He taught LS30A so good that he tricked me into taking 30B

The textbook was created for this class by the professors who teach it a few years ago, but the content taught in the lectures actually contradicts the textbook and the book contradicts itself and is completely disorganized. The TAs recommend that you don't read the textbook and say that they purposefully ignored it when they took the class. The professor punishes you if you don't read the textbook and has penalized us for using the textbook as reasoning on homework assignments. The midterm and final focused on niche topics discussed in the lectures and completely ignored the actual core topics and learning objectives of the curriculum. The entire LS 30 teaching group is convinced that they have revolutionized teaching calculus but their course is unfocused and doesn't have anything to do with actual calculus. If you know that the derivative of y=x^2 is y'=2x that doesn't help you at all in this class. The only way to succeed in this class is to suck the seed of the professor. You have to learn random useless concepts according to your professor's specific rules. Each professor has different names for the various concepts they discuss in class. If you get a problem on an exam that was written by a different professor or if your exam is graded by the TAs of a different professor you will lose points even if you follow the rules of your class to the letter. In every class you take 1+1 should equal 2. There should not be a class where 1+1 equals 3 as this would be inconsistent and illogical. In LS 30B, 1+1=3 if they say so and there is nothing you can do to rationalize or understand their thought process. You simply have to memorize and regurgitate the content of the class. The second the class is over forget everything you learned in the LS 30 series as it is all useless and completely made up. The TAs don't even understand the curriculum and if you ask them for help they will tell you that they don't know on the down low and you should just smile and nod. In order to get an A in this class memorize every lecture, homework assignment, and problem solving session problem because they will use random problems to make the tests which are 60% of your grade. Do not take this class. I would rather get hit by a bus than take this class again. For your emotional health do not take this class.

There is a good amount of work in this class and the exams are graded pretty harshly. This professor is known to have harder exams than the other professors as well. If you can avoid the 30 series, definitely do it.

I did not like this course simply because the labs take many hours to complete and there is a capstone project, presentation and report. However, once you complete all of that work, on top of homework, it really doesn't matter. The grade is heavily based on the midterm and final, so if you get 100% on both the labs and the project, but get a B on the final, you will have a B, or B+ in the class. I think that is incredibly unreasonable because the labs and project alone takes so much time and effort. Also, the exams are graded meticulously, so even if you answer the question, textbook based, correctly they will still mark you down for omitting some small detail that they deemed the correct, full answer. I know that other professors have easier exams than Bennoun.

I would like to preface this by saying Dr. Bennoun himself is a great professor, I have no problem with him. What I do have a problem with, however, is the entire LS30 series and specifically this course. The class was doable, it was not difficult or easy. What made it difficult was the lack of outside resources. As much as you can use the practice midterms and the review sessions for review, there are no other resources that can really help you grasp the concepts. The textbook is beyond useless as it doesn't really explain anything in a way that is actually coherent. For this reason I appreciate Dr. Bennoun making these topics approachable. This course covers topics from Multivariable Calculus and Linear Algebra. IF YOU DID NOT LIKE LS30A DO NOT TAKE THIS COURSE. I was very neutral on LS30A and ended up disliking LS30B. If you already hate LS30A you will absolutely loathe LS30B. My problems are with the course and not the professor.

I took this class a while back but back then bruinwalk did not have a section for LS30B with Bennoun, so my review is not going to be as extensive as my other reviews for my profs.

The Class: I hate this class so much, it’s so lame, just the LS30 and series in general, the content is so dumb. It's almost like "fake" math, it’s very odd. They really dumb down the actual math part of the class and teach you these really stupid concepts about populations that nobody cares about. You might think “Oh this is applicable to my major and relates more to what I want to do,” but I highly doubt it. I’ve met maybe one person who liked the content and found it interesting. Never once have I been interested in the content that we were learning. You use some calc, touch on some linear algebra, and obviously coding. I didn’t really care about the coding part of this class or the content. The coding final when I took the class was a "Capstone Project" that you did with a group in your lab. courses. The tests were kind of difficult, not the worst exams I've taken but gave me a run for my money. This might be a controversial opinion, but I really don't like “xxx courses for Life Scientists" (LS30 Series, Chem 14 Series etc.) because they really dumb down the material and you really don't get the full understanding of the subject. At the end of the day even though we are trying to get good grades for med school/grad school etc. we are still here to get a good education and to learn something of value. The LS30 series and specifically LS30B made me realize that even if a class is easier, if you don’t enjoy it and value what you learn, there is no point in taking it. Unless you are here just to get a grade then by all means do whatever works for you. I ended up taking Math 32A the following quarter (Switched into a major where it was required). Even though it was harder, I enjoyed it so much more and did a lot better in the class because I was actually motivated to learn the content and to study.

The Prof: He's a decent professor, pretty good at explaining things, occasionally throwing in some jokes. The workload was not too bad, and he was pretty helpful. Sorry I don't have much to say I took the class last year, so I don't remember too much about my thoughts on Bennoun as a professor. The one thing I can remember is the only thing I liked about this class was Bennoun himself.