Professor
Oleg Gleizer
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Most Helpful Review
I was terrified to take his class because his reviews of bruin walk said that he was a bad professor. I was so scared to take his class, but I took my chances. Professor Gleizer is one of the most friendly and personable professors I have met while being here at UCLA. He was very patient, and always willing to walk through questions with students in his office hours. During lecture, he would go over Precalculus and he would also lecture on the material for Math 3A. He was straightforward, and he wanted his students to succeed. He gave practice exams and they were almost identical to both midterms. The final was much harder, but I walked away with a B in the class. Great Professor. I would definitely recommend to take him. Go to his office hours!
I was terrified to take his class because his reviews of bruin walk said that he was a bad professor. I was so scared to take his class, but I took my chances. Professor Gleizer is one of the most friendly and personable professors I have met while being here at UCLA. He was very patient, and always willing to walk through questions with students in his office hours. During lecture, he would go over Precalculus and he would also lecture on the material for Math 3A. He was straightforward, and he wanted his students to succeed. He gave practice exams and they were almost identical to both midterms. The final was much harder, but I walked away with a B in the class. Great Professor. I would definitely recommend to take him. Go to his office hours!
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2021 - I had mixed feelings about this class. Gleizer was clearly passionate about mathematics, but this class's lack of organization made 31A my most stressful course this quarter. Grade breakdown was initially: 50% homework (6 homeworks, lowest score dropped), 10% midterm 1, 10% midterm 2, 30% final. It was eventually changed to: 50% homework (5 homeworks, lowest score dropped), 16.6% midterm 1, 16.6% midterm 2, 16.6% final. We were initially supposed to cover 6 chapters, but by Week 4, we were still on Chapter 1. In the end, we only covered 5 chapters, and this ended up changing how final grades would be broken down. To compensate for our falling behind, Gleizer decided to post 2 one-hour-long lectures every Friday. On top of somewhat rushed, very long homework assignments, I found the content of this class very overwhelming. Gleizer actually managed to lose one entire lecture and part of another, and he didn't rerecord the content. He told us that some of the lost content wouldn't be on any exams, but it ended up being on the midterm. For the first midterm, he actually gave us less than a week's notice regarding when the exam would be, which I found inconsiderate. I guess while Gleizer is a very witty, passionate instructor, I can't help but admit I was disappointed with this class. Neither Gleizer nor his students could have known we would fall behind, but the rushed nature of this course, on top of the addition of extra lectures, made me feel I was forced to commit more time to this course than initially described. I unfortunately don't feel prepared for MATH 31B.
Winter 2021 - I had mixed feelings about this class. Gleizer was clearly passionate about mathematics, but this class's lack of organization made 31A my most stressful course this quarter. Grade breakdown was initially: 50% homework (6 homeworks, lowest score dropped), 10% midterm 1, 10% midterm 2, 30% final. It was eventually changed to: 50% homework (5 homeworks, lowest score dropped), 16.6% midterm 1, 16.6% midterm 2, 16.6% final. We were initially supposed to cover 6 chapters, but by Week 4, we were still on Chapter 1. In the end, we only covered 5 chapters, and this ended up changing how final grades would be broken down. To compensate for our falling behind, Gleizer decided to post 2 one-hour-long lectures every Friday. On top of somewhat rushed, very long homework assignments, I found the content of this class very overwhelming. Gleizer actually managed to lose one entire lecture and part of another, and he didn't rerecord the content. He told us that some of the lost content wouldn't be on any exams, but it ended up being on the midterm. For the first midterm, he actually gave us less than a week's notice regarding when the exam would be, which I found inconsiderate. I guess while Gleizer is a very witty, passionate instructor, I can't help but admit I was disappointed with this class. Neither Gleizer nor his students could have known we would fall behind, but the rushed nature of this course, on top of the addition of extra lectures, made me feel I was forced to commit more time to this course than initially described. I unfortunately don't feel prepared for MATH 31B.
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2020 - Y'all I'm going to be wildly honest. 1. I am not good at math (was openly the worst in my high school, luv that). 2. I did not attend lecture. 3. I did not attend discussion. Oleg Gleizer is AMAZING. He's so nice, funny, and he's one of those professors where you can tell that he's truly passionate about what he's teaching. If you get the chance, I really recommend attending lecture. He often goes completely off topic, and I know that bothers some students. However: he always remembers that this is a class, and it's unfair to constantly give us random tidbits and test us on different material. So, he often includes the fun little examples from lectures on his tests and quizzes. Having barely ever attended lecture, and having never attended discussion, I was able to get close to 100 on all three exams just by looking at examples in his notes and in the textbook. I highly recommend taking this class with Gleizer, because his tests are so fair. Find the question on the test, look at his notes, look at the textbook, look at similar homework problems and find their solutions. You got this.
Fall 2020 - Y'all I'm going to be wildly honest. 1. I am not good at math (was openly the worst in my high school, luv that). 2. I did not attend lecture. 3. I did not attend discussion. Oleg Gleizer is AMAZING. He's so nice, funny, and he's one of those professors where you can tell that he's truly passionate about what he's teaching. If you get the chance, I really recommend attending lecture. He often goes completely off topic, and I know that bothers some students. However: he always remembers that this is a class, and it's unfair to constantly give us random tidbits and test us on different material. So, he often includes the fun little examples from lectures on his tests and quizzes. Having barely ever attended lecture, and having never attended discussion, I was able to get close to 100 on all three exams just by looking at examples in his notes and in the textbook. I highly recommend taking this class with Gleizer, because his tests are so fair. Find the question on the test, look at his notes, look at the textbook, look at similar homework problems and find their solutions. You got this.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2020 - Prof. Gleizer is possibly the nicest professor I've interacted with. From his overwhelmingly lenient grading policies (offering the option to redo exam problems in office hours for credit) to his emphasis on sound conceptual understanding, Oleg clearly cares about the wellbeing of his students. During office hours, Prof. Gleizer's process for exam makeup was relatively straightforward. For any problems missed on an exam, Oleg would come up with a new problem grounded in the same conceptual area. If you could demonstrate learned understanding, he gave you points back on the corresponding exam problem. In order to balance allotted time for people wanting to redo missed exam problems vs people confused about the lecture topics, Prof. Gleizer made sure to take questions on lecture materials beforehand.
Winter 2020 - Prof. Gleizer is possibly the nicest professor I've interacted with. From his overwhelmingly lenient grading policies (offering the option to redo exam problems in office hours for credit) to his emphasis on sound conceptual understanding, Oleg clearly cares about the wellbeing of his students. During office hours, Prof. Gleizer's process for exam makeup was relatively straightforward. For any problems missed on an exam, Oleg would come up with a new problem grounded in the same conceptual area. If you could demonstrate learned understanding, he gave you points back on the corresponding exam problem. In order to balance allotted time for people wanting to redo missed exam problems vs people confused about the lecture topics, Prof. Gleizer made sure to take questions on lecture materials beforehand.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2023 - Professor Oleg was quite honestly one of the worst professors I've had the displeasure of having out of the 4 quarters that I've been at UCLA. Though he is enthusiastic enough about the subject matter and may genuinely want to help his students learn, he simply lacks the capabilities to be a good teacher. He fails to explain concepts properly, rushes through proofs, and stumbles over his thoughts and contradicts himself quite frequently, which only harms my ability to learn as I get confused as to what's right and wrong. Furthermore, he does not use the textbook at ALL, and creates his own practice problems for which he provides NO answers. This feels like such ludicrous behavior! Because the least the professor could do is release answers to the homework assignments after their due dates so students can check their understanding and see whether they got the answers correct or not. However, because he refused to publish answers to the assignments, my peers and I found it very difficult to study for the exams, which were whole other frustrating matters themselves. What disappointed me the most was that this is a class that is important and relevant to my major and career path, but because I had him as a professor, I did not learn as much as I could have and I found myself struggling to grasp the contents. Initially I thought I was alone in this matter, but after attending discussion I soon realized my peers and I were in the same boat. The TA, Thomas Martinez, acted more like our professor than our actual professor because my TA would do a much better job in explaining the concepts. There were countless instances where my peers and I stated "Woah, he did not go over that in lecture at all," or "now it makes sense! He didn't teach us this at all." Martinez concurred with our comments on the professor's painfully obvious ineptness when it came to teaching after he saw how clueless the students were on most days after lecture. This class was not easy. The workload was not that manageable (bc he would assign 20+ problems per week and NEVER give us answers to them). He was never clear (I had to YouTube most stuff or rely on my TA). And lastly, he was not helpful. Avoid him if you can, anyone is better than him. But if you have no other choice, good luck. It's sad because he is a good person, but I do not believe that he is a good professor.
Fall 2023 - Professor Oleg was quite honestly one of the worst professors I've had the displeasure of having out of the 4 quarters that I've been at UCLA. Though he is enthusiastic enough about the subject matter and may genuinely want to help his students learn, he simply lacks the capabilities to be a good teacher. He fails to explain concepts properly, rushes through proofs, and stumbles over his thoughts and contradicts himself quite frequently, which only harms my ability to learn as I get confused as to what's right and wrong. Furthermore, he does not use the textbook at ALL, and creates his own practice problems for which he provides NO answers. This feels like such ludicrous behavior! Because the least the professor could do is release answers to the homework assignments after their due dates so students can check their understanding and see whether they got the answers correct or not. However, because he refused to publish answers to the assignments, my peers and I found it very difficult to study for the exams, which were whole other frustrating matters themselves. What disappointed me the most was that this is a class that is important and relevant to my major and career path, but because I had him as a professor, I did not learn as much as I could have and I found myself struggling to grasp the contents. Initially I thought I was alone in this matter, but after attending discussion I soon realized my peers and I were in the same boat. The TA, Thomas Martinez, acted more like our professor than our actual professor because my TA would do a much better job in explaining the concepts. There were countless instances where my peers and I stated "Woah, he did not go over that in lecture at all," or "now it makes sense! He didn't teach us this at all." Martinez concurred with our comments on the professor's painfully obvious ineptness when it came to teaching after he saw how clueless the students were on most days after lecture. This class was not easy. The workload was not that manageable (bc he would assign 20+ problems per week and NEVER give us answers to them). He was never clear (I had to YouTube most stuff or rely on my TA). And lastly, he was not helpful. Avoid him if you can, anyone is better than him. But if you have no other choice, good luck. It's sad because he is a good person, but I do not believe that he is a good professor.
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2024 - Oleg is one of my favorite characters here at UCLA. I’ve never met anyone like him here in the math department. He’s a no-BS kind of guy, he’s great. Only complaint I have is his lectures can be hard to follow. Besides that, he’s funny, passionate about math/game theory, and also very generous with grades. He (or his TA by proxy) will give you credit back on exams if you can explain what you did wrong and show that you know how to solve the problem, and offers students grading scheme/final exam or project choices (kind of like using game theory to let the students decide how the course will go lol) plus the extra credit on exams and homework go a long way. And most importantly (at least to me), he’s the only professor I’ve had that’s tried to holistically connect math to the rest of the world. Game theory is the math of decision making, so I guess that’s what I should expect. But Oleg really cared about teaching us how to use math/game theory to be rational critical thinkers, and I really appreciate that above everything else. If you get a chance to take this class, I highly recommend you take it and engage as much as you possibly can! Go to lecture though, he doesn’t like it when people don’t go to lecture, or when they come in late. He’ll call you out on it (like I said, no BS). But at the end of the quarter, you’ll most likely find yourself with a relatively easy A,A- or B+ and a different way of seeing the world than before.
Winter 2024 - Oleg is one of my favorite characters here at UCLA. I’ve never met anyone like him here in the math department. He’s a no-BS kind of guy, he’s great. Only complaint I have is his lectures can be hard to follow. Besides that, he’s funny, passionate about math/game theory, and also very generous with grades. He (or his TA by proxy) will give you credit back on exams if you can explain what you did wrong and show that you know how to solve the problem, and offers students grading scheme/final exam or project choices (kind of like using game theory to let the students decide how the course will go lol) plus the extra credit on exams and homework go a long way. And most importantly (at least to me), he’s the only professor I’ve had that’s tried to holistically connect math to the rest of the world. Game theory is the math of decision making, so I guess that’s what I should expect. But Oleg really cared about teaching us how to use math/game theory to be rational critical thinkers, and I really appreciate that above everything else. If you get a chance to take this class, I highly recommend you take it and engage as much as you possibly can! Go to lecture though, he doesn’t like it when people don’t go to lecture, or when they come in late. He’ll call you out on it (like I said, no BS). But at the end of the quarter, you’ll most likely find yourself with a relatively easy A,A- or B+ and a different way of seeing the world than before.
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