Professor Huang was honestly an extremely helpful professor. Granted, his accent made it hard to understand him sometimes, but he really did put a lot of effort into ensuring that his students had a good grasp on the class materials. He assigned weekly homeworks and quizzes online which counted for 15% of our grade. Towards the end of the class he informed us that, since he recognized how hard we were working, he would give us all 100% in all the homeworks and quizzes. He also gave everyone who got above a 90% in the final exam at least an A-, regardless of their midterm and lab grades. He is one of the few professors I have met who truly want their students to succeed. He provided us with the exact topics we would get in both midterms and told us beforehand that the final exam would consist of several repeat questions from the lecture slides and the previous midterms. As long as you went to lecture and paid attention to his hints about the exams, it's pretty easy to pass this class.

Dude has a very harsh accent and isn't engaging at all. Nice guy but a crappy professor. Midterm averages were very low, which I believe was because he wasn't an effective communicator. Lectures had bad attendance. I wouldnt recommend this guy but wouldn't say it was insanely difficult material. I just was uninspired by the guy. Not worth the tuition dollars to hear him lecture.

Absolutely not. I saw the reviews saying that it wouldn't be as bad as it seemed, but it was quite literally the trenches. When I fought tooth and nail for a 5A spot in September when seats were gone in minutes, I told myself maybe this professor wouldn't be bad. Fast forward in December, I think he was the worst professor I've ever had here actually.

Pros
- He ends up giving full credit to everyone for homework and quizzes (a combined total of 10% of your grade! everything else depends on lab and his terrible exams!)

Cons
- His lectures are unclear. Don't bother going to them (I went every time, and I still didn't retain information)
- On BOTH midterms, he messed up on one of the problems (mind you, there's literally only 4 questions worth 25 points each) and changed the instructions HALFWAY through the exam. On the first midterm, he ended up curving 2/3s of that question, but on the second midterm, he did not. Granted, averages for midterm 2 were better (82) compared to midterm 1 (around 67), but then he decided to give us that final
- I'm telling you this man is not real because he is a pathological liar. If you hear the words "river problem" or "banked curve", just be aware he will not stay true to what he says will be on the exam. - He gave diagrams on the Week 10 slides as "what we'll see on the final", but we quite literally did not see 50% of them on the final. Like yes, they had the same topic, but they were the most random problems ever that had no correlation to the examples he told us to study.
- He says his tests are easy, but they never match with the homework or the examples he shows in class or the old exams he posts from previous quarters aside from 1-2 problems
- He teaches momentum during Week 8 (when the Physics Department literally says "skip Momentum") and combines it with energy concepts, so be warned
- He basically has a bell curve distribution for the class, so you're technically competing against other people for your grade (there's cutoffs, but these are based on rank)

The only saving grace of this class was the TA and LA. Save yourself from this class and if you are forced to take him because there's no more 5A spots, I wish you the best of luck.

ok ok ok, I get it. Huang, if you really depend on learning through lecture or some sort of audio cues, is absolutely terrible. But, if you're able to just push yourself to go through the slides and do the online homework, He's really not that bad. I literally joined two weeks late because of people dropping last second, and playing catchup was hard. But the tips he gives about the exam are accurate. listen to what he says in lecture about what topics he's gonna cover because those are probably super accurate. However, the questions could be really hard, so just put reference questions on your cheat sheets. I got an A on the first midterm, C on the second midterm, and an A on the final. I think those grades were done with a lot of procrastination and last minute cramming, but it worked out. I'm also a freshman if that helps give any context. Dude is really sincerely nice and cares about your learning. Don't worry about finishing the homework and quizzes on time because he'll give you full credit anyways. Also, he gave a really big tip about the final in how it was super similar to practice exams, so make sure to load your cheat sheet. A lot of past questions are super similar to the exams he gives. He's not as bad as everyone says. If you don't get Tung or some other "good" professor, it's really not the end of the world

If you want to do really well in a class, then maybe don't take it with Huang; however, I didn't find his class to be that bad. Granted, I never went to any lectures and I didn't care to do that well in the class (passing is just fine). A lot of students are scared of taking Huang because of these reviews, but I feel like he's equally as bad as any other lower division course professor at this school. Yes, it sucks, but there's not much you can do because you HAVE to take these courses. I actually found Huang to be very sweet despite is somewhat lack of an ability to teach. I'm saying this as a student who SHOULD NOT HAVE PASSED. I got a 43% on my first midterm and a 3% on my second midterm. I skipped a pre-lab and lab I think. I don't know how, but I pulled through on my final. If I can pass with a C+, I think you'll be just fine.

I should've listened when everyone around me told me to wait another quarter instead of taking it with this professor. DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS IF YOU'VE NEVER TAKEN PHYSICS BEFORE! Professor Huang sucks at explaining things as the other reviews have stated. He mainly goes over examples in class but what good are examples if he doesn't provide a foundation to build upon.

He did end up giving us 100% is homework and quizzes. Here is the breakdown for my quarter:
Homework: 5 point (5%)
Weekly quizzes: 5 points (5%)
Midterm 1: 15 point (15%)
Midterm 2: 15 points (15%)
Lab: 15 points (15%)
Final: 45 points (45%)

Resources I used (even though I only a B)
- YOUTUBE (it's seriously gonna be your best friend)
I specifically recommend the you tube channel "physics ninja" because a lot of his pulley problems are similar to this.
- Online resources
I would just search up example problems relating to the topic and try to do those.

He does provide sample exams but he will the change the question. For example a sample exam asked about magnitude of friction forces and their acceleration. On the actual test he might have a similar problem but he'll ask about something else. He did allow 1 sheet of paper on both mid terms (cheat sheet, front and back) and 2 sheets for the final.

I hate this professor with a passion because it's so hard to understand him and he doesn't teach.

Going into this class with 0 background in physics throughout high school, I was terrified by the reviews that I saw on bruinwalk for the professor. My fears only got worse on the first day of class when he gave us a talk about how we shouldn’t expect to get As in this class because he centers his grades around a B average as per the department. Given his accent, it was a little difficult to understand him at times. However by no means do I think that’s any of an excuse to put blame on him as a professor and his teaching credibility. He tries his best to work around his accent and he’s self aware of the potential difficulties that it may cause students. I stopped going to lectures after week 1 and self studied the material based off of his homework (which was incredibly helpful as it was challenging, at least for me) and his slides. His exams were usually somewhat similar to the past exams that he provides for all students, and while there’s a bit of a time crunch, many of the exam problems are not difficult in terms of the overall process in solving them. I would find myself shocked looking at his answer keys for old exams and realizing that I had overcomplicated the problem and that the real answer was way simpler. Regardless of whether or not this professor has high ratings, physics 5A is such a difficult class to get so if this professor is what you’re left with just take it. My advice is to really UNDERSTAND the logic behind the problems and not just memorize the steps on how to do it. On exams he will make slight changes to homework problems and sometimes old exam problems and you have to understand how that changes the way you solve it. Best of luck!

Huang was a good professor. Coming into the class, I was super nervous because I was told his tests were super difficult and that his grading scheme was exam-heavy.

The tests were not that bad, but the grading scheme was definitely exam-heavy! It is imperative that you do well!

The grading distribution was as follows:

10% Homework and Quiz (he winds up giving everyone that attempts these 100%, regardless of correctness)

30% Midterms 1/2

45% final exam

15% labs

The tests were somewhat like the practice finals/midterms and a cheat sheet was allowed for both the midterm and final. As long as you put in an adequate amount of effort (I suggest reading the textbook and taking notes), you will do well! You definitely get out what you put into this class. The questions on the test will not be exactly the same as what is provided on the practice exams, but will be similar enough to allow you to apply the concepts to alternatively-structured problems!

Huang, regardless of past reviews, is a great professor! He truly cares about student learning and his accent, while thick, is not the reason for student’s inability to do well! Put in a solid amount of effort and his class will go fine! He was super nice and even would crack jokes during lecture! Demonstrations were fun too! Overall, he was one of the better teachers I’ve had at UCLA!

attendance at lectures not taken, slides & bruincast available on bruinlearn. labs are too long for the time given in section, & lab attendance is mandatory. discussion attendance isn't mandatory (I think) & I found it unhelpful. exams are very fair; there's usually only 1 hard/unfamiliar question, & the rest of it feels pretty fair & straightforward, just do all of the practice exams/problems. cheat sheets & calculators allowed on the exams.

Oh my god I hated this class with Huang. While I found the concepts really interesting, I still barely passed the class because THIS MAN CAN NOT TEACH. He would just put equations up and say here's the equation and not walk us through what they meant. He would also have practice problems on the slides and then just click to the next slide where the answer would be LIKE HELLO can you walk us through the processes please. Also, he's so hard to understand!!!! I have an Asian mom with an accent but I still struggled to understand him which is saying something. I had to sit really close to him to be able to hear him because if the back of the lecture hall there was absolutely no chance even though he has a mic.

OH MY GOD and the test!!! He would always say that he wasn't going to throw curve balls at us but then test us on crazy variations of the concepts!! His tests were sooooooo much harder than the other professors that quarter (Tung and Bauer). If you can take the class with someone else DO IT.