PHYSICS 5B
Physics for Life Sciences Majors: Thermodynamics, Fluids, Waves, Light, and Optics
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour; laboratory, two hours. Requisite: course 5A. Thermal properties of matter, free energy, fluids, ideal gas, diffusion, oscillations, waves, sounds, light, and optics, with applications to biological and biochemical systems. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 5.0
Units: 5.0
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2020 - I'm going to be honest with y'all. Taking Bauer during fall quarter absolutely sucked. I heard from all my friends who took him in the past that he was a pretty chill dude so I was excited to take the class. However, I guess after doing spring and summer online and having kids receive a shit ton of As that made him become a bit jaded and make the class a bit more annoying to complete. Initially, the class seems like your average physics class with discussions (10%), labs (15%), and homework (10%), and quizzes (40%). However, he attempted to mix up the class a paper that counted as a midterm (2.5%) and a final paper that was worth (12.5%). For the first paper, I'll give him a pass because it didn't really matter since it was worth so little and was supposed to be a litmus test for what he was looking for in the final paper. But the problem was that he didn't even give proper feedback to the first paper so we couldn't even learn from our mistakes coupled with the fact that we had a final and final paper in the class due just made the whole process so stressful. Not even to mention he originally had the basis of an A increased that a solid A was a 95 as well. I just feel overall he really seemed like he wanted to reduce the number of As in the class but I just felt like the addition of the papers as well as his stubbornness regarding grading as well just left a sour taste in my mouth. I'm sure in person he's a decent person to take but as for online I say just avoid him all together unless you absolutely have to.
Fall 2020 - I'm going to be honest with y'all. Taking Bauer during fall quarter absolutely sucked. I heard from all my friends who took him in the past that he was a pretty chill dude so I was excited to take the class. However, I guess after doing spring and summer online and having kids receive a shit ton of As that made him become a bit jaded and make the class a bit more annoying to complete. Initially, the class seems like your average physics class with discussions (10%), labs (15%), and homework (10%), and quizzes (40%). However, he attempted to mix up the class a paper that counted as a midterm (2.5%) and a final paper that was worth (12.5%). For the first paper, I'll give him a pass because it didn't really matter since it was worth so little and was supposed to be a litmus test for what he was looking for in the final paper. But the problem was that he didn't even give proper feedback to the first paper so we couldn't even learn from our mistakes coupled with the fact that we had a final and final paper in the class due just made the whole process so stressful. Not even to mention he originally had the basis of an A increased that a solid A was a 95 as well. I just feel overall he really seemed like he wanted to reduce the number of As in the class but I just felt like the addition of the papers as well as his stubbornness regarding grading as well just left a sour taste in my mouth. I'm sure in person he's a decent person to take but as for online I say just avoid him all together unless you absolutely have to.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2019 - Bondarenko is the most prepared and dedicated professor I have ever had. He uses a combination of powerpoint slides and handwritten notes. I never took a physics class prior to taking the 5 series, but he teaches from the very basics and builds onto that. He tends to follow the textbook closely, so it is not necessary to read the textbook. In regards to studying for exams, it is crucial to understand the problems that he goes over during the review sessions. The problems on the exam tend to resemble those of the review sessions but with slight modifications. The midterms are time-constrained, which resulted in rather low averages, but the final exam was fair. The only tough part is being able to draw connections when solving the problem because he asks for the answer in terms of certain variables. He is generous in allowing one notecard per exam. Homework is assigned through Mastering Physics, which you will need to purchase. He allows many attempts with no penalties. There are clicker questions, but they are graded based on participation and not accuracy. Discussion is optional, but usually the TAs will go over certain homework problems that Bondarenko handpicks. Also, he tends to teach a little bit slower than the other physics professors, so you may find it difficult to do the labs when he has not taught that topic yet. Finally, his grading scale is like a rank system, and he claims that it is only more generous than a normal grading scale. Overall, Bondarenko is an excellent professor, and I do not regret taking him for both 5A and 5B. He is such a patient professor, and it is really obvious that he genuinely cares about his students. Take him, you won't regret it.
Winter 2019 - Bondarenko is the most prepared and dedicated professor I have ever had. He uses a combination of powerpoint slides and handwritten notes. I never took a physics class prior to taking the 5 series, but he teaches from the very basics and builds onto that. He tends to follow the textbook closely, so it is not necessary to read the textbook. In regards to studying for exams, it is crucial to understand the problems that he goes over during the review sessions. The problems on the exam tend to resemble those of the review sessions but with slight modifications. The midterms are time-constrained, which resulted in rather low averages, but the final exam was fair. The only tough part is being able to draw connections when solving the problem because he asks for the answer in terms of certain variables. He is generous in allowing one notecard per exam. Homework is assigned through Mastering Physics, which you will need to purchase. He allows many attempts with no penalties. There are clicker questions, but they are graded based on participation and not accuracy. Discussion is optional, but usually the TAs will go over certain homework problems that Bondarenko handpicks. Also, he tends to teach a little bit slower than the other physics professors, so you may find it difficult to do the labs when he has not taught that topic yet. Finally, his grading scale is like a rank system, and he claims that it is only more generous than a normal grading scale. Overall, Bondarenko is an excellent professor, and I do not regret taking him for both 5A and 5B. He is such a patient professor, and it is really obvious that he genuinely cares about his students. Take him, you won't regret it.
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2019 - Dr. El Alaoui is simply a terrible lecturer so don't take him unless you're willing to teach yourself all the material. I managed to get 98%s on both midterms.... after spending 10+ hours doing all the available practice problems before each exam. His exams all drew problems directly from the homework and lecture examples, but that didn't really help because it was pretty much guaranteed that I wouldn't understand what he was doing in lecture and I would have to go through the textbook and online tutorials to learn how to do them myself. When we tried to ask clarifying questions he would eventually cut us off, saying we were taking too much time. I don't think it's too hard to get a good grade if you're willing to put in the effort, but you will be dragging yourself through the class completely on your own. The labs are also bullshit as always, and Mostafa got so behind in lecture that you would have to do the pre-labs with literally no knowledge of the material. Hell, we skipped the complete last chapter of material entirely. I would recommend taking literally any other professor unless you know all the course content or have a lot of time to spare. The one positive is that he gives formula sheets with his exams.
Spring 2019 - Dr. El Alaoui is simply a terrible lecturer so don't take him unless you're willing to teach yourself all the material. I managed to get 98%s on both midterms.... after spending 10+ hours doing all the available practice problems before each exam. His exams all drew problems directly from the homework and lecture examples, but that didn't really help because it was pretty much guaranteed that I wouldn't understand what he was doing in lecture and I would have to go through the textbook and online tutorials to learn how to do them myself. When we tried to ask clarifying questions he would eventually cut us off, saying we were taking too much time. I don't think it's too hard to get a good grade if you're willing to put in the effort, but you will be dragging yourself through the class completely on your own. The labs are also bullshit as always, and Mostafa got so behind in lecture that you would have to do the pre-labs with literally no knowledge of the material. Hell, we skipped the complete last chapter of material entirely. I would recommend taking literally any other professor unless you know all the course content or have a lot of time to spare. The one positive is that he gives formula sheets with his exams.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2021 - Holczer is a very kind professor who genuinely wants his students to succeed. However, he's not the best lecturer. After the first lecture, I never watched another one, even the recordings. His teaching style is vague and his handwriting is difficult to read. Honestly, just read the textbook and you'll be fine. It does a great job explaining concepts and also gives plenty of example problems. The homework for this class is typical for a physics 5 class. There's a weekly problem set and weekly mastering physics questions, but they shouldn't take more than 2-3 hours to complete. In my opinion, the exams (2 midterms, 1 final) were pretty easy, considering that I only watched one lecture throughout the entire quarter. Going through the example problems in the textbook and the problem sets will definitely help you prepare for the exams. So if you want an easy A, which most people do, take Holczer. However, if you want a more engaging lecturer, maybe try a different professor.
Winter 2021 - Holczer is a very kind professor who genuinely wants his students to succeed. However, he's not the best lecturer. After the first lecture, I never watched another one, even the recordings. His teaching style is vague and his handwriting is difficult to read. Honestly, just read the textbook and you'll be fine. It does a great job explaining concepts and also gives plenty of example problems. The homework for this class is typical for a physics 5 class. There's a weekly problem set and weekly mastering physics questions, but they shouldn't take more than 2-3 hours to complete. In my opinion, the exams (2 midterms, 1 final) were pretty easy, considering that I only watched one lecture throughout the entire quarter. Going through the example problems in the textbook and the problem sets will definitely help you prepare for the exams. So if you want an easy A, which most people do, take Holczer. However, if you want a more engaging lecturer, maybe try a different professor.
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2021 - Not sure what changed, but this professor is actually one of the worst I've ever had at UCLA. From the previous reviews, I was expecting an easy, educational quarter in physics 5B and was even pretty excited for the material. However, this quarter the professor must have changed his way of teaching, and not in a good way. The class is asynchronous, but his lecture videos are basically just reading off the textbook and the concepts are not explained well. Each week, I had to go to office hours to re-learn the material because it was so poorly explained in the videos. He is also not active on Campuswire, and he changed his time for office hours midway through the quarter to a time that many students couldn't attend due to time conflicts. Oh, and his exams are only 35 minutes. So yea, if you are not comfortable learning physics completely on your own with minimal help, don't take this professor for 5B.
Winter 2021 - Not sure what changed, but this professor is actually one of the worst I've ever had at UCLA. From the previous reviews, I was expecting an easy, educational quarter in physics 5B and was even pretty excited for the material. However, this quarter the professor must have changed his way of teaching, and not in a good way. The class is asynchronous, but his lecture videos are basically just reading off the textbook and the concepts are not explained well. Each week, I had to go to office hours to re-learn the material because it was so poorly explained in the videos. He is also not active on Campuswire, and he changed his time for office hours midway through the quarter to a time that many students couldn't attend due to time conflicts. Oh, and his exams are only 35 minutes. So yea, if you are not comfortable learning physics completely on your own with minimal help, don't take this professor for 5B.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2021 - TAKE THIS CLASS WITH MEHTA! Easily one of the most accommodating professors I had during Physics 5B. Grading scheme is as follows: Quizzes: 85% of grade, 5 quizzes + lowest quiz dropped Lab: 15% of grade Quizzes are easy as long as you listen to the lectures, which were recorded, and take good notes on them. I did, however, take this course during COVID so if he teaches again during the school year I don't know how different it would be.
Spring 2021 - TAKE THIS CLASS WITH MEHTA! Easily one of the most accommodating professors I had during Physics 5B. Grading scheme is as follows: Quizzes: 85% of grade, 5 quizzes + lowest quiz dropped Lab: 15% of grade Quizzes are easy as long as you listen to the lectures, which were recorded, and take good notes on them. I did, however, take this course during COVID so if he teaches again during the school year I don't know how different it would be.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2019 - I thought this was a pretty fair class! Niemann very clearly cares about his students and how much you're learning, which I really appreciated and don't always see in my lower division courses. I thought he was pretty clear in his lectures, the hard part for me is staying engaged as the quarter goes on. Bruincast is helpful for that. He goes through a lot of examples in class, especially some that are nearly the same as what you see on the homework and exams, so definitely try to take them! He used an interesting grading scheme where the two midterms were worth one "unit" each and the final was worth two "units." Your score on the best 3 out of 4 made up of 75% of your total grade. So he's pretty forgiving if you have to miss a midterm or bomb it. You have a chance at making it up later. I thought the midterms were pretty doable, but other folks have told me they're on the more challenging side. The first midterm was a little bit too long (I scribbled out an answer on the last question in the last two minutes of class), and he shortened the second midterm after hearing feedback from students. He's super understanding! Homework and lab are the rest of your grade. They're pretty par for the course if you've taken other physics 5 classes. He uses Kudu instead of Mastering Physics, which I liked a lot better. He's able to write his own questions or something? It's a lot less infuriating than Mastering Physics homework. Overall, a pretty fair class! The class feels disjointed because there are so many disparate topics in one course, but that's more a problem with the curriculum than this individual class itself. Not my favorite but also not my least favorite. I had a really heavy fall quarter and left this class on the backburner only to do weekly homework and study right before tests and did perfectly well!
Fall 2019 - I thought this was a pretty fair class! Niemann very clearly cares about his students and how much you're learning, which I really appreciated and don't always see in my lower division courses. I thought he was pretty clear in his lectures, the hard part for me is staying engaged as the quarter goes on. Bruincast is helpful for that. He goes through a lot of examples in class, especially some that are nearly the same as what you see on the homework and exams, so definitely try to take them! He used an interesting grading scheme where the two midterms were worth one "unit" each and the final was worth two "units." Your score on the best 3 out of 4 made up of 75% of your total grade. So he's pretty forgiving if you have to miss a midterm or bomb it. You have a chance at making it up later. I thought the midterms were pretty doable, but other folks have told me they're on the more challenging side. The first midterm was a little bit too long (I scribbled out an answer on the last question in the last two minutes of class), and he shortened the second midterm after hearing feedback from students. He's super understanding! Homework and lab are the rest of your grade. They're pretty par for the course if you've taken other physics 5 classes. He uses Kudu instead of Mastering Physics, which I liked a lot better. He's able to write his own questions or something? It's a lot less infuriating than Mastering Physics homework. Overall, a pretty fair class! The class feels disjointed because there are so many disparate topics in one course, but that's more a problem with the curriculum than this individual class itself. Not my favorite but also not my least favorite. I had a really heavy fall quarter and left this class on the backburner only to do weekly homework and study right before tests and did perfectly well!
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