I am currently studying for my final exam in this class and I couldn't be more frustrated. Several equations on the equations sheets uploaded to Canvas are just straight-up wrong (might I add she will make the same mistakes in lecture). I am currently cross-checking Simpson's versions of the equations to the ones in the Pearson textbook to make sure the information taught to us is actually correct... There are a fair amount of exam-style questions posted to BruinLearn– but they are frankly nothing like the exams.

This is 100% the worst class I have taken at UCLA thus far and it's largely due to the poor instruction. Lectures are abstract and she just writes on the blackboard (good luck seeing anything if you don't get a seat in the front couple rows).

Simpson has also continuously revised the midterm grading policies, leaving ambiguity as to what final grades will look like– I am guessing this was in an effort to keep students in the class because the midterm averages were both around 50-60%. It's hard to believe that students who have passed 5A/5B and have made it to the end of the series are straight-up failing these tests–– well, maybe it's because 500 announcements are made out-loud during 50-minute exam window because Simpson's exams are so unrefined.

Welp. Not sure how I'm going to do in this class. Let's just hope Simpson actually audits her Final Exams such that she doesn't need to make 500 announcements during the exam time to correct her mistakes.

this professor was by far the worst professor I have ever had at UCLA. she absolutely cannot teach: all lectures confused me more than before I even entered the lecture hall. The lecture presentations frequently focused on deriving long formulas with limited focus on practice problems. This left students asking what are we looking at? what are you deriving? what is the point of this formula? how do you even use this formula? I am by no means weak in physics. I have always been great at math and got an A+ in Physics 5B (I even paid $60 an hour for a tutor for this course just to makeup for the incompetent professor). BUT THIS COURSE WAS SO DISORGANIZED. errors were frequently made in the practice problems provided, lecture material, and formula sheet. On top of this, the professor would promise one grading scheme and then go back on that a few weeks later. IT IS WEEK TEN AND I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT MY GRADE IN THIS COURSE IS. AT THE VERY LEAST FOR SOMEBODY WHO IS PAYING TUITION TO BE HERE I SHOULD HAVE SOME INKLING OF WHAT MY GRADE IS SO THAT I CAN HAVE THE OPTION TO DROP THIS ATROCIOUS COURSE. Additionally, I have emailed the professor several times only to get no response to my any of my emails. To add to this, as if what was mentioned wasn't enough, the exams she would administer were of an entirely different caliber than the practice midterm problems she gave us. She would put significantly more difficult problems on the exam, and when the averages came back in the 50s percent-wise, she would "encourage" us to review the practice problems properly. THE ONLY STUDY SOURCE WE HAD WAS THE PRACTICE PROBLEMS, DONT YOU THINK THAT A LACK OF STUDYING OF A FEW STUDENTS WOULDN'T RESULT IN THE ENTIRE AVERAGE BEING 52 OR 55?!?!?! OBVIOUSLY WE ARE NOT THE PROBLEM, IT IS YOU! This was further fueled by the dreaded midterm 2. Professor Simpson informed us that we performed worse than anticipated on midterm 1 so she had talked to the TAs and hopefully, midterm 2 was better. Naturally, students thought the exam would be easier and more similar to the practice problems. NOPE, the average was still 55. This class was the worst class I have ever taken, some people just shouldn't be professors. She showed no value for our concerns as students, communicated horribly, made so many errors, gave us tests that were too challenging, and never properly clarified what the grading scale would be. nobody knows what is going on with this course, including the professor. This is not the type of institution that needs their name tarnished by lackluster professors that could not care less about their students.

Why I don't recommend taking the class with Professor Simpson:

- Midterm 1&2 averages were 52 and 56, which is normally unheard of in the Physics 5 series.
- 50-minute midterm exams would start with the professor writing on the board all the mistakes in the exam.
- The professor is genuinely very unskilled in lecturing. I feel like she finished her sentence in her head but not vocally when she answers questions. I can't tell if she is not confident about her answer, she doesn't want to finish her explanation, doesn't know the answer, or none of the above.
- I enjoyed Physics 5A and 5B and managed to get a A+ in both classes. Meanwhile, in this class, I was scoring 60s in the midterms (and so was everyone else).

Why I recommend taking the class with Professor Simpson:
- If you have absolutely no other professor to take this class with
- She can curve the class if she decides that she can't fail everyone

Like everyone else here has said, Professor Simpson is the worst professor I have ever had/seen/heard of. She does not address student's concerns, makes frequent errors regarding course material in class (and proceeds to make those same errors in the exam as well), is disinterested in student's learning, and so much more.

after the first midterm, she promised us she would curve the exam to an 85 average (which was incredibly generous). she then backed out of this promise and instead curved the class on a different grading scheme that ruined everyone's grades. she makes errrors, is a horrid communicator, writes so small you cant see from the front row, doesn't plan out her lectures and is overall just really bad.

she is a great person but as a professor she just isnt cutting it.

Just No! i will not write an essay but whatever the other students have written is true. this class was my personal hell throughout my ucla academic career. 5B was supposed to be the hardest and it was a BREEZE compared to this class. Everything is self taught and no matter how much you study its not enough.
Keep your brain cells healthy and take it with another professor

Professor Simpson was the worst professor I've had at UCLA. She does not care to address students' concerns and was super unclear about grades throughout the whole quarter. On top of that, she is the very unorganized; not only do her lecture notes contain numerous errors on crucial information such as equations which we need to solve problems, our midterm exams had many typos which were addressed WHILE we were taking our midterms. The professor corrected the typos by writing with chalk on the blackboard, but students sitting in the back had no idea what the board said and inevitably got the question incorrect. Considering the number of typos that the exams contained, her exams are not an accurate or reliable representation of the students' knowledge of course material. Her lack of ability to teach students is demonstrated with the class midterm averages, which was a F for both midterms. I have taught myself the entirety of Physics 5C material through perusing the dense textbook because attending lecture simply made me even more confused. Simpson just speaks about abstract concepts like she expects us to already know the information and provides no examples to assist our understanding. Objectively, professor Simpson does not know how to teach students to cater to their understanding, yet she makes her exams incredibly difficult by forcing students to utilize complex trigonometry, which is beyond the scope of this course, to solve problems. I am beyond disappointed that I had to take physics with such an unorganized, uncaring professor.

it’s all true

Please don't take this class. Even as a last resort. I had a really hard time getting my physics classes and could never take them one after another and I still would have waited another year if it meant I got a better professor. She is nice as a person, but thinks way too fast to ever adequately explain anything. I got an A in 5B and 5A and put in way more work into this class than either of those and still got a B. I went to an average of 3 hours of office hours a week (Prof and TA OH), had a study group, read the textbook, and used additional youtube vids for help and still couldn't understand anything. Homeworks were SO hard and took soo much time. Please don't take this class with Simpson unless there's absolutely no other option.

Seeing her previous 5C reviews, I was nervous to take this class, but I think this professor has significantly improved since that one disastrous quarter.

Take this class if you are either trying to just fulfil the physics requirement (like me), or are horrendously awful at physics (also me lol). They are definitely a professors that is on the student's side. For example, discussion worksheets were worth 10% of the class, and were graded only by completion, and although the homework were on mastering physics, if you went to their office hours they would help and tell you the answer. They also offers up to 25% of your midterm grades back if you correct your work, and again just going to their office hours would tell you how to get to the answer. All of these things helped me get an A-, which I am honestly so happy with considering that for both midterms I scored the mean score.

tbh since their lectures were at 8am, I would just read the textbook and her notes to self study, although the lectures were recorded (which is great compared to corbin). The few lectures I did go to though, I did understand what was going on and I think they were explaining things fine (but I'm probably not the best to judge since I snoozed my alarm too much to make it to many classes). Their notes are a great resource, and they did not have errors as compared to her 5C class. They would also post summary sheets of useful formulas for the week's content.
The midterms and the final were quite fair, as the questions were not too challenging but also not too simple - just study the material and you should perform fine. They are also super helpful and accommodating in exams: open to answering questions, and they even went out of the lecture hall to find a calculator for someone who forgot theirs for the test.

Our TA told us that they was actively getting help from other professors to improve their teaching and classes, and I think it definitely showed in how they organised the class this quarter. I think if you took their class in the future, it will get better.

Lectures are like a journey into the Bermuda Triangle - you enter with hope, but your understanding mysteriously disappears. It's like a magic trick gone wrong - you start off hopeful, but end up wondering if you accidentally wandered into a comedy show instead. By the end of the quarter, students didn't even show up to lecture. I ended up just learning from my roommate and the textbook.

But hey, on the bright side, attending their class is a great way to appreciate the intricacies of the universe... by marveling at how someone can make such an interesting subject so mind-numbingly dull. You'll be taking a crash course in patience and resilience. After all, if you can survive their lectures without questioning the very fabric of reality, you can survive anything.