Professor Samani is by far the best physics professor I have EVER had. There are a ton of recent negative comments about him on here, but these are just some of the reasons why people might have left them:

1. The final was in-person and people didn't want to study for it as they should. It's just funny how people kept getting angry at Samani for holding his final in-person, claiming to be extremely afraid of COVID, yet had no issues showing up in-person for their other finals and other social events. This is because Samani is an extremely accommodating professor and a majority of students expected him to move the final online in response to their backlash. Unfortunately, the line has to be drawn somewhere and these students weren't content with that.

2. The final was closed note and had no equation sheet. Now we were informed of this in like Week 5, so people had PLENTY of time to memorize their equations, make flashcards, etc. This isn't even taking into account how weekly quizzes were supposed to be closed note, so people should have had their equations memorized anyways as long as they weren't cheating. However many people chose to ignore these steps and continued to cheat on weekly quizzes by using their notes, therefore not learning any of the equations for 10 weeks and freaking out before the final. This is not Samani's fault, this is the students' fault. Also, Samani literally made us an equation sheet to memorize so we wouldn't have to comb through 10 weeks worth of lectures to find all the equations. All we had to do was memorize it (it's really not that bad).

3. People claimed that having an in-person final after the entire quarter being online was unfair. This was just false. Yes, the class was online until Week 5 (just like every single other class at UCLA due to the COVID surge). However Samani had in-person lectures for the rest of the quarter after campus opened up (people just chose not to show up) and you were allowed to take the quizzes in-person in the lecture hall during lecture time (people just didn't use that option, probably because a lot of them cheated during online quizzes). So it's not like there wasn't anything in-person during the quarter -- literally everything about the class was in-person if you made the effort to attend.

Now that that's out of the way, here are some reasons why Samani was absolutely amazing and a gem of a professor:

1. He listened to ALL of our concerns and made changes wherever appropriate. Our weekly quizzes were initially open for 24 hours (but an hour timed) and Week 3 he switched the system so we had to take the quiz during lecture time (still online however). This stressed a lot of students out and Samani heard these concerns. Week 5, he switched quizzes BACK to being open for 24 hours. How many professors do we know of who would do that? Also, quizzes were initially 60 minutes long. This time was too short for some students, so Samani increased quiz durations to 80 minutes while keeping the length the same. Again, he made accommodations when he had no obligation to do so. It was out of the kindness of his own heart.

2. He had a weekly quiz + final format instead of midterm(s) + final. This is up to personal preference, but I personally LOVED this format. Each quiz was wayyy lower stakes than any midterm would be so I was naturally much less stressed for this class since one bad day wouldn't ruin my grade. Also, the lowest quiz grade was dropped! Another reason why the quizzes were not stressful at all. Additionally, quizzes always incorporated some content from previous weeks. This actually helped me to retain the content way better and gave some bonus extra practice with old concepts. When the final came around, since I had actually been learning and applying the concepts all the way back to Week 1 every week, studying for the final was way more doable and took less time than it normally would.

3. His lectures were incredibly engaging and funny. He always made up some entertaining example problems to work on during lectures which incorporated all of that week's concepts plus old concepts for review. He's also very high energy during lectures which makes them much more engaging especially if you attend in-person.

4. He gives plenty of practice material so you always know what to expect on quizzes and the final. Practice packets can be quite long, but honestly they're just for your own good. Some people complained about how we don't get points for completing them, but not everything you do for a class should be for points, some should just be for genuine learning. The questions on quizzes were very doable if you put in meaningful effort to the practice packets and asked questions wherever you needed help (Campuswire was great for this!).

5. He gives ample extra credit. We got extra credit for Campuswire based on our level (0.1% - 0.3%) and for completing LA feedback forms and course evals. If you are borderline, EC should hopefully push you over the boundary.

I know this is a long review, but I honestly really wanted to highlight how amazing a professor Samani is. Especially for a class like physics which many students struggle with, it was extremely evident how hard he tries to make it engaging, applicable to our lives, and not too challenging. The negative reviews on here are the same students who were complaining on GroupMe about the in-person final and lack of equation sheet, but let's be real, when we go on to take the MCAT or other standardized tests they will also be in-person with no equation sheet.

So to conclude, please take Samani. As long as you're proactive and willing to put in the work, you will learn a lot while having a great time :)

Samani was the best professor I've had at UCLA. The class was hard, but I definitely felt like I learned a lot in every lecture and through every assignment. Plus, his taste in music is solid

Picture an ideal professor. One that plays music before lectures and during breaks, one that is understanding of all current situations (especially considering this quarter occurred during a global pandemic and a massive racial movement) and one that delivers engaging lectures filled with analogies that help one grasp a conceptual understanding of the material and clearly understand theories through nicely drawn diagrams and thought experiments. This is precisely what Professor Samani is. A professor of such high caliber that he should be teaching every class at UCLA (no cap). Professor Samani is an extremely down-to-earth professor that hosts useful office hours where he would literally spend as much time as needed to address your concerns and actually try his best to answer his students' diverse set of questions. It is unfortunate he isn't teaching 1C next quarter because this man is a gem. I truly started to like even the gorey calculus bits of 1B because Samani made it fun. His grading scheme is also very reasonable. The class is not curved but rather scaled where 50% of your grade are his problem sets. These problem sets are extremely hard but collaboration is encouraged and the TAs and Professor Samani provide a lot of support via Campuswire. Also, they are graded mostly for accuracy. An A is roughly 93% but very achievable since the midterms and final exams are based off of the problem set content and thus quite doable. I only have one small critique for Professor Samani: he does not do complex enough examples in lectures sometimes (unlike Corbin) which left me lost trying to approach his difficult problem sets and made the class time consuming since I would have to read OpenStax (a free online textbook he follows). Nonetheless, this man is a godsend and I highly recommend all freshmen take him if possible for a lower div class! He really made online classes so enjoyable that I stayed up till 3 am to attend his lectures live (being located outside of the US).

Prof. Samani had very engaging lectures, and made me understand the material even though I went into Physics 1B thinking I wouldn't understand anything. Grading is based heavily on homework for online Spring 2020, but also on two midterms and the final. Lectures were very nicely broken down with a Spotify session before and after lecture, and he gives a break during the two-hour block. He's very nice and checks chat often for questions, and is tech savvy when it comes to using Zoom and CCLE. Homeworks were the only thing submitted every week, but very difficult to complete on the day due (7+ multi-part problems), so definitely collaborate with friends. Midterms were 24 hours, but he is very worried about cheating, so the final was 3 hours :/

Do not be mislead by the grade distribution from Fall 2017 or the reviews below that say this class is easy. While Samani is a nice guy and does provide many resources for us, this class was still extremely hard, and I do not recommend taking it. I am not sure if Samani changed the way he grades, but I find it hard to believe that as many people got A's in Winter 2019 as they did in Fall 2017. The class is not curved AT ALL, but there is extra credit. The class is out of 100 points, and if you do all the extra credit, it will bump your grade by a little over 5 points. The grade you get after extra credit is factored in is the grade you get. There is no scaling, rounding, or curving. Samani does give engaging lectures, but his exams are killer. When I say killer, I mean it. The things he teaches in lecture are not sufficient enough for us to do well on the exams. The tests are ridiculously hard, and you end up not learning anything. This class has a TON of homework. Nearly every week, you have Mastering Physics, Practice Exam Packets, Discussion Worksheets (Discussion is mandatory btw), Pre-lab, and Post-lab. These are only the required assignments, and do not include the extra credit assignments that are given every week. The Exam Packets are super hard, and he expects you to kinda figure out things on your own. Luckily, these are only graded on completion, but even then, it is hard to come up with a reasonable solution for the problems. Samani does offer midterm redos, which I did appreciate, but even then it is a struggle to do super well in the class. Take Physics 5A with a different Professor.

Hands down the best professor I've ever had at UCLA.
One of the previous reviews here that begins:
"Professor Samani is by far the best physics professor I have EVER had. There are a ton of recent negative comments about him on here, but these are just some of the reasons why people might have left them:" is an accurate description of the class.

He was overly accomodating throughout the quarter. Everyone is spam-hating because they've been cheating all quarter so when he made the exam in person they had absolute cry baby meltdowns. If you actually keep up with the material then an "A" is 100% attainable with minimal stress. People feel so entitled without having to lift a single finger and it's so fucking sad because he was an absolute GOAT. Some students still haven't been weaned off their pacifiers.

Samani was an excellent professor and I loved taking this class with him. There are quizzes roughly every week instead of midterms, discussion worksheets, and a final. The discussion worksheets are based off showing up and putting something down on the page, so that's easy. The discussion section I also found to be helpful for the quizzes. The quizzes were very fair and were based off the material covered in lecture as well as the textbook. By the way, Samani wrote his own textbook for this course, which I found to be extremely clear and very helpful. The final exam was pretty difficult, but I thought it was fair overall. My advice would be to really understand the notes he writes, and to make sure you're able to do the practice quizzes he assigns. If you're able to comfortably do the practice quizzes, you will ace the actual quizzes. Also Samani's grading scale is super generous. Overall Samani is a great lecturer and I would totally recommend him.

Professor Samani is an amazing educator. He explains math and its applications to physics very well and clearly puts in a lot of effort to make sure his students succeed. You'll have weekly readings from his course notes that will basically explain all of the "theory" and then lecture will be focused on applying the math to examples in physics. There are no problem sets; only optional practice quizzes to help you prepare for weekly quizzes. Even though they're optional, I highly recommend doing a few before the quizzes. Discussion is required - you have to do weekly worksheets in assigned groups and are graded on effort/some completion.

I took it alongside Math 33B and there was a lot of overlapping content, but if you're considering a similar schedule make sure to check the professor because different professors emphasize different topics. This class mainly covered Taylor series, linear algebra (linear independence, eigenvectors), ordinary differential equations and dynamical systems, and Fourier series/transforms.

Probably the best physics class I have taken here so far. Samani is a great lecturer and always makes lectures engaging. He wrote his own mini-textbook for this class and it is amazing for building intuition. His tests and problem sets are pretty hard, but the grading scale is generous. 10/10 would take again.

Samani is a really good lecturer and teacher. His lectures are interesting and he stays on topic in class. He also wrote his own lecture notes for this class which replaced the need for a textbook. His notes are actually pretty short, but very concise and basically everything you need to know for the tests. With that said, his tests are still pretty hard. Great professor overall.