This class was SO hard. It is one of the hardest classes I have ever taken and it will probably be very challenging. That being said, Josh does everything in his power for you to succeed. There is enough extra credit to raise you grade 5% and there are midterm redos. Office hours are also really helpful.
I think my only advice for this class is even if you completely bomb the 2 midterms, talk to Josh and see where you are at in the class before dropping because the class is kinda curved in a way

Here’s the thing about 5A with Samani: He’s a genius, a super nice guy, an engaging lecturer, and he really cares about student learning. He challenges his students to obtain a deep conceptual understanding of Physics, he requires you to memorize equations, and he doesn’t let you use a calculator, making exams inherently more stressful.

If you’re like me, and you have absolutely NO prior Physics (or calculus) experience, this class will be incredibly tough. Trying to memorize equations on top of working hard to even understand the content (and the basic mathematical principles behind it, lol) was really difficult. Samani’s tests are really, really challenging— to the point where I developed insane test anxiety and would panic heavily for his exams. I know people generally do fine in this class, but I really wanted to let those without a strong Physics background know what they’re getting into.

All that being said: it’s worth it. While struggling in this class, I literally completely changed the way I approach learning. I changed my study habits entirely, moving towards heavy practice testing and keeping an error catalog (as Samani suggested). The skills that class, and Samani’s teaching, have imparted have been immeasurable. I’m saying this as someone who got a C+ in the class and I have absolutely nothing to gain from writing this, so take it seriously lmao the man is a legend

I was dreading this class initially, because I am not a huge fan of physics and didn't think I'd be too good at it. Dr. Samani, however, is very encouraging and a really good professor. The tests are definitely a bit weird (they are very conceptual), but make sure that you pay attention in class, understand the clicker questions, go over the discussion worksheets, and do the practice exams. I also found that working with friends helped me understand content on a more conceptual level.

He also offers a loooot of extra credit and buffer with Mastering Physics, Lab grades, and clicker questions, so you should be fine. For example, he realized that our first midterm was too long for the time we were given, so he had a corrections policy to get some points back and ended up giving us full credit on a question that many students got wrong.

As an aside, he has these "group midterm" components of your grade, in which you take the midterm twice (once individually, once in your pre-determined groups), and the individual one is 15% of your grade and the team one is 5% if the team one is higher than the individual one -- otherwise you keep the individual score as your 20%. In my opinion, I thought this was a bit of a flawed system as I did better on both of my individual components anyways and people end up discussing their answers with other groups anyways as we have a 10 minute break in the middle of the two identical tests. However, I know many friends in the class who did indeed like this "team component" aspect of the midterms.

Overall, I really liked Dr. Samani. He's a fair professor and a really cool dude. Screw the labs though -- those were a colossal waste of time in my opinion lol... this is standardized for the whole 5 series though haha.

Tough class. Although he is very helpful, the workload and difficulty of the class is extremely hard. Do not skip classes or any thing and attend discussion.

Professor Samani saved my virtual spring quarter and I honestly wish he was teaching all of my classes. His lectures were super clear and engaging, partly because he always made a lot of time for students to ask questions. He clearly put a lot of thought into making the class as interactive and educational as possible, with helpful resources like OpenStax (free textbook) and Campuswire (online discussion platform). The problem sets were challenging and took a little adjusting to, but I learned the most physics/problem-solving I've ever learned in a class, and there were many resources to get help. Prof Samani is also a really down-to-earth and considerate person and made this class fun and interesting. Highly recommend!

Professor Samani is extremely kind and understanding, especially during this chaotic time. As for the lectures, he goes through the materials thoroughly since he genuinely cares about his students' understanding. The only flaw of this class is that the problem sets were pretty long, but considering that homework covers at least 50% of our grade, the workload is probably reasonable. Overall, I would highly recommend taking his class.

Prof. Samani gives really clear, understandable, and engaging lectures. I learned a lot in physics. The Weekly assignments made up 50% of the final grade and they are challenging, so they always took me a whole weekend to complete to get a perfect score. The tests are slightly easier, but still full of traps. Physics is hard to learn, but Prof. Samani really gives me the courage to learn more.

The homework and midterms are extremely hard. He is a nice and funny guy but the exams are really hard. Grading are pretty good though, so take him if only you are a physics person.

Honestly the BEST professor I've ever had at UCLA. A very understanding guy. Spring 2020 was a terrible time to be studying but Samani made the quarter way better. If you're looking for a wholesome class, look no further. Just take this class. WARNING though, the homework he gives is quite heavy and requires a lot of time to complete (with some exceptions here and there). If you're taking 5 or more classes, i strongly advise against taking this class. The questions he gives are not too difficult, they are mostly doable, you just have to put a lot of thought into it. All said, I don't think there's many profs like Samani and again, if you're looking for a WHOLESOME class, THIS IS IT

Professor Samani is a godsend that I wish we could have again and again. The course overall WILL eat up a considerable amount of your time since it is very intensive in workload; you have been warned. His lectures are very concrete and, more or less, tangible to real-world examples, so they were very easy to follow through. His assigned weekly problem sets are tough and worth 50% of the final grade, but they also force you to interact with it, especially in collaboration with peers. His midterms are fair game if you're caught up with the material. It was also nice of him to recommend Openstax textbooks which we didn't have to pay a single penny for. His tastes in music outside of lecture are gold. Granted, I took this course during a pandemic and a time of racial unrest, but he adapts well to address the needs of students, from checking chat often to making sure the final is as fair as possible. His very down-to-earth personality creates a welcoming environment whenever I have to ask him about something.

All in all, I wish every other professor was like Prof. Samani.