Dr. Bennoun is quite possibly the greatest math educator I have ever had. He is incredibly clear during lectures, open to any and every question, goes out of his way to assist struggling students, and is overall very pleasant to be around. He is so approachable and it's clear he wants his students to succeed. In terms of the class workload, it's very similar to other LS 30A classes, and there is a decent amount of work ahead of you. Knowing calculus before taking this class is by no means a requirement, but it makes a lot of the homework much easier. That being said, Bennoun still provides A TON of resources for students with no calc background. He also uploads a lot of resources before the midterm and final, including practice exams, courselets, and office hours that he uploads, in which he goes through any homework question students are struggling on. Overall, this class was a highlight of my quarter, and I genuinely enjoyed it. I would take it again just for Bennoun :)

Professor Bennoun was a great professor to have this quarter. His lectures were engaging and informative and the clicker questions really helped to supplement the material. The class content itself is definitely different than high school math with the only similarity being basic calculus (derivatives and integrals) but I found it a lot more interesting than anything I did in high school.

Every week there was a coding project, quiz based on the lecture material, homework set, and pre-lab videos and quiz. The coding projects are done in a small group during discussion and most of the time you can finish or get most of the way through them then. The TAs also hold office hours where you can get help on the projects. The homework is sometimes confusing because of the textbook and was pretty long so I would definitely not try to do it all the night before it's due. The lowest two homework scores, lowest quiz grade, and lowest lab score were also dropped! There was one midterm and a final and I found both of them not overly difficult. He provided a lot of practice tests and held office hours which were both really helpful for the tests. Overall, I would recommend to take this class with him.

It's a pretty easy class if you keep up with assignments and go to office hours. He is really nice and his midterms are exactly what you learn in class. He is also very flexible, if you can come to class, he posts them online so you can do them for participation 10/10 . The labs can be a little challenging bur the TA's are extremely helpful

Only take this class if you already have experience with calculus!! Bennoun is a kind, good lecturer. However, his tests are unfairly hard and he often gives long homework assignments that feel like busy work.

LS30A was definitely a struggle - this was pretty evident based on the overflowing office hours that kept increasing in attendance as the quarter went on, and sentiments from friends/peers. This class is not curved, so you really need to have a solid understanding of all the concepts to do well. The midterm (for F23) was extremely challenging, like some others mentioned - I studied literally so hard for it, thought it was difficult (everyone did), and got an 81%. However, Professor Bennoun has 3 different grading schemes that you can use to get the best possible grade in this class - which is really nice. I got a 99% on the final (I thought it was way easier than the midterm), so I was able to pull my grade back up using a different scheme. The lab portion of this class is also pretty challenging, especially for people with no coding experience (basically everyone). They start out pretty simple and guided with a lot of instructions, but they get harder pretty quickly with less instruction and more "figure it out on your own"! It also didn't help that labs were almost nothing related to the class/lecture content. Therefore, I thought the lab practical (the coding "final" of the class) was pretty difficult, but I still got a 90% somehow through generous partial credit, I guess. Ending with some tips:

- GO TO MANY TA OFFICE HOURS. Pick your favorite TAs, and go to their OHs every week. And don't just go to get answers to your homework and labs. Try to really understand and learn from office hours, because if you're just copying the TA's answers, you won't do well on the exams. You have to know what they're doing and be able to replicate the work/concepts yourself.
- Study consistently for this class - try not to cram before exams. Review your lecture notes after each lecture, make them more organized, and see if you understood everything.
- Try to get help on and understand the labs and the *meaning* of the code. Again, you can copy code from peers and TAs who help you, but you'll have to understand it when the lab practical rolls around in week 10.

Overall, an interesting and doable class that requires a lot of hard work and persistence. I did have a breakdown in one LS30A lecture this quarter because I was so overwhelmed. Just know it'll all work out and be fine in the end - all you can do is study hard and try your best. You got this!

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.

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.

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.