I would like to start by saying that I typically don't want to leave such a negative review, as I respect teachers for all the work they do.

However, Pablo is such an incompetent teacher that if you can, avoid his classes at all costs. I heard that going into this class, so I chose a different professor. But in a bait and switch, the day before the quarter began, they switched the professors and I was stuck with Pablo, and all other lectures were filled. Pablo is so incompetent at teaching that I'd rather get taught calculus by a preschooler. He doesn't even know how to find the inverse of a function, saying that all you have to do is isolate x instead of y (spoiler: it isn't). Then, he lectures straight from the book with the most basic questions possible, leaving the entire class out to dry for the exams, which by the way, are exponentially harder than any other questions he asks. Then, he went out of his way to cancel class a total of 5 times in a quarter, 4 of which were in a row right after midterms (meaning that in a 2 week period, there was only 1 lecture).

I now understand why they tell you not to use Bruinwalk, and only people who really love or really hate their professors post reviews there.
Listen. I'm neither. I took Calculus in high school, and I took the LS 30 series before this (I changed my major). Is Pablo the best math teacher I've ever had? No. Of course not. He might even be the worst, but that's because I've had really good math teachers.
But does he deserve a 1.8 rating on Bruinwalk? Absolutely not!! I have had genuinely terrible professors who do not care about their students whatsoever, and none of them have a score below a 2.0. Professor Scerri, who is generally regarded as the worst chemistry professor at this school, who has been nicknamed "Professor Scary," has 3.0. Professor Nakamoto, the bane of every biochemistry major, who is so awful that even her TAs hate her, has a 2.6. The people here calling Pablo a bad professor have never met a bad professor in their lives.
Do not listen to the reviews of entitled freshmen. Don't rearrange your entire four-year plan just to avoid Pablo. He's a nice guy, and he genuinely cares about his students. He's trying, and that's more than I can say about many of the faculty at UCLA.

Some nice things about Pablo:
-He gives you the textbook for free. for FREE, guys. Free, did you hear me?
-His course website is well-designed (he does not use Bruinlearn/Canvas)
-He has three different grading schemes, which are designed to benefit you
-His tests are very straightforward
-You get points just from going to discussions and working on hw (no useless discussion busy work)

Is this class hard? Of course, it is. It's Math 31B, guys. But listen to me, a seasoned UCLA veteran who had to redo the math requirement because she changed her major, YOU WILL GET THROUGH IT! And you will grow from it!

So Sanchez-Ocal is definitely a guy of all time. I would trust the reviews that have come before mine. So his lectures are straight out of the textbook (which was free, in my case. I am definitely glad about that). The textbook is about as unhelpful as he is. The readings are in very basic detail. The same is true with his lectures.

Then the homework is somewhat difficult compared to the examples from the texbook and the lectures. And the exams seem borderline impossible.

The only saving grace is the grading scheme, so if you grind really hard for the final, you can still get a good grade.

This professor essentially just recited the textbook to the class during lecture. Many people didn't even show up despite his lectures not being recorded. He showed simple examples of problems, but didn't elaborate on any higher difficulty questions despite putting them on the exams. I would not recommend taking this lecture if you have trouble understanding math quickly.

Don't, just do not

Do not take this class with Pablo.

-He overly complicates everything. He made me confused about material I mastered in high school. He is very confusing often.

-I taught myself EVERYTHING in this class. If you have no their choice but to take him, you will NEED the textbook. It will be your best friend.

- Long homework that definitely helps to do well in tests as they are from the textbooks, BUT homework was crazy long often.

-Tests were tough. Exam 1 was hard. He is very unaccomodating to say the least. Exam 2 was harder and final was harder in my opinion. Seriously, if you can, leave 31b with another prof for the sake of your gpa and sanity. Take 33A, 33B 32A but leave 31B for another quarter with another professor, I'm serious. He will not meet ANY of your expectations,

-Good luck for this class. Youtube and Textbook help tremendously.

Do not take this class. For the love of Pythagoras and Euclid, DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS.

If you care about math, your grades and your sanity, wait it out, take 31B next quarter, do 32A instead. He is the worst professor I've come across. I used to think humans contain multitudes, of yin and yang. But this guy is all yang.
1. He does not know how to teach, complicates and confuses the easiest topics.
2. His exams are hard. And he doesn't curve the grades. (the midterm 2 and final average was 70%, didn't curve it up)
3. Gives so much homework (30+ questions - and long ones) even during midterm and finals week. We had 2 huge homeworks due during finals week.
4. Extremely unhelpful and very unaccommodating. He has zero empathy, please do yourself a favour and don't take this class. And if you have no other option, I wish you the best of luck and pray that you come out alive.

I cannot stress enough to NOT take this man. Coming from Gannon (I LOVED HIM) for 31A, I came in with a solid understanding (took only calc ab in high school) of previous material. The VERY first day I knew I was in deep. He was only explaining exponential functions but the way he does is so beyond confusing I got totally lost. The only way you can succeed in this class is to a.) READ THE BOOK. He teaches from this, but worse. Secondly, teach yourself the content. For me, this came from "MyOrganicChemistryTutor" on YouTube. Homework is extremely lengthy and is ESSENTIAL to compare/work on with friends to succeed.

One thing I will say is his grading scheme was generous but MAN. This class took a piece of me. It took a part of my morale, a significant chunk of my mental health, and I thought it would take a piece of my GPA. Thankfully, not the latter but I was on the cusp.

All I can say is only take this class if you are prepared to pour in a TON of extra hours. Grind hard on textbook example problems and the ones at the end of the chapter. Also, there are true/false sections on the tests. For these YOU MUST READ THE TEXTBOOK and I'd always recommend going to class no matter how tempting it is to skip.

here is everything you need to know about this class. i took this class winter 2023 as a freshman (similar to many of the poor reviews). 1. homework is helpful. he uses the EXACT SAME questions on the final and midterm!! or exact same question with different numbers. 2. maybe ppl talked about the difficultly of understanding prof pablo. i don’t think that’s the issue. if you are on your phone in class, playing chess, watching movies, etc, of course you won’t be able to pay attention. he will pause the moment someone raises their hand and answer their question until he makes sure that they understand. you get out what you put in. simply stated, IF you care about this class and are willing to put in focused work, you will be fine. yes, he closely follows a textbook (it is a free pdf he provides btw). but, the positive of this is that you know EXACTLY what he will cover each class before he covers it; no surprises. a good study hack is to study what he will teach BEFORE HAND ! 3. HOMEWORK ADDS UP!! do your homework it’s worth a large portion of your grade! it’s difficult to do but i did them all in my discussions and it is very doable. 4. he is the sweetest guy. seriously. and the TAs are great. they are just genuine ppl who want to be there to help you. this class is so hard, at any high-level university (it’s UCLA—of course it’ll be harder than any Calc BC class you took in high school). but pablo is a caring guy, and he truly takes into account what feedback we put onto the feedback form. his lectures got a bit better after our first feedback form, and even better after our second feedback form. with a good amount of effort, most people do fine in this class. yes, it’s not an easy A, but it is a doable A or B.

Pablo is a super nice guy and funny, his teaching wasn't the greatest, but I definitely saw improvement throughout the quarter and I know he wants to do better. His midterms and final required lots of memorizing, but weren't bad. He gives a ton of partial credit too. Overall, Khanacademy is your best friend, with Pablo being a funny guy to also help.