Overall, the class was pretty easy, except for the labs. The TA’s and the professor are really helpful and will help you out if you are struggling. Alan was very clear and concise in his lectures, and the midterm and the final, for the most part, reflected what was taught in the lectures and in the homework.

Garfinkel is a passionate, engaging and incredibly caring professor who gets personally worried if his students don't do well. He really, really, really just wants his students to succeed. However, the course itself is still in its developing stage, so the material is not the best. The textbook we use is still in its first edition, lacks an answer key, and is written in a narrative style that can be harder to follow. The labs can be tough, but going to the TA office hours every week is incredibly helpful. But it is a perfectly doable course that is in no way too challenging.

It's an easy class, if you're the kind of person who does their work on time and keeps up with the syllabus. The labs can be a bit daunting in the beginning (especially if it's your first time), but put in a couple of hours ans you already start to get the hang of it.
Professor Garfinkel is one of my favorites-- he always tries to make his subjects as interesting as he can. He's an approachable and polite person, and genuinely cares about his children. He answers all doubts with patience.
The textbook for the class can be found online for free, so that's a bonus!
Overall, amazing experience. 10/10 would recommend.

Alan is a professor who is genuinely concerned about students actually learning the material and he makes an effort to get to know students who attend his office hours. He always posts his slides and his lectures are bruin casted with audio and visual. Alan also provides a pdf link to his textbook so it's not necessary to buy it! I would whole- heartedly recommend this course and LS 30B to all pre-med students considering this class is preferred by medical schools. If you can take this course with Garfinkel definitely do it he's down to earth and hands down the best professor I've had thus far!

I have loved being in Professor Garfinkel’s class this year. I am currently taking my second quarter with him and he is more helpful than ever. He hosts extremely helpful office hours twice a week and makes an effort to get to know students who take an interest in the class. He is super understanding and really enjoys feedback on his course and will even meet with you personally to discuss both class related and non related topics.

Dr. Garfinkel is an amazing lecturer! He is very methodical and clear, and, if you go to class, pay attention in lectures, do all his assigned homework and his practice tests, the class is an easy A. He assigns work weekly due in lecture every Tuesday after class, and the homework takes a couple hours to complete and is out of the textbook he wrote, which has a free online pdf! The lab is all coding, and it is easy to get 100%'s on all the labs if you make use of the TA's and LA's when you don't understand how to code something. His exams, 2 midterms and 1 final and a coding quiz at the end of the quarter, are very easy, and highly resemble the practice tests he provides. Would highly recommend taking him!

First off, Dr. Garfinkel is a wonderful person. He truly does care if his students are learning or if they're stressed out of their minds! Yes, he can be a bit confusing at times and neglect to give some needed information when he teaches, but he is an amazing professor. His midterms were very fair; there were no surprises or curveballs thrown at us. However, the final exam wasn't as good. It was not very similar to the previous exams and 98% of the class stayed the entire 3 hours! Garfinkel did end up dropping the worst question on the test, because like stated, he cares if his students succeed! As for the labs, they're terrible if you hate/don't understand coding. Just make sure you get the help you need. The TAs for this course are actually very good. Overall, I recommend this course with Garfinkel!

This class seems like a hit or miss for students. It's a very conceptual class, which makes it hard for many students (even though I got an A+ does not mean I truly understood the material). Also, this is not the type of math anyone is used to, especially if you're coming from high school with Calculus and Algebra. Overall, however, the class is relatively easy.

Textbook: The professor gives the textbook link out for FREE so don't buy a PDF from anyone. There are hard copies available, but what for? Anyhoo, this textbook is really wordy and somewhat hard to understand completely. There are many errors in it, but it's the first edition.

Homework: Every week there are homework problems assigned from the textbook. Some are easy and others can be impossible to understand. It sucks that there is no answer key. The homework is usually manageable but once or twice there can be well over 40 pages of reading with 20 word problems.

Lab Component: Every week you attend your lab section and do coding/programming. You get a lab assignment every week. The labs can be extremely tough and may take hours to complete. The worst part is that the lab component of this class literally has no correlation to the class itself so doing the lab can get obnoxious. MAKE FRIENDS WHO CAN HELP YOU WITH THE LAB AND GIVE YOU ANSWERS. (the labs are 15% of the grade. I wouldn't have gotten an A whatsoever without the help of my fellow peers)

Exams: 2 midterms and 1 final. All are free response and cumulative. Practice midterms and finals are provided but they are often times unrelated to the actual tests. This year's final was horribly put together. The practice exams given to us did not help in the slightest. The final was long and hard, but in the end it was curved by A LOT.

Overall, I recommend this class because it is easier than most other math courses at UCLA. However, the amount of conceptual material will take some getting used to.

This class was an absolute joke. The professor was fake and bashed on all the other departments and his lectures and class itself was completely unprofessional. He made a lot of mistakes and wasted a bunch of time talking about conceptual concepts that had nothing to do with what was actually on the test. He was fake as well, not kind atall and very rude. I hate this man and will never take a class with him again and I am switching into the Math 3 series because of this horrible professor and I don’t know why he ha a high rating on bruinwalk, which is why I took his class but his tests are super difficult. The labs were absolute nonsense and not helpful in any way to a life science major and the class was completely disorganized. I do not recommend, if I could give this man 0 stars I would. His book sucks also, not helpful or descriptive.

Professor Garfinkel is an excellent professor. He GENUINELY cares about the success and well-being of his students, which is an admirable trait and so rare to find these days. He is dedicated, intelligent, and goofy; overall, a really great man and great teacher.
The class itself is fairly easy. Many of the concepts come intuitively, even if you don't have a great grasp on calculus. The tests are pretty straightforward and mostly resemble the study materials Alan provides. The only part I struggled with was recalling code for the lab portion of the class. However, I never attended TA office hours for coding so that may be my own fault. Labs are a pain, but definitely manageable.

I would highly recommend this class for all life science majors.