Easily the worst professor I've had at UCLA. He was incredibly uncommunicative, and the average grade in the class was a C. Only one student in the whole class received an A, and 2 received an A-. After the final I met with him to ask him what grade I was on pace for, and he told me a B+. I did better on the final than I did any of the midterms, but I ended with a C-. This is because he decided last minute he was not going to curve the class. You should have seen our class discussion forum after grades were sent out. Besides that, he was the worst teacher I've ever had. Way too fast in lecture, refused to answer simple questions because they were too simple, and claimed he "wasn't there to teach us, but guide us in teaching ourselves." If he is the only option for 31B, JUST TAKE IT A DIFFERENT QUARTER. I promise the hell he will put you through is not worth it.

In a decade when I am well into my career as a mechanical engineer, and someone asks me about the worst memory I had in undergrad, this class will come to mind. I am writing this review to voice my discontent with the UCLA math department and the sad reality many students face. Firstly, let's start with the professor and class at hand. 50% of students failed this class and had to retake it. 2 people received an A grade in this class, yes, out of the entire class. The average on every exam was around a 35%, and there was no curve put in place. Professor Smits would tell us very nicely that a curve will be given and that even though the tests are hard, if they are difficult for all of us, we will be graded accordingly. This made many of us in the class stay and push through the grueling homework that would take days to complete, and take the continuous slaps in the face we would be given when exam scores would come out. Some very keen students dropped and ran for the hills the second they sensed blood in the water. Boy, were they smart. This class was my second math course taken at UCLA and made me feel like I was not prepared for a school of this rigor and made me question my path as an engineer. I thought, well if this class is this hard, I am doomed. When final grades were released, all hell broke loose. I am not exaggerating when I say this, every single student in the class rallied against him both in the piazza and to the math department. He refused for months to release the grade distribution and even the 2 students who got A's in the class believed that it was an ungodly course not even the devil himself could formulate. His response to the mass influx of questions and points regarding his teaching style and academic destruction was met with a piazza that was shut off to protect his ego and comments such as "You guys didn't perform up to my standards" and "We all fail eventually you'll get over it". He gave out C-'s so that we would be able to retake it if we wanted according to him. Sadly, I was not able to retake it and I went on to get A's in 32A, 32B, 33A, and Mech&Ae 82. Every single math class I have taken at UCLA I have received an A in except for Tim Smits' Math 31B. If that doesn't tell you something I don't know what will. Upper division engineering courses don't even come close to the pain and suffering Timothy Smits bestowed upon me. Self-doubt, mental pain, and a loss in trust of the UCLA math department is what this class gave me. Save yourself 5 years of age progression and AVOID AT ALL COSTS. This is coming from someone who took Corbin for 1B and 1C as well, so I understand what it is like to have a very hard class with difficult exams. The only difference between someone like Corbin and Tim Smits is that one is qualified to teach at UCLA.

Tim was the worst professor I have had at UCLA thus far. He made the content of Math 31B unnecessarily hard to understand for his students to satisfy his "big teacher ego" and purposefully made questions extremely time consuming to the point where you forget about the calculus concept and instead are in the depths of annoying and complicated algebra. He also was extremely unclear about final grades and did not offer the grade distribution to his students. He failed over half the class and proceeded to feel no remorse for his unfair teaching and grading schemes. Personally would stay away from this guy.

Smits is by far the worst professor I’ve ever taken. His tests were impossible to finish within the 50 minute mark and the class averages were always below 60%. The average on the final was around 30% and the highest grade he curved to was a B- In a class of 30 students, 80% of us failed. He made up his own problems and taught content that wasn’t even relevant to the course. His office hours were also unhelpful and when we asked for help and the entire class was clearly confused, he was quite condescending. Avoid him at all costs unless you want to tank your GPA.

The most common grade was an F, and the median was like a C-. Only 1 person got an A and he insisted it was the class’s fault for all being incompetent.

He looks like a rat, and lectures consisted of him doing examples where he would skip through various steps whilst the whole class attempted to figure out how he was getting from place to place, unable to actually learn about what he was doing.

Answered 0 questions because they would “take too much time” or he “shouldn’t have to explain that” all for him too have more time to watch himself solve math problems on the whiteboard as fast as he could.

Has a complete inability to take responsibility for anything and continually misled the class on what was going on. Refused to record lectures.

His response to the class complaining about their grades was telling us a story about how a girl who was taking his class FAINTED during the class exam due to stress and therefore he HAD to fail her. But he ran into her later on and she told him how she had taken the class again with a different prof and passed with an A. This story about “overcoming adversity” is literally just him MAKING A GIRL FAINT, AND FAILING HER because of it. And then her taking a different, probably reasonable Professor, who doesn’t look like the manifestation of a gremlin, and passing easily. He genuinely could act in Cats the movie and no one would think he was out of place.

Take literally any other Professor, like ANY OTHER PROFESSOR. You’ll thank yourself.