Professor

Nathan Tung

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4.2
Overall Ratings
Based on 105 Users
Easiness 3.3 / 5 How easy the class is, 1 being extremely difficult and 5 being easy peasy.
Workload 3.5 / 5 How light the workload is, 1 being extremely heavy and 5 being extremely light.
Clarity 4.2 / 5 How clear the professor is, 1 being extremely unclear and 5 being very clear.
Helpfulness 4.2 / 5 How helpful the professor is, 1 being not helpful at all and 5 being extremely helpful.

Reviews (105)

8 of 9
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PHYSICS 5A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Jan. 11, 2021
Quarter: Fall 2020
Grade: A

I thought I hated physics until I took this class!

Prof. Tung is very chill and personable but he also explains concepts SUPER well! He did lectures on Youtube livestream and had a cool video intro each time (super unrelated to this review but it was a nice way to start each class).

Class breakdown:

The Pearson Mastering Physics textbook/homework problems are mandatory to purchase and complete, although you only need to do 65% of the problems to get a full homework score (the rest is EC).

Discussion worksheets are not too hard and they were only graded for completion.

Labs are a little weird at first because you have to record objects and do some stuff with a computer program called Tracker in order to calculate velocity, height, etc. but its really not bad at all.

There is NO final, but there are 4 midterms of various difficulties throughout the quarter that make up 60% of your grade (so 15% for each exam). This sounds intense, but its really not that bad. For context, I got an 84, 70, 100, and 94 on those midterms. In my opinion it's imperative to go to the review sessions and write down every single detail, because the thought process for problems on the exam are VERY similar to what Tung reviews.

Like I mentioned, you can get extra credit by doing more than 65% of the homework problems (I recommend doing all of them ofc) and sometimes during live lecture, Tung uses this app called TopHat. It's kinda like if you had a clicker, and you can answer questions in real time. You have to pay for it at the beginning of the quarter, but you should get all the extra credit you can (I think that's what got me the A lol).

TLDR: This class is very well organized and I HIGHLY recommend Tung as a professor! You've heard the rumors about other profs, but trust me: Tung is the GOAT.

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PHYSICS 5A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
May 12, 2021
Quarter: Fall 2020
Grade: A

The tests lasted for 24 hours which helped a lot especially if you had other midterms on the same day. His lectures where live YouTube videos. He offered ALOT of extra credit. This class lessened my stress.

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PHYSICS 5A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
April 2, 2021
Quarter: Winter 2021
Grade: A

Probably one of the best professors I’ve had so far. I have never taken a physics class before, but Professor Tung seriously helped me and I’d say most of my class understand the material well. He’s a super funny and chill lecturer, and I felt like his lectures and the test questions were well-related and fair.

His exams were pretty short in terms of the number of questions, with each of the four midterms having around 6 to 8 questions. You want to make sure you do well on the last 2 or 3 questions, as those typically counted for a larger portion of the exam grade. There was no final exam which was great, and the midterms were spaced out and could be taken within a 24 hour window (no other time limit, so you basically had the whole day from one evening to the next). I really appreciate how Professor Tung scheduled the exams so that it wasn’t too overwhelming, and he even did class polls asking what days and times we preferred, and pushed back the fourth midterm a bit so we’d have more time to study.

There was one discussion worksheet due per week that sometimes covered material ahead of the actual lecture, but they were still pretty fair. Also all of the MyLab homework was due after the last midterm, so you basically had the whole quarter to complete at least like 70% of the HW, which is all he required for us to get 100% in the hw category.

He even gave us extra credit through completing HW and Top Hat (it’s like Clicker) participation points during his YouTube lectures (the EC was about 4 to 5 % which is awesome). Super cool professor who also did really funny but also engaging demonstrations of physics concepts.

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PHYSICS 5C
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
June 10, 2021
Quarter: Spring 2021
Grade: A

The lecture portion of the class was decent. Weekly worksheets and only needing to complete 60-65% of the MasteringPhysics homework for full credit (rest was extra credit). Tophat was a waste of money though. We only used it for like 5 classes in total this quarter. Exams aren't too bad, but most of them are mostly rearranging equations and not plug and chug. Lab was a hassle. All of the labs required extra time outside of class to finish since they were all very long.

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PHYSICS 5C
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
June 25, 2021
Quarter: Spring 2021
Grade: A

I took this class while it was online, and the extra credit he provides can honestly boost your grade by a whole letter. I do not know if he will offer this when it is back in person, so do not count on it. The tests were also 24 hours long, so do not count on that either. Otherwise, I thought Tung's lectures were some of the best online lectures I have had during the pandemic. He uses Youtube to stream them, so there is not as much interaction, but he has office hours if you need that. Personally, I did not go to office hours, but I have heard they were helpful for students. He is also really understanding, so if you have any concerns, just reach out to him. The labs online were pretty easy, so if it back in person, do not count on that. Discussion section was also useful, and I would recommend going. Mastering physics, the homework for this class, could be time consuming, but it was what he offered as extra credit along with participation in class through TopHat. The tests are not super difficult, but they could be more challenging if given in a shorter time constraint. Overall, I would recommend Tung for 5C.

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PHYSICS 5C
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
June 27, 2021
Quarter: Spring 2021
Grade: A

Dr. Tung is an incredible professor. He lectures clearly, taking the time to cover every detail that will come up on later assignments without being overbearing, while keeping a focus on understanding rather than just memorizing formulas. He answers questions very well in lecture and in OH, and his pre-exam reviews are amazingly helpful (it can help determine what you need to study). The exams are fair, but can sometimes be tricky (especially the first one). Make sure to review Nathan's Notes.
While the labs can sometimes be tedious, they do help with the rest of the course and pad the grade. Also, the discussions are really helpful for really cementing what you learn in lecture, so don't skip.

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PHYSICS 5A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Aug. 10, 2021
Quarter: Summer 2021
Grade: A

Professor Tung is a great lecturer and is very clear in his explanations. He also adapted very well to remote learning, probably the best I've seen out of any professor so far. Everything in his class was done on Kudu including the midterms. I think they got progressively longer and also more difficult, but they were still very reasonable. Tung also gave a lot of extra credit and hints for the midterms throughout his lectures.
The labs in this class were sometimes frustrating because it is taught like a separate course. Sometimes labs do not line up with lecture which can make it difficult to get prelab questions correct. The tracker program used in lab was a bit slow for me so it took me a long time to complete the labs at first, but with more practice I got the hang of it.
Overall, this course with Tung is not too difficult and I would recommend choosing him as a professor if you can.

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0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
PHYSICS 5A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Aug. 10, 2021
Quarter: Summer 2021
Grade: A-

Professor Tung was a very nice and funny person who gave very engaging lectures with examples ofen in the form of videos demonstrations he conducted. Professor Tung's lectures was more on the conceptual side which sometimes made calculation in homework, discussion worksheets, etc. a little trickier but still doable. The labs were pretty tedious in the beginning but I felt as if it eased up a bit towards the end; like other reviews stated, the labs often times felt like a seperate class since they took up a lot of time and didn't match up with the lecture content at times. Also, I wasn't a big fan of the worksheets since it also introduced topics that were barely introduced (sometimes literally introduced in lecture a few minutes prior to discussion). I'd strongly recommend this class since Professor Tung genuinely cares about students learning and is also pretty forgiving in terms of grades since he offers a lot of extra credit than can bump you up a grade level if you do most of it.

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PHYSICS 5A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Aug. 15, 2021
Quarter: Summer 2021
Grade: A

I recommend taking PHYSICS 5A with Dr. Tung. The class taught me a lot while being low stress (as every class should be). Dr. Tung’s lectures were very clear, organized, and well thought out. They were more like conceptual lectures though, so example problems in the lectures will not exactly mimic homework problems. The lectures were sort of like extended Khan Academy videos with some participation questions that were extra credit. Dr. Tung also has an extremely cool intro video that he plays at the beginning of every lecture which amazed me every time I watched it.

Homework was collected all at the end of the class. These problems mostly prepared me for tests. Some of the homework problems were difficult, so ask on Campuswire for help. Only 60% of homework is need to get full credit for the homework part of your grade. Anything else over that is extra credit.

Discussions were somewhat useful. We worked on worksheets in groups and the TA’s went over the solutions at the end of class, which cleared things up. However, this might be the case just for the session I took.

Labs were tedious, but doable. They took a long time as we had to set up and record our own videos to analyze. The labs were also extremely independent, so no one really talked to their group members during lab. My TA wasn’t that helpful, but the lab manuals had enough instruction for me to figure out most stuff on my own.

The four midterms we had were similar to homework. Each midterm was 15% each and there was no final. There were only about 15 questions on each test, so one question was 1% of your grade. That can seem intimidating, but there was a lot of extra credit in the class. We were also given 24 hours to complete it and we could use the whole 24 hours if needed, meaning there wasn’t any time limit within the 24 hours.

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Dec. 20, 2021
Quarter: Fall 2021
Grade: A

Dr. Tung is an excellent professor who really cares about his students. He explains concepts very easily and always addresses questions throughly. His homework policy is very generous as its not due till the end of the quarter and if you do more than 65% you can receive Extra Credit. Exams were definitely fair overall. The multiple choice portion was pretty straightforward but the free response was definitely more difficult. It was still very doable for a 24 hr exam. I highly recommend Shardul if he is a Lab TA for 5A because he made labs really enjoyable. I highly recommend Dr. Tung for any physics class.

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PHYSICS 5A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Fall 2020
Grade: A
Jan. 11, 2021

I thought I hated physics until I took this class!

Prof. Tung is very chill and personable but he also explains concepts SUPER well! He did lectures on Youtube livestream and had a cool video intro each time (super unrelated to this review but it was a nice way to start each class).

Class breakdown:

The Pearson Mastering Physics textbook/homework problems are mandatory to purchase and complete, although you only need to do 65% of the problems to get a full homework score (the rest is EC).

Discussion worksheets are not too hard and they were only graded for completion.

Labs are a little weird at first because you have to record objects and do some stuff with a computer program called Tracker in order to calculate velocity, height, etc. but its really not bad at all.

There is NO final, but there are 4 midterms of various difficulties throughout the quarter that make up 60% of your grade (so 15% for each exam). This sounds intense, but its really not that bad. For context, I got an 84, 70, 100, and 94 on those midterms. In my opinion it's imperative to go to the review sessions and write down every single detail, because the thought process for problems on the exam are VERY similar to what Tung reviews.

Like I mentioned, you can get extra credit by doing more than 65% of the homework problems (I recommend doing all of them ofc) and sometimes during live lecture, Tung uses this app called TopHat. It's kinda like if you had a clicker, and you can answer questions in real time. You have to pay for it at the beginning of the quarter, but you should get all the extra credit you can (I think that's what got me the A lol).

TLDR: This class is very well organized and I HIGHLY recommend Tung as a professor! You've heard the rumors about other profs, but trust me: Tung is the GOAT.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
PHYSICS 5A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Fall 2020
Grade: A
May 12, 2021

The tests lasted for 24 hours which helped a lot especially if you had other midterms on the same day. His lectures where live YouTube videos. He offered ALOT of extra credit. This class lessened my stress.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
PHYSICS 5A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Winter 2021
Grade: A
April 2, 2021

Probably one of the best professors I’ve had so far. I have never taken a physics class before, but Professor Tung seriously helped me and I’d say most of my class understand the material well. He’s a super funny and chill lecturer, and I felt like his lectures and the test questions were well-related and fair.

His exams were pretty short in terms of the number of questions, with each of the four midterms having around 6 to 8 questions. You want to make sure you do well on the last 2 or 3 questions, as those typically counted for a larger portion of the exam grade. There was no final exam which was great, and the midterms were spaced out and could be taken within a 24 hour window (no other time limit, so you basically had the whole day from one evening to the next). I really appreciate how Professor Tung scheduled the exams so that it wasn’t too overwhelming, and he even did class polls asking what days and times we preferred, and pushed back the fourth midterm a bit so we’d have more time to study.

There was one discussion worksheet due per week that sometimes covered material ahead of the actual lecture, but they were still pretty fair. Also all of the MyLab homework was due after the last midterm, so you basically had the whole quarter to complete at least like 70% of the HW, which is all he required for us to get 100% in the hw category.

He even gave us extra credit through completing HW and Top Hat (it’s like Clicker) participation points during his YouTube lectures (the EC was about 4 to 5 % which is awesome). Super cool professor who also did really funny but also engaging demonstrations of physics concepts.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
PHYSICS 5C
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Spring 2021
Grade: A
June 10, 2021

The lecture portion of the class was decent. Weekly worksheets and only needing to complete 60-65% of the MasteringPhysics homework for full credit (rest was extra credit). Tophat was a waste of money though. We only used it for like 5 classes in total this quarter. Exams aren't too bad, but most of them are mostly rearranging equations and not plug and chug. Lab was a hassle. All of the labs required extra time outside of class to finish since they were all very long.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
PHYSICS 5C
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Spring 2021
Grade: A
June 25, 2021

I took this class while it was online, and the extra credit he provides can honestly boost your grade by a whole letter. I do not know if he will offer this when it is back in person, so do not count on it. The tests were also 24 hours long, so do not count on that either. Otherwise, I thought Tung's lectures were some of the best online lectures I have had during the pandemic. He uses Youtube to stream them, so there is not as much interaction, but he has office hours if you need that. Personally, I did not go to office hours, but I have heard they were helpful for students. He is also really understanding, so if you have any concerns, just reach out to him. The labs online were pretty easy, so if it back in person, do not count on that. Discussion section was also useful, and I would recommend going. Mastering physics, the homework for this class, could be time consuming, but it was what he offered as extra credit along with participation in class through TopHat. The tests are not super difficult, but they could be more challenging if given in a shorter time constraint. Overall, I would recommend Tung for 5C.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
PHYSICS 5C
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Spring 2021
Grade: A
June 27, 2021

Dr. Tung is an incredible professor. He lectures clearly, taking the time to cover every detail that will come up on later assignments without being overbearing, while keeping a focus on understanding rather than just memorizing formulas. He answers questions very well in lecture and in OH, and his pre-exam reviews are amazingly helpful (it can help determine what you need to study). The exams are fair, but can sometimes be tricky (especially the first one). Make sure to review Nathan's Notes.
While the labs can sometimes be tedious, they do help with the rest of the course and pad the grade. Also, the discussions are really helpful for really cementing what you learn in lecture, so don't skip.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
PHYSICS 5A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Summer 2021
Grade: A
Aug. 10, 2021

Professor Tung is a great lecturer and is very clear in his explanations. He also adapted very well to remote learning, probably the best I've seen out of any professor so far. Everything in his class was done on Kudu including the midterms. I think they got progressively longer and also more difficult, but they were still very reasonable. Tung also gave a lot of extra credit and hints for the midterms throughout his lectures.
The labs in this class were sometimes frustrating because it is taught like a separate course. Sometimes labs do not line up with lecture which can make it difficult to get prelab questions correct. The tracker program used in lab was a bit slow for me so it took me a long time to complete the labs at first, but with more practice I got the hang of it.
Overall, this course with Tung is not too difficult and I would recommend choosing him as a professor if you can.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
PHYSICS 5A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Summer 2021
Grade: A-
Aug. 10, 2021

Professor Tung was a very nice and funny person who gave very engaging lectures with examples ofen in the form of videos demonstrations he conducted. Professor Tung's lectures was more on the conceptual side which sometimes made calculation in homework, discussion worksheets, etc. a little trickier but still doable. The labs were pretty tedious in the beginning but I felt as if it eased up a bit towards the end; like other reviews stated, the labs often times felt like a seperate class since they took up a lot of time and didn't match up with the lecture content at times. Also, I wasn't a big fan of the worksheets since it also introduced topics that were barely introduced (sometimes literally introduced in lecture a few minutes prior to discussion). I'd strongly recommend this class since Professor Tung genuinely cares about students learning and is also pretty forgiving in terms of grades since he offers a lot of extra credit than can bump you up a grade level if you do most of it.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
PHYSICS 5A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Summer 2021
Grade: A
Aug. 15, 2021

I recommend taking PHYSICS 5A with Dr. Tung. The class taught me a lot while being low stress (as every class should be). Dr. Tung’s lectures were very clear, organized, and well thought out. They were more like conceptual lectures though, so example problems in the lectures will not exactly mimic homework problems. The lectures were sort of like extended Khan Academy videos with some participation questions that were extra credit. Dr. Tung also has an extremely cool intro video that he plays at the beginning of every lecture which amazed me every time I watched it.

Homework was collected all at the end of the class. These problems mostly prepared me for tests. Some of the homework problems were difficult, so ask on Campuswire for help. Only 60% of homework is need to get full credit for the homework part of your grade. Anything else over that is extra credit.

Discussions were somewhat useful. We worked on worksheets in groups and the TA’s went over the solutions at the end of class, which cleared things up. However, this might be the case just for the session I took.

Labs were tedious, but doable. They took a long time as we had to set up and record our own videos to analyze. The labs were also extremely independent, so no one really talked to their group members during lab. My TA wasn’t that helpful, but the lab manuals had enough instruction for me to figure out most stuff on my own.

The four midterms we had were similar to homework. Each midterm was 15% each and there was no final. There were only about 15 questions on each test, so one question was 1% of your grade. That can seem intimidating, but there was a lot of extra credit in the class. We were also given 24 hours to complete it and we could use the whole 24 hours if needed, meaning there wasn’t any time limit within the 24 hours.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
PHYSICS 5A
Quarter: Fall 2021
Grade: A
Dec. 20, 2021

Dr. Tung is an excellent professor who really cares about his students. He explains concepts very easily and always addresses questions throughly. His homework policy is very generous as its not due till the end of the quarter and if you do more than 65% you can receive Extra Credit. Exams were definitely fair overall. The multiple choice portion was pretty straightforward but the free response was definitely more difficult. It was still very doable for a 24 hr exam. I highly recommend Shardul if he is a Lab TA for 5A because he made labs really enjoyable. I highly recommend Dr. Tung for any physics class.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
8 of 9
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