AVOID THIS PROFESSOR AT ALL COSTS!
His lectures are unclear and rambling, his tests are super difficult and have nothing to do with the homework, and no one learns very much.
The only thing I can thank him for is making the curve so easy. The average grades on the 5 quizzes were (out of 30), 13.2, 13.3, 13.42, and 14.6 (I don’t know the average of Quiz 1). That’s an average of 45.4%!! This should be proof enough that either Prof. Corbin’s online teaching style is insufficient, or that his quizzes were way too difficult (or both).
The average on the final was 59/150--that's a 39.33%! I got around this average (as did most of my friends), and we passed, so its not that he is tough on people who fail, but rather that the whole class failed and didn't really learn any physics.
The class itself had serious issues. In the class, he basically discouraged questions, always treating them as annoying or silly (he even went so far as to call them "interruptions"). He often made a student feel dumb for asking anything, so after the first week, the class became silent with entire 2 hour lectures going by with zero questions. This discouraging environment was not just felt by me, but many of my friends, and is perhaps the most common complaint on Bruinwalk, going back years. In future, he needs to stop and ask if anyone needs something explained more in depth, and he needs to treat all questions, no matter how basic they seem to him, as serious for that student.
Finally, unlike in all my other classes where the forums section of CCLE was a place to ask questions of students and the professor, in Corbin's 1C we were provided no official place to ask the professor questions or hold a serious discussion of the material. The "Forums" of CCLE contain only two posts for the entire Quarter: a link to the GroupMe, and a link to the Discord. THAT'S ALL.
Instead, students were left to fend for themselves on a private GroupMe, with TA or professor to help.
This class had a cold, business-like feel, with the professor doing the bare minimum of teaching during the lecture time, and being completely absent otherwise.
I'm not idly complaining here. I enjoy physics and have gotten good grades in all other physics classes. The F AVERAGE of every quiz and the final should speak for themselves.
If you get stuck in this scary place, do yourself a favor and take it P/NP.

To put it simply, this class was quite difficult, but Professor Corbin made it engaging and worked to ensure that his students understood the material. I personally find Physics to be a subject that's inherently hard, and so it may have been near impossible to pass this class without going to both Professor Corbin's and my TA's office hours. The homework is also quite challenging, and for this online Winter quarter (so might not be applicable in general), the professor had all the assigned homework due simultaneously the week before finals, so it was important to not hold off on all the assignments till the end. The most difficult part was definitely the biweekly quizzes which really test your theoretical understanding, but thankfully the final "curve" at the end of the quarter was really good despite my pretty abysmal scores on the quizzes. Overall, if you put in the necessary effort and consult the TAs or professor to clarify any doubts, this class should be fine.

If Walter White went back to teaching. As other posters mentioned the class averages for the midterms are below 50%, but that said he is still a good lecturer and with the curve the grading scheme isn't so bad. If you want to learn physics, take this course; if you want a better chance at a good grade, take someone else.

I got pretty frightened with previous reviews but honestly Corbin is a really great professor overall. You might struggle with him if your maths isn't strong (he skips a lot of steps) but generally you'll learn a LOT even if the tests seem really hard. He makes them hard on purpose and doesn't want the average being so high because its meant to be a challenge, but the curve in this class is EXCELLENT!!

The graders are so lenient <33 this quarter, since it was online, he split our midterms up into 5 quizzes (every fortnight) which were each amde up of a 30 point midterm question (12% each). we also had mastering physics homework which took AGES and was worth 10% which was kinda annoying because it took over a day per chapter - from what I know he doesn't usually do this for his in person classes and he meant for it to help our grade, but i think he just didnt realise how long the questions really were.

overall I'd honestly recommend him - i didn't really have a strong physics background but he explains things really well! he goes a bit fast so if that stresses you out you can watch the recordings or take another prof but im ngl i started enjoying some of the content later on! some midterm questions were really hard and in the final as well but again as long as you write something youll get points for it !

This was my favorite class in the Physics 1 series by far! Corbin made it seriously so interesting--especially special relativity, Maxwell's equations, and interference (those were my favorite). By far, this class was super hard and I studied a lot. However, you honestly learn so much and get a lot from how Corbin makes sure you understand things conceptually and aren't chugging textbook problems. Corbin is very scary at first but he has a big heart hiding behind is exams. Definitely, the final matters a lot--I did poorly on the quizzes throughout but did pretty well on the final. He grades on improvement and I think if you study enough, you definitely can get there.

Another good review for Corbin. Honestly, I'm just an average joe, but I found an appreciation for physics after this class. There's no bullshit to get in the way between you and actually learning the material. Your grade is based on three things: one final and two midterms. That's it. There is nothing to distract you from actually learning the material, no menial time-wasters. You'd just better know your shit on the day of the exam.

And the day of the exam is always a hard one. There are three questions and each really demands something from you. I feel like I realized homework can make you intellectually lazy... once you've done it all, you get confident. "Oh, I've done the homework, so I'll just study old problems and the exam will be doable." True, for the most part. But what happens when there IS no homework? What happens when you can't simply memorize a general process/formula/pattern to solving the problems? Well, then you're forced to actually learn and use that knowledge creatively and artfully on the spot. That's the essence of Corbin's teaching style.

One thing: if you can get your hands on old tests HE designed, this is the best study material. I was fortunate to have a few to go off of, but even then you cannot fool the test. I was weakest in optics, and even though I knew what he was gonna ask on the test, I could hardly attempt the optics problems. I was strongest in flux calculations, and I even knew the type of question he'd ask on the exam, but there was a unique spin (he makes a new exam every time) that required me to know wtf I was doing, and I did! It feels great and gratifying when that happens. The test is intended to make you say "OH, that's what I should have done!" after you walk out and really think about a problem you were close to solving. Another tip--attempt every problem. Partial credit is extremely important, especially when the curves are always low. Even one point on everything you didn't know adds up and counts.

You need to understand what kinds of questions he likes to ask. *ATTEND LECTURES*. Go to his office hours! Those are pretty much sermons by Jesus himself. Pay attention to his thinking style--sometimes in office hours he will give what is basically a midterm problem. When he's done giving the basics of a concept and then says "Now what if we put this unique spin on the problem?" PAY CLOSE ATTENTION. Those are really what his midterm problems are like. "What happens if you take this concept you should know the ins-and outs of and put this unique restriction on it? What does this physically mean in the real world?"

He's not a perfect teacher by any means, but no one will argue that he's a bad one. I'd say anyone who has to take 1 ABC series should take at least one Corbin class, even if you suffer for it. You'll feel very accomplished for passing the class, no matter what your grade was. My only regret is that I wish I could have studied more for the final. Highly recommend this professor.

Such a shitty teacher. Really just out to get students and is not willing to compromise in any way. Makes his tests purposely more difficult than necessary and then forces his graders into being too harsh on the kids just for his own enjoyment. One of a kind a-hole.

Great professor. He explains every concept with examples and mathematical deductions, which is the way university physics should be like. Exams are hard, but still someone will get high scores. So be one of those.

By the time you take Corbin, you will have heard how hard he is and how great of a professor he is. While both of these are mostly true, there is a little more to it than this.

Though his final and midterm scores are extremely low, the tests themselves aren't as hard as they seem. The main problem on the midterm is time. The problems are pretty predictable, and even if you miss all of the challenging parts you can still score way above the average because most people freak out for these tests and neglect to study the basics. If you don't waste time on what you don't know and think carefully before attempting each part then time is the only thing holding you back. This means practicing many problems is key so that you can recognize what to do quickly. The final gives you a lot more time per problem, but there is also a LOT of material that is fair game. If you have kept up with the material all quarter long then you should be fine. The questions themselves are much easier than the midterms if you studied the right things.

He is a great professor for many people, but not all like the comments seem to make you think. If you are someone who understands physics and math pretty well, then Corbin is about as good as you can get. If you don't have a very strong background in physics and math, then you will often get lost in his lectures. If you just write everything down and go back and look at your notes after you have practiced some problems, then things will go more smoothly. But if you are still having trouble then each lecture will get more and more confusing because his lectures really do build upon one another. And his office hours are apparently great, but good luck getting one-on-one attention if you need it.

If you are good and physics and want to become great then this is the guy for you. If you are shaky at physics and want to get better, then there are probably better options, unless you have a very good TA. Also, he often lets it be known how bad most textbooks (including the one for the class) are, but the practice problems and the simplified explanations actually complement his notes perfectly, in my opinion. Also, he makes it sound like the notes that you take are the key to doing well, but often other explanations can help make things make sense too. So, while he is a GREAT teacher, he's not quite as immortal as he wants to come off as.

Bottom line: Don't let him intimidate you. You'll hear many stories about how hard and scary he is, but he gives more A's than any other lower division physics professor, makes very useful notes to help summarize what he does in class, doesn't collect homework (but still gives suggested problems), gives a TON of partial credit, gives very predictable tests, and considers all of the test in you grade, so one bad test won't hurt you much at all.

In short: take him if you like physics and are at least moderately good at it, and don't take him if you struggle, as you will fall through the cracks. I learned to love physics even more than I did, and I got an A without going to any office hours or doing a ton of homework, but the experience is different for everyone, so, while he is a great professor, he isn't for everyone.

The main reason I would recommend taking him above others is that his classes are pretty much always entertaining, In addition to cracking jokes, the one thing he does that I have seen no other teacher really be able to do is that he brings in many cool examples and anecdotes from real life that make the class just much more lively in general.

(For example, while he was showing the theory on how Faraday shielding works, he brought in some electrical thingy that made a static-y noise in the presence of unshielded electromagnetic radiation. He brought it close to his phone, and it started ticking at a very constant rate! He explained that this had to do with the fact that the phone is constantly sending out signals to try to communicate with nearby cell towers. Very neat.)

Combine this with a very flamboyant personality, a little bit (sometimes a lot) of cussing, and this means that lectures will almost never be boring, (even at 8 AM).

However, this is where the good things I have to say about him end. While I mostly like his teaching style, his testing style is just a bit... mean. This is the only professor I've seen that's been able to make a reputation for himself outside of the classroom, and I was able to see why firsthand.

First off, I'll just say that even if it's as a joke, ANY professor that talks about how hard their tests are should be an immediate red flag. Heck, I'm still not sure why many professors even do this, but the reasons don't really matter. If you know the professor is making the tests hard on purpose, with intention, that's never a good sign.

I'll be the first to agree with what many others have said about the whole "take him if you want to be challenged to grow even more" stuff, which is that it's overall not true for most people. Even as someone regarded as a bit smarter than average throughout high school, I will say I felt pretty hopeless looking at the answer key to the midterms. He has severely damaged my own passion for physics, and undoubtedly for many others as well. He say the midterms are where you "learn from your mistakes", but what is there to learn from when you had no idea what to do in the first place? I'd love to go into more specifics but my resources are limited in a text-only review.

The final does seem to be a bit of a place to redeem yourself though, to me, it was quite a bit easier (with one problem being the exact same as an example shown in lecture), and it's worth more of your grade.

Either way, if you have already decided to take him, some more concrete advice: be prepared to study by just doing practice problems and examples over and over again. I'm tempted to say to make a list of the examples gone over in class and other good ones you find and just do them over and over again until you can do them perfectly without hesitation or even really thinking (it's what worked for me). It saves time, prevents lots of errors, and is often the basis for most of the tests actually. It lets you get onto the harder stuff on the midterms, which, I'll be honest, you can't really study for.

His office hours are fun and interesting where he talks a lot on how the concepts extend, but if you want more concrete practice for tests, go to the TA's office hours.

TL;DR - I overall recommend this guy as he is a great physics teacher, but be ready to study in a very particular way because he is not the best tester. His own office hours are interesting, but useless overall if you want to actually prepare for exams (go to TA OH for that).