1) Lectures are nothing like the HW which is great because directions are also very vague! She often changed what she asked you to do on the hw half way through the week. Expect to spend HOURS on the homework just trying to figure out what you're even supposed to do, then get a bad grade on it because you didn't do it right (and yes, I asked for clarity and she just paraphrased the same instructions given earlier). Sometimes it seemed like she didn't even know what she was assigning/talking about.
2) Tests were a joke which makes me super confused about the hw difficulty and harshness on grading
3) Final is is a group project with a VERY open ended question & she urges you to interpret it as you want. I quote "There are no wrong ways to model if you provide the proper justifications" yet she docks points because she doesn't like your model. When our group met with her to go over what we had so far, she said everything was looking great, then dropped all of us a full letter grade because of the grade we ended up recieving.

Overall-- this class already sucks because of how all-over-the-place it feels in terms of content, but she makes it worse because directions are never consistent and grading is extremely harsh on content we were never taught in lecture. Sorry that you'll probably have to take it with her anyways because there are no other options! Enjoy!

First MT was pretty manageable (average was ~85%), but second MT was extremely long and tedious (average was ~68%). The biggest complaint I have with this professor is that she does not curve or drop lowest midterm (unless you have a doctors note/ serious situation). As a result, if you did average on the second midterm like me, you're going to have to try your ass off just to clench an A-.

Avoid when possible

Really bad at teaching, but also has really high expectations. I've had bad professors before, but they normally know that they aren't the best at teaching and they curve the class. Based on her history of scores, she doesn't seem to curve too well, and it's surprising because she's probably the worst lecturer I've ever had. There are classes where I don't go to class and just use the textbook, and that's what you should do for her class. She teaches straight out of the textbook, but it's explained in the worst ways possible and I wanted to die every class. When she doesn't know how to explain something, she'll write a note like "pull from our brains" or "I won't go into specifics" and when you ask, she doesn't answer.

I don't know if she calls it her "humor" but sometimes her tone is just really condescending when you ask questions. On the last lecture, someone asked her to review something, and she said that she can't just make up numbers on the fly. Therefore, she did not elaborate on the topic. Honestly, she's just awful, and I would avoid her at all costs not just as a student but as a person. I've never felt more depressed in a class.

The pace may be a bit slow

Professor Johnson is probably one of the worst professors I have had at UCLA. The homework’s easily took around 10-12 hrs and ended up having nothing to do with the exams. The midterm averages were drastically low and was extremely unhelpful when it came to revision. Honestly, don’t take this class with her or Biswal. Save your time and sanity instead.

Professor Johnson is alright. However, her hw are hard/time consuming there were some coding assignments but it was completely useless since it's never been on her exams. She can be impatient during office hours and is often rude/condescending/never really give a clear explanation. I would not take any of her class again. Just focus 90-95% of her lecture notes and 5-10% of her hw problems and you should be good for her exams

She's pretty nice and helpful in person but overall not the greatest professor and a bit disorganized. She doesn't give practice exams (only math prof I've ever had that doesn't and I'm a senior) but her exams are pretty manageable overall if you read through her notes. Overall, she's fine, but I'd only take a course with her if she's the only option.

Dr. Johnson is definitely a good professor as she made this modeling class much easier than it could be (than other 142 instructors). Even though she didnt give practice midterm and final, these two exams are actually very EASY, especially the final. You can easily get above 105/110 in the final if you study for just one day before the exam, all very straightforward and easy questions. Also, the pace of this class is VERY VERY SLOW, so that you can have much more than enough time to digest the materials. In fact, 10 minutes is all you need to go through the notes for a new lecture, and no need to go to the class, as she will post her notes on bruinlearn. The project is also a free full-mark component that made up your final grade.

The only bad thing is the homework. They are very time-consuming, and the coding problems are not related to the exams at all. For example, you might be asked to write great bunch of codes to establish a complicated fertility model, and the simulations and results can be completely wrong if your coding background is not strong. But the good thing is, we now have GPT to write some difficult codes for us, so generally speaking it is fine. Also make sure to collaborate with your friends and classmates on the problems, as it is allowed and encouraged.

Overall, this is relatively an easy math upper-division course compared to other hardcore classes. For class like 131B and beyond, you might have to devote much to studying in order to get a decent grade. For this class, however, you dont have to. Definitely an easy class, even an easy A class.

Didn't enjoy taking this class at all. Professor Johnson was unclear in her lectures (took bits and pieces from the textbook, didn't explain anything clearly) and her grading on the quizzes/ homework assignments was very harsh.

Sometimes the homework assignments took upwards of 10-15 hours to complete. I will say that she wasn't very good at teaching Math 42 because she had no idea what she was even teaching to begin with. Overall, I wouldn't recommend taking this class with Prof. Johnson. If you don't have a choice, I'd suggest learning everything from the textbook (showing up to lectures isn't worth it).