PHYSICS 1A
Physics for Scientists and Engineers: Mechanics
Description: Lecture/demonstration, four hours; discussion, one hour. Enforced requisites: Mathematics 31A, 31B. Enforced corequisite: Mathematics 32A. Motion, Newton laws, work, energy, linear and angular momentum, rotation, equilibrium, gravitation. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 5.0
Units: 5.0
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Most Helpful Review
I found Abachi's intructions very interesting. He was well organized and came to class exactly on the clock. He is one of the greatest professors I have met at UCLA. I took his class in summer before i started my freshman year and he made my transition very rewarding. His teachings were advanced and difficult yet he taught it in a way where i can follow. I highly recommend him and sadly when i did begin my freshman year at UCLA I was unfortunate to not have an instructor like him.
I found Abachi's intructions very interesting. He was well organized and came to class exactly on the clock. He is one of the greatest professors I have met at UCLA. I took his class in summer before i started my freshman year and he made my transition very rewarding. His teachings were advanced and difficult yet he taught it in a way where i can follow. I highly recommend him and sadly when i did begin my freshman year at UCLA I was unfortunate to not have an instructor like him.
Most Helpful Review
This man cannot teach! His lectures are trivial and utterly meaningless; he never solves any useful problems, he simply (tries) to derive every formula already given to you. And I say "tries" because he can never quite do it. He's always making little mistakes here and there that confuses both himself and the class. What makes it worse is that his handwriting is horrible so you're not going to even be able to decipher the incorrect proofs scrawled upon the board. I also thought he kind of sounded like Bill Cosby (which may or may not be a bad thing depending on your predeliction for Jello and Kodak film). I never went to class after the second week. If you took AP Physics in high school, this class is EXACTLY the same and you shouldn't have to go either. For me it was an easy A. Oh yeah, and try to find someone with last year's midterms and final solutions for insurance. You'd be surprised how many people have them.
This man cannot teach! His lectures are trivial and utterly meaningless; he never solves any useful problems, he simply (tries) to derive every formula already given to you. And I say "tries" because he can never quite do it. He's always making little mistakes here and there that confuses both himself and the class. What makes it worse is that his handwriting is horrible so you're not going to even be able to decipher the incorrect proofs scrawled upon the board. I also thought he kind of sounded like Bill Cosby (which may or may not be a bad thing depending on your predeliction for Jello and Kodak film). I never went to class after the second week. If you took AP Physics in high school, this class is EXACTLY the same and you shouldn't have to go either. For me it was an easy A. Oh yeah, and try to find someone with last year's midterms and final solutions for insurance. You'd be surprised how many people have them.
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2018 - Anton Bondarenko is a legend. Take Physics 1A with him. He is very clear and provides a lot of material for students to work with. He uploads handwritten lecture notes. Leads excellent review sessions before examinations that strongly resemble the exam itself. The medians in his class are around ~80%. This means you basically have to lock in a raw score of 90+ to have a shot at an A-. I personally did not have much intuition for physics and relied heavily on mathematics to derive most of the answers. I would blindly compute integrals and take derivatives to get the answer based on the mathematical relationships between the equations. If you have a good grasp of the calculus, you will find it that you don't really have to get the "physics" to do well in Bondarenko's class. But, if you want to develop the intuition for physics, paying attention in lecture, following his demos and asking questions in office hours will definitely help.
Winter 2018 - Anton Bondarenko is a legend. Take Physics 1A with him. He is very clear and provides a lot of material for students to work with. He uploads handwritten lecture notes. Leads excellent review sessions before examinations that strongly resemble the exam itself. The medians in his class are around ~80%. This means you basically have to lock in a raw score of 90+ to have a shot at an A-. I personally did not have much intuition for physics and relied heavily on mathematics to derive most of the answers. I would blindly compute integrals and take derivatives to get the answer based on the mathematical relationships between the equations. If you have a good grasp of the calculus, you will find it that you don't really have to get the "physics" to do well in Bondarenko's class. But, if you want to develop the intuition for physics, paying attention in lecture, following his demos and asking questions in office hours will definitely help.
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Most Helpful Review
I took physics 1a with Buchanan for summer and I must say it was the best decision I've made so far! He was so nice and always did his best to explain things so that everyone understood. His midterms were completely reasonable. His final I admit was challenging. He asked questions that went beyond what we did in homework, but they were still do-able. I believe the median was around 56 but with the curve there were about 5 A's (30 people in the class). Overall 30% got As, almost 50% got Bs, 30% Cs, and then there were a couple Ds. One of the best classes I've taken at UCLA. If you get the chance definitely take him.
I took physics 1a with Buchanan for summer and I must say it was the best decision I've made so far! He was so nice and always did his best to explain things so that everyone understood. His midterms were completely reasonable. His final I admit was challenging. He asked questions that went beyond what we did in homework, but they were still do-able. I believe the median was around 56 but with the curve there were about 5 A's (30 people in the class). Overall 30% got As, almost 50% got Bs, 30% Cs, and then there were a couple Ds. One of the best classes I've taken at UCLA. If you get the chance definitely take him.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2016 - I loved having Prof. Campbell for mechanical physics. He is a young guy that interacts very well with students. I thought he gave some good lectures, but you can expect to fall asleep a couple times in his class. Some people love that he gives massively curved tests (the average on the first midterm was a 37%) and others don't. He is generous with the curve though to make sure that people succeed and learn something in his class. Would definitely recommend him to anyone.
Winter 2016 - I loved having Prof. Campbell for mechanical physics. He is a young guy that interacts very well with students. I thought he gave some good lectures, but you can expect to fall asleep a couple times in his class. Some people love that he gives massively curved tests (the average on the first midterm was a 37%) and others don't. He is generous with the curve though to make sure that people succeed and learn something in his class. Would definitely recommend him to anyone.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2021 - I wish to write this review in order to help those who will, must, or want to take Corbin's class in the future to know about the whole picture of this class, about Professor Corbin, and about his exams. Just a few words before I start: DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS if you want an easy A ge. DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS if you are not that good at physics (no foundation, poor at physics, etc.). DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS if you are not good at math. Otherwise, you will SCREW you gpa. Just a kind reminder. Grade Distribution: Five biweekly quizzes, each consists of a 30-point, 4-subpart questions. Every quiz is worth 12%, in total quizs worth 60% of your grade. Final Exam is worth 30% of your grade, which consists of five 30-point-quiz-like questions. Homework on Pearson is worth 10% of the final grade. Professor Corbin will replace your lowest quiz by your second lowest. About Exams: Corbin's exams are absolutely DISASTERS. Those horrible quizzes, in general, have a mean grade around 58% and median around 61% out of 100%. Corbin never give simple questions like multiple choice or short answers. The worst thing is, not a single question has a number in it, which means every question he gives you'll have to deduct expressions with unknown quantities. Do the derivation and integration based on unknown quantities, which its difficulty is normally not suitable for a class like 1A. Final exam is worse, the mean grade is around 48% out of 100% (72 out of 150), median around 50%. If you are not that good at physics, you might find you cannot solve a single subpart of a question. Frankly speaking, Corbin's exams are so tough that your preparation through homework and lectures might be completely useless. For those who have to go with Corbin, I can only suggest you to go over his notes and lectures again and again, fully understand every single question on hws, go to office hours more often to figure out what you dont understand. Let me put in this way: Corbin's exams are designed for those top and genius science students or those with very very good physics foundation/very good at physics. His exams remind me of the day I was practicing for Physics Bowl and International Physics Olympiad Comp, that's how it is, somehow as as difficult as those comptition-kind questions. For those who have options other than Corbin, do it anyway. About Lectures: Professor Corbin may be one of the best lecturers I've ever met at UCLA. His class is well organized and super clear. Detailed explanations and demonstrations on the questions and contents are very straightfoward, so even if you have no physics basics, you can definitely follow his steps and learn some physics in class (Well, his exam is another story). Besides, his class is also very interesting and intriguing. You wont fell boring during his class, and I can assure you that you can absolutely learn something here. And Professor Corbin is a very nice and professional instructor. About the Curve: As far as I know, Corbin's curve is QUITE NICE. For those who can score a couple of points higher than the median every time, you have a guaranteed A. Here's our educated guess based on our grades and information: Getting Around 70%-75% out of 100% in the final grade, you have a very high possiblity to get an A (my friend got 78/100 = A in the total final grade), Above 80% is a guaranteed A (I got 80.6/100 = A, and everyone I know above 80 is an A through out the entire academic year). Overall, around 30 to 40 percent of the entire class can get an A, so the A rate is not that low. Do not panic if your score seems to be low on an absolute scale. ALWAYS COMPARE WITH STATISTICS PROVIDED. As long as you score above the mean, you will be fine. If you score above the median, you did pretty well and dont need to worry at all. If you score one standard deviation above the mean, then you are awesome and in the A range. In general, if you are not that confident with your physics/math, or if you want an easy A ge, or if you want to get a good grade and gpa, AVOID THIS CLASS AT ANY COST. If you are stuck with him and dont have any other options, I would say follow his lectures and notes, spend lots lots of time studying physics, get some practice on the internet, and go to his office hours to ask questions, and I hope that every of you can get the grade you want. Good Luck to the future generations!
Fall 2021 - I wish to write this review in order to help those who will, must, or want to take Corbin's class in the future to know about the whole picture of this class, about Professor Corbin, and about his exams. Just a few words before I start: DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS if you want an easy A ge. DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS if you are not that good at physics (no foundation, poor at physics, etc.). DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS if you are not good at math. Otherwise, you will SCREW you gpa. Just a kind reminder. Grade Distribution: Five biweekly quizzes, each consists of a 30-point, 4-subpart questions. Every quiz is worth 12%, in total quizs worth 60% of your grade. Final Exam is worth 30% of your grade, which consists of five 30-point-quiz-like questions. Homework on Pearson is worth 10% of the final grade. Professor Corbin will replace your lowest quiz by your second lowest. About Exams: Corbin's exams are absolutely DISASTERS. Those horrible quizzes, in general, have a mean grade around 58% and median around 61% out of 100%. Corbin never give simple questions like multiple choice or short answers. The worst thing is, not a single question has a number in it, which means every question he gives you'll have to deduct expressions with unknown quantities. Do the derivation and integration based on unknown quantities, which its difficulty is normally not suitable for a class like 1A. Final exam is worse, the mean grade is around 48% out of 100% (72 out of 150), median around 50%. If you are not that good at physics, you might find you cannot solve a single subpart of a question. Frankly speaking, Corbin's exams are so tough that your preparation through homework and lectures might be completely useless. For those who have to go with Corbin, I can only suggest you to go over his notes and lectures again and again, fully understand every single question on hws, go to office hours more often to figure out what you dont understand. Let me put in this way: Corbin's exams are designed for those top and genius science students or those with very very good physics foundation/very good at physics. His exams remind me of the day I was practicing for Physics Bowl and International Physics Olympiad Comp, that's how it is, somehow as as difficult as those comptition-kind questions. For those who have options other than Corbin, do it anyway. About Lectures: Professor Corbin may be one of the best lecturers I've ever met at UCLA. His class is well organized and super clear. Detailed explanations and demonstrations on the questions and contents are very straightfoward, so even if you have no physics basics, you can definitely follow his steps and learn some physics in class (Well, his exam is another story). Besides, his class is also very interesting and intriguing. You wont fell boring during his class, and I can assure you that you can absolutely learn something here. And Professor Corbin is a very nice and professional instructor. About the Curve: As far as I know, Corbin's curve is QUITE NICE. For those who can score a couple of points higher than the median every time, you have a guaranteed A. Here's our educated guess based on our grades and information: Getting Around 70%-75% out of 100% in the final grade, you have a very high possiblity to get an A (my friend got 78/100 = A in the total final grade), Above 80% is a guaranteed A (I got 80.6/100 = A, and everyone I know above 80 is an A through out the entire academic year). Overall, around 30 to 40 percent of the entire class can get an A, so the A rate is not that low. Do not panic if your score seems to be low on an absolute scale. ALWAYS COMPARE WITH STATISTICS PROVIDED. As long as you score above the mean, you will be fine. If you score above the median, you did pretty well and dont need to worry at all. If you score one standard deviation above the mean, then you are awesome and in the A range. In general, if you are not that confident with your physics/math, or if you want an easy A ge, or if you want to get a good grade and gpa, AVOID THIS CLASS AT ANY COST. If you are stuck with him and dont have any other options, I would say follow his lectures and notes, spend lots lots of time studying physics, get some practice on the internet, and go to his office hours to ask questions, and I hope that every of you can get the grade you want. Good Luck to the future generations!
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