PHYSICS 19
Fiat Lux Freshman Seminars
Description: Seminar, one hour. Discussion of and critical thinking about topics of current intellectual importance, taught by faculty members in their areas of expertise and illuminating many paths of discovery at UCLA. P/NP grading.
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Most Helpful Review
If you don't love physics, do not take a class with Brent. He is a superb teacher and a very reasonable guy, but he expects his students to be fully committed to his class. His weekly homework assignments usually consisted of about 15 of the hardest problems. His exams are notoriously difficult, and the material isn't so easy to begin with. Put simply, his class is tough, and you will definitely have trouble if you aren't serious about it from the beginning. With that said, there are a few things that you should know if you do decide to sign up for a class with Brent. First of all, do not let his first week scare tactics get to you. He doesn't exaggerate about the difficulty of his class, but he does intentionally gloat about it at the beginning of the quarter to weed out students who aren't sure they want to be there. Secondly, partial credit is the KEY to surviving his exams. On all three of our exams, no one came even close to 100%. This is mostly because his tests (especially the midterms) are too long to complete in one hour. Finish one or two problems that you're confident you understand, and then use the remaining time to get down whatever you can for the other problems. The graders award credit for just about anything, even memorized forumlas. Finally, take advantage of Brent's daily office hours. He is happy to go over homework or even discuss potential exam questions. He is a really nice guy and he enjoys helping his students.
If you don't love physics, do not take a class with Brent. He is a superb teacher and a very reasonable guy, but he expects his students to be fully committed to his class. His weekly homework assignments usually consisted of about 15 of the hardest problems. His exams are notoriously difficult, and the material isn't so easy to begin with. Put simply, his class is tough, and you will definitely have trouble if you aren't serious about it from the beginning. With that said, there are a few things that you should know if you do decide to sign up for a class with Brent. First of all, do not let his first week scare tactics get to you. He doesn't exaggerate about the difficulty of his class, but he does intentionally gloat about it at the beginning of the quarter to weed out students who aren't sure they want to be there. Secondly, partial credit is the KEY to surviving his exams. On all three of our exams, no one came even close to 100%. This is mostly because his tests (especially the midterms) are too long to complete in one hour. Finish one or two problems that you're confident you understand, and then use the remaining time to get down whatever you can for the other problems. The graders award credit for just about anything, even memorized forumlas. Finally, take advantage of Brent's daily office hours. He is happy to go over homework or even discuss potential exam questions. He is a really nice guy and he enjoys helping his students.
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