Great lecturer and an expert in his field. Going to lecture was a joy because they were well organized (and sometimes hilarious) powerpoint presentations and the homework assignments matched up pretty well with the lecture series for the week. He's not a hard grader but you MUST DO THE HOMEWORK. I cannot emphasize that enough. You can contact him at all hours of the night with questions about the material, but if you've been slacking off on the homework and not coming to lecture -- don't even think about it.

Great professor and very fair. That is all.

Professor:
Sweet, relatable, the grandpa I wish I had. He's so caring and genuine that he makes learning the rather insane material feel like it's no big deal. One of the best professors I have ever had at UCLA.

Phil 31:
DO THE HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS, every single one. Attempt everything, submit it on time. This is a bulk of your grade, I'd say about 50%. Tutors are beyond helpful if you need them, but Levy does a very good job teaching you everything you need to know in lecture. Emma Sabean was very responsive in her emails to help as well. As a LAST resort, he goes over the difficult hw problems in class--redo them and re-submit them for partial credit afterwards.

Midterm and Final:
Very fair, nothing shocking. Everyone agrees that symbolizations are the toughest. You are allowed all your notes and handouts. What I did was make my own handout of every type of symbolization we had done for assignments and use them as references for the final. Do what works for you. Do not walk into your test with messy notes and handouts!

Book:
Don't buy it. You do not need a book. There is even an online version.

I walked into the class with no idea what I was getting into. You should definitely think LOGIC, not philosophy.

You will learn how to do
1) Symbolizations
2) Derivations (aka proofs)
3) Invalidities
4) Truth Tables

If you don't know what those are, Google/ask someone. I actually had fun doing derivations--I'd do extra in my spare time while watching TV. It wasn't horrible. Practice makes perfect, ended up with a solid A.

Professor Levy is probably one of the best professors on campus because he is actually passionate about his subject and will make sure his students understand the material. He makes a two hour lecture go by fast because he throws in jokes. If he had another philosophy class, I would take it in a heartbeat. For Philosophy 31 there is two midterms, a final, and homework due twice a week, but it is not hard to get A's on the homework. Before the final and midterms, he sets up review sessions which helps answers any questions. This class, as most as indicated underneath, is similar to a math class. I would highly recommend him as a Professor. I took this class for fun and absolutely enjoyed it.

Honestly, Dr. Levy is the BEST professor I've ever had. His teaching style is exactly what I want to model when I eventually teach my own class (I'm current grad student).

He's an awesome professor. Don't worry if you don't get the material right off the bat; he'll be more than happy to support you through out the whole course.

About Levy:
Early time slots for classes are not Levy's fault.
Awesome professor, very friendly, very helpful, very understanding. My favorite professor at UCLA by far. Yeah, his jokes are cheesy at times, but he throws them in there to keep his students interested. The subject would be a bit borring without the flair he gives it. He's really goofy, but that makes him approachable. It's extremely evident that he really does care about his students.

About Phil 31:
Personally, I'm not a math person, I'm a philosophy person. How well you do in this class is completely dependent on how you look at it. If you're bad at math, and you look at this like a math class, then you'll do poorly. If you're bad at math, and you look at this as a series of puzzles, then you'll do well.

Just a warning, some of the concepts are not easily grasped at first teaching. You WILL have to devote an extra 1-2 hours a week either to go to office hours, or to the provided tutoring sessions. The tutors are all really flexible though, so if you can't make one of their scheduled times, they'll probably schedule one on one time with you.

Go to class! It's so easy to fall behind here. You cover new material every week. It only becomes more necessary after the first midterm. If you don't go, then you won't be able to do the homework. Homework will be your key to getting a good grade in this class (especially if you didn't do so well on the midterms).

Go to the gala review sessions! They're really helpful. Often held one to two days before a major test in the large CLICC room on 3rd floor Powell

In all, I highly recommend Levy, especially if you have to take 31

Professor Levy is my favorite. He is very quirky and easy to learn from!

Professor Levy is almost like your sweet grandpa. His jokes are rather cheesy but it's cute to see his effort to make the class laugh, and the class DOES laugh not because the jokes are funny but because of it's cheesiness. His lectures are fast paced so if you miss a lecture it's difficult to grasp and understand the material covered in lecture. He does post up his slideshow presentation on the course site but going to the lecture is MUCH easier on your mind than trying to understand the slideshows by yourself. The class is about logic so everything is logical. It's almost like math and I HATE math but I love the class. It really helped me to think much more logically and I got a 94% on the first midterm. I haven't finished the class yet but it's a very useful class. The midterm is taken not on paper but on the computer. So the whole class is divided into 3 waves and each wave has different times during the day where they get a computer lab either in Powell clicc or the CDH lab near Lu Valle. It's a good class to take if you are thinking about going to law school. There is no reading for the class, you don't have to buy any books for this class. EVERYTHING is online. There is something called the Terry Text which is the "book" for the class that explains the material. But if you go to lecture, you don't have to read the Terry Text. I only read the Terry Text if I needed something clarified during homework. Also if you have a hard time with homework and can't figure a problem out, you can go to one of many tutoring sessions where there are tutors who help you with the homework so you ALWAYS get 100% on your homework.

Levy is an excellent professor! He is very helpful and quite humorous. The class is designed in a way such that you will either understand everything or nothing at all. There are so many different ways that he provides access to tutors, TAs, etc. Midterms and final are open note and open book. Overall, interesting class. Not much more I could ask for.

I am writing this review before taking the final and without knowing my final grade.
Breakdown:
20% homework online on the logic program (Easy to get 100% on all hw if you go to tutors)
20% Midterm 1 (I got a 94%)
20% Midterm 2 (I got a 96%)
40% Final

Overall, this is one of my favorite classes I have ever taken at UCLA. Some people hate it, I love it. There is an online textbook but I only read it the first week of class and never read it again, and still managed to get As on the midterms. The professor teaches you everything you need to know in class, and although it's an 8am, his goofy personality makes me stay awake. You have to do the homework and practice to understand the material. 10/10 would recommend this class. I say that if you don't like the material by Week 2, you should probably drop this class as it only gets more in depth. This is not your regular read/write essays type of Philosophy class! LOVE IT