleg was quite honestly one of the worst professors I've had the displeasure of having out of the 4 quarters that I've been at UCLA. Though he is enthusiastic enough about the subject matter and may genuinely want to help his students learn, he simply lacks the capabilities to be a good teacher. He fails to explain concepts properly, rushes through proofs, and stumbles over his thoughts and contradicts himself quite frequently, which only harms my ability to learn as I get confused as to what's right and wrong. Furthermore, he does not use the textbook at ALL, and creates his own practice problems for which he provides NO answers. This feels like such ludicrous behavior! Because the least the professor could do is release answers to the homework assignments after their due dates so students can check their understanding and see whether they got the answers correct or not. However, because he refused to publish answers to the assignments, my peers and I found it very difficult to study for the exams, which were whole other frustrating matters themselves. What disappointed me the most was that this is a class that is important and relevant to my major and career path, but because I had him as a professor, I did not learn as much as I could have and I found myself struggling to grasp the contents. Initially I thought I was alone in this matter, but after attending discussion I soon realized my peers and I were in the same boat. The TA, Thomas Martinez, acted more like our professor than our actual professor because my TA would do a much better job in explaining the concepts. There were countless instances where my peers and I stated "Woah, he did not go over that in lecture at all," or "now it makes sense! He didn't teach us this at all." Martinez concurred with our comments on the professor's painfully obvious ineptness when it came to teaching after he saw how clueless the students were on most days after lecture. This class was not easy. The workload was not that manageable (bc he would assign 20+ problems per week and NEVER give us answers to them). He was never clear (I had to YouTube most stuff or rely on my TA). And lastly, he was not helpful. Avoid him if you can, anyone is better than him. But if you have no other choice, good luck. It's sad because he is a good person, but I do not believe that he is a good professor.
Easiness N/A/ 5
Clarity N/A/ 5
Workload N/A/ 5
Helpfulness N/A/ 5
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Easiness N/A/ 5
Clarity N/A/ 5
Workload N/A/ 5
Helpfulness N/A/ 5
Overall Rating N/A
Easiness N/A/ 5
Clarity N/A/ 5
Workload N/A/ 5
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Easiness 4.3/ 5
Clarity 3.3/ 5
Workload 4.7/ 5
Helpfulness 5.0/ 5
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2024 - Oleg is one of my favorite characters here at UCLA. I’ve never met anyone like him here in the math department. He’s a no-BS kind of guy, he’s great. Only complaint I have is his lectures can be hard to follow. Besides that, he’s funny, passionate about math/game theory, and also very generous with grades. He (or his TA by proxy) will give you credit back on exams if you can explain what you did wrong and show that you know how to solve the problem, and offers students grading scheme/final exam or project choices (kind of like using game theory to let the students decide how the course will go lol) plus the extra credit on exams and homework go a long way. And most importantly (at least to me), he’s the only professor I’ve had that’s tried to holistically connect math to the rest of the world. Game theory is the math of decision making, so I guess that’s what I should expect. But Oleg really cared about teaching us how to use math/game theory to be rational critical thinkers, and I really appreciate that above everything else. If you get a chance to take this class, I highly recommend you take it and engage as much as you possibly can! Go to lecture though, he doesn’t like it when people don’t go to lecture, or when they come in late. He’ll call you out on it (like I said, no BS). But at the end of the quarter, you’ll most likely find yourself with a relatively easy A,A- or B+ and a different way of seeing the world than before.
Easiness N/A/ 5
Clarity N/A/ 5
Workload N/A/ 5
Helpfulness N/A/ 5
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