Professor
Alan Garfinkel
4 of 5
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Most Helpful Review
Actual course taken: LS30B Professor rating: A+ overall Professor Garfinkel is one of the best professors at UCLA. He has the ability to convey the logic behind chaos theory and dynamical system with such clarity and intuition, that you'll hardly understand why you didn't understand these things before (not like I actually knew anything about chaos theory prior to taking the class). Unlike other professors, his tests are fair and predictable. Predictable in the sense that if you studied then you should do alright if not great. Here is my advise to get an A: 1. Take careful notes in class. He writes down everything that you need to know on the board, and think about it after class. If you have any questions, feel free to ask any of his hand-chosen teaching assistants (professor Garfinkel is incredibly popular, and may not be available during office hours). Also, Garfinkel held review sessions for the final, which was INCREDIBLY helpful. I will state once and for all, however, that his final was not the easiest test that I've ever taken, but it was definitely everything that he said was going to be on the final. 2. Do the homework problems and work hard on the computer programming part! They are literally the same type of questions he will ask on the exams. If you mastered those questions, then you should do alright on the exams. Honestly, Professor Garfinkel is not there to trick you, but to actually challenge you and help you understand the concepts. 3. Go to his teaching assistants for help!!! His teaching assistants are incredibly well-qualified and hand-chosen, which makes up for the fact that he is not available very often due to other responsibilities. Unlike other professors, he places additional emphasis on choosing his teaching assistants since he cannot be as attentive to his students as he can. He really does care for student learning more than anything, and his amazing lectures answer all questions anyway. If you follow these tips, there is no reason why you shouldnt get an A in his class. The bottom line: Take LS30B with Garfinkel.
Actual course taken: LS30B Professor rating: A+ overall Professor Garfinkel is one of the best professors at UCLA. He has the ability to convey the logic behind chaos theory and dynamical system with such clarity and intuition, that you'll hardly understand why you didn't understand these things before (not like I actually knew anything about chaos theory prior to taking the class). Unlike other professors, his tests are fair and predictable. Predictable in the sense that if you studied then you should do alright if not great. Here is my advise to get an A: 1. Take careful notes in class. He writes down everything that you need to know on the board, and think about it after class. If you have any questions, feel free to ask any of his hand-chosen teaching assistants (professor Garfinkel is incredibly popular, and may not be available during office hours). Also, Garfinkel held review sessions for the final, which was INCREDIBLY helpful. I will state once and for all, however, that his final was not the easiest test that I've ever taken, but it was definitely everything that he said was going to be on the final. 2. Do the homework problems and work hard on the computer programming part! They are literally the same type of questions he will ask on the exams. If you mastered those questions, then you should do alright on the exams. Honestly, Professor Garfinkel is not there to trick you, but to actually challenge you and help you understand the concepts. 3. Go to his teaching assistants for help!!! His teaching assistants are incredibly well-qualified and hand-chosen, which makes up for the fact that he is not available very often due to other responsibilities. Unlike other professors, he places additional emphasis on choosing his teaching assistants since he cannot be as attentive to his students as he can. He really does care for student learning more than anything, and his amazing lectures answer all questions anyway. If you follow these tips, there is no reason why you shouldnt get an A in his class. The bottom line: Take LS30B with Garfinkel.
Most Helpful Review
okay, so my friend from ls30b (his name isn't spelled "Mikey" or "Mike", by the way, like how people spelled his name below) recently told me that people are leaving reviews on Dr. Garfinkel's page by the truckload (I too, have been trying to leave him reviews for the past year). As everyone below said, Dr. Garfinkel is absolutely amazing. He's a fantastic lecturer who can captivate individuals who absolutely hate math (me). Seriously. I slept during math classes all throughout high school until I took Dr. Garfinkel's ls30b class. When he speaks, something about it makes difficult concepts (linear algebra, chaos theory) crystal clear. I loved going to this class despite it being very long AND late in the afternoon AND being on tuesdays and thursdays. I seriously contemplated on taking the Math 3A/b/c series because they had better class times, but I'm SUPER glad that I didn't. (I also heard very negative things about the 3a/b/c series). In all, prepare to have your major and possibly life changed, because Dr. Garfinkel is very inspirational. Peace-
okay, so my friend from ls30b (his name isn't spelled "Mikey" or "Mike", by the way, like how people spelled his name below) recently told me that people are leaving reviews on Dr. Garfinkel's page by the truckload (I too, have been trying to leave him reviews for the past year). As everyone below said, Dr. Garfinkel is absolutely amazing. He's a fantastic lecturer who can captivate individuals who absolutely hate math (me). Seriously. I slept during math classes all throughout high school until I took Dr. Garfinkel's ls30b class. When he speaks, something about it makes difficult concepts (linear algebra, chaos theory) crystal clear. I loved going to this class despite it being very long AND late in the afternoon AND being on tuesdays and thursdays. I seriously contemplated on taking the Math 3A/b/c series because they had better class times, but I'm SUPER glad that I didn't. (I also heard very negative things about the 3a/b/c series). In all, prepare to have your major and possibly life changed, because Dr. Garfinkel is very inspirational. Peace-
Most Helpful Review
Alright, I'm going to make this review brief and to the point. I highly doubt that any of you potential students will read through all those long passages below. If you do read them, more power to ya. I took the LS30-series with professor Conley and professor Garfinkel. Both were absolutely amazing, but since this is professor Garfinkel's time to shine, I'll only focus on his review. I come from a horrible math background. Our high school was a humanities-based high school, which did not enforce strong emphases on STEM fields, and because of this, I was worried when I came to college as a pre-medical student. Three weeks into the course, and I'm already learning about dynamical systems and modeling. The way professor Garfinkel presents the material is incredibly lucid and digestible, and for this reason, I believe that he is an incredible genius. Let me recap: A guy who has not taken AP calculus like the other folks in the room who got 5s in their AP calculus BC exams, was able to learn math, and after the course, change his major to applied mathematics. Right now, I'm taking 32A during summer sessions and let me tell you: the math we learned in Garfinkel was of enormous influence. I absolutely loved this class, and don't know of anyone who struggled because everyone in the class was so helpful and nice. The T/As were very prompt and courteous, and Jane even answered my emails at 12AM once! In all, I loved this class and was thoroughly inspired. Take this class!
Alright, I'm going to make this review brief and to the point. I highly doubt that any of you potential students will read through all those long passages below. If you do read them, more power to ya. I took the LS30-series with professor Conley and professor Garfinkel. Both were absolutely amazing, but since this is professor Garfinkel's time to shine, I'll only focus on his review. I come from a horrible math background. Our high school was a humanities-based high school, which did not enforce strong emphases on STEM fields, and because of this, I was worried when I came to college as a pre-medical student. Three weeks into the course, and I'm already learning about dynamical systems and modeling. The way professor Garfinkel presents the material is incredibly lucid and digestible, and for this reason, I believe that he is an incredible genius. Let me recap: A guy who has not taken AP calculus like the other folks in the room who got 5s in their AP calculus BC exams, was able to learn math, and after the course, change his major to applied mathematics. Right now, I'm taking 32A during summer sessions and let me tell you: the math we learned in Garfinkel was of enormous influence. I absolutely loved this class, and don't know of anyone who struggled because everyone in the class was so helpful and nice. The T/As were very prompt and courteous, and Jane even answered my emails at 12AM once! In all, I loved this class and was thoroughly inspired. Take this class!
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4 of 5
