Jukka==God. That's all.

Hi Everyone ! I'm back with my IN-DEPTH Review of this class. I will break down all aspects of this class, so even if it may seem like a LOT of words, I would definitely recommend reading it since this will be the only review you will need to read. If you still aren't going to read this then just read the TL;DR:

TL;DR: TAKE THIS CLASS WITH JUKKA. THE END.

Okay Lets Begin!

PROFESSOR:
Jukka is, and I can't emphasize this enough, the REALEST professor/teacher/instructor I have ever had. You know those professor that people meme about being amazing/nice or whatever. Well this is it guys ! You have found probably the best professor on campus. If you have taken Jukka for 30 A, you probably aren't reading this because you are already going to take his class for 30 B. Although he can be a bit passive aggressive at times, I honestly feel like it has to do with the vast difference in mathematical intellect between prof and students, since some of these concepts can be difficult to grasp to us, but is basic math to him. However, He does care for his students' success and wellbeing in the class and makes it very clear what he expects us to know for exams.
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LECTURES:
Lectures are mandatory since there are clicker points to be earned in each lecture. The clickers are NOT graded on accuracy which is very nice, but they do add up to a good amount of the total class grade (at least 10%) so try not to miss lectures as much as possible. At the end of the quarter, he usually drops 3 of the lowest clicker scores so don't stress if you miss a couple of lectures for whatever reason. Other than that, the lectures are basically 20-30 minutes of review of the previous lecture, and whatever time remains after he lectures on new content, which he will review on the next lecture. The lecture is purely concepts with little to no problem solving, which is probably the ONLY flaw in this class, since homework problems can be a bit challenging to tackle by yourself since there is very little guidance in that matter.
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TAs:
TAs are fairly Important since they grade your homework which can amount to a good chunk of your grade as well (atleast 10%, upto 16%). They also help you with the lab, which is arguably the most difficult aspect of the class since it is coding, so if you have background in Sage/Python, this bit will be super easy for you. Shout to my TA Yoon Jeong who helped us a lot more than the other TAs my friends had. Also, TAs DONT GRADE LABS !
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LAB SECTIONS:
Labs aren't exactly mandatory, since they don't take attendance, but if you don't go you are most screwing yourself. People show up because most of us in LS are not good at coding, otherwise we would be CS Majors. During lab you can get help with the coding from TAs and LAs who have answer keys so they can tell you if you are doing it right or wrong, and how to do it. Highly recommended that you do attend, although again, it's not mandatory. LABS are GRADED ON ACCURACY, unless otherwise mentioned by the prof. Labs are also graded by random people that you will most likely never meet in life, and sometimes they take forever to grade them so you won't know your lab grades until near the end of the quarter. Not a big deal though. I don't believe they grade too harsh, but you do have to be at least close to correct. If you are stressing, don't. Prof dropped the lowest lab score so you'll be good. Lab does make up a good bit of the grade (at least 10%)
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HOMEWORK:
Homework can be a bit challenging as their is little guidance on how to go about it as Professor usually just goes of the concept, and TAs focus mostly on Lab assignment. Aside from going to office hours, you are mostly on your own. They are definitely doable, especially early in the quarter, but get significantly more difficult past week 5-6. Homework is also GRADED ON ACCURACY, and make up about (10%-16%) of your grade. But you can drop the lowest two homework grades, so its not too bad really. If you have a chill TA, you should be fine.
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BOOK:
The book is required but it is PROVIDED in PDF by the prof. All Homework usually comes from the book, so you will need to use it.
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MIDTERM/FINAL:
Now we are getting to the good stuff!
- Yes there is ONE Midterm
- Yes there is ONE Final
- Yes there are study guides for both, as well as review sessions for both
- They combine for about 60% of your grade I believe, but that is actually only good for you
- You will most likely get As on both if you are willing to try even the slightest bit
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STUDY GUIDE/REVIEW SESSIONS:
These are the single most important aspect of this class. I don't care how fucking smart you are, if you don't use the study guide and attend the review sessions, you are only screwing yourself. the Prof practically goes over a slightly changed version of the ACTUAL EXAMS during the review sessions and tells you how to solve each problem. It's very difficult to do bad on the exams if you attend the review sessions and pay attention. 2 hours for a basically guaranteed A is honestly an amazing deal you won't get anywhere else at UCLA.
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OVERALL:
If I had to take this class again (which I clearly fucking don't) I would definitely without a doubt take it with Jukka again. If I had to take ONE class for all 4 years, and the grade I would get would define my GPA, I would take this class in a heartbeat, eyes closed, face down, ass up. I don't care.

In Short: TAKE THIS CLASS WITH JUKKA
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Good luck to y'all ! ##

Jukka is (and will always be) an absolute legend for the LS30 series. From LS30A to LS30B, there has never been a single day where Jukka slacks off. Jukka ALWAYS keeps the class (i) Engaging, (ii) Understandable, and (iii) Clear. I have never met a professor who cares for their students as much as Jukka does. So do yourself a favor and take this class :)!

Although Jukka is very nice, his lectures can be extremely confusing and often did not correlate with the other ls30b professors. Our midterms were more challenging and covered different material than the others as well.

The lab was by far the worst part of the class. They are challenging if you're not confident or comfortable with coding, and I think the TA's just expected way too much from a bunch of premeds.

I took LS30A during my summer quarter and waited to take the LS30B until my winter quarter. At the beginning of the class, I was very nervous because I was not able to recall all the information that I had learned in LS30A, but since the first day, Professor Jukka was helpful and understanding by providing practice problems that would refresh my memory in case you could not remember all the information in LS30A. I believe that the reason I enjoyed this class so much despite it being a math class was due to Jukka's teaching style, he always found a way to make the topics easy to understand. At the beginning of every lecture, he would set time aside to revive the information from the lecture before, this way making it easier to understand the connection between each lecture. Overall he is a great professor and if you have to take this class, you better try to take it with him. His midterms and Finals are challenging but fair, there is nothing in the final that he did not go over in greater detail, besides he often hosts review sessions before the midterm and final to make sure that all his students are on track to get an A. It is clear by the way that he teaches that he actually cares about the education of his students and wants us to succeed

A real king. Period.

Jukka is an absolute legend. I wish all professors here at UCLA were like Jukka. He clearly cares about his students learning and well being. There are time where I had no idea what was going on, but when a I went to his office hours and when I did the homework, everything that I learned synced in. This class took the Ls 30 series to a new level, with linear algebra and multi variable systems, but Jukka made sure everything was smooth and he took his time on those difficult concepts to make sure that almost everyone understands what’s going on. He even would post summaries of kind of difficult lectures that he went thru to make it easier to understand. He extended the homework a bunch of times, probably because a lot of people commented in his suggestion box, yes! He takes our suggestions very seriously. The labs in this class are a bit more difficult than 30A. I had an amazing TA and LA that were always very happy to help. He drops the lowest lab, so wait until lab 7 (mangroves tree) because that one is so hard, I did half of it because I didn’t feel like doing the rest. The homework takes a really long time, but super duper helpful. Midterm was easy, the final was kinda hard because it was a take home (corona virus situation) but there was extra credit so that was nice. Generally, he prepares his students very well for both midterms and finals. I’m going to miss Jukkaaaaa. Best professor at UCLA. Thank you for an awesome quarter.

Overall this class is graded very easily, but that is probably the only upside to it. The whole class is fake math that is really inapplicable to real life sciences. Jukka’s lectures were okay overall, sometimes he made no sense but sometimes he did. There was a lot of homework and sometimes the labs were tedious and difficult, but it’s all doable and not too hard. The only reason the class performed well on exams was because Jukka tells you EXACTLY what’s on the exam at his review sessions, and gives good study guides. He cares a lot about us getting good grades, but he just wasn’t a very clear lecturer and gave a lot of work.

Disclaimer: Taken Winter 2021 (Online Course)

Jukka is one of the best professors I have had. He is such an amazing person who cares so deeply for the success of each and every one of his students.

LS30B is definitely more challenging than LS30A but still is a very manageable mathematics course. Jukka also has many resources to make sure you do succeed in his class.

The class is graded on participation, weekly quizzes, labs, homework, midterm and final. The participation is basically free points. The weekly quizzes were probably the most difficult part of the class, but with a little review are very doable. The labs are pretty time consuming and can be frustrating but as long as you remember to use pseudocode to explain where necessary you should be good. The homework is pretty long and is graded on correctness but Jukka is very helpful in office hours and will go through very specific homework questions. The midterm and final are fair exams and Jukka will be sure to offer extra credit if the class does poorly.

I would highly recommend both this course and Jukka as a professor (also shout out to floppy and puffers)

I cannot even begin to come up with a proper review for this gem of a human being. Words do not do Jukka justice, he is genuinely the best professor and person I have met at UCLA. Class is doable and he gives so much extra credit -- he explicitly says he wants his students to do well and everyone does because he's an amazing teacher. I honestly would do anything for this man. TA Yitian was so sweet and so kind -- he literally went out of his way to help his students and was SO responsive to emails. Please take this class with Jukka. Also the vibes in this class were elite, so if you were in lecture 2 for w21 y'all are so amazing thank you always being so kind <3!