He really values your input and gives very manageable workload and tests. Don’t trust people who say he’s bad, he is extremely kind and although can be a bit unclear sometimes, he is very open to feedback and questions and reading the textbook also helps a lot!

pablo is the goat. although some people may dislike his lectures, i will FOREVER be a pablo defender. he puts in effort to make his lectures clear and he is also unironically funny. not to mention he is the snazziest dresser and always shows up with math-related shirts. his tests are also quite simple.

I dont know what he did, but super light workload, easy tests, lectures were informative+engaging and are posted online. Knows his material.

TLDR: Enthusiastic, Takes feedback, Super lenient grading scheme, No required attendance

While I acknowledge he's not the perfect professor (which I'll get to in a moment), the 2.1 rating Professor Ocal currently has on bruinwalk is much too harsh. Ocal is enthusiastic about teaching math and readily accepts feedback from students. For example, he had a review session for each of the two midterms we had this quarter. The first review session was more of an open-ended QnA format which apparently proved not to be super helpful for most people. Seemingly, several people articulated this in the feedback form which Ocal provided for us as the professor changed his review session format to include a lot more practice questions for midterm 2, much to our happiness.

It's true that occasionally Ocal will accidentally write a "-1" instead of a "1" on the chalkboard or succumb to a similar error which slightly detracts from the flow of his lectures. However, personally, those kinds of mistakes weren't egregious and rarely affected my understanding of a topic in the end. Another common criticism of him is that he teaches too closely with what the textbook already tells us. In my experience, his teaching isn't significantly different from other professors and I like how he explains the information. I think I learned most effectively when I was able to hear information from him first and re-read parts of the textbook myself.

If this doesn't suit you... his classes don't have required attendance, his lectures are recorded, and we get the textbook for free. So, you're free to just read from the textbook and skip his lectures if you would like.

I thought this guy was really good overall and am a little surprised as to why the reviews are so low. My guess would be that the test questions were not very simple compared with other math classes I’ve taken. Pablo really enjoys giving trick problems on his tests and it’s not very hard but just something to look out for. All of the test questions I had seen on previous homework and discussion problem sets. My biggest piece of advice is to go to the discussions and do all of the optional homework and discussion problems. The homework is pretty much graded on completion and he has a policy where he will drop one or two midterms if it benefits your grade. He is pretty reasonable and decent at explaining. If he is your only option, he isn’t bad but be prepared to study a little more than other math classes you’ve taken. You might even get more out of the class than other easier professors. He also was a walking DRIP GOD bro always wore math shirts and he’s the goat I love Pablo 100% would take again

Nice easy class and prof. It's important to understand how the foundation of linear algebra to do well in the later weeks

PABLO DOES NOT DESERVE ANY OF THE HATE ON HERE

Great lecturer, super nice guy, easy and fair tests, not a lot of homework, 100/10 would take again

Pablo actively tries to improve from feedback, and always tries his very best to answer questions. Lectures are a little confusing in the beginning but that's just bc the class is conceptually hard at first. After week 3-4, it gets easier and easier.

Pablo also responds emails within minutes and is always super helpful. Hes super approachable after class and really cares about helping students understand.

Tests are a breeze, straight out of the textbook and are familiar problems (if you do recommended hw and discussions)

Would highly recommend doing the recommended hw problems and attending office hours and the class is an easy A and you learn a lot.

don't listen to the pablo hate!! he genuinely cares a lot about his students, and lectures are generally engaging and useful. they could be slightly confusing at times, but going to discussion every week REALLY helped. jack was an amazing TA!!

the exams were very reasonable, and the workload is pretty light. the grading on the exams is also very generous, and pablo uses a grading scheme that lets you drop one or both of the midterms. ocal is a funny guy who is def very knowledgable about the subject & cares about the success of his students. he listened to and incorporated student feedback consistently (and dropped discussions/homeworks when enough of the class participated in the feedback forms).

no cheat sheets/calculators on the tests, but the exams were exactly like the practice ones he would post so I always felt very prepared. linear algebra isn't that hard of a subject, it just might take a while to click, so use your resources (discussions and TA office hours helped me the most).

don't be scared of pablo, take this professor if you get the chance!!

pablo sanchez ocal doesn't deserve the hate. he teaches straight from the textbook and though his lectures can be slightly confusing at the start, that's just because linear algebra is conceptual course and the content takes time to process in your head. HIS TESTS ARE A LOT EASIER than the homework problems and they are also extremely straightforward. there is barely any homework and the lectures + discussions aren't even mandatory. the grading scales are also super generous, it's hard to do bad in this class especially because pablo is always so willing to help and improve based on student feedback. i highly recommend pablo (+ his t-shirts are funny) for linear algebra !!!!!

I would say Pablo is one of the worst professors in terms of teaching here at UCLA. He is a great guy, extremely genuine and kind. But I don't think I have ever had a teacher that is more confusing than him. Often times in lecture, he will miscalculate his own computations. Because of this, during essential theories- he just won't compute them because it takes him too long to do them correctly. It's extremely difficult to learn this way, when even the teacher is not willing to rehash the work in such a computation heavy class.
After week 3, the majority of the class stopped showing up. Everyone I knew stopped watching lectures and just started self studying using the textbook.
One thing I appreciate about Pablo is that his exams are straight out of the textbook- so doing the textbook questions and checking the answers in the back will help you a lot. His grading schemes are also extremely clutch.