This guy actually teaches you something that is not from the textbook, so going to his lecture is a must. A lot of people failed his midterms because of not going to class. It might seem that he is not very organized and has a thick accent, so try to copy everything he writes on board in class, and try to organize and understand it at home. I didnt really study for this class except his notes and MasteringPhysics, but still got a solid A due to his generous curve.

It is very important to pick out what is relevant in his lectures. His lectures are detailed and he likes to touch on some advanced topics that requires mathematics beyond most, if not all, students. Frankly, I would not be qualified to tutor for his class if I weren't a physics major and had taken advanced math classes. However, his tests are all doable given that you have a thorough understanding of the concepts. Young and Freedman does a decent job with concepts, and be sure to review on your calculus and some simple complex analysis for his tests on circuits and impedance.

I will do my best to evaluate this man based on the six or so days I've attended his class (including the two midterms).

The course encompassed 10 chapters. He graded based on 10% Mastering Physics homework (which were directly from the book), 20% for two midterms, and 50% final. Homework was not helpful towards midterms, which were kicks toward the crotch/eggs. The average for the first was around a C- and the second was around an F-. Average for the final was 44.4/80, even with cheaters. No equation sheets were allowed for the 10-chapter final. He didn't display the grade distributions on MyUCLA so it's difficult to say how he came up with our grades. I scored above the average for the midterms, but he didn't tell us our grades on the final (at the time this review was written). Either Giovanni Zocchi is the first Italian warlock I know -- for magically turning my overall grade into a C -- or I did badly enough on the final to drag my score down to said grade.

Of the moments I wasn't sleeping in his class during the days I attended his lectures, I found it a tad difficult to pay attention to him. His Italian accent is prominent and one of my friends claims that he speaks Italian at times during his teaching. To most students, either he explains complex things or he complexly explains things. Unfortunately, both scenarios result in very confused people, resulting in poor attendance rates. (Of course, I wouldn't know. But a friend who does attend lectures more than I do tells me so.)

On the other hand, Zocchi's a pretty nice guy. If you like nice people, take him if you want. But make sure you've read what I mentioned about him. It can be pretty bleak.

I feel that previous evaluations slightly differ from the Zocchi I had for Fall 09.

Zocchi did have an authentic concern for us. One time during class, he told us he received a lot of questions about surface integrals, volume integrals, etc. so he devoted an entire lecture to it. After the 1st midterm he said that if you have been going to class and you just received a low grade, come to his office hours because he will teach you how to properly study for physics. After the second midterm, he seemed kind of pissed because the scores were kinda low and he suspected a lack of effort on our part.

The main problem with this quarter's class and Zocchi was this: Zocchi's accent is strong and understanding EXACTLY what he said was difficult. He loved physics too and would kinda go off in lecture. So kids substituted going to lecture by staying home, doing the HW and reading the book. Now this is fine; this works 95% of the time. However, the MAIN ISSUE was this: the classwork and tests were different from the book, mainly with something called LRC Circuits. The book had this noob treatment of it but Zocchi did the full-frontal, pure-physics-mathematical treatment of it. So this set the class off-balance, caught us off guard, and there was alienation/dissatisfaction/anger/etc...

What should you do?
1) Find an Italian model wife, date, marry her, and learn Italian or get used to her accent so you can understand Zocchi. Have kids, get a nice house in suburbia, look at pictures from her golden days in Vogue...

2)Take this class with Math 33B. Solving LRC circuit problems makes more sense with 33B's knowledge.
Go to office hours. I didn't. You should.

Seriously, there's only one beast in this class and it's LRC circuit problems. The rest is easy shit. But nonetheless, there's more calculus here than 1B.

I got an A-. I was well above average both midterms (midterm 1: average 27/40 midterm 2: avg. 21/40). I THOUGHT I raped the final (with respect to the class that is, average on final was 44.4/80 ) but I guess not. I just beat it up a little. Pushed it around a bit. It fought back a little. But I subdued it. And it gave up. And it turned itself in and got graded.