Everyone will tell you that Samani is a great professor, and this is true. He is an enthusiastic and engaging lecturer, but his exams are SO difficult. They are not straightforward at all, very conceptual based (kind of reminds me of AP exams). If you're looking for an easy time and simple exams where you can plug in numbers into formulas -- this is not it. Also, he requires you to use a lot of "common sense" during exams and estimate values such as mass, height, velocity etc. of objects. As someone who had never taken physics before, this was a challenging class. Unless you are very confident about your physics understanding, this class will be tough.

I'm not sure where all of the great reviews are coming from, I'm convinced he wrote them himself at this point. I absolutely hated this class, and I would never take this class again with Professor Samani. He has an absolutely absurd hypothesis behind his teaching, namely memorizing with flash cards will give you long term retention. The biggest load of bullshit I have ever heard in any class I have taken thus far at this school.

His quizzes were difficult, and unlike literally ANY other phyiscs class you are not allowed to have an equation sheet. His pre-lecture videos are on average 2 hours, which is far too long. He says his in-person lectures are not mandatory, but proceeds to derive equations you will need to do well on the exam. AKA you also have to show up or watch the recordings. This means that signing up for a 3 lecture hour class actually tuns into a 5-6 hour lecture. And this does not include the time you will have to spend outside of class studying and preparing for exams.

He provides you practice packets, and then gives you quizzes that are NOTHING like the packet you completed. Oh, you also won't get credit for completing that packet either. If you take this class which I highly suggest you reconsider, for quizzes be prepared to connect concepts on your own on a time exam, derive equations, feel absolutley unprepared by any of the material that he has given you, and be unable to answer a majority of the quiz if you are unable to recall one equation. Professor Samani makes absolutely no effort to connect weekly concepts with past content, but then expects you to be able to make connections on your own on timed exams. So if you don't like teaching yourself, I'd choose someone else. He will tell you that he wants you to understand the concepts and the theory, and then asks you to memorize equations and asks you solely math based questions (which you don't get prepared for).

Having qeekly quizzes is awful. It gets to be a lot during mid-term season, and they are mentally draining. The questions are not like what you practice with, and the practice questons you receive are nothing like what you are taught. Therefore, you get thrown into an ocean and are expected to swim. If being given insufficient learning tools is your jive, then this is the class for you!

He has some make-believe world in his head where he thinks that life-science majors actually give a shit about physics, when in reality most of us are trying to get by and pass this class. If you want a manageable and understandable physics class, find another professor.

Some of you might look at the grade distribution and think this class will be fine. I'd rethink that, it is NOT worth it in any shape or form. The stress, the workload, the 6 hour lecture, NOT worth it.

I. Love. Samani. I was terrified of 5A content because the first time I took this class with Bondarenko, I got a C-. Samani alleviated all of my anxieties within the first week. I went to his office hours starting week 1 because I figured that since I'm retaking, I have to absolutely CRUSH this subject. He walks in and upon opening his office, he asks me what my name is. Two days later at his next office hour, he remembers me and says hello. He's the first professor I've ever had that I feel like truly cares about his students, and he's willing to go the extra mile for those students who want to do well. I highly recommend going to his office hours! Sometimes, he takes scenarios students give him, tweaks it slightly, and it ends up on the next exam. He has incredibly engaging lectures and demonstrations to help solidify the concepts. I got a 92% on the first midterm, and a 90% on the final! He has a participation component via Clicker questions, but you get two personal days. This class isn't by any means, but he gives us enough resources to do well if we put in the time.

Do not go by the grade distribution, it does not a great predictor. Professor Samani is an incredible lecturer, like seriously great. BUT i felt like his lectures should have a bit more practice problems because his tests are really difficult. He is very much into theory and does not give formulas. We do not need a calculator (he does not allow one) because a lot of the tests answers are in variables. I really enjoyed his class, but I would not take it unless you have an easy workload. His tests are very difficult, but the TAs give descent amount of partial credit. There are weekly hw assignments and practice tests which do take quite a bit of time. Overall, I think he is a great lecturer and the class is enjoyable, but it could hurt your gpa if your not careful. Take his class if you want a challenge while enjoying the lectures. If you want a typical physics class, take another professor since it's probably easier. DO NOT take this class with more than two stem classes, like seriously!

There is no curve for this class. No scaling. Nothing. Friends in previous quarters said that he adjusts your grade at the end but that was definitely not the case. I ended up with a B in the class and really thought that would be curved up to an A (obviously he is not required to do this and I am happy with a B but friends in past classes got a B with no curve and ended with an A in the class). His tests were very hard, especially since the examples he does in class are so simple compared to what he expects you to solve. Mastering physics problems also were completely useless. Ultimately, if you're looking for an easy A class this definitely isn't it, don't let the grade distribution fool you because things have definitely changed.

Fucking hated this class. Want to deteriorate your mental health in 10 weeks or less? Take this class.

Every other class this quarter had an equation sheet available for their tests. And yet, Samani is still naive enough to believe we will memorize 4 pages of information and dense content for a final. We are life-science majors. We do not give two shits about this course and are just trying to get an A. Oh, and this is all algebra-based and intuitive, so if you can't do complex derivations, then good luck and eat shit apparently. His ego is apparently more important than our ability to get into a fucking grad school.

The reason why everyone got an A in previous quarters is because it was online.

Unless you want to live and breathe physics, take it with someone else. I lost hair because of his dogshit curriculum. 0/10.

this class was awful, i'm honestly shocked by all of the positive reviews. he's extremely inflexible and his quizzes were so much more challenging than anything covered in class. 50% of your grade is composed of these weekly quizzes that you're given an hour to complete, and most people i know struggled a ton. there's no homework to cushion your grade-- but you're given a long packet of practice problems that you're advised to complete, so basically, homework without point compensation.
he's a fun lecturer, but this class made me feel completely hopeless. it's like he expects you to make physics your entire life for the duration of the quarter. he's big on memorization, meaning you're not allowed to use an equation sheet on quizzes or exams.
i wouldn't take this class again, nor would i recommend this class to anyone.

Professor Samani is a chill guy that is easy to follow during lecture, but his exams are pretty tough. For the first midterm, very few people finished and I saw people frantically write random shapes for their graphs as the TAs came to collect the exams. Since you are not allowed calculators on exams, calculations can get a bit stressful and tedious especially when you start dealing with huge values that need to be plugged into Newton's equations. The good thing about his exams is that he gives you 15% of the points that you missed back if you do a redo. The class is slightly curved up to account for the averages on the exams.

Taking physics with Samani was the worst decision I made for the quarter. Despite having over half of the quarter online, Samani expected us to act like nothing happened and was not considerate to the manny struggles that students had. He did not give us a formula or equation sheets for our final and wanted us to memorize 10 weeks worth of equations. While he was a good lecturer, his pre-class videos lasted almost 2 hours a week outside of the scheduled Wednesday and Friday lecture. The weekly quizzes were very stressful and I did not feel like I ever got a break from his class. He simply expected us to make physics our entire life for the whole quarter, when most of us were cleasrly struggling with the various events in the quarter (omicron, shooting threats, in-person transition).

Discussion Worksheets 10
Labs 15
Final Exam 25
Quizzes 50

A+ 99
A 93
A- 90
B+ 87
B 83
B- 80
...

His lectures are very Khan Academy-esque. He talks, draws diagrams, and writes notes. Overall, I personally am not a fan of this style. Some people were, but I did not feel like it was conducive to my learning.
He has 1 lecture per week that covers all of the content for the chapter and then 2 more lectures during the week that he basically just does 1 example problem in each. I felt like those 2 lectures were not very helpful at all. Discussion took the cake for the biggest waste of time, though. You have to memorize EVERY physics equation covered in this class for the quizzes and the final, which I found incredibly ridiculous. Many people were upset how everything for the class was offered online except the final which had to be taken in person. Overall, this was the most difficult class I've taken at UCLA just because of the memorization alone.