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

Great lectures content-wise, but horrible testing methods. The textbook didn't really match up with what was being taught. Labs were fairly easy if a lot of practice and time was put into them. The group project was awesome.

Enjoyed this class and much easier than traditional calculus for sure! Great option for all those bio majors who want to avoid calc at all costs! Be prepared to code, but as long as you ask your TAs and LAs for help you’ll be okay!

This class (in my opinion) is a really stupid class. All the material feels made up and it is intergraded with coding that doesn't relate to the material you are learning about. You have 2 lectures a week in which the professor will do notes on slides that he provides in Bruin learn and you have a lab once a week that is a coding lab with your TA. This lab will make you want to die if you have never coded before. You have one homework assignment, one pre-lab quiz, and your lab that is due each week. Your total grade will be composed of all these things plus a midterm, final, clicker questions (participation), and a lab practical (test on coding). You will be provided practice tests for the midterm and finals that are pretty true to what you will be given- but don't be fooled because he gives other professors practice tests instead of his own so you'll have to determine for yourself if all the info given is useful or not. In conclusion it's rough.
I really liked this professor. He is nice and remembers your name if you go to his office hours. He tries to help his students the best that he can and he'll get annoyed if the class is struggling but not showing up to office hours. He give extra credit every now and again that in the end will bump you up to the next grade if you need it. I think he takes pity on us because everyone was so confused the entire. Live laugh love Bennounie

The textbook was created for this class by the professors who teach it a few years ago, but the content taught in the lectures actually contradicts the textbook and the book contradicts itself and is completely disorganized. The TAs recommend that you don't read the textbook and say that they purposefully ignored it when they took the class. The professor punishes you if you don't read the textbook and has penalized us for using the textbook as reasoning on homework assignments. The midterm and final focused on niche topics discussed in the lectures and completely ignored the actual core topics and learning objectives of the curriculum. The entire LS 30 teaching group is convinced that they have revolutionized teaching calculus but their course is unfocused and doesn't have anything to do with actual calculus. If you know that the derivative of y=x^2 is y'=2x that doesn't help you at all in this class. The only way to succeed in this class is to suck the seed of the professor. You have to learn random useless concepts according to your professor's specific rules. Each professor has different names for the various concepts they discuss in class. If you get a problem on an exam that was written by a different professor or if your exam is graded by the TAs of a different professor you will lose points even if you follow the rules of your class to the letter. In every class you take 1+1 should equal 2. There should not be a class where 1+1 equals 3 as this would be inconsistent and illogical. In LS 30B, 1+1=3 if they say so and there is nothing you can do to rationalize or understand their thought process. You simply have to memorize and regurgitate the content of the class. The second the class is over forget everything you learned in the LS 30 series as it is all useless and completely made up. The TAs don't even understand the curriculum and if you ask them for help they will tell you that they don't know on the down low and you should just smile and nod. In order to get an A in this class memorize every lecture, homework assignment, and problem solving session problem because they will use random problems to make the tests which are 60% of your grade. Do not take this class. I would rather get hit by a bus than take this class again. For your emotional health do not take this class.