Professor
Koffi Enakoutsa
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2020 - (Updated in December) Note: this is a COVID-19 review. Grading: Homework 20%, 2 Midterms 25% each, Final 30%. — I think the fact that the other reviews are pretty mixed is indicative of how I felt about the class; I felt there was a mix of negative and positive aspects. Koffi Enakoutsa is absolutely a kind person, but it was his first quarter here at UCLA after having been at a few CSUs before, so I think he took some time adjusting to the school and the pace of the quarter system. Lectures were ok, not the best nor the worst, and he has a slight accent so it's sometimes difficult to understand him, but not impossible. For the most part, they followed the textbook, though he sometimes posted supplemental videos that built onto the lesson a bit more. He definitely tried his best to be accommodating of online learning. He extended our last few homework deadlines and was tolerant of late work. Lectures were recorded and he didn't require attendance, though he did give us a big scare about potential "live quizzes" to try to boost attendance mid-quarter due to declining numbers (which was a ruse, there didn't end up being any live quizzes). Homework was rather difficult, however. Towards the beginning of the quarter, we only seemed to get about 15 problems per lesson but it slowly ramped up as time went on, and many of the questions were from the "further insight" portion of the textbook's problem pool making them more theoretical, abstract and, in my opinion, difficult. — He later added on multiple choice quizzes which weren’t originally listed in the syllabus. These quizzes ended up accounting for 10% of our exam grades, so in a way they weren’t super high stakes (if you got a 0 then you’d still be able to get up to 90% on exams, and with random guessing you’d probably get greater than a 0). It’s just that some of us were just taken aback by the sudden addition of the quizzes. As stated the quizzes were all multiple choice, but were timed and tended to be very conceptual and abstract, much like the homework questions from the ends of the chapters. Your performance on them really depended on your conceptual understanding of the material. Of course, they were also open book much like everything else in the math department during Covid. — Exams were also tricky. Due to covid, we were given exams with 24-hour completion windows, but it was stated that the exams should've been possible to complete in the typical time frame that we'd usually have without covid. This did not feel entirely true for me personally, as some of the questions felt a bit too conceptual, similar to the homework. The more computational questions ended up being rather long and complex, and I used up quite a lot of space just showing work for them. That said I did ultimately end up getting an A on most of the exams, so I can't say they absolutely horrible. This may have been down to the extra time I had from the 24 hour policy, seeing as I used it to think more about the problem and construct a much more thorough answer than if I were working on the typical time limit. Koffi provides review sessions before several of his exams which are helpful since several of his examples reflect exam questions, so be sure to attend them whenever you can. — I think one reason people might experience varying degrees of difficulty is definitely due to experience with the material. Some people are coming in already knowing most if not all the material because they took AP Calculus BC and are only taking the class due to getting a 3 or 4 on the exam rather than a 5. People who did not take Calc BC but have something of a natural aptitude for math may also find this course not to be too challenging. People who are less of the mathematically thinking type or who only took AP Calculus AB (I fall into the Calc AB category) will be more likely to struggle due to lesser exposure to the more complex aspects of the class such as series. This brings me to another point that relates to my mixed feelings about this class: pacing felt very off - lessons on series were only covered the last 1-2 weeks of class. Personally, I found series to be the hardest topic in calculus, so the fact that we spent so much time on log and trig integration and so little time on series was what made me struggle the most on the final (there were numerous problems on series). — Personally, it's hard for me to say if I'd take math with Koffi Enakoutsa again. He really did try his best to accommodate us and he seems like a genuinely nice person. However, a lot of the assignments felt rather unnecessarily difficult and long. That said, some of that could be chalked up to the subject itself being hard to understand; the professor can't really take all the blame for the difficulty of the work. I do think a few of the homework problems and exam problems could've and possibly should've been changed to be more reflective of what we learned in lectures, but at the same time, I can't say they were impossible seeing as I ultimately figured things out and ended up with an A. I guess my recommendation would be that if you're good at math or are familiar with the material already, feel free to go for his class. If you aren't and there's a more highly rated professor teaching that same quarter, try to go for the other person. If the alternatives all seem to have worse reviews, or if there's a time conflict with the other sections of this class, or whatever situation makes it hard for you to choose another professor, go ahead and take this class and try not to feel too scared or worried. Go to office hours and ask your TA for help and put some time into studying for this class. You may struggle a bit, but I believe you'll be able to grind it out and make it through with enough effort.
Fall 2020 - (Updated in December) Note: this is a COVID-19 review. Grading: Homework 20%, 2 Midterms 25% each, Final 30%. — I think the fact that the other reviews are pretty mixed is indicative of how I felt about the class; I felt there was a mix of negative and positive aspects. Koffi Enakoutsa is absolutely a kind person, but it was his first quarter here at UCLA after having been at a few CSUs before, so I think he took some time adjusting to the school and the pace of the quarter system. Lectures were ok, not the best nor the worst, and he has a slight accent so it's sometimes difficult to understand him, but not impossible. For the most part, they followed the textbook, though he sometimes posted supplemental videos that built onto the lesson a bit more. He definitely tried his best to be accommodating of online learning. He extended our last few homework deadlines and was tolerant of late work. Lectures were recorded and he didn't require attendance, though he did give us a big scare about potential "live quizzes" to try to boost attendance mid-quarter due to declining numbers (which was a ruse, there didn't end up being any live quizzes). Homework was rather difficult, however. Towards the beginning of the quarter, we only seemed to get about 15 problems per lesson but it slowly ramped up as time went on, and many of the questions were from the "further insight" portion of the textbook's problem pool making them more theoretical, abstract and, in my opinion, difficult. — He later added on multiple choice quizzes which weren’t originally listed in the syllabus. These quizzes ended up accounting for 10% of our exam grades, so in a way they weren’t super high stakes (if you got a 0 then you’d still be able to get up to 90% on exams, and with random guessing you’d probably get greater than a 0). It’s just that some of us were just taken aback by the sudden addition of the quizzes. As stated the quizzes were all multiple choice, but were timed and tended to be very conceptual and abstract, much like the homework questions from the ends of the chapters. Your performance on them really depended on your conceptual understanding of the material. Of course, they were also open book much like everything else in the math department during Covid. — Exams were also tricky. Due to covid, we were given exams with 24-hour completion windows, but it was stated that the exams should've been possible to complete in the typical time frame that we'd usually have without covid. This did not feel entirely true for me personally, as some of the questions felt a bit too conceptual, similar to the homework. The more computational questions ended up being rather long and complex, and I used up quite a lot of space just showing work for them. That said I did ultimately end up getting an A on most of the exams, so I can't say they absolutely horrible. This may have been down to the extra time I had from the 24 hour policy, seeing as I used it to think more about the problem and construct a much more thorough answer than if I were working on the typical time limit. Koffi provides review sessions before several of his exams which are helpful since several of his examples reflect exam questions, so be sure to attend them whenever you can. — I think one reason people might experience varying degrees of difficulty is definitely due to experience with the material. Some people are coming in already knowing most if not all the material because they took AP Calculus BC and are only taking the class due to getting a 3 or 4 on the exam rather than a 5. People who did not take Calc BC but have something of a natural aptitude for math may also find this course not to be too challenging. People who are less of the mathematically thinking type or who only took AP Calculus AB (I fall into the Calc AB category) will be more likely to struggle due to lesser exposure to the more complex aspects of the class such as series. This brings me to another point that relates to my mixed feelings about this class: pacing felt very off - lessons on series were only covered the last 1-2 weeks of class. Personally, I found series to be the hardest topic in calculus, so the fact that we spent so much time on log and trig integration and so little time on series was what made me struggle the most on the final (there were numerous problems on series). — Personally, it's hard for me to say if I'd take math with Koffi Enakoutsa again. He really did try his best to accommodate us and he seems like a genuinely nice person. However, a lot of the assignments felt rather unnecessarily difficult and long. That said, some of that could be chalked up to the subject itself being hard to understand; the professor can't really take all the blame for the difficulty of the work. I do think a few of the homework problems and exam problems could've and possibly should've been changed to be more reflective of what we learned in lectures, but at the same time, I can't say they were impossible seeing as I ultimately figured things out and ended up with an A. I guess my recommendation would be that if you're good at math or are familiar with the material already, feel free to go for his class. If you aren't and there's a more highly rated professor teaching that same quarter, try to go for the other person. If the alternatives all seem to have worse reviews, or if there's a time conflict with the other sections of this class, or whatever situation makes it hard for you to choose another professor, go ahead and take this class and try not to feel too scared or worried. Go to office hours and ask your TA for help and put some time into studying for this class. You may struggle a bit, but I believe you'll be able to grind it out and make it through with enough effort.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2020 - Koffi is a very nice professor. Even though sometimes I cannot understand what he said during the class, it doesnt quite matter lol. His lecture slides are VERY USEFUL. If you dont have time to attend his lecture, make sure you go over his lecture slides and understand every SINGLE EXAMPLE QUESION so that you can perform well in HW and the exam. There are some tricky questions in the exam in which the wording is weird. You might lose some points on that but the other calculate-based questions are easy. Be sure to get clear with basic concepts. The workload of this class is not that light but not that heavy as well, you can manage that within a day or two for the weekly homework.
Fall 2020 - Koffi is a very nice professor. Even though sometimes I cannot understand what he said during the class, it doesnt quite matter lol. His lecture slides are VERY USEFUL. If you dont have time to attend his lecture, make sure you go over his lecture slides and understand every SINGLE EXAMPLE QUESION so that you can perform well in HW and the exam. There are some tricky questions in the exam in which the wording is weird. You might lose some points on that but the other calculate-based questions are easy. Be sure to get clear with basic concepts. The workload of this class is not that light but not that heavy as well, you can manage that within a day or two for the weekly homework.
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Most Helpful Review
Summer 2021 - Koffi is an extremely nice and affable professor, but that doesn't make up for how difficult it is to learn the material in his class. He goes over material extremely fast and skips steps all over the place, which makes understanding him through the live lectures almost impossible(I had to watch youtube videos in order to supplement the topics). The worst part isn't his bad handwriting or his really fast pace (even for a summer class) it's the raw amount of hw he assigns. He assigns 15-30 problems per lecture and they tend to be long, complicated, and harder than the tests problems. DO NOT wait to do these if you take him as he grades them for accuracy and they count for 20% of your grade. Overall I wish he was better at teaching because he is very excited for people to learn and did give a generous extra credit opportunity in the form of a real-world math project, however, this class can be much easier if taken with other professors.
Summer 2021 - Koffi is an extremely nice and affable professor, but that doesn't make up for how difficult it is to learn the material in his class. He goes over material extremely fast and skips steps all over the place, which makes understanding him through the live lectures almost impossible(I had to watch youtube videos in order to supplement the topics). The worst part isn't his bad handwriting or his really fast pace (even for a summer class) it's the raw amount of hw he assigns. He assigns 15-30 problems per lecture and they tend to be long, complicated, and harder than the tests problems. DO NOT wait to do these if you take him as he grades them for accuracy and they count for 20% of your grade. Overall I wish he was better at teaching because he is very excited for people to learn and did give a generous extra credit opportunity in the form of a real-world math project, however, this class can be much easier if taken with other professors.
Most Helpful Review
Summer 2021 - Math 61 for the Summer 2021 term was originally taught by Prof. Ozel. When Ozel left in the middle of Summer session A due to issues with his visa, Prof. Enakoutsa came in to substitute. Enakoutsa did a nice job teaching Math 61. Enakoutsa, while not the clearest lecturer (I strongly preferred Ozel's lectures to Enakoutsa's), genuinely cares about his students' learning and provides a lot of office hours for students to ask questions. He encourages students to unmute themselves in lecture to ask clarifying questions. While his answers aren't always the clearest, Enakoutsa is committed to improving his teaching ability. He takes student feedback on his teaching seriously. His tests were rather straightforward and 24 hour open note. During the end of the course, Enakoutsa sent an angry email to everyone about one of his students' evaluations on his teaching (allegedly it said Enakoutsa interrupted students in lecture ...). He could have responded in a calmer, less defensive manner.
Summer 2021 - Math 61 for the Summer 2021 term was originally taught by Prof. Ozel. When Ozel left in the middle of Summer session A due to issues with his visa, Prof. Enakoutsa came in to substitute. Enakoutsa did a nice job teaching Math 61. Enakoutsa, while not the clearest lecturer (I strongly preferred Ozel's lectures to Enakoutsa's), genuinely cares about his students' learning and provides a lot of office hours for students to ask questions. He encourages students to unmute themselves in lecture to ask clarifying questions. While his answers aren't always the clearest, Enakoutsa is committed to improving his teaching ability. He takes student feedback on his teaching seriously. His tests were rather straightforward and 24 hour open note. During the end of the course, Enakoutsa sent an angry email to everyone about one of his students' evaluations on his teaching (allegedly it said Enakoutsa interrupted students in lecture ...). He could have responded in a calmer, less defensive manner.
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Winter 2021 - NOT recommended. The grading of the class is based on homework (from textbook), projects (coding with Matlab and report in Latex), two midterms, and a final project (code + report + slides + live presentation and Q&A with professor). Overall: I personally learn little from this class. The professor is a nice guy but his handwriting is hard to read even in remote instruction, and I feel like he's not very good at explaining things. He really wanted interactions but sadly people don't always respond and it's kinda awkward. Homework assignments: The homework is unbelievably long.. It's not that there are a large number of questions, it's just the calculation sucks. While I understand this is a numerical method class and some amount of calculation is necessary, this is definitely too much- I'm not a computer and it sucks to calculate a system of 20+ equations, etc. Huge amount of repeated exercises with LOTS OF calculations makes the HW's such a pain. And it sucks oven more when the last homework is released on Mon of finals week and due on Friday.. Just imagine you climb out of your sofa after finally finished all your finals to do the homework with ton of calculations.. PAIN Projects: Honestly I'd say projects are ok mainly because they are graded kindly, despite the spec is unclear. You might get confused on what the professor really wants, but it's usually OK to just make an assumption and go on. So doable projects even with no previous experience in Matlab! Exams: Doable. Mainly about concepts- it makes me feel better since at least the exams are not THAT calculation intensive. But something to watch out: the schedule of midterms are pretty randomly decided and you'll not get an official notification until the night before (though you might know the day of midterm via discussion forums).
Winter 2021 - NOT recommended. The grading of the class is based on homework (from textbook), projects (coding with Matlab and report in Latex), two midterms, and a final project (code + report + slides + live presentation and Q&A with professor). Overall: I personally learn little from this class. The professor is a nice guy but his handwriting is hard to read even in remote instruction, and I feel like he's not very good at explaining things. He really wanted interactions but sadly people don't always respond and it's kinda awkward. Homework assignments: The homework is unbelievably long.. It's not that there are a large number of questions, it's just the calculation sucks. While I understand this is a numerical method class and some amount of calculation is necessary, this is definitely too much- I'm not a computer and it sucks to calculate a system of 20+ equations, etc. Huge amount of repeated exercises with LOTS OF calculations makes the HW's such a pain. And it sucks oven more when the last homework is released on Mon of finals week and due on Friday.. Just imagine you climb out of your sofa after finally finished all your finals to do the homework with ton of calculations.. PAIN Projects: Honestly I'd say projects are ok mainly because they are graded kindly, despite the spec is unclear. You might get confused on what the professor really wants, but it's usually OK to just make an assumption and go on. So doable projects even with no previous experience in Matlab! Exams: Doable. Mainly about concepts- it makes me feel better since at least the exams are not THAT calculation intensive. But something to watch out: the schedule of midterms are pretty randomly decided and you'll not get an official notification until the night before (though you might know the day of midterm via discussion forums).
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