I've purposely elected to write this review before grades are out. When I took this class (Spring 2007), it was Professor Wang's first time teaching a class in the US, ever. That said, it was a different experience than would be probable otherwise.

The good: He tries really hard to teach the material. The professor went out of his way to put together demonstrations, powerpoints, and other materials for furthering students' understanding. For the part on interference, he even put together a macro'd Excel file and sent it to the students, allowing them to plug in various numbers and see how it affected a graph of the interference. Additionally, exams are graded on time, homework is fair in quantity and quality, and sample exams are given a week in advance (which for the two midterms, were extremely similar to the actual exams). The average in the class was very high (~80s) until the final, which was fairly difficult (albeit doable), and which was definitely a step above the midterms in terms of problem solving and theory.

The bad: Having little experience teaching prior to this class often means that the professor is spends an inordinate amount of time on material which is less than useful; deriving equations, answering people's questions about simple material at great length (and wasting a lot of time doing so) which they honestly should just learn on their own, and discussing theory which is beyond the scope of the exams, which no one really understands. This time would be better spent doing a problem of medium difficulty and explaining the theory step by step. I am sure that having been his first time teaching, future quarters will be more effective. Additionally, I leave this class having learned a significant amount more than in my previous physics class (with a certain Astronomy professor), possibly due to the extensive amount of self-teaching I had to do.

Ok, so here's the breakdown. I go to about 50% of the lectures and I got an A in the class. The class isn't easy. In fact, I never understood a single thing he said in class. He has a little bit of an accent but it's not the reason why you dont understand. Well, the material is hard but he goes over some of the most useless things in lecture and you just end up sitting there going "what are you talking about?" I think the main problem is the fact that he can't convey his msg well. However, this professor is VERY concerned with his student's learning and is really nice about it. He takes time to go over things in office hours and you'll be able to understand materials then. Now, there are couple of reasons why I ended up with an A without knowing anything. First, he offered 25 extra credit points on each of his midterms and some extra credit points on his final. Now that's pretty much 1/4 of your grade boost. So I went into the final with 115% so that makes the final a little bit better. Except, the final was hard as hell and it screwed over the class alot. Second reason, his tests are pretty much identical to his practice midterms/finals. So if you understand the concept, then it's cool. Overall, I like the professor but if you are a slow learner, dont take this professor.

Professor Wang teaches an easy class, but doesn't do a very good job of it. He doesn't speak english too well, so he is hard to understand in lecture and can't clearly explain things. Lecture attendance was pretty low by mid-quarter. However, this is his only weak point. He is very nice, and wants all his students to do well. You get a lot of e-mails with supplementary materials and announcements, and he is usually available in his office, especially around exam time. He was very helpful the one time that I went to OH. He gives out practice exams one week before each of the tests, and posts solutions online. His tests are pretty much exactly like the practice tests, except with one or two things changed. The midterms were worth 100 points but had 125 possible, so like everyone got an A. The final was a little harder. All in all, a good professor, but you'll have to go to OH if you really want to learn the material.

Get Anthony Hall as your TA if you take any physics classes too, he rocks.

I had Prof Wang for 1A this fall, and overall it was a good experience. Wang is sometimes not the most clear at explaining the concepts, but that is because his main focus is on research and he doesn't teach at the lower level too frequently. That being said he is one of the most caring professors I have had. I went to most of his office hours and he had 2 hours of OH 2x a week, which is a lot more than most professors, and he was extremely helpful in office hours, as well as an overall funny guy to talk to. I would reccomend him to students willing to go to OH and put in the work.

I liked how he showed lots of videos and photos, and did lots of demonstrations in class. Not that great of a teacher though, in terms of clarity, but this class' concepts are pretty easy, so it was ok. I don't think he's going to teach lower division anymore though. That's too bad, he's a really nice guy.

Okay. So when I saw Wang available as a Physics 1A professor for winter, I jumped at the opportunity to take the class. I don't regret it.

The grading scheme is all exams, but I actually kind of like that because it doesn't put pressure on you to complete the homeworks.

Even though the guy may be hard to follow since he talks quietly and has an accent during lecture, the midterms are not bad at all. Make sure you review his practice exams in detail and understand the homeworks thoroughly, and you'll do fine. However, the final was tough and pretty tricky, and definitely a step above the practice questions he gives you. BUT, make sure you do your best, and he'll be reasonable about grading.

He's a really nice guy, and he's also reasonable in office hours if you have anything you want to address regarding the course.

This quarter I was extremely overworked (troubles of an engineering freshman finding himself at UCLA while taking a hard math prof in 2017 along with CS32), so my review may be slightly biased. Quite frankly, the midterms for Wang are extremely easy, however if you're someone who thinks that the midterms will be different from the practice midterms where you shouldn't need to memorize the midterm, think again. Most of the success for this class IMO came from either knowing someone who already took AP Physics and had a good physics intuition, or from memorizing the practice midterms. Most people, from what I saw, seemed to do poorly on the final (relatively speaking compared to the midterms) mostly because the final wasn't cumulative when it was implied it would be and most of the questions / concepts weren't really on the practice final (nor practiced rigorously through the homeworks). If you're someone who makes silly mistakes due to time pressure or time anxiety, consider taking a more rigorous class for a curve and a class that tests your knowledge rather than your memorization skills. The best way to success for this class is reading the textbook, doing online practice test questions from the teacher's version of the book (you can find this online if you search around deep enough, either on chegg or other sites), doing the homework, and just practicing. Some may recommend office hours, as unfortunately lecture tended to explain only the basic concepts and basic examples (and felt like it was winged to be honest), but not so much how to apply them successfully in exam-style questions. TL:DR; Professor is super chill, super nice. Would totally hang out with him if I could, but as a lecturer was sub-par. If you like easy classes where it's chill and the curve is really high for the beginning of the class, but later the lecturer feels the need to bring down the curve with a curveball'd final, take this class. Don't take it if you like tests that test your overall knowledge over the course and not 40% of the grade on one / two iterations of the same question on the final.

This class doesn't teach you honestly. Wang doesn't assign homework and his lectures are powerpoints straight out of the book, which only teaches basic concepts. All he does is derive equations in class and give us definitions, but never really teaches us the concept. In addition, he can be hard to understand. He's a really nice and funny guy at office hours though, but just an ineffective teacher. In addition, his tests are 90% like his practice study guide, so if you memorize the problems you'll be fine and ace it. Like the post below, if you get anxiety during tests, you should not take this class as a lot of problems are all or nothing as they are multiple choice. You won't learn much in this class, as evidenced by the final that actually tested us on whether we could apply concepts. The average was failing, despite the 80-90 average on the midterms. If you want a workload and are ok with just memorizing, take this class. If you want to learn physics, take Corbin or something.

You need to be disciplined to do well in his class. He is boring and hard to understand, but he tries very hard to teach well. He has plenty of office hours and his midterms are reasonable. Nowhere near as tough as Corbin's.

I wasn't able to pay enough attention honestly, and since the homework doesn't need to be submitted you need to motivate yourself to do work. Sit in the front. That's the best way to absorb everything he teaches. Most people towards the back of the room end up doing homework for another class. It's not impossible to get an A, since I guarantee a bunch of people won't do well since they don't pay attention.

The final is much harder than the midterms, but are similar in difficulty to the practice final/midterm. I wouldn't recommend this class honestly for people with low attention spans. I ended up teaching myself most of the material. Also, the MCQs are mainly based on random, but easy enough facts from the textbook. So, if you read each chapter once you should be set for most of the MCQs.

Lectures:
Hanguo teaches from slides and the slides are directly from the book. A lot of people just don’t show up which is fine, but I like coming to class. He did a lot of demonstrations in class that were all really funny and cool to watch, so those days were worth it. He’s a really funny guy and I would totally hang out with him at some other time outside of class. He’s very memeable and says some really hilarious stuff and I really enjoy listening to him about his research and life experiences. However, I do have to say that he’s not the clearest lecturer. He speeds through things and his lectures aren’t really useful, but I still like going to his class.

Exams:
Midterm 1: 90.1/100
Midterm 2: 83.8/100
Final: 65/100
Overall Average: 75.9
Grades are 25% midterm 1, 25% midterm 2, and then 50% final. Wang gives you a practice midterm before each midterm, and they’re almost exactly the same, save for some multiple choice here and there. The midterms are relatively easy, just study the practice exams and you’ll be fine. The exams are like 10 multiple choice or so and then 5 or free response. Easy stuff, and the class obviously did really really well. Then we took the final, which was obviously killer. It was mostly pretty easy up until the last two questions which were 30% of the final. It was just unsolvable for most of the class. The midterms were so high but since the final was so bad, he had to curve the class. I don’t know much about the grade distribution, but I’m sure it followed the standard departmental policies. Basically, study all of the practice he gives, and then just hope you do well on the final, which is only the last third of the class, not cumulative.

Homework:
Homework is completely optional and he provides all of the answers. There’s no online HW and you can basically do the HW whenever you want. It’s very chill which is nice.

Overall:
I am very glad that I took Physics with Wang this quarter. First, his class is pretty well set up. He always goes over slides that are exactly the same as the textbook, so it’s pretty easy to follow along and keep up. Overall, this class is good because there’s no real strict schedule, and there’s a lot of leeway for you to go ahead or fall behind depending on your schedule for the week. Wang is pretty good, it’s pretty chill and fun, and I would definitely take his class again, even though his final was extremely hard. I would recommend.