Venugopal is the worst teacher I have ever had. She doesn't explain things well at all and takes an entire lecture to reach the main point, which she doesn't even explain. If there is any way to take this class with a different professor I highly recommend choosing someone like Conley who actually knows what he is doing

Don't take this class with her. Math that is very easy in hindsight seemed much more difficult learning it from her.

I haven't even finished this class yet but I can't stand it anymore. I had Venugopal last quarter and for some reason, it just got so much more unbearable this quarter. I understand professors need to respond to feedback but there was complete overhaul in how the class was designed and different, doesn't necessarily mean better.

Professor V started doing bi-weekly quizzes on top of our usual midterm and final. I wouldn't say they were particularly difficult but the build-up to each exam made the work load incredibly tedious and sincerely unnecessary. We had to do study guides before each exam and because the professor couldn't finish covering material in lecture, she assigned a ridiculous amount of asynchronous videos. It's really up to you if you want to watch them (I never did) but it puts a lot of burden on students to now worry about watching videos when she could've gone through all the material if the lecture time was used more efficiently. This is not to bash on providing additional resources because I think they are helpful for students who need extra help, but when she suggests them because there are holes in her own lesson plans, now students are watching even more lectures because we spent so much time on one tiny thing in class and ran out of time. Not to mention, two of our quizzes were opened on the two Monday holidays this quarter.

Professor V is also really vague when answering questions. I've heard in lecture and saw online how she answers questions and the answer is usually "What do you think?" or "If you read through these pages and answer these questions, the answer will become clear." I understand that professors want us to find answers on our own but when students go to Piazza, Campuswire, etc. it's usually because they couldn't find answers elsewhere. You're better off getting help from classmates/TAs.

I believe someone below commented, take the Life Science 30 series, but don't take it with Venugopal. I agree. The math itself seems like it should be easy and straightforward, but somehow it ends up being very convoluted with her. She is a nice lady but she can't really teach. My TA was a far better teacher than her. My TA was Long Nguyen, if he's available again I would recommend him, he was very helpful. The labs are quite confusing and stressful, the TA had to run around and explain everything to everyone the entire lab section. But the TA will help you finish the lab if you go to office hours and you're not tested on the labs, so just make sure you get them done even if you don't understand them.

She lectures straight out of the book, so if you fall asleep during lectures, it is fine. However, you still need to attend lectures because of clickers for participation. Her labs are also mandatory, and the TA will take attendance. She's often not clear on concepts and can't really explain. Her lectures always get cut off because she explains things very slowly.
The LS 30 series is easy. You won't spend money on textbooks because they provide you their own written textbook for free. The labs are weird, but hopefully you have a good TA or a coding genius friend.
Her exams are pretty similar to her past exams she provides you. So do that, and you should be fine. Her office hours are useless though. Don't bother.

Venogupal is a horrible teacher. She can't explain materials clearly and sometime I had a hard time understanding her English. The entire lecture was unorganized and messy. Thank god we had excellent TAs they were very helpful both in discussions and in office hours. I mostly went to Conley or Garfinkel's lectures they were much better than Venogupal. If you take LS30A do not take it with her take Conley or Garfinkel.

Dr.Venogupal cannot explain clearly and is very disorganized. I learned more in Conley's review session for the Final Exam compared to the whole quarter. The concepts are not difficult though. The class is okay, but do not take it with her.

Professor Venugopal is a very nice person but she is unclear in her lectures. She is also difficult to hear at times. The labs that are due every week are difficult but the TAs and UAs are very helpful and have plenty of office hours. The math doesn't seem like it should be hard, but she does a poor job explaining it. I feel like the tests would have been easy if I was given a proper explanation.

She genuinely wants to help her students, but her lecture skills could use a bit of work. The labs for this class are useful because they provide an introduction to systems-oriented programming, but some are annoying to do.

Very confusing and contradicted herself frequently