I avoided Professor Coroniti for Physics 1A and 1B based on the reviews I had seen and I had no choice but to take him for 1C--and now I wish I had taken him for the entire physics series.

First of all, yes, his test are hard IF you don't know how to take his tests, and honestly even if you do. But he tells you literally 95% of what will be on the test in his study guides for the midterm. Basically, he'll say something like problem 1: Faraday's law and then he will describe the concepts and then give you both homework problems to review and extra book problems to practice that pertain EXACTLY to the problem on the test. Furthermore, if you really read his descriptions, you can tell the specifics of the problem too (ex: it will talk about a rail gun so you can assume a rail gun or something very similar will be on the exam). This is so helpful, because you don't waste time studying something in depth that won't be on the exam, so you feel much more prepared.
Obviously it's not exactly like the homework and the final especially can be challenging when he adds in tricks, but the graders are SO generous. Seriously. I was genuinely expecting a 40% on the first midterm but I ended up with a 75+% and the average was around a 65%.
His grading is pretty standard but since his standard deviations are so high (most are around 18-20) it can seem daunting to get a good grade. Basically, if you want an A-, aim to get 2/3 of the standard deviation above the average. EX: average: 60 and standard deviation is 18, then aim for a 72 to get an A. (it sounds bad but it really isn't)

Professor Coroniti is also suuuuper sweet and if you go to office hours he's super nice and loves to help you out. He's also a good lecturer and pretty darn good at explaining things like relativity which can be super confusing. We had a lot of demonstrations and light shows in the quarter which was super fun and honestly I am not a physics person but I truly enjoyed this class and would 110% take it with Coroniti again. As long as you don't fall too behind and make sure you really study his study guides, you can totally do great!

Grading is 5% homework, 22.5% each midterm and 50% final. Don't let the 5% homework scare you since the class is curved anyway so even if homework was 25% it wouldn't really make a difference.

How you perform in this class depends on how well you can follow Professor Coroniti's lectures. Professor Coroniti's derivations on board are on point, yet sometimes hard to follow because his notes are very math heavy and don't provide much intuition behind some concepts. I suggest reading the material before it is covered in lecture.

His midterms are heavily based on lecture notes, so you need to take good notes in class. If you don't understand something, you can ask him literally every day when class starts, so there really is no excuse to bomb your midterms. On the other hand, the final is a little tricky as he brings back old materials from the first two midterms, but with a twist (for example, he might turn a first-order circuit from a midterm into a second-order circuit).

I'm not trivializing the class material (the material can get difficult), and I'm not saying Professor Coroniti is always clear during lectures. However, I do believe there are many chances to understand the material, and your hard work will pay off in the end.

This class is hard. Really, really hard. First, there is a huge breadth of material from magnetism to lens and mirror optics to interference and diffraction to special relativity. It's a lot of stuff to cover in just 10 weeks. Second, Dr. Coroniti is just a hard professor. His exams are doable, but not in the time constraint of the 50 minute lecture. More on this below.
Midterms:
First midterm: 4 problems, 100 points, Average was 45(?) and Standard Deviation was 23(?)
Second midterm: 4 problems, 100 points, Average was a 55(?) and Standard Deviation was 20(?)
Numbers are approximate because I don't exactly remember, but they are around there. These tests were hard, but almost everyone passes. I literally scored a 24 on the first midterm and most of the points were pity points I think, to get me to the C- range. The first midterm was all magnetism and it was really hard for me. Not my strong point. I did much better on the second midterm, which covered lenses, Maxwell's equations, and two slit interference.
I'm not 100% sure, but I think Coroniti adds points for improvement because I did horribly on that first midterm and I still ended up with a B.
Before each exam, he gives a thorough breakdown of exactly what'll be on the exams. It literally tells you, "Problem 1: Biot Savart Law," and explains what you'll need to do. You really need to go to his lectures to do well in his class as lots of the solutions to the problems are actually worked out during lectures. He can be a little dry and he does like going through equation derivations, but pay attention and take good notes and you will be fine.

Many people will think that this professor is hard. That's true. But at the same time, anyone who actually puts in the time and effort to understand the derivations he does in class and focus on the important things he says during lecture can earn an A.

My track record in Physics was a C in Physics 1A and a B+ in Physics 1B. In an effort to finish off the 1 series on a high note, I decided to step up my game: I was really attentive in class, attempted the homework without ever referring the answer key, and go visit him during office hours to clarify my notes. He was very nice and was willing to answer all my questions.

How does he grade? For Physics 1C in Fall 2015, it was 5% homework, 22.5% per midterm (x2), and 50% final.

How hard were his exams? In the language of the earliest reviews, this is a snapshot.

1st midterm: avg 55/100, got 77
2nd midterm: avg 44/100, got 79
Final: ???/225
My final grade: A

Ironically, he goes over what will appear on the exams. He says exactly how many questions will appear, the topics they will cover individually, and some practice problems relevant to the topic. Yet people still seemed to have trouble.

Having understood what the professor wants from the midterms, I didn't find the final difficult at all, though I wouldn't say it was that easy either. Nothing's easy. But it felt like a good puzzle that pulled some tricks from the past midterms, but nothing really surprising. His exam questions emphasized derivations he had done in class.

But as a general guideline, to succeed in any class, one needs to know that a performance on an exam is an indication of how much one understands what the professor wants one to know, or get out of the course. The exams assess whether you can actually apply the concepts from class. If you understand the concepts well enough, the exams should feel trivial. That's the ideal. Otherwise, you're doing it all wrong.

In retrospect, Coroniti helped me appreciate Physics very much. He's an exceptionally smart and caring man.

By far the best professor I have had at UCLA. Never had I looked forward to lecture before. Each lecture was organized, had almost no mistakes in derivations, and he stopped and made people ask questions until everyone was on the same page. He seemed to know exactly which part of class would confuse us in which way and worked extra hard to help us understand. The material itself is difficult, so expect to work hard. Don't just bullshit through the homework using the solutions. For exams, he outlines exactly what will be on it, so we knew what areas to focus on. The last lecture before the exam was used as a review session where we got to ask him to go through sample solutions of things that would be exactly on the test.

Don't pass up the chance to take this professor. He will leave you with some "very powerful solving tools" as he calls it, and you will experience one of the best professors on ucla. This is the kind of professor you came here for.