Physics 1B with Corbin shouldn't be difficult if you took and did well in AP Physics C in high school.

I took Corbin's Physics 1A class in the fall and as expected, his lectures are top-notch but tests are HARD. He still used the 5 quiz format for this quarter, and personally I felt as the quizzes were easier compared to the ones I took in 1A but the final was absolutely brutal. He curves the median to B, which will absolutely be in your favor; I bombed the final with a 38% and still passed with a B.

Basically, what you hear about Corbin is true. Quite an engaging lecturer for sure, not boring and he knows his stuff. Workload isn't too bad, we just had Mastering Physics assignments which were a bit much at times but not impossible. The worst thing of course, were the exams. Corbin's tests are super theoretical and are usually nothing you have ever seen before. In addition, I felt some questions were a bit vague, and you have to assume in what format he wants the answer sometimes which can be aggravating as it can lead to unnecessary point deductions. While Corbin does teach well, his tests can be extremely difficult, so for the average student, look elsewhere. But if you are very strong in physics and/or don't mind a GPA drop, feel free to take Corbin, as I believe he does teach 1B better more thoroughly than other professors.

Corbin is difficult for sure. Don't expect to do well on his tests. However, he curves like a god, is fairly approachable, and seems to care about his students.

To say Physics 1B was a difficult class would be an understatement. You need a really solid understanding of calculus (even better if multivariable calculus) to even comprehend what Professor Corbin teaches during his lectures. But if you have that background, then the lectures should be fine, since Corbin is otherwise a very good and really fun lecturer. The quizzes are hit and miss; sometimes Corbin will prep you very well for an easy quiz, other times it will absolutely demolish you if you don't do the homework (and maybe even if you do). The final is just 5 quizzes back to back and requires god-tier time management in order to not end up missing loads of credit. But overall, Corbin preps you well enough to succeed in his class as long as you show up to lecture (the advantage of Zoom classes is the fact that you can revisit recordings of old lectures).

Brent Corbin is a very nice man, with a zest for learning and a love for physics. He really enjoys his subject, and always brings up real world examples of what he's teaching about; often, these examples are projects he has actually worked on! In office hours, shows off all the radios he tinkers with, and answers lots of questions.
My biggest problem with the class is that the tests were VERY HARD. Even after attending office hours and doing all the homework, the exam was like a punch in the face. The problems related to what we had learned, but were nothing like the homework or included a brand-new, confusing, element. There is no advice I can give on how to do better on these. Luckily, at the end of a class, he gives a generous curve, but beware!

Overall, Professor Corbin is a fantastic professor. He is a clear and engaging lecturer and you can tell that he is truly passionate about the material. He explains the material in intuitive ways that help give students a fundamental understanding of physics. At times, the material may be dense, however, so I found it helpful to have read the relevant sections in the textbook before the lecture, even though they were never assigned.

His tests and quizzes are very very difficult, and completing each question within the alotted time is a major challenge. You cannot simply memorize formulas to do well on his tests; rather, you need to have a solid understanding of the underlying physics, which can take a lot of work. He did curve the class generously (in part due to the challenges posed by COVID) which did counter some of these issues.

Lastly, there was quite a bit of online homework for this class, but done over the course of the quarter, it was fairly manageable. DO NOT save it for the last minute, you will hate yourself for it. Furthermore, many of the homework problems were helpful in preparing for the exams. Corbin tends to not like if you ask for help on too many of these during office hours (attend these!!!), so save those for the TA discussions/office hours.

Let me just start off by saying: I am not a physics "person", I didn't take AP physics in high school, and I'm not ahead in math. I didn't do 200 MIT physics problems. What I did do was listen, and I mean really listen, to every word this guy said. I went to every lecture and every office hour for the entire quarter. I did the assigned homework without looking up the answers online. I did a reasonable number of interesting outside problems I found (but definitely not 200), and read through some of the feynman lectures on the topics we were learning. I think because of it being online the curve was a little more lenient so take my grade with a grain of salt. That being said, I highly, highly, recommend Corbin. He is one of the rare professors that is actually intelligible and gives you a clear path to success. He talks about problem solving strategies (for example, when we did doppler effect he gave us a very clear surefire way to set up every problem which made them trivial), fun examples, gives great explanations, and takes doubts meticulously. Even though it was online, this class was a great experience and I feel like I really gained a lot from it. I am not a great test taker and his tests were very, very difficult for me but everything else made it worth it.

Corbin is hard. Corbin is a god.

Absolutely loved this class. I never thought physics would be this interesting or engaging, but Corbin proved me wrong. It was difficult at times, which was to be expected, but I learned so much. Would 100% recommend.