Bennoun is a great professor! Don't get me wrong. However, DO NOT TAKE THIS COURSE. TAKE ANOTHER MATH COURSE. DON'T DO IT. Personally I have a bone to pick with my NSA for telling me I needed to take this course and this course only, when there were other math courses I could have taken. Just to reiterate, Bennoun is a great professor, but this review is for the course overall (across all professors, since the material is the same regardless of who is teaching it). For context: I'm an MCDB major, and in high school I excelled in math. I got a 4 on AP Calc AB (during COVID, but the second year, when the tests were in person again) and had a AP Calc teacher that was really strict and nationally rated/awarded for teaching. That being said, when I went to college, I expected math that introduced new concepts but wasn't necessarily more difficult....This course made me feel like I was losing brain cells. We hardly do any actual math (which, if you don't like math, then...cool, I guess!), but instead the math is all a bit...theoretical? Like, "what would happen if we changed this variable?" or "why does the human body do this? (????????)" instead of like, "solve this equation" or "derive this solution" or something similar and more straightforward. Admittedly, the class is easy, so if what I said seems good for you, then cool, take the class. However, the worst thing in this class was not the class itself but the labs. I knew the labs involved coding but not to this extent. The first two or three labs were relatively easy even if you weren't paying attention, but then all of a sudden you're running out of time on the labs because you spent 45 minutes trying to figure out why you're getting a syntax error in a code you've typed millions of times before, and then it turns out that you have an extra space somewhere, or a semi-colon instead of a colon, or a myriad of dumb little mistakes. Sometimes labs would take me days to figure out because I would get frustrated, and wouldn't want to go back and finish them. However, I got through the labs! Now I'm in LS 30B, and guess what? I hate it. The labs are exponentially more difficult. The jump from 30A to 30B is less like a jump and more like a 100m sprint. I really, really, really, REALLY wish I had taken another math course, but at this point it's more cost-effective to just finish the class and suffer until March.
Don't take the class if you don't have to. Seriously.

This class was really something. I think the material is interesting surprisingly, but it is not at all similar to a classic calculus class. Bennoun definitely explained well and was a good lecturer, but he could come off as a little bit condescending when answering questions.
This class is inevitable as a pre-med or life science major, so just prepare for it as best as you can, it's definitely bad but not impossible.
The workload is very easy with the labs that you can usually finish in lab time (although they are horrible), and the once-a-week homework. Don't mess up submitting the homework, those were almost the only times I lost points.
But because of this and how niche this class is all you can really study with are the practice midterms and finals. Those are very helpful but often not definitive as to what the exam will be like. Our midterm was so hard that one of the questions the TA couldn't even solve. I studied for 30 hours for the final and got an 80%, which was lucky compared to what I heard from some. I was fully expecting to have a B in this class, but the 30A instructors curved final grades surprisingly. I know a lot of people whose GPAs were done dirty by this class. Go to office hours and be prepared to really investigate these niche math topics.
Textbook is absolutely not needed.

Bennoun is a boring lecturer, I was really tempted to skip lectures. I didn't speak to him even once all quarter long, Lol. He does walk around during lecture and answers ppls questions. Lectures are recorded, attendance is iClicker and you can miss 4 lectures/iClicker grades without affecting your grade. There's only one homework a week and the lab is free points as long as you check your answers with the TA/LA in your session. Highly recommend going to office hours, TAs are all goated and were super nice. Sonia, Ayush and Adwoah were my GOATs. Be prepared for the final and midterm to whoop your ass: the practice tests Bennoun gives are way too easy and different question types will appear on the actual test. Some concepts are hard to grasp, pretty unrelated to high school/AP Calculus concepts. Overall, I think the other reviewers are exaggerating the difficulty. If you are better at understanding concepts vs. just relying on memorization, you'll be fine. There is extra credit, lots of grade padding and only 2 big tests.

DO NOT TAKE THE 30 SERIES
If you're reading reviews trying to decide to take the 30 series, the 31 series or the 3 series, PLEASE take this review into consideration, and DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS. If I could go back to little orientation me, I would tell them to take the 3 series instead of whatever this class was. Bennoun is goated, don't get me wrong, but this class is the spawn of hell. Getting an A is truly luck of the draw. The lectures make it seem like the concept is reasonably manageable, then you open the homework and its like 20 questions and 6 pages. This class isn't even math, its mostly word problems, where its "describe how you know" instead of showing much arithmetic. The midterm was actually terrible, because they post practice midterms, then the midterm will be NOTHING like the test, and everyone hated it. In this class, there's two grading schemes, one where you can rely on the score of your midterm or final, or where you're final can replace your midterm score. After the midterm, almost everyone was praying for the final to save their grade because it was that bad. After the midterm, I locked in basically everyday, doing textbook problems, going to office hours, emailing my TA, everything everyone tells you to do when you don't understand. I was so confident going into this final from all the time I spent studying, and as soon as I opened that final I had to start praying for any little hope (mind you i'm not religious and this class had me praying). I asked my TA after the midterm why they made it so difficult, and he admitted to me that the class itself would be too easy if they just worded it normally, so they word it extra complicated for the pure purpose of confusing people in hopes they'll get it wrong, to truly test "how much they know." No amount of "knowing" will help if you cant decipher the practical hieroglyphics they give the questions as. Also for the lab section of this class, its coding which isn't too bad coming from someone who only took comp sci principles in high school, but the site they use is unbearable and never works, making it 10x harder, especially with how they word the questions. Labs and homework are graded on correctness, and they are NOT lenient at all.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE take this review into consideration when taking this course, if you want to save your GPA dont do it to yourself. If this review can save one person from not taking this class, it would make my day, PLEASE dont do it to yourself. Listen to the bad reviews of this class, and know the grade distribution is not accurate, everyone I know started with an A and ended with a C or lower. PLEASE.

This class is hard. It's a mixture of calculus, coding, and frankly, some weird graphical math I'm confident is unique to UCLA. The midterms and final are difficult, but not impossible, and it's entirely plausible to end with an A or A-. I didn't take calculus in high school, and I was nervous about how this course would pan out, but taking it with Dr. Bennoun definitely helped me succeed. His lecture slides are very well put together and he's a very clear lecturer, but he will also stop to answer any questions you might have. Don't get me wrong, this isn't the type of course you can coast by in and not study for, but being in Bennoun's class makes it much easier. He gives one homework and one coding lab every week, along with extra credit surveys every once in a while. The grading schemes weight the exams pretty heavily, but don't look over the easy grades like labs or iClicker participation. Speaking of exams, they are rough. The midterm will smack the sense into you, but don't fret. There are two grading schemes, one that weights both the midterm and the final and one that only weights the final (65% of your total grade), and most people end up with the latter scheme. To study, I would do the practice midterms, additional problems in the textbook, review the slides and Clickers, and study with friends. This isn't a collaborative course, but relying on your professors and your friends will increase your chances of success.

Definitely NOT an easy A.

When I initially took this class, everyone told me that it was an easy A and that it was one of the easiest math series at UCLA. This is NOT TRUE. I never felt catfished by a course until now.

The grading is interesting, in that either your midterm is 27.5% of your grade and your final is 37.5%, or you can make the final exam worth 65% of your grade and have your midterm worth nothing. To some, this was good because the midterm was very, very difficult. Most people whom I have talked to earned subpar scores on the midterm (<70%) and needed to rely on the second grading scheme to even have a chance at a better score. Although this might be forgiving in the sense, the final exam wasn't much easier than the midterm. When I took this class, everyone was saying not to worry about the midterm grade because the final exam would be "so much easier," but I did not think the final was easier than the midterm. Having gotten a 90% on the midterm, I scored lower than that on the final exam. The average for the midterm was rumored to be around 60%, so take that as you will.

In terms of the content of this course, it is, but it isn't math at the same time. The extent of calculus concepts that were taught was derivatives, integrals, Riemann sum, and Euler's method. The rest were some "modeling" stuff (this was arguably the most difficult part of the course), feedback loops, and more abstract material that was difficult to grasp if you are used to calculus. However, it is not impossible to understand, as this professor tries to explain it well. I did notice that the slides and lecture would be doable, but once I got to the homework, it was different and almost REQUIRED you to go to office hours to complete it.

Homework and labs were graded based on accuracy, and the lowest score was dropped at the end of the quarter. The TA office hours were always packed to the brim, because, as I said earlier, it was difficult doing the homework by yourself and only with the lecture notes. The lectures are recorded and uploaded, and attendance is mandatory on iClicker, BUT you can miss 4 lectures/be absent 4 times with no penalty. The lab sessions involved coding and a worksheet based on one concept that was taught earlier in the week, and they were very doable. The coding labs were on CoCalc; you have to pay $20 at the beginning of the quarter, and they involved Python coding. The coding is very manageable if you have a good TA who will help you. The coding was also very direct and gave you step-by-step directions on exactly how to do it. It was not tested on either exam, but I know it was tested before in the past so watch out for that.

In terms of workload, it was very doable. Two 1:15 hr lectures during the week and 1 discussion, which was nearly 2 hours. There was one homework assignment and one lab due every week. This is 100% a class where if you just do the bare minimum, you will not succeed (unless you are very smart, of course). This class requires you to put in a LOT of effort outside of lecture, homework, and labs if you want to score well on the midterm and final exam. One tip I have is to read the textbook and watch the Alan Garfinkel UCLA modeling videos on YouTube. They are created by the person who created the textbook and course, and I often found them to be more helpful than the professor's lectures. There were some extra credit opportunities, which were surveys that gave you 1 point for completing them and were weighted 0.25% of your grade, so they did nothing at all.

Overall, I'd say that this class is definitely a weeder class. Most premed people take this, and I will warn you now, it is not an easy A. You need to work for it. Take this as you will, and best of luck if you take this with Bennoun.

Dr. Bennoun is a great professor; I really loved how he made lectures engaging, and he truly cared about his students' understanding of the content rather than just memorizing information. Additionally, during the lecture, he would joke about various parts of the class, which made the class more engaging. Furthermore, whenever I stayed after class to ask questions, I never felt intimidated by Dr. Bennoun because he made the lectures enjoyable to attend.

iClicker is used for attendance and participation throughout the lectures, so I definitely recommend attending every lecture. Additionally, Dr. Bennoun's lectures are extremely informative, and he posts the blank and annotated slides on BruinLearn. The annotated slides genuinely helped save me from making stupid mistakes on the homework. Now, for the homeworks and labs, they are graded based on accuracy, and generally, as a rule of thumb, try to explain as much as possible, so there won't be many loopholes for points to be deducted. For the labs, as someone who barely knew how to code, it was quite overwhelming to learn Python, and I personally thought that the labs barely covered what we learned in class. The labs particularly stressed me out because they would expect you to sometimes finish an insane number of questions in the allotted time that is given, which I think shouldn't be possible. Further, the actual labs did not help me understand the content that I was confused about, but rather further strengthened the already existing strengths that I had gained from the past.

For the actual math, there are a few slideshows where I did get lost and was definitely weak in, which definitely affected my midterm grade (which I will talk about in a second), but once you understand it, you'll be able to do other types of questions. Now, for the tests, the midterm is SIGNIFICANTLY harder than the final; after completing the midterm, I nearly had a mental breakdown because of how bad I thought the exam was, but thankfully, because there are two grading schemes, the final was able to bring up my grade significantly. Also, AP Calculus AB/BC does help in some aspects in terms of the actual calculus that is seen in the course, but I would not rely solely on that knowledge.

As for the grading scheme, Dr. Bennoun is amazing when he automatically chooses the grade that you score better in. For scheme 1, the midterm is 27.5%, and the final is 37.5%, while for scheme 2, the midterm is 0%, and the final is 65%. You don't need to worry about which one is going into effect as long as you put in the work. Lastly, the surveys that are sprinkled throughout the quarter are for extra credit, but you must complete every single survey to get the extra credit. It's definitely worth the cushioning, especially since the midterm was crazy difficult.

Lastly, I thought it was frustrating how, even though there were practice midterms and finals, they would not always prepare you for the exams, and when I would try to find resources online, there was barely anything I could study. Throughout the quarter, I thought that I was going to fail the course because I perceived a sense of scarcity that I couldn't find anything.

Bennoun was a very chill professor and very helpful during his office hours. The course itself was a bit difficult in the beginning, but starts to get simpler towards the end. So focus on going to his office hours and the office hours of other TAs in order to pass. You do a really fun coding project mid-quarter, which is not as time consuming as long as you and your pod stay on task. Very nice professor for such a hard course.

Don't do this to yourself. Don't touch the LS 30 series if you can avoid it. Even if you think this one wasn't bad, 30B will hit you harder.

Bennoun is an interesting man, and don't worry about his accent: you will understand.
Textbook: he gives you a pdf of a textbook, so no, you don't have to pay for that and I never even used it.
He has lectures with mandatory attendance (taken with Clicker questions, but he gives you extra credit for going to 16(?) of the 20 lectures. The clicker questions are pretty helpful to get a good grasp of what you're learning in class. For iPad/tablet users, he has a pdf of the day's notes on Canvas that he fills out throughout the lecture, which made the class engaging. He also stops frequently to ask if anyone has any questions and tries to get the class to participate, which I thought was really nice, but then again, he is an overall nice guy. He also does record lectures, which are helpful if you missed a class or want to revisit something.
There's one weekly 8-question homework assignment, though I *heard* that his 9am lecture got fewer problems because he was doing some sort of experiment, but I'm not sure how true that is. However, after the midterm, everyone did end up getting 8 questions for homework. I think the only time he didn't assign homework was week 10.
Content-wise, if you took AP Calc AB, or some sort of calculus, this class should be a breeze. If not, it's still doable as long as you know how to do basic math (adding fractions, which, surprisingly, a couple didn't know how to do). There's some new content either way so you will still be learning something new, even if you took calc before.
One midterm and one final; he posts 3 practice exams for them, which you should definitely do, as they're good practice for the actual thing. I thought they reflected the content on the actual exams pretty nicely, but you really have to pay attention to the wording of some questions. I also liked that he gives partial credit for questions, so even if you have no clue what to do, just write something remotely related to get any points you can. They are doable, but you have to dedicate time to doing the practice exams and past homework assignments. And don't leave all your studying to just one or two days before the final. Just don't. I'm not 100% sure if he curves, but I know he will round you up to the next grade (so like B to B+) if you are SUPER close to it, which is why I recommend doing the extra credit.
Labs are 1 hr 50 min, mandatory attendance, and they are soooo unrelated to the actual course content, but python is a pretty good skill to learn. You do have to pay just under $18 for it, but it's a required part of the class. Even so, they are tedious and annoying, but you work in groups so you can and should work together. You often finish before the class is up anyway and get some practice problems at the beginning of class that actually look like what you've been learning in class. For written questions in the labs, be as thorough as possible. I know it's annoying to describe something so clearly obvious but describe everything to get full points. You can also always ask for the TA and LA for help. I'm not sure about other TAs, but I had Ajay C. and I have no complaints about him. He was super helpful.
Another thing I recommend in going to office hours, whether to the TAs' or Bennoun's. I'll admit I only went once like the day before the final and I still got an A in the class but they were actually so helpful and you get to meet other students that way too.
He has two grading schemes, and apply whichever of the two gives you the higher grade.
I can't say anything about how useful this class was for LS30B since I didn't end up taking it, but I have to say I agree with everyone else that says this math is made up because it's so stupid and even though he gives you examples of real world applications, you will probably never use this again.
Overall, I'd highly recommend his class, especially over Shevstov's (I heard her class was hard).