Professor Oleg was quite honestly one of the worst professors I've had the displeasure of having out of the 4 quarters that I've been at UCLA. Though he is enthusiastic enough about the subject matter and may genuinely want to help his students learn, he simply lacks the capabilities to be a good teacher. He fails to explain concepts properly, rushes through proofs, and stumbles over his thoughts and contradicts himself quite frequently, which only harms my ability to learn as I get confused as to what's right and wrong. Furthermore, he does not use the textbook at ALL, and creates his own practice problems for which he provides NO answers. This feels like such ludicrous behavior! Because the least the professor could do is release answers to the homework assignments after their due dates so students can check their understanding and see whether they got the answers correct or not. However, because he refused to publish answers to the assignments, my peers and I found it very difficult to study for the exams, which were whole other frustrating matters themselves.

What disappointed me the most was that this is a class that is important and relevant to my major and career path, but because I had him as a professor, I did not learn as much as I could have and I found myself struggling to grasp the contents. Initially I thought I was alone in this matter, but after attending discussion I soon realized my peers and I were in the same boat. The TA, Thomas Martinez, acted more like our professor than our actual professor because my TA would do a much better job in explaining the concepts. There were countless instances where my peers and I stated "Woah, he did not go over that in lecture at all," or "now it makes sense! He didn't teach us this at all." Martinez concurred with our comments on the professor's painfully obvious ineptness when it came to teaching after he saw how clueless the students were on most days after lecture.

This class was not easy. The workload was not that manageable (bc he would assign 20+ problems per week and NEVER give us answers to them). He was never clear (I had to YouTube most stuff or rely on my TA). And lastly, he was not helpful. Avoid him if you can, anyone is better than him. But if you have no other choice, good luck.

It's sad because he is a good person, but I do not believe that he is a good professor.

Y'all I'm going to be wildly honest.

1. I am not good at math (was openly the worst in my high school, luv that).
2. I did not attend lecture.
3. I did not attend discussion.

Oleg Gleizer is AMAZING. He's so nice, funny, and he's one of those professors where you can tell that he's truly passionate about what he's teaching. If you get the chance, I really recommend attending lecture. He often goes completely off topic, and I know that bothers some students.

However: he always remembers that this is a class, and it's unfair to constantly give us random tidbits and test us on different material. So, he often includes the fun little examples from lectures on his tests and quizzes.

Having barely ever attended lecture, and having never attended discussion, I was able to get close to 100 on all three exams just by looking at examples in his notes and in the textbook. I highly recommend taking this class with Gleizer, because his tests are so fair. Find the question on the test, look at his notes, look at the textbook, look at similar homework problems and find their solutions. You got this.

lowkey a glorified physics class

Worst professor I ever had. He understands concepts but doesn't explain them well is is generally all over the place in lectures. Not very understanding of the fact that the concepts discussed in this class are difficult to grasp the first time around yet adamantly refused to record lectures.

I had mixed feelings about this class. Gleizer was clearly passionate about mathematics, but this class's lack of organization made 31A my most stressful course this quarter. Grade breakdown was initially: 50% homework (6 homeworks, lowest score dropped), 10% midterm 1, 10% midterm 2, 30% final. It was eventually changed to: 50% homework (5 homeworks, lowest score dropped), 16.6% midterm 1, 16.6% midterm 2, 16.6% final.

We were initially supposed to cover 6 chapters, but by Week 4, we were still on Chapter 1. In the end, we only covered 5 chapters, and this ended up changing how final grades would be broken down. To compensate for our falling behind, Gleizer decided to post 2 one-hour-long lectures every Friday. On top of somewhat rushed, very long homework assignments, I found the content of this class very overwhelming. Gleizer actually managed to lose one entire lecture and part of another, and he didn't rerecord the content. He told us that some of the lost content wouldn't be on any exams, but it ended up being on the midterm. For the first midterm, he actually gave us less than a week's notice regarding when the exam would be, which I found inconsiderate. I guess while Gleizer is a very witty, passionate instructor, I can't help but admit I was disappointed with this class. Neither Gleizer nor his students could have known we would fall behind, but the rushed nature of this course, on top of the addition of extra lectures, made me feel I was forced to commit more time to this course than initially described. I unfortunately don't feel prepared for MATH 31B.

Take this class with a different professor!! Professor made the final very challenging just because the class did well on TAKE HOME, COLLABORATIVE midterms. The average for the 3-hour+ final that was worth 50% of the grade was 52%. Around 44% on the final was needed to pass the class if all other points were earned which most people did.

I think I would probably die in this class if it were in person but open book tests really helped out and were quite similar to problems he did during lectures, so if you're taking this in person I'd probably recommend really studying his lecture problems. He was a bit ranty at times and went on tangents but honestly as not a math major it was still pretty interesting. He's enganging and really kind and sweet and cared for his students- often moving hw and quizzes and stuff if people asked for it. Also, if you're a math major he's incredibly accomplished it seems so I would probably recommend going to his office hours.

Overall, lovely man with an incredible background. You'll need to put in some work but I think you'll enjoy the final product :)

~During Covid~

LEAST FAVORITE PROFESSOR I'VE HAD THUS FAR AT UCLA

His lectures were basically useless to me - I just sat there confused and overwhelmed. He's too smart to explain anything, and he just can't fathom how we don't understand. The worst part is how pretentious he is about it - everything is "so easy and fun." The homework was basically 20 problems per week that took me AT LEAST 8 hours, at most 20, because I had to get help for almost every problem, which definitely got hard when the TA strike started.

He made fun of me in office hours for being stressed about the class, and he was very dismissive other times about mental health as well. I get he doesn't want to be taken advantage of like with extensions and stuff, but I feel like especially with such a huge workload he could've been a little kinder.

The midterms were take-home, open note/book, and allowed collaboration. That's the only reason I did well, and then Gleizer seemed upset we did well on it :/

Oh yeah, and the final, which was a normal final, was worth 50% of the grade. Guess what the average was? 52%

He assumed we would do as well on it as if it were like the midterms, which is just lacking in common sense. He made no adjustments due to the TA strike, and the exam wasn't really based on what we "learned" - just problems he "liked."

Honestly, I could say more, but I don't want to be too excessive. I'm just really disappointed with this class - it kind of made me hate math :(

Doesn’t like when the class passes take home midterms so in returns he makes the exam impossible which is 50% of your grade. They have easier professors go take them.

Incredibly condescending and had no flexibility with the strike and loss of a TA, at least a quarter of the class failed. Most failed the final.