Plainly speaking, this whole series is a load of bullshit. It's calculus that has been molded to fit Life Sciences, and while I can see it being helpful in the future, for now it isn't really. I can't see myself using differential equations in my own research, but maybe that's just me.

Bennoun is a great lecturer, I will give him that. He cracks jokes every now and then but he also plainly expresses when he's dissatisfied with the students in his lecture (oftentimes due to lack of participation). He posts the slides so that it's easy to follow along every class and has mandatory i-clicker questions that really help with comprehension.

However, this class gets confusing quickly. The concepts themselves aren't hard in the slightest, but the application of them does get difficult. This is especially considering he assigns a ton of homework problems (as in 3+ hours work per week) that are of significantly higher difficulty than anything he has done in class. Oftentimes you just end up having to self-apply the concepts, ask a smart friend, or cry a little as you strain your teensy brain to come up with some bullshit answer. Want help in office hours? Good luck! Office hours are filled to the brim with students all needing help on homework or labs and it will take the TA's 30+ minutes to get to you. Have a question 10 minutes after your last one was answered? Too bad--the TA isn't going to get back to your side of the room for another 20 minutes! After I waited 2 hours to get 2 questions answered I stopped going and started getting my questions answered through study groups.

You have weekly labs that are the most unhelpful things ever. Did I come out of the labs with an A? Yes. If you asked me to code you anything would I stare at you blankly and tell you I have no idea how to? Also yes. It's a game of filling in the blanks, changing numbers, and figuring out what to copy and paste. The TA and the LA(s), to their credit, are really trying their best to help you out when you're confused. Problem is, everyone is confused.

Midterm was literal hell. I came in pretty confident and left with my soul crushed, confident I had barely been able to pass. I managed to get a B in it, and the only thing I can say is DO THE HOMEWORK PROBLEMS!!! The practice tests and TA review worksheets were completely useless at the end of the day. Final was easier to get through, though it was more like it was because you knew what to expect instead of the questions being easier.

Tldr: if you took ap calc bc and got a 4 or took ap calc ab and got a 5 just take calculus.

Ok, I loved Steve, and his class was relatively helpful, but here's where I have an issue. His notes were not helpful in relation to the homework at all. The concepts taught in class made sense and I knew how to do, but the homework was at certain times, unrelated to topics taught in class (we were expected to know stuff we weren't taught). As much as they say this class is for people who are coming to UCLA with little to no calculus experience, the kids who took calculus in high school had a massive advantage on tests and homework. Trying to learn something when people around you already know it can be kind of frustrating. I did my homework in study groups, which was helpful, but sometimes none of us knew how to answer our homework since we weren't taught the steps in class.

This class wasn't hard until the last 2 weeks with concepts that were made up. This class felt useless as it is made up math created here. 90% of topics will never be used in the research/healthcare field. Lecture is mandatory, boring, and easy to lose focus as topics weren't interesting nor relevant, but, I would always choose this over calculus. Bennoun isn't mean as people say, but I honestly don't remember anything about his teaching skills because I was bored to death and would stare at the ceiling wishing it would end quicker. Reviewing the annotated slides after lecture helped more than lecture.
My lab section was my personal hell. You do coding in a group with the TA who walks around if you need help. First of all, when will we ever need coding..., this was a waste of 2 hours better used on reviewing homework/lecture. Coding was difficult as you would forget how to do it every week as it had no point. My TA hated me, they would help other students but when it came to me, they would stand behind me, stare at my computer and point out one aspect of my code line and leave.
The midterm for this quarter specifically was notorious for being difficult but I didn't find it that way at all. People said it wasn't similar to the practice midterms when in reality, it was. The only difference is that the midterm had questions that were maybe 2x harder and some free response questions. My advice is to go over the HW and practice midterms again, write down definitions of systems and concepts for those FRQs as its all you can really do other than pray that you do well on the midterm. The final was easier than the midterm probs because the avg was a D.
All this to say, this class sucks and I don't look forward to 30B.

If you have taken AP Calc AB/BC, it shouldn't be very difficult for you. A lot of the content can be understood in AB/BC terms, but LS30A does add on a few extra topics that are closely related to it like bifurcations and stability of equilibrium points. Lectures formatted in a way where you can download the lecture slides and fill in the blanks as Bennoun progresses through the lecture. Good amount of clicker questions in each class, and friends help make the class more fun. Lab sections are related to class material but were not tested on in the final or midterm and aren't difficult to understand. Just stay on top of the hw and use the boatloads of practice materials Bennoun gives the class. There are also a few short extra credit opportunities so don't miss out on those.

Textbook is free, but the class lectures already cover the material in a much easier-to-swallow format so you don't really need to use it.

I found the most helpful course activities to be lecture because Professor Bennoun provided insightful and intuitive explanations of concepts and took questions, and office hours because I got to ask Professor Bennoun and TAs deeper questions to enhance my understanding of material. Unexpectedly, I also think the exams enhanced my learning--they tested my understanding of the intuition behind concepts and my critical thinking, which I believe exams should do. However, I believe that the homework and practice exams problems should have better matched the level of difficulty and conceptual understanding required for the exams, as they were insufficient in preparation for the exams.

This class is amazing, or rather Professor Bennoun. His lectures are easy to follow and he is very nice and knowledgeable. The homework is also very helpful for both learning and exam prep.

I have never taken a course in elementary, middle, high school, or college that has been this disorganized. It was an impossible challenge trying to get resources and proper help to learn these FAKE math concepts. Yes, this class is fake math. The amount of shortcuts and random steps I had to assume to just be correct were completely unreasonable. Additionally, the TAs answers were incredibly inconsistent and unreliable. On Plaza, the website for students to ask questions, it would take weeks for a TA to answer your question. And, when a TA answered it, they would never fully answer the question and, if anything, would just make you even more confused. My instructor, Bennoun, was incredibly unhelpful and unwelcoming. All the practice problems that were shown in class were super dumbed-down and overly easy compared to the actual midterm and assessment questions. Additionally, the homework grading was incredibly infuriating. Points would be marked off for random and baseless reasons, such as not ordering the pages correctly (I ALWAYS made sure to order the pages correctly. In fact, I would separate my homework assignments so each homework question had its own unique page…but NO, perhaps my grader was in a constant bad mood because I consistently had points marked off my homework and lab submissions even when I had the correct answer and demonstrated all my work). Furthermore, Bennoun was incredibly rude and tactless. In class, he would pretend to encourage participation. In reality, he was merely goading students into making mistakes. Bennoun is the type of teacher that provides condescending remarks like "I'm glad YOU made that mistake. Now, everyone can learn from YOUR error," he also constantly compared our class to his previous lecture, remarking how we seemed unhappy, unsatisfied, and unpleasant. I believe that as a teacher, Bennoun should not be comparing students and complaining about student displeasure/dissatisfaction with the class. Instead of complaining or blatantly saying, “I hear that you are unsatisfied, but I cannot do anything.” (WHICH he did say at the end of lecture once), an instructor should be constantly advocating for their students, ensuring that their students have the proper resources to achieve success in their course…but for Bennoun, he just doesn’t care. Also, during discussion times, Bennoun and the TAs would crawl up the stairs, walking around the lecture room acting like police in a supermax prison, forcing and condemning students to uncomfortably share their thinking. Also, they would only target and talk to students sitting on the aisle seat. If you were sitting in the middle or the center of the class, you were never encouraged to participate (but also good luck getting any help).

This class has been incredibly infuriating; however, this is not just a problem with the instructor, Dr. Bennoun, there is a fundamental problem with this course…it is useless. The fake math concepts that I am learning, such as Shark and Tuna or Spruce-Budworm models, are COMPLETELY useless and not applicable to my future pre-med career. And, in this class, there is no consistency with answers among professors or TAs. I am incredibly disappointed with the structure of this course and the lack of consistency within the department. It felt like the instructors did not want the students to succeed. I hope that, in the future, the instructors can improve the course content to make it more relevant, make it more welcoming and easier for student to access academic help, and to stop working against their students.

maybe I just could not understand the fake math of 30b but this class sucked. Bennoun was great for 30A so thought he would be great for 30B but it sucked. He taught the concepts horribly and I ended up going to other professors office hours because he was so unhelpful (and they taught the material way better). with this said he did round up on my grade but even after studying for the midterm and final for 2 weeks I still failed. take this class with shevstov or conley (their exams were also easier)

I loved LS 30A and now am a Learning Assistant for 30A and B. Lecture attendance is tracked by iClicker. Some background in calculus could help in this class, but is by no means necessary; you don't learn much more beyond basic derivative rules. I found this class really interesting because of its applications of mathematical concepts. It will definitely be different from what you might expect from a typical math course, which I honestly really appreciated as someone who usually finds a hard time in math. I remember Dr. Bennoun being very helpful during office hours, which I attended more often in taking LS 30B, which was more math-heavy. Definitely utilize Problem-Solving Sessions, even if Dr. Bennoun doesn't advertise them anymore-you can find the schedules from Shevstov's class. They are changing the content of the course to Python in Fall 2024, so labs will be different.

Professor Bennoun has got to be one of the best professors for LS30B. He was very detailed in his explanations, except for one topic which happened to be on the final, which stopped me from getting an A in the class, but you know whatever i guess, overall he was cool, take him, go to office hours, maybe not PSS those were ALWAYS packed, and it was literally only one TA and LA for like 30+ students sometimes and it was just counter productive. His office hours are helpful though. Homework was GREAT practice for the exams. Labs were hard though. Also they didn't let us see our finals in the end so we couldn't argue for points back smh, i was so close to an A