I found the most helpful course activities to be lecture because Professor Bennoun provided insightful and intuitive explanations of concepts and took questions, and office hours because I got to ask Professor Bennoun and TAs deeper questions to enhance my understanding of material. Unexpectedly, I also think the exams enhanced my learning--they tested my understanding of the intuition behind concepts and my critical thinking, which I believe exams should do. However, I believe that the homework and practice exams problems should have better matched the level of difficulty and conceptual understanding required for the exams, as they were insufficient in preparation for the exams.

This class is amazing, or rather Professor Bennoun. His lectures are easy to follow and he is very nice and knowledgeable. The homework is also very helpful for both learning and exam prep.

I have never taken a course in elementary, middle, high school, or college that has been this disorganized. It was an impossible challenge trying to get resources and proper help to learn these FAKE math concepts. Yes, this class is fake math. The amount of shortcuts and random steps I had to assume to just be correct were completely unreasonable. Additionally, the TAs answers were incredibly inconsistent and unreliable. On Plaza, the website for students to ask questions, it would take weeks for a TA to answer your question. And, when a TA answered it, they would never fully answer the question and, if anything, would just make you even more confused. My instructor, Bennoun, was incredibly unhelpful and unwelcoming. All the practice problems that were shown in class were super dumbed-down and overly easy compared to the actual midterm and assessment questions. Additionally, the homework grading was incredibly infuriating. Points would be marked off for random and baseless reasons, such as not ordering the pages correctly (I ALWAYS made sure to order the pages correctly. In fact, I would separate my homework assignments so each homework question had its own unique page…but NO, perhaps my grader was in a constant bad mood because I consistently had points marked off my homework and lab submissions even when I had the correct answer and demonstrated all my work). Furthermore, Bennoun was incredibly rude and tactless. In class, he would pretend to encourage participation. In reality, he was merely goading students into making mistakes. Bennoun is the type of teacher that provides condescending remarks like "I'm glad YOU made that mistake. Now, everyone can learn from YOUR error," he also constantly compared our class to his previous lecture, remarking how we seemed unhappy, unsatisfied, and unpleasant. I believe that as a teacher, Bennoun should not be comparing students and complaining about student displeasure/dissatisfaction with the class. Instead of complaining or blatantly saying, “I hear that you are unsatisfied, but I cannot do anything.” (WHICH he did say at the end of lecture once), an instructor should be constantly advocating for their students, ensuring that their students have the proper resources to achieve success in their course…but for Bennoun, he just doesn’t care. Also, during discussion times, Bennoun and the TAs would crawl up the stairs, walking around the lecture room acting like police in a supermax prison, forcing and condemning students to uncomfortably share their thinking. Also, they would only target and talk to students sitting on the aisle seat. If you were sitting in the middle or the center of the class, you were never encouraged to participate (but also good luck getting any help).

This class has been incredibly infuriating; however, this is not just a problem with the instructor, Dr. Bennoun, there is a fundamental problem with this course…it is useless. The fake math concepts that I am learning, such as Shark and Tuna or Spruce-Budworm models, are COMPLETELY useless and not applicable to my future pre-med career. And, in this class, there is no consistency with answers among professors or TAs. I am incredibly disappointed with the structure of this course and the lack of consistency within the department. It felt like the instructors did not want the students to succeed. I hope that, in the future, the instructors can improve the course content to make it more relevant, make it more welcoming and easier for student to access academic help, and to stop working against their students.

Enjoyed this class and much easier than traditional calculus for sure! Great option for all those bio majors who want to avoid calc at all costs! Be prepared to code, but as long as you ask your TAs and LAs for help you’ll be okay!

This class (in my opinion) is a really stupid class. All the material feels made up and it is intergraded with coding that doesn't relate to the material you are learning about. You have 2 lectures a week in which the professor will do notes on slides that he provides in Bruin learn and you have a lab once a week that is a coding lab with your TA. This lab will make you want to die if you have never coded before. You have one homework assignment, one pre-lab quiz, and your lab that is due each week. Your total grade will be composed of all these things plus a midterm, final, clicker questions (participation), and a lab practical (test on coding). You will be provided practice tests for the midterm and finals that are pretty true to what you will be given- but don't be fooled because he gives other professors practice tests instead of his own so you'll have to determine for yourself if all the info given is useful or not. In conclusion it's rough.
I really liked this professor. He is nice and remembers your name if you go to his office hours. He tries to help his students the best that he can and he'll get annoyed if the class is struggling but not showing up to office hours. He give extra credit every now and again that in the end will bump you up to the next grade if you need it. I think he takes pity on us because everyone was so confused the entire. Live laugh love Bennounie

I loved LS 30A and now am a Learning Assistant for 30A and B. Lecture attendance is tracked by iClicker. Some background in calculus could help in this class, but is by no means necessary; you don't learn much more beyond basic derivative rules. I found this class really interesting because of its applications of mathematical concepts. It will definitely be different from what you might expect from a typical math course, which I honestly really appreciated as someone who usually finds a hard time in math. I remember Dr. Bennoun being very helpful during office hours, which I attended more often in taking LS 30B, which was more math-heavy. Definitely utilize Problem-Solving Sessions, even if Dr. Bennoun doesn't advertise them anymore-you can find the schedules from Shevstov's class. They are changing the content of the course to Python in Fall 2024, so labs will be different.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not take this class. Your NSA will tell you to, and you’re probably thinking “Wow this sounds super awesome and applicable to my major and life science.” Do not take this class. It’s awful. I know not a singular soul who doesn’t regret taking this wishing they took regular calculus instead. It’s made up math, the accent of the teacher and the TAs is hard to understand, the coding is teach yourself, and office hours are out of the door full. I know the grade distribution looks fine. It's not. It's from COVID, it’s not true. I know a handful of people who failed. While I got 98, it was the worst experience of my life. I wish I was kidding. It’s actually horrible. It’s fake math (the teacher made it up), it makes no sense, the tests are hard, the coding for the smaller section isn’t even related. Please kid, take my advice. I'm giving you what I wish I had. I swear dud you don't wanna take this. I got a 5 on AP BC calc and didn’t listen when people said it sucks. It sucks. You can do it and get n A whatever, BUT YOU DONT WANT TO PLEASE PLEASE IM PRAYING FOR YOU

I absolutely loved this class! Dr. Bennoun is hands down one of my favorite professors, and I was sad to not get a spot in his 30B lecture. I did not have any experience with coding or calculus before taking this class, but that ended up not being a problem at all because he starts from the basics. His lectures are very engaging, and a good portion of them are spent working out problems. I didn’t open the textbook once the entire quarter, and you won’t need to either if you just follow along with his lectures and take some notes. I would recommend downloading his slides beforehand and writing directly on them rather than trying to copy down everything. I would say that it is important to attend lecture, and if you have to miss one, be sure to watch his recording. The midterm and final were very fair, I got a 92% on the midterm and a 98% on the final. That being said, it’s definitely helpful to review all of the practice exams he posts as they will give a good idea of what to expect. The clicker questions are pretty helpful, as he makes sure to explain not only why the correct answer is right, but also why the other options might be wrong. I would also recommend going to his office hours if you have questions about any of the material, he is incredibly helpful and patient. Dr. Bennoun truly cares about the success of his students, and I’d recommend his class to everyone.

Many people found the midterm to be pretty tough, but Bennoun heard us and the final was a breeze. Labs were pretty disconnected from what we were learning but it was pretty easy to do well if you did the work. Solid class.

TAKE THIS CLASS WITH BENNOUN!!!!! He is the best professor I had at UCLA so far!! He tries so hard to make sure everyone is included and that math isn't only for old white men -- he played a clip of Hidden Figures during class which was so sweet. Besides that, he is an amazing lecturer and his slides are super helpful! He uses fill in the blank style slides so I recommend downloading them on your iPad before lecture so you can fill them out. Practice the problems he gives you for exams and you should be fine!