Corbin was easily the best professor I have ever had at UCLA. I was at first very nervous about taking his class, given his reputation for being hard.
By the end of his first lecture, I completely changed my mind. He is VERY knowledgeable about the material, but even more than that, he is a fantastic educator. Having stopped research, he can devote all of his time to teaching and it shows: he can keep you engaged, he knows what is essential and what is not, and he knows how to explain concepts.
I liked that his exams had no numbers, they really forced you to learn the concepts, to learn how to take the basic ideas behind the different topics and to be able to apply them no matter what comes at you. The most important thing you learn in his class is how to learn: understand the concepts, and you can answer any question

I have mixed opinions about Corbin. His lectures are entertaining (especially the physics puns) but he has a bit of an inflated ego. His tests are crazy... if you're scoring 60% you're doing "well". At first, this kinda hurts your sense of progress. You could study all night and still score in the 50-60% range: it's discouraging. After the first test, I learned really quickly how to take his midterms successfully. Don't start at the beginning of the test; flip through all of the problems. Don't attempt to start the difficult problems until later. Pick a problem you KNOW you can do well, then move onto other ones, because the time limit (50 minutes) is the biggest issue, and you want to rack up all the points you can get. Write something down for every part of every question, because even when I pulled answers out of my ass that made no sense, the TA would give me 1-2 points out of 5. Partial credit is the key! I basically didn't study more than 1 hour for each midterm, and 2 hours for the final, but I got an A because I understood the concepts and I could explain myself through sentences on the exams, even when I couldn't recall the correct equations. Attend lecture! and when I attended office hours once, I realized that the OH regulars probably got a TON of hints about exam problems. This class is intimidating, but doable. Sean is an amazing TA, so attend his review sessions and discussions when you can. (Also, I never even did one problem from the book, but they probably help you become more familiar with the equations.)

the previous poster sounds like another butthurt premed who is surprised that he actually had to do work to understand physics. that being said, i think i know who you are. (and to be clear, im not the shy asian girl you were referring to.) you venting on this (and identifying yourself) before our class grades have been posted makes it a VERY good thing that corbin DOESN'T play favorites or discriminate against his students. (otherwise you'd be fked bro.) fix your attitude (you're worse than alexandra wallace), realize that corbin is a fair teacher who chose to answer the other girl's question first because she came to office hours more than you (thus showing more dedication, regardless of ethnicity), and hello, ever heard of a curve? who cares about low averages lmao..its based on the average

take corbin if you actually want to learn physics..with the budget cuts he's one of the only good physics professors left.
wish the workshops were still around but ucla doesnt care enough about us to fund them. well, at least learn something from this guy while you can.

Alright, just finished this course Winter of '11 and I must say, this professor is EXTREMELY overrated. He's an average lecturer at best, and incompetent/disorganized at worst. You can tell that age is really catching up with him, because you can tell he's just regurgitating the lectures he's been doing for years onto the board. He skips a lot of steps / algebra, and does a lot of unnecessary derivations / covers material that is never seen on the tests. Oh, and there's homework assigned, but never collected (it's honestly almost not worth putting in the effort to do it though, because it's only incidentally related to what he puts on his tests.) So basically, this class is just a huge time waster / stress producer- there's no good or efficient way to study for his tests, the homework is time consuming and doesn't really help you to prepare for his tests, and his lectures require you to sift through the unnecessary parts and try to predict what he thinks is important. He's known for his creative / unpredictable tests, which isn't a good thing; this isn't even coming from a place of butthurt or bitterness, since I got an A on both midterms in his class. But I have to say, the effort I put in to studying for this class was definitely not worth it. If you can avoid taking him, please do (I didn't have a choice). You'll save yourself a lot of stress, confusion, and frustration.

Also, I went to office hours once in a while just to get an edge in the class, and it's very apparent that Corbin definitely plays FAVORITES. If you're a shy Asian girl, then lucky you (p.s. his wife is asian, which probably has something to do with it). Next, he favors cute girls, and then last: everybody else. It's very obvious from the way he responds to the people in office hours who he favors. This one shy asian girl (like, from asia) asked the most retarded, nonrelated questions and Corbin would respond in almost a sort of flirty way, and then spend a lot of time explaining it to her. When I would ask a question, he said once that I should come to class more often because then I'd know the answer, and once he just said: well that's a dumb question (honestly just normal standard questions on the material). Corbin is full of himself too; he said on multiple occasions that he knew that he was the best physics prof. we've had (not true, Arisaka was leagues better) and that he's the only one who does it right, and a bunch of other self-congratulatory nonsense that made me just sick of him by the quarter's end.

..but's up to you; tons of people like him, I really didn't care for him either personally or as a teacher. He's obviously not the worst, but be prepared to stress out in his class from start to finish. Oh, and his grading is really harsh: most people get C's in the class, and the test averages are around 50/120.

Well Corbin is amazingly tough but he definitely wants students to learn valuable skills in physics. I found all the material he taught to be 100% translatable to MCAT physics portion. Now I didn't have to take the MCAT but I definitely was able to help both my roommates who are studying their butts off right now. Corbin makes you think about the material in the same way the MCAT wants you to think so if you take him for the 6 series, you will be in good hands, especially for 6C material. On a side note, I have never done worse in a class at UCLA but somehow I ended up with an A because I could answer his conceptual questions. Hint for his exams: If he mentions something is interesting to think about in lecture or OH, then do yourself a favor and think it out because, like I said, he loves to challenge his students.

Corbin's a tough professor to rate, let's be honest here.
You either hate him, or love him.
As a lecturer he's without a doubt the best physics professor you can have.
He keeps you intrigued, explains the material well, and in general motivates you to come to class (if anything out of self-induced fear of missing something crucial).

That being said, as an exam creator, the man is on another level.
Even I can't tell if it's a good thing or a bad thing.
Rather than the generic plug-chug-and forget two days later examination, his are nearly all based on qualitative understanding as much as quantitative. (At least for the 6 Series)
That being said, his exams are in essence marvelous, in that they often tie into something we can see/understand/relate to the medical or biotechnological fields. However, the catch is that, whilst intriguing, they are inevitably DIFFICULT.

All in all, the curve is very generous in his course. He seems to hate the books UCLA provides for us, so if you're the type of student that enjoys missing class and reading, I'd highly recommend avoiding him.

The only thing I didn't care for was his slight favoritism for those who went to office hours. Granted it's great if you can attend (I was not one of those people), but for the others it always leaves you a little shaky when he calls out individuals during lecture by name not a lecture after saying "You can talk to me about your grade if you're worried, and we can meet half way".

He is REALLY a good professor, hard no doubt but good. He is very concerned about his students and really enthusiastic to teach. He makes his lectures really enjoyable and is very energetic, which helps since it's such a boring subject at times. Tests are really hard but he curves generously. So if you work hard, you will come through. Also, going to his office hours will really help cause he is very helpful & welcoming. I couldn't make it to any of his office hours cause of time conflicts but did all the HW problems and got a B in the class and I am not even very smart in Physics =)! BTW, the TA (Sean) was the best I have had in UCLA so far, practically walked us through all the HW problems!

Corbin definitely lives up to his reputation of being a tough professor, but he is the best physics professor I had at UCLA. He really wants his students to learn, so he makes his lectures very interesting and understandable and is very accessible through office hours and the discussion board for any questions or concerns. His exams are notoriously difficult, but don't be discouraged by them - the curve is heavy and as long as you do the problems and review his lecture notes, you will definitely get enough partial credit to do well. If you are looking for an easy physics class, Corbin's class is definitely not the ticket, but if you actually want to LEARN the material (for the MCAT, say) then definitely consider it. Don't get me wrong, you have to work hard...but getting through his class is an accomplishment and you will actually come out feeling that it was useful. I ended up with a B in his class, which I was happy with because physics really isn't my thing, but hard work and office hours definitely paid off.

Corbin's reputation is pretty accurate ... he's probably one of the hardest professors you'll take at UCLA. This is very much not the type of class where you can expect to just memorize formulas and spit them back on the test. Granted, you'll get a decent amount of partial credit if you do, but you definitely won't be able to get by on that sort of surface knowledge.

That being said, he's definitely possible. Review his lectures thoroughly, and try to take note of the little things he says - many people don't catch them, but if you're able to tie in his really quick comments about real life applications to the concepts sometime before the test, you'll be in pretty good shape. And definitely do as many practice problems as possible. Study hard and ask critical questions. He's extremely available, caring, and concerned, and if you show that you're really willing to learn, he'll, as he says, "meet you halfway".

Corbin is the WORST professor I have ever had, hands down. He is a totally jerk and really condescending towards his students. He constantly made jokes about how pre-meds don't know how to learn and are useless as students and blah blah blah. Nevermind the fact that some life science majors aren't actually pre-med. He spent so much time talking about how much we needed to study, work harder, learn better, focus better in his class, and that time could have been spent actually TEACHING us physics if he wanted the tests to go better.

The averages on his tests are in like the 30s (out of 100), and they are terrible. He has an extremely tough curve, and he is honestly just an asshole. He plays favorites with the suck ups who come to his office hours, and he's rude in every way possible. I absolutely loved physics before his class, but now the thought of physics makes me pissed off. I ended up getting a B in his class even though I have gotten really high As in math and physics all of my life. Basically, don't take his class: it will ruin your transcript, ruin your day every time you see him, and ruin your appreciation for a formly-loved topic. If you do take his class, please write him a terrible course evaluation, because he deserves to know how miserable he makes students. I sincerely hope he gets fired, or at least has to stop teaching.

AVOID HIM AS MUCH AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE.