Corbin is a really good professor and I gained a strong understanding of the subject. I took him in the summer so the class comprised of 5 or so quizzes and weekly hw. hw wasn't collected but doing it really helps do well on the quizzes. Quizzes were one question and were difficult but understanding the homework will help you do well. The final was pretty hard but as long as you are able to solidly answer a handful of the questions you have a good chance of doing well in the class. Only problem is that it really feels like he heavily favors the kids who always go to his office hours which normally doesn't matter but in a small summer setting gets a little annoying. Otherwise good professor and teaches well (which is all that really matters).

Other reviews have highlighted Corbin's extensive knowledge of physics, both theoretical and in real-world applications; while this is certainly the case, it is also true that Corbin is an extremely bitter man, and this unfortunately makes its way into his interactions with students.

Corbin has an unfortunate tendency to interject irrelevant remarks into his lectures; whether these involve stereotypes, political commentary, or other non-class-related topics, these instances detract from the overall quality of the course, and leave something to be desired in terms of professorial engagement. He is extremely abrasive in person, and will refuse to accommodate students in any way, even going so far as to refuse to hand back midterms during office hours.

His grading scheme is fundamentally flawed, as it presupposes that (almost) every single student will fail the course without a massive curve. Students will routinely obtain grades of 40-50% (on average) on exams, resulting in a curve being necessary to avoid repercussions from the department.

I received a passing grade in this course, but would definitely not take it again with this professor. While he may be competent at teaching the material, his personality, overall teaching style, and level of engagement leave much to be desired, making the overall experience highly negative.

I have mixed feelings about this professor. He definitely teaches, unlike a lot of the physics teachers here, and I learned an insane amount from him, but his tests are complete trash. An example of a question was (paraphrased): you hang a harp from a ceiling and make a string vibrate at fundamental frequency. You push a drum on a cart directly underneath it. Based on the frequency of the drum on the way to the harp and away from the harp, what is the tension in the string?
The takeaway here is that if you're in it to learn, this is the class to take. If you're in it for the GPA, do not take this class.

I took Corbin's 1B and had him for 4 weeks in 1CH, and he teaches the Mathematica part in 105A/B series.
He definitely has his own explanations on some physics concepts, and that really helps when you are learning because you could think differently. Take his lectures and read the textbook, two different pathways will always be better than one.
He is a bit stubborn and always insists that he's right. I couldn't run his example code in Physics 105A on my computer, then I asked 4 of my classmates and they couldn't run it as well. But he insisted that there's something wrong about our computers. That's weird.
In his lectures, he is quite engaged and will talk lots of his personal experiences related to some physical phenomena. I could feel that he loves physics a lot.
Homeworks are neither collected nor graded. They will be assigned at the beginning of the quarter and are not so related to the tests. Doing them would definitely help you know the materials, though might not save you on the exams.
Midterms are hard and I have to say that actually there's no way to prepare for it. Just do as many as you can and try to know the basic concepts better.
Final is fair, we had some problems that are similar to the examples we've discussed on the lectures so I think people did good on it.

I have literally never worked so hard for a class in my life with such shitty results. Corbin is a great teacher but be prepared to f*cking kill yourself if you want to get a decent grade in his class. Lectures are dope, but the tests make you want to die and completely destroy any faith you had in your abilities. Honestly, I don't even think it matters how much you study (I studied for the final for 2 weeks straight, 6 hours a day and still got a C), it's more about your natural capability to think the way corbin does. OH does help though. I love the guy but his class is ass.

Please. Ignore everyone who says "if you want to learn physics then take Corbin". unless you really don't mind feeling extremely horrible about yourself and killing yourself to learn physics. Not gonna lie, I feel like I learned some stuff... but I don't think its worth the pain you go through. I failed all my other classes to get a B in this class uh not worth it. Totally could've done better this quarter if I didn't stress over this class, trying to study for test questions I couldn't even imagine. But I guess if you're a physics major, and you really don't care about your grade, like -- REALLY -- DON'T care about your grade -- then go for it my dude. If you know this is the class you're gonna prioritize, and you don't care about your grades in other classes either. do not recommend unless you've already learned this material, don't mind making physics your main focus, and don't mind never not studying.
pros- no homework
cons- nothing can prepare you for all of this

While Corbin is an engaging lecturer, he is a bitter man. If you are fine with a professor who clearly does not like it when you ask questions, speak to him, or look at him, then still don't take him because it's just not worth it.
Corbin makes his class hard so that many people go to his office hours(think 20 people in a small office) so he can inflate his own ego by artificially creating demand for himself.

Corbin will not give back exams in office hours, only before (8 am)lecture. And as someone who has experienced panic attacks, regular, quality sleep is an even more important element of my health. His inflexibility in returning graded materials is just one example of his lack of empathy towards his students.

Corbin is short tempered and easily disgusted by interactions that come with being a professor. He will appear irritated and disgusted if you approach him or ask a question. He is excellent at making others feel stupid.

Corbin utilizes a flawed testing philosophy. His tests are 3 hour tests given in 50 minutes, and many of his questions require memorization of random information given in lecture(like the velocity of sound in a wire, or the solution to a forced, damped oscillator, or the solutions to the differential equations describing RC circuits). His tests highly skew towards memorization.

Corbin does not prepare his students for his exams, which contain problems 100x harder than any homework problem, and deliberately so, since he endorses this ridiculous testing philosophy when he says "You need easier problems before you do the harder problems." But this isn't training wheels, its asking someone to do a trick on a skateboard after they just practiced riding a sled. He never gives any problems or materials that compare in difficulty to the exam, and neither do the TA's. You must go to the review session graciously provided by Tao Beta Pi before each midterm if you want some examples of hard problems(maybe 3-5 given), or find someone with a test bank(which he is not clear about his policy on test banks since he has no syllabus).

In short: Corbin is mean, clearly bittered by the annoyance of students over his many years of teaching. His teaching structure is designed to be sat through quietly while you grasp at straws, hoping to remember something for the ridiculous exams. He is just a waste. There is no reason to take this professor over any other, no matter what anyone says, your quality of life will be greatly improved if you take anyone else. It is a waste of human interaction on this earth to take this professor. And this is coming from someone who got a B in his class. It's just not worth it.

Corbin's tests are quite tough compared to other physics classes; but if you look at the previous quarters, his grade distribution is quite decent, giving around 25% A's. The key to doing well in his class is going to lecture and understanding the concepts and math behind every single step of his derivations/examples; if you can do that, it's not too hard to apply the same thinking to his exam problems, which usually aren't too different from his lecture problems. Do the discussion/review problems from the TAs, and I'd also recommend looking at Corbin's old exams as well as some of the Feynman lectures. IMO, reading the textbook/doing the recommended HW problems is mostly a waste of time.
If you work smart and reasonably hard, this class really isn't too bad, and Corbin does do a good job of teaching physics.

Corbin is a nice dude and pretty chill but this class almost killed me (and still might). His exams are extremely difficult and his office hours are usually unhelpful since so many people go and often times it's just expanding on what was went over in the lecture. I studied around 30 hours for one of the midterms and still got significantly below average. If you come from a background of not having much high school physics you're pretty much screwed since a lot of times he sort of assumes you already know certain things (and this is coming from a physics major).

Best professor UCLA has to offer. Would highly recommend.