Samani overall was a great Professor, in that I learned alot from what he taught, and the way he lectured made me interested in physics. However, do not take this class if you want an essay A. He invests alot of time in this class including posting well-made demos simulations and weekly content videos. The videos were a little long but weren't horrible if you watched at double speed. The weekly quizzes were pretty manageable assuming you went to class and watched the content video. However, they were closed notes so that definitely made them more difficult. While the class isn't easy if you put in the time and work you can defiantly succeed. If you actually want to learn physics would definitely take this class.

He made this class hard again

Samani is a great professor. He is passionate about the subject and has thorough explanations. Many of the people writing poor reviews here likely never showed up to class and/or refused to study for the final.
Surprise! Physics is hard... but as somebody who has had actually bad physics professors in the past I can assure you this is the guy to take. If you show up to class and study for just 15 minutes a week outside of class, you will do great on every quiz and the final. Plus, there are no midterms, which means less stress on you when all your other professors are breathing down your neck weeks 4-7. Look at the grade distribution.

I think professor Samani is the greatest physics professor I've ever met. Other than teaching physics concepts, he really cares about students' needs. He changed the quiz duration to be much longer than usual in order to reduce students' anxiety on unsuccessful gradescope submission. The difficulty of quizzes and the final is reasonable as long as you follow the lectures carefully and do most of the practice pracket problems. Also, go to his office hour which is really useful! To be honest, as a math major, I spend 60-70% of my time on this physics course, but I think it's worth it. I really enjoy this course because I can feel Samani's passion when teaching it. I'll definitely enroll in other courses of Samani in the future if I had a chance. Take his class if you really want to learn sth!

BEST PROFESSOR EVER!!! Samani will make you LOVE physics even if you've never loved physics before. He is so engaging and funny and makes every single lecture relatable and applicable to your life. Like I would leave lecture wanting to learn more and I never really liked 5A so Samani completely turned the experience around for me. TAKE PHYSICS WITH SAMANI HE WILL MAKE YOU LOVE SCHOOL!!!

Very good professor that is passionate about teaching. He gave clear, interesting, entertaining lectures. My only issue is that sometimes he kept things too simple in his lectures, and the homework/tests were on another level.

Homework consists of masteringphysics and challenge problems. The challenge problems were very difficult- sometimes impossible.

The tests were quite difficult, but reasonable.

As a first-quarter freshman taking this course as one of his first classes, this class was a real challenge. The averages on the midterms were 38% and 58%. Like some of the other reviews said, Samani is one of the best teachers of physics at UCLA and has very engaging and stimulating lectures, however there is a huge divide between the simple concepts he teaches during lectures and the exams. Most questions from problem sets and tests rival or surpass MIT problems, some are nearly impossible to solve. You leave midterms wondering if you know anything, becuase of how hard the problems are to solve in the short amount of time given.

My favorite professor of this quarter. He does a very good job teaching concepts to you and he tries really hard to avoid convoluted proofs and math heavy lectures. But that's not to say that the class never delves into long proofs and complicated algebra. Homework is cut into two parts, the book questions and the challenge problems. Challenge is the keyword here because you will most likely, no matter how good you think you are in physics, will spend a good amount of time for these 4-5 questions that ask you to not only stretch out what already know but also do some complicated algebra. His tests are difficult but it never felt unfair. His grading curve and criteria are also so nice which is something you really don't expect from a STEM class at UCLA. You shouldn't have any unfair problems passing the class. You get what you deserve from Samani.

Samani is a LEGEND. He's an extremely engaging lecturer and he deeply passionately cares about student learning. Everyone should take his class.

I had Professor Samani for Physics 5A. I had never taken a physics course in my life and was super afraid of taking a physics course at UCLA. However, Professor Samani taught the class extremely well. He was super generous on giving us points back on the exams and teaching the overall concepts rather than long proofs. I wouldn't mind taking the class with him again. In order to do well in the class, you have to do as much practice problems as possible, and understand the overall concepts. Don't just memorize problems. Professor Samani for the win!