IF YOU CAN TAKE JUKKA TAKE HIM!!!
He is the best professor I have had. He's funny, he cares about his students, the workload isn't too bad, he gives extra credit, and his tests aren't hard. Jukka takes time during class to answer questions and clarify content. He has clicker questions during class, but they are also up on CCLE for you to complete (due 1 week after class meets). He usually chooses 10 homework problems (2 pts each) to grade (based on accuracy) and adds 5pts for completing the assignment. He also offers extra credit throughout the quarter. We have weekly quizzes, which are sometimes hard, but they are helpful. The labs don't really connect to the material we learn, but they aren't difficult since the TAs and LAs help you. He drops the lowest score for each section (lab, lab quiz, weekly quiz, homework, and participation quiz). There's 1 midterm and 1 final. Jukka holds review sessions the weekend before the exam (go to them, they are USEFUL). His exams are divided in 3 parts: study guide, individual part, and team part. The study guide part you literally create a study guide with your learning team (can be used during exam). The individual exam has mostly calculations with some conceptual parts (all multiple choice). The team part you work with your learning team and complete 3-5 additional problems. Overall, his exams are fair and if you do bad in one part, you can bring your grade up with the other 2 parts. I would definitely take another class with Jukka.

*COVID Edition*

Professor Jukka is AWESOME. I detest mathematics, but somehow I always looked forward to attending his lectures. He is passionate about what he teaches, and genuinely cares about his students and their learning.

I don't know how different it will be when we're back on campus, but this is how it was for Fall 2020.

Learning Teams:
This quarter, we had a learning team where you are grouped with three other classmates. These are the people you work with on labs and the group portions of the midterm and final. With it being COVID, the learning teams were a great way to get to know other people, and the collaboration helped greatly on doing well on assignments and exams!

Lectures/Participation:
Lectures weren't mandatory, but it is better to attend them live so that you are kept accountable. Participation was graded based on completing clicker questions from lecture on CCLE up to a week after the lecture took place. Slides are posted every week. Easy points!

Homework:
Graded half on accuracy and half on effort/completion. The number of problems varies from 15-30 questions, and some weeks were more difficult than others (do NOT procrastinate because it WILL come back to bite you), but 2 of the lowest homework assignments were dropped, so that was nice.

Labs:
I had some difficulty with the labs later on in the course, but overall they weren't too bad. You can collaborate with other classmates on lab assignments and you can reach out to your TA about it. Our lowest lab was dropped.

Quizzes:
Weekly quizzes on the weekend. Super short, like 4-5 questions. Sometimes a little difficult because the questions can be super conceptual, but as long as you paid attention in lecture and went through the slides, you could do well. About halfway through the course, Jukka let us have two attempts on the quizzes and took the average of the attempts as our grade. The lowest quiz is dropped.

Midterm and Final:
Both were similar in terms of structure. There were 3 stages:

Stage 1) Composed a study guide with our Learning Teams
Stage 2) Individual exam on CCLE
Stage 3) Group exam consisting of 3 questions that were more in-depth and built upon questions from Stage 2

Stage 1 is basically a good chunk of free points as long as you thoroughly complete the study guide and have all of the components!

My advice for success on these exams is to look at the Practice Midterm/Final Template, and do the corresponding problems, which are pulled from homework assignments or the several practice midterms and finals he gives out. They are more or less like the problems you will encounter on the exams. Additionally, Jukka holds a couple of exam review sessions on the weekend before the midterm or final, which were super helpful in further clarification and he provided more guidance with what to focus on, so go to those!

Almost everything is recorded for your convenience, but interact with him when you can/if you feel comfortable!

As a general note, Jukka's dedication, warmth, humor, and grace makes this class bearable, and the content is much less daunting when you have him as a professor. If you have any concerns, you can rest assured that he will listen and find a solution. You have a voice in this class, so don't be afraid to use it! Go to his office hours when he will usually go through homework problems, and go to at least one of his social hours, when he talks about anything and everything besides actual course content. He is not only a great professor, but also an interesting, warm human being who has great stories and insight to share! You should 100% take this class with Jukka (and Flippy & Puffers) if you can!

I cannot even begin to come up with a proper review for this gem of a human being. Words do not do Jukka justice, he is genuinely the best professor and person I have met at UCLA. Class is doable and he gives so much extra credit -- he explicitly says he wants his students to do well and everyone does because he's an amazing teacher. I honestly would do anything for this man. TA Yitian was so sweet and so kind -- he literally went out of his way to help his students and was SO responsive to emails. Please take this class with Jukka. Also the vibes in this class were elite, so if you were in lecture 2 for w21 y'all are so amazing thank you always being so kind <3!

Professor Jukka Keranen is a gift from god sent directly to humanity (and I’m literally an atheist so this means so much coming from me). Honestly, this class was a bit difficult for me because I had no previous calculus experience, but I still managed to do well because of how amazing he taught. He gives so much extra credit and help, but the course has a bit of a heavy workload, which is actually super manageable! So many things in my life went downhill this quarter, but because Jukka was such an understanding and kind person, he helped us through everything and went above and beyond his means to ensure every student was successful. There’s one midterm and one final for this class, and it helps to do the practice exam. They consist of three parts are graded super fairly. TA Qi Wu was phenomenal and honestly very good looking haha. The lab component got difficult as we progressed, but it was doable and you work with a group of 4 along with LAs to help you understand the material more! The entire learning team for this class is just amazing, I promise no one will ever disappoint you. Jukka always makes the funniest jokes, remarks, and honestly I was excited to go to class and lab everyday. Definitely a great course and super applicable. One last thing, the professor literally wants you to be a better person and use the course material to HELP people. If that doesn’t say what an amazing human being he is, I don’t know what does. It was a pleasure with Jukka, I was honored to have him as a professor.

I was nervous about taking a math series as I have never considered myself a "math person" or have enjoyed it much either. That being said, Jukka is hands-down one of the most helpful, engaging, and enthusiastic professors I've ever had at UCLA. He holds several 2-hour review sessions for both the midterm and the final exam, where he goes over the midterm or final he gave his students one year prior. He posts all of his slides on CCLE and encourages students to go over them.

The weekly homework came from the textbook and sometimes had difficult questions, but if I needed help, it seemed like there was always a TA holding office hours and I also found it helpful to go to the professor himself. They will take the time to explain concepts to you and ensure that you aren't confused. For the midterm and final, I thought that the material he tested was fair, as it followed directly from the (4!!) practice exams he put on CCLE weeks prior. Work aside, I really enjoyed coming to this class 3x a week. Jukka really cares about his students, encourages questions, makes detailed slides, and has a great sense of humor. He cares a lot about how his students are doing and it shows.

EASY CLASS!

If you want to get an A then take this class. Jukka is extremely understanding. He has at least 3 office hours sessions weekly, and towards the end of the quarter it is usually around 5. He will often stay longer than planned, sometimes until 9 pm even on the weekends. If you attend these, you will know what will be on the quiz/exams. The class did bad on the 2nd midterm, and he gave an ONLINE makeup exam where you could earn 100% of the points you missed. If you were the only one that failed, (probably because you partied every night), he will have a 1 on 1 meeting on zoom with you. He curved everyone's grade in the end as much as possible without breaking department rules. So there is no excuse to fail, or if you put in effort, no excuse to not get an A.

However, it is not a "free" A. To do well, you need to attend office hours (at least once in a while). Be prepared to do 30-50 hw problems each week. That is pretty much it if you want to do well.

I wanted to respond to the comment made 12/15/23. First of all, yes, professors often give study guides. Does that downplay the amount of effort Jukka puts in? Do you hate the fact that he gave you those study guides? Not to mention the first and final study guides were almost complete replicas of the actual exam.

Second of all, Yes he doesn't check in with you when you are stressed. And yes, he also has 230 other kids in his class. Do your other profs check on you when you feel stressed? What are you trying to say? Also he had the ones who failed to have a 1 on 1 zoom meeting. What more is there to expect in a professor?

Third, yes we retook the 2nd midterm. You could score ALL of the points you missed back, in an online test. Why did everyone swarm him to curve the grade? Personally, I'm not sure. From my perspective, I was pretty prepared for the exam as he went over the difficult problems such as Rolle's Theorem like 5 times during office hours.

Finally, I agree that the lectures were not helpful. Many of the lectures were too confusing. He used many formulas and definitions that did not really help. I was usually on my phone waiting for the iclicker. This led to me relying solely on the office hours and hw solutions. So I see where you are coming from when you say his teaching methods are not it. Again though, you mention "no support existed". What support do you want? You could have talked about literally anything during office hours.

Overall, I agree that there are a good number of hw problems (30-50 per week), and that the lectures were not very helpful. I still think this was a great class though. Jukka is extremely understanding. He wants you to succeed. He prioritizes being fair (and often merciful) when giving quizzes and exams. He canceled 2-3 quizzes and drops the lowest assignment in every weight category. He curved the final grades as much as possible without violating school rules. There is no excuse to fail, and if you just put in some effort, there is no excuse not to get an A. The diction and tone used in the comment before made it seem as if they were salty about the grade they received. Lastly, I would say “good luck” but you don’t need it because you have Jukka.

IF YOU LOVE YOURSELF, RETAKE THE MATH DIAGONISTIC!!! Jukka is a REALLY nice professor, loves Rick and Morty, and is quirky, but do not let that fool you. I scored a 75 on the diagnostic, I didn't want to retake it. Biggest mistake of my life. Jukka assigns SO MANY HW problems! Maybe around 60-80 a week. He reads off a presentation in class, you have to go to office hours if you ever want to see how to actually do the math. He will give 'practice midterms' and claim they are 'harder' than the real deal, ALL LIES!!!! I just came back from taking the final, within the first 30 mins, a girl ran out CRYING. The final had me contemplating running out as well. The whole class's vibe was sad. I would rather take every single AP test in the nation than have to sit through that final again. All my friends in 31A have barely any homework, easy quizzes, and easy midterms. I am doing harder work, taking harder quizzes, and harder midterms, when I am supposed to be in a class that is supposed to support you. RETAKE THE DIAGNOSTIC. Biggest mistake of my academic career, as of right now. However, Jukka said he will curve the grades at the end. That will be the only reason why the whole class does not fail. Also, do not misplace my anger, I love Jukka, he is so fun to talk to, but the class was absolutely way harder than it needed to be. This did not feel like a support class for 31A, this was a much, much harder version. Do Not Take 31AL. Please.

I have never felt more degraded and horrible in a class. The Professor would insinuate that we were "retarded" by saying, AND I QUOTE: "If you do not understand this, you are probably retarded."
Way to be encouraging :)
I understand that he is just being sarcastic, BUT some people genuinely struggled in this class and it was always so discouraging to hear him say this hurtful things. It was always very intimidating to seek help from him during office hours or after class.
Worst experience hands down. I would not want my worst enemy to take this course with this rude and conceded professor.

Best professor at UCLA!