I now understand why they tell you not to use Bruinwalk, and only people who really love or really hate their professors post reviews there.
Listen. I'm neither. I took Calculus in high school, and I took the LS 30 series before this (I changed my major). Is Pablo the best math teacher I've ever had? No. Of course not. He might even be the worst, but that's because I've had really good math teachers.
But does he deserve a 1.8 rating on Bruinwalk? Absolutely not!! I have had genuinely terrible professors who do not care about their students whatsoever, and none of them have a score below a 2.0. Professor Scerri, who is generally regarded as the worst chemistry professor at this school, who has been nicknamed "Professor Scary," has 3.0. Professor Nakamoto, the bane of every biochemistry major, who is so awful that even her TAs hate her, has a 2.6. The people here calling Pablo a bad professor have never met a bad professor in their lives.
Do not listen to the reviews of entitled freshmen. Don't rearrange your entire four-year plan just to avoid Pablo. He's a nice guy, and he genuinely cares about his students. He's trying, and that's more than I can say about many of the faculty at UCLA.

Some nice things about Pablo:
-He gives you the textbook for free. for FREE, guys. Free, did you hear me?
-His course website is well-designed (he does not use Bruinlearn/Canvas)
-He has three different grading schemes, which are designed to benefit you
-His tests are very straightforward
-You get points just from going to discussions and working on hw (no useless discussion busy work)

Is this class hard? Of course, it is. It's Math 31B, guys. But listen to me, a seasoned UCLA veteran who had to redo the math requirement because she changed her major, YOU WILL GET THROUGH IT! And you will grow from it!

don't listen to the pablo hate!! he genuinely cares a lot about his students, and lectures are generally engaging and useful. they could be slightly confusing at times, but going to discussion every week REALLY helped. jack was an amazing TA!!

the exams were very reasonable, and the workload is pretty light. the grading on the exams is also very generous, and pablo uses a grading scheme that lets you drop one or both of the midterms. ocal is a funny guy who is def very knowledgable about the subject & cares about the success of his students. he listened to and incorporated student feedback consistently (and dropped discussions/homeworks when enough of the class participated in the feedback forms).

no cheat sheets/calculators on the tests, but the exams were exactly like the practice ones he would post so I always felt very prepared. linear algebra isn't that hard of a subject, it just might take a while to click, so use your resources (discussions and TA office hours helped me the most).

don't be scared of pablo, take this professor if you get the chance!!

So Sanchez-Ocal is definitely a guy of all time. I would trust the reviews that have come before mine. So his lectures are straight out of the textbook (which was free, in my case. I am definitely glad about that). The textbook is about as unhelpful as he is. The readings are in very basic detail. The same is true with his lectures.

Then the homework is somewhat difficult compared to the examples from the texbook and the lectures. And the exams seem borderline impossible.

The only saving grace is the grading scheme, so if you grind really hard for the final, you can still get a good grade.

pablo sanchez ocal doesn't deserve the hate. he teaches straight from the textbook and though his lectures can be slightly confusing at the start, that's just because linear algebra is conceptual course and the content takes time to process in your head. HIS TESTS ARE A LOT EASIER than the homework problems and they are also extremely straightforward. there is barely any homework and the lectures + discussions aren't even mandatory. the grading scales are also super generous, it's hard to do bad in this class especially because pablo is always so willing to help and improve based on student feedback. i highly recommend pablo (+ his t-shirts are funny) for linear algebra !!!!!

In terms of teaching, probably the worst professor I've ever had. Lectures were extremely confusing and it seemed that he relied wayyy too much on the textbook because he would read almost word for word from the textbook. It didn't help that the textbook was also not very good. Put simply, he didn't do a very good job with explaining the concepts and it eventually got to a point a few weeks in where I just couldn't watch his lectures. The only reason I did well was that he copied his test questions from the textbook, so as long as you knew how to do the textbook problems, you were fine (he gives you a link to the textbook, no need to buy it). As for the class itself, I can't really say how much I liked it because of how bad Ocal did of teaching it, but if you need to take this class, do not take this professor unless you can teach the concepts yourself in which case you will do well on tests since he copies problems from the textbook.

I would say Pablo is one of the worst professors in terms of teaching here at UCLA. He is a great guy, extremely genuine and kind. But I don't think I have ever had a teacher that is more confusing than him. Often times in lecture, he will miscalculate his own computations. Because of this, during essential theories- he just won't compute them because it takes him too long to do them correctly. It's extremely difficult to learn this way, when even the teacher is not willing to rehash the work in such a computation heavy class.
After week 3, the majority of the class stopped showing up. Everyone I knew stopped watching lectures and just started self studying using the textbook.
One thing I appreciate about Pablo is that his exams are straight out of the textbook- so doing the textbook questions and checking the answers in the back will help you a lot. His grading schemes are also extremely clutch.

I had Pablo for Math 31B, which I confess was a difficult course with him. However, since I took him the last time, I'm not sure if it's because he prefers linear algebra over calculus or if he's absorbed all of the reviews he's gotten, but man has he improved significantly. I can now confirm that he is in fact a brilliant professor!
Every homework (and exam) problem was manageable and accurately represented what he lectured on. He did not assign any tedious homework and, in fact, made part of it optional through ”recommended exercises.” Not to mention that some of our exam problems were similar, if not identical, to those from homework and discussion.
He is not out to trick you or anything. He’s easily accessible and if you need help, don’t be afraid to go to OH! He’s super friendly. Thanks for a great quarter Pablo!

This professor essentially just recited the textbook to the class during lecture. Many people didn't even show up despite his lectures not being recorded. He showed simple examples of problems, but didn't elaborate on any higher difficulty questions despite putting them on the exams. I would not recommend taking this lecture if you have trouble understanding math quickly.

Don't, just do not

This class consisted of homework, discussion worksheets, a midterm, and a final.
Like almost all other math classes, there are two grading schemes, where the second scheme drops the midterm.

Grading Scheme 1:
Homework 25%
Discussion 15%
Midterm 25%
Final 35%

Grading Scheme 2:
Homework 25%
Discussion 15%
Final 60%

The homeworks and discussion worksheets were extremely difficult since they were based on accuracy (at first) and the TA was very nitpicky on our answers. Not mentioning a certain theorem or even missing a step could cost you a lot of points. However, during the second half of the quarter, the TA began to grade on completion which definitely saved me a ton of points. The good thing is that the TA would make comments on our homework and discussion worksheets on what was wrong or what we need to do.

The midterm and final were essentially like the practice exams he gave us. However, don't rely on just going over these practice exams because the TA is also nitpicky with our exam answers. I remembered how the professor had solved one of the exam questions during a review session, and I understood and remembered it. However, my TA still took off a lot of points for my answer to that exam saying that I didn't really explain my proof. So, the professor and TA seemed to have their own ways to prove the problems.

Speaking of the professor, the lectures were definitely not that helpful as all he would do is write down theorems/ideas briefly and then spend a lot of time proving that theorem without using much time to go over examples. Most, if not all, of the examples that he did do were from the textbook, so anyone could've self-studied the class. With that being said, I stopped going to lectures after Week 4 since I realized I would be better off studying on my own. I will say that the professor is nice and approachable at least.

Overall, the content is definitely difficult and the homework and discussion assignments can be time consuming since the TA is strict with grading. Even if the exams are like the practice tests, I recommend studying a lot and meeting with the TA to make sure your solutions follow what the TA wants. Although he wasn't as bad compared to what I had heard from the Math 31B students, he was still pretty bad and I would not take a class from this professor again.