The class itself was not too difficult and I believe it is because of the professor. Labs started off well and ended with really tricky and time consuming work. Each lab did require some work and effort but my TA structured lab time in order to work on the lab and get help. I really respect how Professor Jiang quizzed the class. Tests were very fair and were straight to the point in order to see if the class understood the basic material (as every class should unless it is very relevant to your career choice). I lost track of time during my first midterm and bombed it, but it was fairly easy. I recommend STUDYING PROBLEMS IN THE BOOK.

I felt like I learned a lot better from doing the weekly homework and TA review worksheets than actually attending lecture. Lectures were often very theoretical-heavy, and while that's great for people who are actually interested in physics, I found lectures to be boring and not really worth my time if half of each lecture is not going to be on the exam. I'd still recommend going to lecture though because occasionally he'd mention certain things to focus on for the next exam, plus his lectures are NOT recorded (though he does post handwritten unorganized lecture notes).

For exams, definitely review some of the problems he went over in class, something I honestly failed to do. Also remember to write down all the equations necessary on your cheat sheets (you get one for each exam) since this class goes HEAVY on using the right equation. His exams did get harder and harder over the course of the quarter so you'll want to do your best on the first two exams. ALSO don't be afraid to ask for a regrade if you think you deserved a point because that point may or may not break your grade at the end!!

It's a difficult class, but the professor manages to illustrate how cool the content is (most of the time).
The midterm was very easy, the homework was moderately easy, and the final was brutal. I don't think the curve was super nice, I was significantly above average on both tests and my homework was >95%, but I still didn't get an A. If you supplement the course with online lectures and any pair of QM textbooks, you're going to understand the content.
We covered time-independent degenerate and non-degenerate perturbation theory, the variational principle, the WKB approximation, time-dependent perturbation theory, Fermi's golden rule, absorption and emission of radiation, the adiabatic approximation, Berry's phase, pure and mixed states, and the EPR paradox. Basically everything from Griffith's except the chapter on scattering. The professor wanted to talk about topics of personal interest like quantum computing and superconducting qubits, but we didn't have time.

If you are thinking about taking this class with this professor, RUN. This professor has been the worst professor that I have ever had at UCLA. I read the good reviews for this prof before enrolling, but they all had to do with his policies during covid, which are completely different.

This professor DOES NOT RECORD LECTURES, and HAS NO EXAM PREPARATION. His exams require an unrealistic MASTERY of the material, which can't be done within a reasonable amount of time. He offers no makeup exams either, so good luck if you have an emergency. Midterms are 20% of your grade, and the final is 35%, he doesn't offer a midterm drop policy. The grading also takes FOREVER. The midterms allow one page of notes, but none of it will help because the content is twisted in ways that require a mastery of the material. I copied down every single formula, chapter summaries, diagrams, and every mastering physics problem onto a single page and could only scrape by with a 73% on the midterm.

Jiang mutters frequently during lecture and the writing on his ipad is extremely difficult to read. It can be difficult to understand him at some points in the lecture. He does upload these "notes" to canvas, but they are so illegible that it's not worth your time. No campuswire is set up, and the mastering physics only allows 5 attempts per problem.

I already know there's going to be a lot of people defending Dr. Jiang in here. The people that do are people that study all the time, or are only focusing on this class and have a light workload. If that's the type of person you are, fine, take the class and find out for yourself. For the rest of the people that are managing other classes, or don't have the privilege to study all the time, save yourself the stress and don't take this professor. Or take it and find out exactly how bad it is. You'll regret it though.