Sharmila Venugopal
Department of Life Sciences
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4.2
Overall Rating
Based on 23 Users
Easiness 4.3 / 5 How easy the class is, 1 being extremely difficult and 5 being easy peasy.
Clarity 3.2 / 5 How clear the class is, 1 being extremely unclear and 5 being very clear.
Workload 3.7 / 5 How much workload the class is, 1 being extremely heavy and 5 being extremely light.
Helpfulness 3.6 / 5 How helpful the class is, 1 being not helpful at all and 5 being extremely helpful.

TOP TAGS

  • Uses Slides
  • Needs Textbook
  • Is Podcasted
  • Useful Textbooks
  • Appropriately Priced Materials
  • Participation Matters
  • Gives Extra Credit
  • Has Group Projects
  • Tolerates Tardiness
  • Would Take Again
GRADE DISTRIBUTIONS
60.0%
50.0%
40.0%
30.0%
20.0%
10.0%
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.

72.5%
60.4%
48.3%
36.2%
24.2%
12.1%
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.

41.7%
34.7%
27.8%
20.8%
13.9%
6.9%
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.

40.2%
33.5%
26.8%
20.1%
13.4%
6.7%
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 (20)

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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

This class was great, I highly recommend it. People in the groupme complained constantly and I have no idea why since Dr. V was so accommodating to all our requests. She adjusted quizzes and encouraged collaboration for the midterm and final, it was very considerate.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Winter 2021
Grade: A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
March 27, 2021

I really liked Dr. Venugopal. I think her lectures were wonderful and often clear and concise. She really takes the time to make sure her students understand the material. I liked that her lectures were all posted asynchronously. She also made a point of including supplemental optional mini-lecs, which were great as well. Her homework assignments were bi-weekly, and they were to essentially create a study guide with examples and explanations for the learning goals. These study guides helped tremendously in taking the bi-weekly quizzes. These quizzes were roughly 1-2 hours long and multiple attempts. They were also multiple choice. Her midterm and final exams were group exams, which was really helpful. It allowed us to communicate and consult other students. I really enjoyed that her exams were often to be completed in a 24-hour window. This was very convenient, and it allowed students to not have to work around an assigned time. She really takes into consideration student feedback, which to me was the most rewarding thing about having her as a professor.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Winter 2021
Grade: N/A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Feb. 9, 2021

I haven't even finished this class yet but I can't stand it anymore. I had Venugopal last quarter and for some reason, it just got so much more unbearable this quarter. I understand professors need to respond to feedback but there was complete overhaul in how the class was designed and different, doesn't necessarily mean better.

Professor V started doing bi-weekly quizzes on top of our usual midterm and final. I wouldn't say they were particularly difficult but the build-up to each exam made the work load incredibly tedious and sincerely unnecessary. We had to do study guides before each exam and because the professor couldn't finish covering material in lecture, she assigned a ridiculous amount of asynchronous videos. It's really up to you if you want to watch them (I never did) but it puts a lot of burden on students to now worry about watching videos when she could've gone through all the material if the lecture time was used more efficiently. This is not to bash on providing additional resources because I think they are helpful for students who need extra help, but when she suggests them because there are holes in her own lesson plans, now students are watching even more lectures because we spent so much time on one tiny thing in class and ran out of time. Not to mention, two of our quizzes were opened on the two Monday holidays this quarter.

Professor V is also really vague when answering questions. I've heard in lecture and saw online how she answers questions and the answer is usually "What do you think?" or "If you read through these pages and answer these questions, the answer will become clear." I understand that professors want us to find answers on our own but when students go to Piazza, Campuswire, etc. it's usually because they couldn't find answers elsewhere. You're better off getting help from classmates/TAs.

Helpful?

1 5 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Winter 2021
Grade: A+
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Jan. 1, 2022

I was reluctant when I enrolled in this class because the reviews for Dr. Venugopal are all over the place. This class, in general, is super easy but I would highly recommend reading the textbook as it explains all concepts. Venugopal does explain the topics but at times she confuses you. I would definitely take another class with her because she was great overall.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Winter 2021
Grade: A+
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
March 30, 2021

There are a lot of people who dislike Dr. V, but she is truly an amazing teacher. She really cares about her students and provides materials for both studying and practice. The biweekly homework for this class was somewhat tedious, but was definitely doable for the time provided. She posts her annotated slides and lectures promptly, and the exams were well written and plenty of time was given to take them. I had her for LS30A as well, and though the structure was slightly different, I would recommend her to anyone.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Winter 2021
Grade: A+
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
March 30, 2021

So the deal with this class is that if you don't care about the material but want a good grade I highly recommend taking this class with Dr. V.
The live lectures have polls which is annoying, but I honestly joined them and would not really pay attention and do homework or watch tik tok and just do the polls because they were graded on participation.
The bi-weekly quizzes were sometimes kind of challenging but we had to attempts so getting a good grade was not too challenging.
We had bi-weekly homework due the day before the quizzes which were super easy and essentially a study guide for the quiz. The homework was also done with a group soo the individual work was pretty low, we split up the problems and then just reworded things before we submitted.
There were practice problems assigned but they weren't due and so I never did them.
Both the midterm and the final were taken with a group making them extremely easy to get a good grade in. The midterm was a bit more challenging and was pretty long but the final was painfully easy. One questions, worth 10 points, just required you to copy and paste come code into cocalc and then upload the graph.
Labs were kind of complicated but graders were super easy so it wasn't hard to get good grades.
OVERALL, I can't code for the life of me, barely learned the material, but because of the way this class was graded got a really good grade, so if this is just a requirement, highly recommend.

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0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Winter 2021
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.
March 30, 2021

This class is honestly not hard, its actually extremely easy. The professor is not a very good lecturer, and did not respond to a single email all quarter, and was always behind with content, but it didn't matter because the final and midterm were so easy to get A's on, because they were group projects with your lab mates. Way easier than 30A, very light workload, I got an A+ and I never took any AP math class in high school. The coding was kind of difficult for me, but the TA's help you a lot if you are confused.

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0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Winter 2021
Grade: A+
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
March 29, 2021

I was initially really nervous about having Dr.V this quarter, especially since I had Jukka last quarter, and even more so after reading so many harsh comments about her class. But honestly, if I could go back knowing what I know now I would have taken ls30a with Dr.V. This class is super laid back and was definitely the least stressful out of all my classes last quarter. Although her lectures might be difficult to understand at times, she more than makes up for it by being extremely accomodating and understanding. She is probably the nicest and sweetest professor I've had all year and I can tell that she genuinely cares about her students and their well-being. I highly recommend taking this class with her, it was stress-free and probably one of the easiest As I've gotten.

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0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Winter 2021
Grade: A-
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
March 26, 2021

This is not the class to take if you want to actually learn anything -- I taught myself the materials using the textbook and lecture slides because Venugopal is unengaging and hard to listen to. It's an easy A, and she's a decent professor if you can stand to listen to her, but it's not enjoyable at all and I'd recommend trying a different professor instead.

Helpful?

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

Honestly, I felt like Dr. V wasn't a bad lecturer at all. There are polls during lecture, so you will have to attend to receive participation points. The workload was very light in my opinion. Many people stressed over the bi-weekly study guides, but it was only difficult if you made it difficult for yourself. For all of my study guides, all I did was take screenshots of the slides and upload them on my document for each objective and I still received full points for it. The midterm and finals weren't too bad because she allows you to work with your group members, which makes it was easier. I would definitely take her again! It was a class I slacked off on the most.

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

This class was great, I highly recommend it. People in the groupme complained constantly and I have no idea why since Dr. V was so accommodating to all our requests. She adjusted quizzes and encouraged collaboration for the midterm and final, it was very considerate.

Helpful?

1 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 27, 2021

I really liked Dr. Venugopal. I think her lectures were wonderful and often clear and concise. She really takes the time to make sure her students understand the material. I liked that her lectures were all posted asynchronously. She also made a point of including supplemental optional mini-lecs, which were great as well. Her homework assignments were bi-weekly, and they were to essentially create a study guide with examples and explanations for the learning goals. These study guides helped tremendously in taking the bi-weekly quizzes. These quizzes were roughly 1-2 hours long and multiple attempts. They were also multiple choice. Her midterm and final exams were group exams, which was really helpful. It allowed us to communicate and consult other students. I really enjoyed that her exams were often to be completed in a 24-hour window. This was very convenient, and it allowed students to not have to work around an assigned time. She really takes into consideration student feedback, which to me was the most rewarding thing about having her as a professor.

Helpful?

1 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: N/A
Feb. 9, 2021

I haven't even finished this class yet but I can't stand it anymore. I had Venugopal last quarter and for some reason, it just got so much more unbearable this quarter. I understand professors need to respond to feedback but there was complete overhaul in how the class was designed and different, doesn't necessarily mean better.

Professor V started doing bi-weekly quizzes on top of our usual midterm and final. I wouldn't say they were particularly difficult but the build-up to each exam made the work load incredibly tedious and sincerely unnecessary. We had to do study guides before each exam and because the professor couldn't finish covering material in lecture, she assigned a ridiculous amount of asynchronous videos. It's really up to you if you want to watch them (I never did) but it puts a lot of burden on students to now worry about watching videos when she could've gone through all the material if the lecture time was used more efficiently. This is not to bash on providing additional resources because I think they are helpful for students who need extra help, but when she suggests them because there are holes in her own lesson plans, now students are watching even more lectures because we spent so much time on one tiny thing in class and ran out of time. Not to mention, two of our quizzes were opened on the two Monday holidays this quarter.

Professor V is also really vague when answering questions. I've heard in lecture and saw online how she answers questions and the answer is usually "What do you think?" or "If you read through these pages and answer these questions, the answer will become clear." I understand that professors want us to find answers on our own but when students go to Piazza, Campuswire, etc. it's usually because they couldn't find answers elsewhere. You're better off getting help from classmates/TAs.

Helpful?

1 5 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+
Jan. 1, 2022

I was reluctant when I enrolled in this class because the reviews for Dr. Venugopal are all over the place. This class, in general, is super easy but I would highly recommend reading the textbook as it explains all concepts. Venugopal does explain the topics but at times she confuses you. I would definitely take another class with her because she was great overall.

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 30, 2021

There are a lot of people who dislike Dr. V, but she is truly an amazing teacher. She really cares about her students and provides materials for both studying and practice. The biweekly homework for this class was somewhat tedious, but was definitely doable for the time provided. She posts her annotated slides and lectures promptly, and the exams were well written and plenty of time was given to take them. I had her for LS30A as well, and though the structure was slightly different, I would recommend her to anyone.

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 30, 2021

So the deal with this class is that if you don't care about the material but want a good grade I highly recommend taking this class with Dr. V.
The live lectures have polls which is annoying, but I honestly joined them and would not really pay attention and do homework or watch tik tok and just do the polls because they were graded on participation.
The bi-weekly quizzes were sometimes kind of challenging but we had to attempts so getting a good grade was not too challenging.
We had bi-weekly homework due the day before the quizzes which were super easy and essentially a study guide for the quiz. The homework was also done with a group soo the individual work was pretty low, we split up the problems and then just reworded things before we submitted.
There were practice problems assigned but they weren't due and so I never did them.
Both the midterm and the final were taken with a group making them extremely easy to get a good grade in. The midterm was a bit more challenging and was pretty long but the final was painfully easy. One questions, worth 10 points, just required you to copy and paste come code into cocalc and then upload the graph.
Labs were kind of complicated but graders were super easy so it wasn't hard to get good grades.
OVERALL, I can't code for the life of me, barely learned the material, but because of the way this class was graded got a really good grade, so if this is just a requirement, highly recommend.

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 2021
Grade: A+
March 30, 2021

This class is honestly not hard, its actually extremely easy. The professor is not a very good lecturer, and did not respond to a single email all quarter, and was always behind with content, but it didn't matter because the final and midterm were so easy to get A's on, because they were group projects with your lab mates. Way easier than 30A, very light workload, I got an A+ and I never took any AP math class in high school. The coding was kind of difficult for me, but the TA's help you a lot if you are confused.

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 29, 2021

I was initially really nervous about having Dr.V this quarter, especially since I had Jukka last quarter, and even more so after reading so many harsh comments about her class. But honestly, if I could go back knowing what I know now I would have taken ls30a with Dr.V. This class is super laid back and was definitely the least stressful out of all my classes last quarter. Although her lectures might be difficult to understand at times, she more than makes up for it by being extremely accomodating and understanding. She is probably the nicest and sweetest professor I've had all year and I can tell that she genuinely cares about her students and their well-being. I highly recommend taking this class with her, it was stress-free and probably one of the easiest As I've gotten.

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 26, 2021

This is not the class to take if you want to actually learn anything -- I taught myself the materials using the textbook and lecture slides because Venugopal is unengaging and hard to listen to. It's an easy A, and she's a decent professor if you can stand to listen to her, but it's not enjoyable at all and I'd recommend trying a different professor instead.

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: N/A
March 19, 2021

Honestly, I felt like Dr. V wasn't a bad lecturer at all. There are polls during lecture, so you will have to attend to receive participation points. The workload was very light in my opinion. Many people stressed over the bi-weekly study guides, but it was only difficult if you made it difficult for yourself. For all of my study guides, all I did was take screenshots of the slides and upload them on my document for each objective and I still received full points for it. The midterm and finals weren't too bad because she allows you to work with your group members, which makes it was easier. I would definitely take her again! It was a class I slacked off on the most.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
2 of 2
4.2
Overall Rating
Based on 23 Users
Easiness 4.3 / 5 How easy the class is, 1 being extremely difficult and 5 being easy peasy.
Clarity 3.2 / 5 How clear the class is, 1 being extremely unclear and 5 being very clear.
Workload 3.7 / 5 How much workload the class is, 1 being extremely heavy and 5 being extremely light.
Helpfulness 3.6 / 5 How helpful the class is, 1 being not helpful at all and 5 being extremely helpful.

TOP TAGS

  • Uses Slides
    (16)
  • Needs Textbook
    (12)
  • Is Podcasted
    (11)
  • Useful Textbooks
    (13)
  • Appropriately Priced Materials
    (10)
  • Participation Matters
    (14)
  • Gives Extra Credit
    (14)
  • Has Group Projects
    (12)
  • Tolerates Tardiness
    (9)
  • Would Take Again
    (12)
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