The professor is a sick sociopath. The lab reports which may well be over 20 pages are due the third day from each lab (at least in summer). I was knocked out by heat stroke and had a nosebleed, consequently I submitted a report 1 day late. The TA wanted to give me at least some partial points, but the professor instructed her to give me a 0 even though I had a verifiable doctor's note.

Oh, he also instructed the TA to bring the average of my section down because this section was, and I quote, "scoring too well".

Perfect example of why monopolies are bad. With only one professor teaching this course that's requisite for many, he can do absolutely anything he likes. There's no standard to compare him against, no alternatives, no threat to his reign.

I have taken tough classes (heck I even enjoyed many), I have also taken bad professors, but this class is downright UNFAIR. Everything the other reviews say is true. Word for word. If anything, probably it's only getting worse. But if you're reading this you probably don't have a choice, do you? Lol, goodluck

This class is ass.

This is an annoying requirment for engineering students. Start your labs early and look at old ones to succeed. Lab is somewhat intersting but the reports are tedious and graded exessively hard.

This class is ass.

It is exactly like Physics 4AL . TA's do not want to grade hard, but they are forced to because the Physics department wants grade deflation. As an engineer, you just have to suck it up and take this class to graduate.

4BL is a lot like the older, cooler brother of 4AL. In my opinion, 4BL is a lot more manageable than 4AL. Although the labs are often longer than 4AL, where you could usually leave after 1-1.5 hours, the reports are graded far more generously than in 4AL. If you're ever confused in lab just make sure you ask your TA a bunch of questions, because the manual can be painfully vague at times. It's not like you have any choice whether you take this lab or not, so just be appreciative that it's better than 4AL. Oh and make sure you start early on your lab reports.

This class is the worst class and the professor does not even make a appearance why is he even listed as a professor for this class. Why is he allowed to disguise this class as two units. This class is single handedly the worst class that anybody needs to take. This class should be taken out as requirement because it is waste of time both because of its content and the way the professor designed its structure. Horrible class

Terrible class with a draconic grading policy. Points are taken off at random and your experience is solely determined by your TA. The professor is an a**hole and never shows up at all. Take this over the summer or when you have easy classes as it will eat up all your time.

I am still wondering why this class still exists in UCLA. It is a joke. Professor never shows up and tells TAs to do whatever they want. That means, they could deduct tons of points from your carefully-arranged, scrutinized, pages-long lab reports, and you cannot even argue with them because they are ABSOLUTELY RIGHT. Although many of the times they act ridiculous. And if you are lucky enough to have a TA like the one I got, who could not even clearly express her ideas and doesn't reply to your email until deadline passes, there you go. I LITERALLY DID NOT LEARN ANYTHING USEFUL EXCEPT FOR SOME PATHETIC FORMATS AND EXCEL SKILLS. Good luck. I'd certainly celebrate if the physics department takes down this class. Shame on you, a physics lab but has nothing to do with real physics.

This class is entirely taught by the TA. Mine was fantastic and made physics lab great. I think a lot of people blow physics lab out of proportion. Take good data and take your time and it will make it a lot easier. Also donthe fixes your TAs give and you'll do fine. Grading is fair in this class. Overall would take again.

I don't understand why people are so butthurt about this class on here. Yeah it sucks and it's too much work for 2 units, but so are all the other engineering labs. And this lab is actually significantly easier and less time consuming than others (ie. CS 35L) since NO new content is covered, NO new physics material is learned, and all you have to do to ace the labs is write a lot of educated-sounding BS about your procedure/methods while closely following all the guidelines in the book (those of you who took IB in high school are probably also experts at this).

This course took me no more than one day a week to write the labs (about 7-8 hours per lab), and I just made sure to write a lot (usually 20+ pages, double spaced) and thoroughly label my graphs to get good grades on all of them. Although this class sucked because of the length of write-ups, it'll help you get really proficient with using Excel, and it basically requires no brainpower since you don't have to learn or understand anything new about physics. Just a lot plotting and typing, you'll get an A.