Professor Bennoun is quite possibly the best professor and person I have met at UCLA. He is so funny, and he makes class incredibly engaging. Bennoun has got to be the kindest and most understanding teacher I have had the opportunity to learn from. Not only are his classes relaxed and fun, but he also takes time to acknowledge the social aspects of mathematics. Bennoun spent a few lectures taking time to acknowledge the influence of BIPOC and WOC in mathematics, and it made learning the content even more worthwhile! He also conducts extensive office hours, and social hours, and overall he just made this class so much fun and so easy to understand.

Listen. This man is one of the most genuine, kind, helpful people I have ever known, and he's SUCH A GOOD TEACHER! Part of what he got his degree in is related to active learning, and it REALLY helps. Sitting in lectures and not participating and listening to someone drone on can be really boring, and HE IS THE EXACT OPPOSITE! There were iClicker questions that we answered during the lectures (participation), which you could also make up on CCLE if you missed the lecture. He goes through everything and explains it well, and the active learning style of having class participation really really helps. There was a weekly quiz every week, no longer than about 5 questions or so, all very easy. We got 3 attempts, and you could review each time to see what you got wrong. Same with the Labs; the labs are coding (be warned!), and the prelab quizzes have 3 attempts too. All of it is to facilitate ACTUAL LEARNING, and to promote that over grades. There were 1020 points total for everything, and you could miss 20 points and still have an A. So technically.... there IS extra credit. Lowest two hw grades were dropped, 1 midterm (20%), 1 final (20%). Both the midterm and final were in 3 stages; we got a grade to prepare and do a study guide, which we could work on with our labs groups (and turn in individually). Individual exam for the midterm, 2hrs, for the final, 3hrs (cumulative). Last part was a group work part w our lab group, which was basically just slightly harder questions that developed on the questions in the individual exam. Sometimes, the homework kind of expected you to be able to do stuff we didn't go over a TON, but that basically just means you should read the textbook and do the homework problems; you'll be set. I took AP Calc BC, which definitely helped in understanding this class. If you did not take calculus or precalc at LEAST in highschool, this class might be a bit more challenging for you, but there are plenty of resources to help. WE ALL LOVE PROF BENNOUN! (we have no idea what cornell was going on about...).

As someone with no experience in calculus, precalculus, or coding (only taking up to Algebra 2 in high school), I thought I was going to struggle with the course, yet I ended up doing very well. Here are my tips and comments.

#𝟏: 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐲 𝐠𝐨 𝐭𝐨 𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬.

Though I didn't personally go (at all honestly), I heard from my friends that the TAs were helpful in answering questions. You can go to any TA's office hours, so just look at which ones are the most convenient for you. I would recommend going to 2-3 office hours per week to clear up questions and reinforce your understanding of the material.

#𝟐: 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐲 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐤 𝐢𝐧 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐬.

Consistency is key with this course as the workload will build up and it is very hard to cram if you don't understand the basics. Make sure to work on your homework after every lecture as usually half of it is able to be done after the first lecture of the week and the other half can be done after the second lecture.

#𝟑: 𝐃𝐨 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐲𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐨𝐧𝐮𝐬 (𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐓𝐀𝐬 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐬).

There is a bonus that is awarded at the end of the course for completing all homework sets on time, completing all surveys on time, and attending all classes in week 5 and 10. Also, the way they take attendance in week 5 and 10 is clicker questions and a practice midterm and final. If you do good on the practice exam, you will get an extra bonus point added to your grade (not sure if its 1 percent or 1 point to the exam score. Initially, the bonus was an extra 0.5% added to your final grade. However, after a student complained to their TA about how Professor Shevstov's lecture allowed students to receive up to 6 points back on their midterm if they did test corrections, Professor Bennoun increased it up to 2.5%.

#𝟒: 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐦 𝐚 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐲 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐩 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐲 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝.

They say that the best way to learn is to teach. Personally, most of my learning was focused on explaining concepts to other people, and it paid off pretty well.

#𝟓: 𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐨 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐢𝐂𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐫 𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬.

The iClicker questions are free points but you have to watch out for when Professor Bennoun starts a question without speaking into the microphone and telling us he is about to do so. They're graded on participation so it doesn't matter what answer you get.

#𝟔: 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐠𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐜𝐨𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐫 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐮𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐬? 𝐔𝐬𝐞 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐆𝐏𝐓 𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮.

Not gonna lie, GPT-4 came in clutch this semester. If I didn't understand something, I just asked it to explain it to me. Simple as that.

# 𝟕: 𝐃𝐨 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐞𝐱𝐚𝐦𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 𝐬𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐅𝐔𝐋𝐋𝐘 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐱𝐚𝐦𝐬.

Although most of the concepts of the exam are covered in the review sessions, the practice exams are so much easier than the actual exams. As can be seen by previous exams, Professor Bennoun may have upped the difficulty of the class this year.

𝐒𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐬:

For some reason, the midterm was way harder than the final. Maybe this was due to my lack of calculus background, but be prepared to study hard for it. The homework is graded on completion, but you have to show all your work or you get points off for each problem you don't show it for. Also, Professor Bennoun's TAs give an egregious amount of partial credit on the exams. On some questions, you get half credit for even attempting it. You can literally get a full problem wrong and still get a C on that problem if you show understanding of the underlying concepts or if the TA decides to give you free points. Overall though, the class was pretty manageable, and Professor Bennoun was a very nice and fair professor. I would definitely recommend taking this class with him if you can.

𝐏𝐌 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐫𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐬 (𝐰𝐞 𝐭𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐞) 𝐭𝐨 @𝐛𝐥𝐮𝐞𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐛𝐫𝐮𝐢𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦 𝐨𝐫 𝐛𝐥𝐮𝐞𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐛𝐫𝐮𝐢𝐧𝐬@𝐠𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐥.𝐜𝐨𝐦

Professor Bennoun is an amazing professor and he is generous. He switched our bonus from 0.5% to 2.5% after finding out that Professor Shevstov let her students gain back points for their midterm. He's great at teaching, but please don't think this class is an easy A. A lot of the reviews from the past were from COVID so they took it online. In 2022, the grade adjustments were made so it was also easier for them.

Textbook: You don't need to use it all.

Lectures: Go to the lecture and make sure you pay attention, especially during the clickers. A lot of the concepts from the lecture show up on the midterm. When Professor Bennoun explains concepts, make sure you understand them and you're able to write down what the concepts imply when you take your tests.

Homework: Going to the lecture alone wasn't enough for me to complete the homework successfully. I went to office hours each week. I highly recommend Micah Vinet's office hours if he's still a TA by the time you see this. He has the most students coming, but he does the problems on the board and it starts to make so much sense. I received 100% on each homework assignment AND I understood everything thanks to office hours.

Midterm: It was so bad for me. I got a C- and I thought there was no chance of me getting an A, let alone an A+. I studied a lot, but I feel like I didn't study right if that makes sense.... The practice midterms were not enough and were way easier than the actual midterm.

Labs: The labs were easy at first but they got pretty difficult. Make sure you try to do as much as you can during lab sections and don't be afraid to ask your TA for help. It's their job and all of them are friendly.

Lab Practical: The lab practical was easy because I studied the past labs, but it took me a while to get the hang of it. Start early and keep practicing until you feel like a pro.

Final: When I flipped through the final, I was so relieved. I think Bennoun and his team realized that we struggled a lot on the midterm, so the final was fair. I got an A on the final and I studied by going through the past homework, doing the practice midterms, and attending office hours. At one point I attended four office hours a day. It was a lot of hard work but it was worth it in the end. Also, the TAs are so generous when it comes to grading the exams.

The reason I got an A+ in this class is because of Bennoun's grading schemes. Two grading schemes take away the midterm and increase the final exam percentage from 35% to 60%. If you do badly on your midterm, don't think it's over. An A in this class is so doable, but it's not extremely easy. Good luck!

Overall Bennoun is a GOAT, he gave us a hard midterm but the final was much easier comparatively. He gives you enough time to finish all the labs in class so the only real homework is to do the assignments, I took it as a GE which is cool if you're someone who doesn't like bio as much, recommend.

Dr. Bennoun is a very helpful professor. He speaks clearly and is easy to understand. He teaches topics from the basics and builds it up so it is easier to grasp the concepts. The class is generally easy, however the concepts and the coding can definitely be a bit challenging to grasp. I'm taking him again for LS30B next quarter because my experience was so positive! And if enrollment is anything to go by, his class always goes away first.

I'm convinced that this man's spirit animal is the GOAT.

This class is NOT extremely calculus-heavy, more-so applications of those concepts in actual biological scenarios. The first couple of weeks had almost no relation to calculus so if you're behind, it's not too big of a deal. The midterm and final were extremely easy if you actually understand the material (don't memorize the formula, know why they work).

The python coding labs are not as challenging as you might think! I had absolutely no prior coding experience and still managed to breeze through them. The trick is to actually READ the labs, because they often give you the answer and you just have to reapply it to the context of the problem. The labs can be pretty engaging and fun with the right mindset, and they're really good ways to strengthen your problem solving and logical skills.

Professor Bennoun is an excellent teacher and a very considerate person. If you can, I would highly recommend attending his office hours, because he can teach the material efficiently and help you UNDERSTAND the material instead of just knowing it. Due to the TA strike, Professor Bennoun made two critical changes: replacing the lab practical with the lab grade (essentially increasing how much labs were worth) and changing the cutoff for an A from 93% to 90%. In my opinion, this made the class a lot easier (almost trivial) but it goes to show how considerate this man is. Even if you're not skilled with calc/coding, this class is really manageable and I'd highly recommend taking it with Professor Bennoun.

Best professor I've had at UCLA. He was clear when it came to explaining the concepts. I would definitely 100% take another class with him. Sweetest professor ever. I learned so much in his class.

TAKE THIS PROFESSOR!!!
His class is super clear and helpful! He often starts with rather simple concepts, and I can tell that he slowly paves the way to harder parts through multiple examples. He sometimes designs tricky questions in iClicker to illustrate common misunderstandings (but because iClicker is graded on participation, no worries of deducting points because of tricky questions!) At the end of each section, he gives a summary of the materials.
The workload at the start of the quarter was heavy but manageable. Professor Bennoun actually listened to students' advice/ideas and gave less homework after the midterm.
The labs are a little bit difficult, but they won't be on the test, and only takes up 64/400 of total points, so don't be too worried if you have no prior coding experience!

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