Professor Oberlin does not really care whether or not his students master the material. He is not willing to accept your work if it is not the way he understands doing it. For instance, on one of my tests, I had showed my work in a different way than the other students, but got the correct answer, while many other students got a wrong answer, so he told me to consult his T.A. When i did so, the T.A. acknowledged that I was indeed correct in my calculation, but he did not want to go through the trouble of looking over everyones tests again, so he did not give me the points. He was too lazy to re grade the tests even though he was the one who made the mistake. When I asked Oberlin about this, he was extremely unhelpful and said he could not do anything about it. I ended up with an A-, but I definitely deserved a higher grade. Do all the homework, and do well on his midterms (they are very easy), because his final was extremely difficult, and the average was very low. Avoid him if possible, but I believe the other 3B professor is not much better. It's a class you may have to take, but I would highly suggest taking it another quarter with a more helpful professor.

I thought Oberlin was a fine professor, especially for a math class. He's laid back, knows his stuff, and his tests are very fair, if not the easiest I've taken in my first year at UCLA. I did the homework twice through when the midterms came around I got 70 and 69 out of 70, and then for the final I went through the homework and read my notes over and came out with an A. However, he lectures straight from the textbook so it is not as necessary to take good notes as it is to learn the concepts behind the notes. Probability is all about the little useful tricks, so go to discussion to learn those tricks. Nikki is a very efficient TA, I could barely find a seat and I was actually enrolled in her discussion.

It begins as a very simple class, permutations and combinations and whatnot, but don't let that lull you into a false sense of security because after the second midterm the class gets complicated quickly. As for Oberlin himself, yeah he wears the same outfit to class everyday, but it gives him a very modest and approachable vibe, and he tries to answer every question. The class complained about the mark/recapture concept, and he just wiped it off the midterm. Overall, I liked him as a professor, and the class was much easier than any calculus class. Take Oberlin if you're given the chance, and avoid Barbaro. I've heard bad things about her..

In response to the person below me:

Oberlin's midterms are very straightforward. As long as you know how to do all the book problems, you can easily get a perfect score on the midterm. Just look at the explanation in the back of the book and put those explanations on the test. This class is a joke. Know how to do the homework, Get covel tutoring, and you are GUARANTEED AN 'A' grade. Oberlin is WAAY EASIER COMPARED TO BARBARO. That lady is over the top difficult, makes her kids memorize pages of proofs, tests definitions, AND ON TOP gives much harder problems. She is a total bitch from what I've heard. We should be content with Oberlin. Sure he doesn't care, but he's easy and he gives you an easy grade if you put in the effort. And lol no south campus teacher here at UCLA cares about teaching, they care about research only. UCLA will never hire teachers based on how well it thinks that person will teach. UCLA will hire a teacher based on how much money in research the person can bring in to the university. UCLA DOES NOT GIVE A JACK SHIT ABOUT LEARNING AND/OR ITS STUDENTS.

Professor Oberlin pretty much sucks at explaining. Not only does he wear the same clothes to lecture, but he messes up on the board and students ALWAYS correct his mistakes. Although his tests are straightforward and similar to the homework, he is not that great of a person either. When he grades your tests, he gives you the least amount of points possible regardless if your work is correct. He basically refused to understand how I approached a problem, when I actually did it right, and he only gave me less than half the points! However, the TAs are pretty good--get Nikki Meshkat if you can. She's awesome. I think this is Oberlin's first time teaching 3C, and I hope UCLA hires better math professors who truly care about student learning.