The man is awful, and I usually don't say this about a professor that easily or bluntly. He's just plain awful.

First off, his lectures were long, tedious, and completely uninteresting. He was relatively new to teaching, got that, but he was still fairly young. Being young doesn't necessarily guarantee a fun professor, but it should mean that a student should be able to relate in SOME way. He was completely unrelatable and boring. He did not try to spice up his lectures in any way to make class more bearable. Just plain info from the textbook. Either get it, or get out.

Secondly, his midterms and the final. They were all nearly impossible. The averages on both midterms were horrific, with the first midterm's average being a tad bit higher than the second's. Either way, you'll end up hyperventilating even if you did study simply because the professor did not gauge how much his students have learned and did not bother to give out doable questions. He also grades them very harshly. If you have a slight, barely noticeable mistake on the exam, there goes 4 or 5% of your exam grade already. The man does not know how to make use of the partial-point system fairly.

Thirdly, he seems almost unapproachable during office hours. Ask him a question during office hours, and he'll simply tell you to refer to the book. Any good professor would know that the reason WHY the student chose to go to go office hours in the first place is because he/she has searched for the answer to his/her question and could not find it. He needs to be more understanding. The TAs for this class were all horrible. They tried to teach material that they were not quite sure of themselves. Review sessions were a joke, as TAs that held them made careless mistakes over and over again; fixing them took up over half the time and BAM--the review session was over.

Overall, this class with Goldbring is a nightmare. Don't take him. Math 3C, material-wise, is very confusing, so you'd need a great professor to help you understand the material and wade through it slowly and step-by-step. The guy doesn't really make sure his students have every single concept down and just assumes you know. Whatever. Complete nightmare. Avoid him.

DO NOT TAKE 3C WITH GOLDBRING!!! He is definitely the worst math professor. I was one of the people who dropped during 10th week. I am taking Math 3C again with another professor this quarter. I can say that Professor Goldbring just made 3C so much harder. The professor I am taking now is much more clear on what he wants you to know for the final exams. Goldbring did give out practice midterms but they were nothing like the actual midterms! The actual midterms were 10 times harder than the practice midterms he gave you. I got A's for both Math 3A and 3B, but this professor screwed me up.

Horrible professor! Avoid him like the plague if you care for your GPA! Honestly the worst math professor I've taken at UCLA. The fact that about 40 people dropped out of BOTH lectures of 200 during 10th week should say something about him.

Homework: He gives a lot of problems to do on the homework, which is fair, but the vast majority of them are even problems so you don't even know if you're doing them right. When it comes to grading, he always chooses even problems to grade and is very harsh.

Lectures: He goes far too fast in his lectures. You're basically given 2 choices: 1) take an insane amount of notes that won't make any sense at the end of the class, or 2) attempt to understand but don't take good notes since he goes too fast. Either way, he doesn't do a good job of explaining stuff in lecture because all of the problems he gives can be found in the book with a more lucid explanation.

Exams: One word: awful. His exams are unlike anything you do in class or on the homework. He is nice enough to give a practice exam for each midterm and final, but it doesn't mean much since your actual exam won't be anything like the practice ones.

Grading: Basically NOT curved. People who scored average on the exams received a C in the class. Averages weren't even that high for there not to be a curve, just 50s and 60s.

Overall: This is a hard class because the material is new to just about everyone, so no matter who you take it's gonna be challenging. But taking it with Goldbring is just gonna make it even more difficult. Given another chance, I would take someone else.

I had Professor Goldbring for Math 3C in Winter 2010, which was his first quarter teaching the course. He is a very fair instructor. The course itself started out being very simple and quickly became difficult. The first midterm was straightforward and the concepts were extremely easy. However, the second midterm was a completely different story. It was composed of concepts within concepts and was too long for a mere 50 minutes. However, the final was very fair and not nearly as hard as the second midterm. Goldbring's lectures were crucial for getting notes, but he wrote on the board rather quickly and moved through the examples very fast. However, I think Professor Goldbring's teaching strategy will improve with time and that Math 3C is just a hard course in general. I ended up with an A in the class, but to do so I had to sit down and just attack the material all by myself. I think that no matter what professor you have, you're just going to have to figure it all out for yourself in the end with this math course just because it is pretty intuitive and tricky. However, Goldbring has two grading schemes, which will definitely play to your advantage (a bad midterm can be completely disregarded if you do really well on the final and other midterm). This helped me a lot and is why I recommend him as a professor!

Stay away from Goldbring. This was his first time teaching 3c and all he did was taught what was in the book. His first midterm is easy but the guy grades so hard that it wasn't even cool. I had the right answer, but forgot to lets say put it over 100, and he took off 8 percent alone. Second midterm is undo-able. Don't even bother. Average was around a 50 percent. The final was the worst. I had no idea what he was even asking on the last two tests. His two different schemes don't even help you. I tried going to his office hours, and yes, he is a nice guy. But that doesn't mean that he can grade or be fair on exams. Stay away from this guy.

Goldbring may not be one of the best professorS, but he knows his material well. I had him for Math 3C, and his lectures are pretty much based on the book. I read both the book and follow his notes to learn the materials, and his notes explain some of the materials better than the book. His tests are quite hard. That means you have to know the material well AND how to apply it to other situations asides from those given in the homework (There was once a question on the midterm that involves a Japanese TV show xD). Goldbring's office hours are extremely helpful. The materials at the end of Math 3C are pretty confusing, but going to Goldbring's Office hours really clear things up for me. He always have extra office hours prior to an exam, so it really helps to go if you have any questions or just want to sit in and listen to other people's questions. Doing homework (yes, by that I mean avoid BSing at all cost) and extra problems are the key to doing well in this class.

This class is hard, but Professor Goldbring is a heartening, brilliant, and down-to-earth professor. It is only his first year teaching at UCLA and he has definitely been one of the top professors that I have had the privilege of learning from. Professor Goldbring is a great lecturer and I never fell asleep in his class. You are constantly going over example problems and writing notes, so it feels like there is actually important information to be learned in lecture. He is attentive at his office hours and has extended office hours before his tests, where he will answer any question in detail. On his website, Goldbring has posts of his CV and related research, which shows how brilliant of a man he is.

Goldbring is a great professor, but you will still have to work for your grade in this interesting and complicated class. Probability is not an easy A.