The class itself is pretty easy, especially if you know basic calculus already.
The lectures aren't the best, but you can tell the professor is doing his best. His tests aren't very hard but the grading is a little iffy. The curve is pretty generous though.

It's easy to see that Prof. Nurbekyan genuinely wants to be of assistance to his students.

As someone who often struggles with calculus, I'll honestly say that the C I received was generous, so the curve really helped ! I think the professor saw that I was making an effort to grasp the material as best as I could, and knew the minimum grade I needed for this class to qualify as a prereq for my major.

Although many say that this professor's lectures were monotone and average, from my point of view, he was doing the best he could, because honestly my class didn't give him much to work with as there was very little participation during the lectures.

I would recommend this class to a friend, as the workload was very manageable, and the professor is one of the nicest staff members I've encountered while at UCLA. He made an effort to know the names of the students, ask their opinions on the class, and genuinely made an effort to ask us how our first year experience at UCLA was going.

He was a big help during office hours, and a couple times, I noticed that he had stayed a whole extra hour after his designated office hours to help the struggling students.

Levon tries and cares about his students. However, sometimes he's not very clear or explains things in a very complicated way. I took AP Calc AB and it wasn't difficult. I mostly sat at the back of his lecture on my computer taking notes when I heard something new or something that I didn't quite remember. I think it was his first time teaching because the first midterm was so easy almost everyone got a perfect score, then the second one was pretty hard, but the final was fair. The homework wasn't so bad, around ten or fifteen problems per week, all from the textbook.

I'm selling the textbook, Single Variable Calculus Fourth Edition $80 *************

UMMM Nurbekyan is not a great teacher but he's a really nice guy and his class is super easy. The first midterm was a joke I think the median was a 94. And I don't feel like the easiness of his class is setting me back in 31B at all. so would recommend I guess

Overall the class was quite average. I did the assignments with rusty knowledge of Calculus AB and BC from high school but still didn't do as well as I imagined. The first midterm was very easy, but the second was fairly challenging in comparison. I blanked and forgot the distance formula (yes, the old distance formula from years ago) and therefore was not able to complete a 15 point question. My TA Max was a nice guy, but he really struggled to present concise material and would often leave problems unfinished. One of the other TAs (mentioned in reviews) provided review sessions with very similar questions to the exams. To be honest, coming from someone without this TA, I felt highly disadvantaged. I believe that the final should have been curved and I would have appreciated more complicated problems being presented in lecture.

ok so basically Levon is what you would call a very mediocre teacher. I can't say he's a mean teacher, but I can't say he's an exceptionally nice teacher either. he's just mediocre.

that said, his teaching skills are horrid. he spend every lecture mumbling, facing the board, scribbling problems that were so simple yet he made them seem impossible to do. his in class problems never deviated from the examples in the textbook, yet his tests were drastically different. every example problem he did, no matter how straightforward, seemed like another language. furthermore, he never introduces a topic or explains what type of question he is doing OR EVEN NAMES THE CHAPTER WE ARE ON, instead he starts scribbling on the board with no introduction, going from problem to problem with no explanation. his biggest fault is that he lacks simplicity. solving example problems from the book are hardly difficult, yet he always chooses to solve a problem in the hardest possible manner with little explanation.

aside from Levon's subpar teaching skills, most of the TAs were also generally unhelpful. I just don't understand why some of these people choose to teach. Kyle gettig, my TA, was possibly worse at teaching than Levon. he just had no clue how to clearly and precisely explain any topic. asking a question will only further confuse you with this TA. HOWEVER JOSEPH BREEN is A LITERAL SAVIOR IN THE MATH DEPARTMENT. THIS MAN IS THE CEO OF MATH, CALCULUS, AND DERIVING. HE TOOK TIME OUT OF HIS PERSONAL LIFE TO LEAD TWO REVIEW SESSIONS BEFORE THE TESTS WHEN OUR OWN PROFESSOR COULDNT EVEN MAKE A STUDY GUIDE. IF ANYONE DESERVES CREDIT FOR SIMPLIFYING THIS MATH CLASS IT IS JOE.

ILY JOE

so yea if you take this course FIND JOE

Levon is a really nice guy, bad lecturer. His office hours are actually useful if you have specific questions for specific problems. The lectures were not engaging and hard to understand. I felt like they were useless. The textbook is overpriced, you should try to find a pdf online or just use the one from Powell. You need the textbook to do the homework problems. Joe was by far the best TA. He's super approachable and hosts very helpful review sessions. This class should be very doable if you took Calc AB in high school. If you didn't, I recommend finding a TA like Joe and going to Levon's office hours, especially to go over midterms and the HW. Sometimes he raises your grade if you make a good argument for yourself.

Professor Nurbekyan relies heavily on the textbook, so much that some lectures felt like he was reciting the textbook. It wasn't a bad thing, it just would've been a lot better if he used the lecture time to teach it in his own terms. Regardless, he was alright. Lectures tended to be monotonous, but important as he does show some tips on how to tackle questions that will come up in the midterms and final. Speaking of which, the first midterm will feel like cake-walk, but the second one will hurt if you don't FULLY understand related rates and minimization/maximization. The final was a mixed bag; some questions took mere seconds while one or two really took your time. Again, emphasize your study time on related rates and optimization, as he loves these types of questions.

Also, he likes to wear an iconic red tracksuit sweater, so keep an eye out for that in class :)

This class was kinda all over the place. Levon is a super nice guy and he works really hard to try and help you understand the materials. I took calc AB in high school and had a good teacher and so I had a great foundation for the class. The homework was tedious but really important to understanding and applying the information in class. I never went to discussion because my TA was really bad, but I didn’t need it for the midterms. Here is where the problem comes in. I did really well on homework and got 98% on the first test because it was ridiculously easy. The second test was much harder, but I talked to him and he said he didn’t mean for it to be that he’d and he would curve it which he did so you ended up getting an A again. The problem was the final. It was an almost impossible final and I did so bad on it that it killed my grade. Take him but be prepared for him to reformat his tears because I think we all did so good on the first one that he made them much more difficult than they needed to be.

Not sure what the background is from these other reviews but I'm going to be honest and say he is not that good of a professor. No study guides for midterms or finals, talks to the board instead of the class and expects you to know topics ahead of time. I do have little to no experience in calculus and it kinda sucked taking him. He is a very nice person but I don't believe he knows how to structure or teach a course just yet... I only recommend you take him if you already have lots of previous knowledge in calc otherwise goodluck..