Professor Bennoun was very helpful and definitely cares about his students understanding of the course material. His lectures were great, I liked how he posted the slides for us to use and follow along with him. The discussion component and use of clicker questions in the course were also very useful. The coding aspect of this class was the only part I did not significantly enjoy. It was hard to connect the coding to the labs and hard to fully grasp the techniques of coding. Overall, I do not regret taking this class and I look forward to having Bennoun for LS 30B in Winter Quarter.

To be honest, I've never been more salty about a class. I had a 98% the entire quarter and he adjusted grading scales down by 3% to account for the TA strike, so I was cocky about the final. I just skimmed over review. And then I ended with what should've been a B+. Don't discount the final even if you had an A+ the entire quarter. I'm still beating myself up over it.
That aside, Bennoun is a really understanding and great professor. The labs suddenly jump in difficulty at one point, but other than that the class was pretty easy. 10/10 would take again.

TLDR: Professor Bennoun is the best, but LS 30A is not really a traditional calculus class at all.

First, about Professor Bennoun. Dr. Bennoun is an extremely helpful and accommodating professor. He is interesting and teaches extremely well during lecture and is fairly approachable for his students to ask for help. Lectures are interactive due to his frequent use of iClicker questions and other group activities related to the concepts. He was incredibly accommodating during the fall quarter of 2022 due to the TA strike, lowering grade thresholds and allowing for other changes in the course setup. Overall, Dr. Bennoun is a 10/10 professor - genuinely nice and cares for his students.

Now, as for the LS 30A course itself. While advisors and counselors often said this was an "easy calculus class for pre-meds", LS 30A is not at all a traditional calculus course. In fact, it did not really even feel too much like a traditional math class. There was a MAXIMUM of 2-3 classes spent on actual calculus, while the majority of the content was applications of calculus/math to biological systems and models. Taking AP Calculus in high school does not do much to help you in this class. Knowing actual calculus doesn't really matter all that much for this class either; that being said, the class is still easy. The labs were all computer programming, which felt strange for a math class, especially one for biology students. That being said, with any coding experience, the labs should be a breeze, and the TAs were quite helpful in guiding students through the coding. Overall, the class was enjoyable, but if you're looking for a traditional math/calculus course, LS 30A does not fit that description.

This class is pretty easy if you do the bare minimum and put the work in, professor is very accommodating and gives a lot of extra points.

Overall, this class was alright. If you've never taken calculus before, like me, then this class may be challenging for you. Dr. Bennoun is a very fair professor and definitely cares about his students opinions and takes their feedback to better the class. Despite all this, this class caused me to switch my major due to it's extremely annoying coding lab and confusing content. LS30A is definitely a unique form of calculus, and you'll either love it or hate it.

Bennoun was an amazing prof to have for my first quarter at UCLA. He's very approachable, helpful, and genuinely seems like a nice person. The class itself was pretty easy at first but got harder at the end since concepts became more conceptual and less "mathy." I say this as someone who scored pretty well in AP Calc BC and was expecting to take Calc 3 before being told the ls math series was the primary pathway for premeds and not the math 31 series. Classes with Bennoun are a bit different from the typical lecture. He teaches with slides which he annotates on his ipad like a whiteboard but there are a ton of iClicker questions to keep people focused, and whenever the majority of the class doesn't give the right answer, he gives about 5 minutes for people to discuss their answers with the people they're sitting next to so that more people reach a consensus on the right answer. I met a bunch of people from having to discuss iClicker questions with them and I felt like I was wayy more likely to make friends/acquaintances in this class than any other. The canvas homepage is organized super well and you can find every bit of material in the course from the very beginning. The textbook is FREE (Bennoun sends a link to download the pdf right at the beginning of the quarter). There are two assignments that need to be done once a week for the class: homework and labs. Homework is due every week on Wednesday at 10 pm and from my experience usually takes 1-3 hours to complete. Labs are meant to be started in the 2 hour lab section you have every week, with the previous week's lab being due at the start of the current week's lab section. The labs actually involve coding with what I've heard is a simplified version of Python. You start off basic with naming and initializing variables but it gets much harder as the weeks go on. If you have experience with coding you'll be fine, but I really felt bad for the people who didn't. I had taken AP Computer Science A in high school and would always finish the labs during the two-hour lab section (sometimes I'd even finish early and get to leave up to an hour before the end of the section), but from what I heard most people would have to finish the lab on their own time and struggled without help from the TA when they were on their own. And then there was the TA strike. I cannot stress enough how overly generous Bennoun was with grading and class resources because of the strike. Our grade thresholds were lowered by 3% so an 87 still counted as an A-, the final ended up being wayy easier than the midterm (I finished in 1 hour and the final was supposed to be 3 hours), the lab practical was cancelled, and everyone got full credit on a bunch of their labs at the end of the quarter for some reason. He made it almost too easy. Bottom line: Bennoun is a great prof and he makes sure that everyone has everyone has what they need to succeed (plus a bit more).

I didn’t always find the content super easy, as I had trouble paying attention in class. The labs and homework could be challenging for me. However, Professor Bennoun is the most accommodating professor in the world. Due to the TA strike, he shifted grade thresholds down by 3%, allowed a double sided note sheet for the final, and removed the lab practical, instead making our lab grades take the place of our lab practical grade. In addition, he gave 3 extra credit points total for filling out surveys regarding the class. Lastly, he gave us full points for over half of our labs in order to make up for inconsistencies in grading. I got a low B on the midterm and a B+ on the final, but ended with an A+. The professor has 3 different schemes of grading for the class and whichever is the highest is ur final grade. Though I did not do too well on the midterm or final, completing the homework and labs, along with all of the accommodations the professor made, allowed me to end with an A+. I will be taking this professor next quarter!

Dr Bennoun is so incredibly nice and I would take a class with him again but you are not going to enjoy this class if you don't like math, especially calculus. It's the worst thing ever and if you already have trouble understanding mathematic concepts, you're gonna have an even harder time applying it in this class. On top of that the coding is absolutely awful. It starts out easy and you think you can do it, but then all of a sudden it's impossible. At least it was for me. I would say that if this class is not required for your major, don't take it unless you're prepared to be challenged in these areas or if you like subjects like math/coding.

BEST PROF EVER
Professor Bennoun was so incredibly helpful and accommodating. He gave us every single resource we needed to do well in the course, and the workload was completely manageable. He's also super funny and keeps the lectures engaging. He's a great lecturer and you can tell he wants all his students to succeed. The only thing I didn't like about this course were the labs but that's just because I suck at coding. Even then, the coding was beginner level and very doable with the help of the TAs. I'm taking 30b with Bennoun again next quarter because of how great he was. I definitely recommend!

HE'S THE BEST

He genuinely cares about student learning, and he made adjustments to the class structure and even canceled our tough final coding part as a result of the strike.

The TA/LA is also amazing, they all help us as best as they can and there's plenty of office hour opportunities to ask questions.

Midterm / Final was straight forward. I got a 100 on my midterm but I'm still awaiting my final grades. Very fair in terms of content asked as the review sessions were literally what our test was.

The only tough part for me was coding, but that's because I don't have coding experience. It's still doable as they teach you how to do it, but it takes a while if you don't know what you're doing.