I took this class during a Covid/pandemic quarter and honestly, Jukka is a real one. He's very understanding and flexible about people's situations/if something unexpected happens and truly wants his students to succeed. He also responds to emails promptly and is always willing to extend deadlines for us if we need it.

The weekly homework assignments (problems taken out of the free textbook, you don't need to buy anything) were very time-consuming to me but I found that many people are willing to help and each other out and explain concepts if we didn't understand them. He also drops the two lowest homework assignments and does like half of the problems during his office hours (which he records and posts).

It depends on the TA, but attendance to labs were optional for me. If you have a good TA, you'll probably finish or mostly finish your coding assignments before the lab ends. If not, you have to work on them as homework and they get collected at the start of the next lab. During labs, the TA will briefly go over the coding assignment as a whole group and then you get put into breakout sessions with your designated group (the one you take the midterm and final with) for the rest of the time. You can choose to work on the assignment with your group or individually. It honestly depends on how close your group gets to each other. Your lowest lab grade gets dropped.

Weekly quizzes are kind of tough but they're 4-5 questions from 2-4 lessons each week. He gives you two attempts for it, but takes the average of your two attempts. The lowest weekly quiz score gets dropped. Make sure to read over the lesson slides before you take it.

There were 3 parts to the midterm and final: a study guide portion (60 points), an individual portion (80 points), and a group portion (60 points). The study guide and group portion are basically free points and you work on them with the group that you're put into in the beginning of the school year. It's really a gamble but my group was amazing and became good friends over the course of the quarter. He also posts practice midterms/finals (basically old exams from past years) and a general outline for us to study off of. On top of all that, he holds review sessions the weekend before exams to clarify and go over anything we didn't understand.

Since Jukka is amazing, he also has 20 points of extra credit automatically implemented in his grading scheme for everyone they're basically buffer points so you can miss 90 points overall in the class and still get an A (since the maximum amount of points are 1000 and he's giving you 20 free points).

EASY CLASS!

IF YOU CAN TAKE JUKKA TAKE HIM!!!
He is the best professor I have had. He's funny, he cares about his students, the workload isn't too bad, he gives extra credit, and his tests aren't hard. Jukka takes time during class to answer questions and clarify content. He has clicker questions during class, but they are also up on CCLE for you to complete (due 1 week after class meets). He usually chooses 10 homework problems (2 pts each) to grade (based on accuracy) and adds 5pts for completing the assignment. He also offers extra credit throughout the quarter. We have weekly quizzes, which are sometimes hard, but they are helpful. The labs don't really connect to the material we learn, but they aren't difficult since the TAs and LAs help you. He drops the lowest score for each section (lab, lab quiz, weekly quiz, homework, and participation quiz). There's 1 midterm and 1 final. Jukka holds review sessions the weekend before the exam (go to them, they are USEFUL). His exams are divided in 3 parts: study guide, individual part, and team part. The study guide part you literally create a study guide with your learning team (can be used during exam). The individual exam has mostly calculations with some conceptual parts (all multiple choice). The team part you work with your learning team and complete 3-5 additional problems. Overall, his exams are fair and if you do bad in one part, you can bring your grade up with the other 2 parts. I would definitely take another class with Jukka.

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!

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)

First of all, Jukka is a literal legend for (1) Being so damn helpful, (2) Keeping everybody reassured about their grades/exams, (3) Having a good sense of humor (as compared to other professors), and (4) Holding review sessions that involve the SAME EXACT questions as his midterm and final. The only downside that I could find would be the workload in this class, since it does require at least 3 hours a week to complete. While the workload of this class is pretty heavy as compared to the others, most of the studying you will do for this class will be the homework. Again, I cannot emphasize this enough, GO TO HIS REVIEW SESSIONS! HE PULLS QUESTIONS STRAIGHT OUT OF HIS PRACTICE EXAMS FOR HIS ACTUAL MIDTERM AND FINAL!

Jukka is the best.

Selling the required book:
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(619)248-8533

I took Jukka's LS30A class during COVID times. He is honestly a great professor, I'm so glad I got him as one of my first professors here at UCLA.
In terms of what his class looked like, it was well structured. You're assigned into a learning group with a few students in your same class and lab. You work with them during the coding labs that you're assigned weekly. The actual coding labs weren't too hard as someone who has no experience coding. There was a homework that was assigned weekly that had to be turned in by Friday 5pm. Two times during the quarter we all asked for an extension on the homework and he gave it to us so there's that. Also, go to his office hours and ask questions about the homework, or at least review his office hours. He honestly goes over a lot of homework problems during those times so that's helpful. Each module we covered came with a weekly quiz (honestly, the answers were in the slides that you had to go over before and after class so the quizzes weren't a big deal if you paid attention. They were participation quizzes). Then there were weekly quizzes, those were a little more of a big deal. He was nice enough to drop the lowest grade on your homework, participation quiz, weekly quiz, and lab. What a great guy. There was one midterm and one final. The midterm and final were broken up into three parts: a study guide that you make with your assigned learning group, a test you did by yourself, and then a test you did with your assigned group. As you can see, there was collaboration in your final and midterm that helped you NOT fail.
If you're worried about going into this course because you didn't take calculus in high school, seriously do not worry. The concepts themselves are really easy and I'd say 14% of what we covered was "math" math, stuff that you would've learned in high school. Either way, he goes super slow when we're learning calculus stuff and he's very through. If you did take calculus and you know what a limit is, how to take a derivative, and euler's method, and integrals, you're pretty much set for the "calculus" portion of this course. I want to emphasize though that at least the first half of this course is not calculus. You will be okay.
The course is not extremely hard, and Jukka himself is such a wonderful professor. He is kind, and helpful, and makes you feel welcome. It's easy to ask questions in class, and even if you type a question in the zoom chat, someone is bound to answer.
Last thing, if you do take this class, say hi to Flippy and Puffers for me :)

I was nervous about taking a math series as I have never considered myself a "math person" or have enjoyed it much either. That being said, Jukka is hands-down one of the most helpful, engaging, and enthusiastic professors I've ever had at UCLA. He holds several 2-hour review sessions for both the midterm and the final exam, where he goes over the midterm or final he gave his students one year prior. He posts all of his slides on CCLE and encourages students to go over them.

The weekly homework came from the textbook and sometimes had difficult questions, but if I needed help, it seemed like there was always a TA holding office hours and I also found it helpful to go to the professor himself. They will take the time to explain concepts to you and ensure that you aren't confused. For the midterm and final, I thought that the material he tested was fair, as it followed directly from the (4!!) practice exams he put on CCLE weeks prior. Work aside, I really enjoyed coming to this class 3x a week. Jukka really cares about his students, encourages questions, makes detailed slides, and has a great sense of humor. He cares a lot about how his students are doing and it shows.