First major gripe: Monday's pre-recorded lectures, which are scheduled for 50 minutes on MyUCLA, would sometimes last TWO AND A HALF HOURS; the first week he put in the effort to edit it and condense it down, but then he just gave up and uploaded them at ridiculously long length.

Quizzes: instead of midterms and such, we had weekly timed quizzes on gradescope. Having one every week got overwhelming at times, and they were quite challenging themselves. Difficulty was similar to 5A tests I had with Prof Tung.

Overall not a bad class. These were my only real struggles. A is definitely doable. Samani is a good lecturer and nice person.

I thought this class was great! Prof Samani was very accomodating throughout the quarter, and he made his policies very clear from the start. Although I disagree with them (ex. no equation sheet), he was clear from the first day, so people shouldn't be upset about it on the very the last day of class. To be honest, us LS majors couldn't give a rat's ass about physics and learning these equations, but they aren't even that bad to memorize. At most, it was just a minor inconvenience for the final exam if you did not study. As a professor, Samani was great at explaining tricky concepts. He took constant feedback about what the class wanted to do for the quizzes, and he was pretty considerate about student's needs. I switched out of Lancaster's 5B into Samani's 5B and my god was it the best decision I ever made. You can't go wrong with this prof.

You definitely need to work hard in this class to understand the concepts. Instead of a Monday lecture, we have 24-hr timed weekly quizzes over the content we learned. No midterms at all! No homework! I really appreciated this approach as I thought it was way less stressful. The quizzes themselves were pretty straightforward. If you pay attention to his lectures, he pretty much goes over examples that are very similar to the ones of the quizzes. He gives an optional practice packet of questions every week, but I didn't find them helpful while studying. The best thing to do to prepare for the quizzes and finals is to look over the discussion worksheets and the examples he goes over in class.

One thing I wish Samani did differently though was the way he structured his content videos. Instead of Monday lecture, we would have the weekly quizzes. Samani would post a pretty lengthy content video that goes over all of the content for the week, and he spends class time on Wed and Fri talking about specific example questions relating to that week's content. I really liked this format because we got to see what kind of questions he would ask us. However, the content videos would often be 2hrs long, which sucked. Again, the lack of an equation sheet sucked, but it was at most just a minor inconvenience.

Most of the people complaining in these reviews either didn't show up to class, didn't watch his content videos, or just didn't know how to study for his quizzes. Newsflash: Physics is tough! A prof can only do so much for your grade, and there is a very small minority that will use the lack of an equation sheet to justify why they couldn't do well throughout the entire course. His lectuers are more than sufficient to be prepared for the quizzes, which I felt were pretty straightforward. Great class, and if I had to take it again, I would take it with Samani.

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.

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!!!

Professor Samani is probably the best professor I've had during my time at UCLA. If you're reading this review, consider me to be BEGGING you to take the class if possible. He is by far the most fun and engaging STEM professor with the most fine attention to detail, and a level of consistency that never fails. When I say that everything in this class relates to real life, I mean EVERYTHING. This man always finds a reason to make you want to pay attention to what is being taught. In terms of the class, there is a final but there are no midterms, yet 5 tests (4 individual, 1 group) instead around every other week that break down the material into easily digestible portions and are way easier to study for. All 5 are combined for 25%, and the final is 35% of the final grade (I think, I'm writing this review a bit later). You don't get a formula sheet, but the amazing thing is that his practice problem sets and tests all pull material from the last week or two in addition to material since the beginning of the quarter. This way allows you (and actually forces you) to perform spaced repetition of material, making it way less necessary to study a bunch, and way easier to memorize things. Plus, you need to memorize these things for the MCAT anyways if that is your plan. There is also extra credit and there are mandatory readings that are due before almost every lecture that are worth 3% total of the grade, but don't worry they allow you to actually understand the fun stuff happening in lecture.

Overall, Samani has research experience in the field of education, and you can really tell by the way this class is structured. He has his students' best interests at heart, and choosing another teacher over him is definitely the wrong choice, mark my words. PLEASE TAKE THIS CLASS 11/10 RECOMMEND!!!!!!!!!!!!

First off, I am shocked that Professor Samani's Bruinwalk rating is this low (should be a 5). This man was literally one of the best professors I have ever had. He is so committed to your learning, and it pays off- he was a phenomenal professor. Every textbook reading was digestible, and any questions I had on the content were promptly answered in the next lecture. He took our feedback seriously and provided some extra credit for filling out surveys and feedback forms.
I was nervous to take 5B since I thought it was going to be the hardest in the series, but it was surprisingly a pretty easy class! All exams were incredibly fair, and the harder homework assignments (which were only 5% of your grade, and 90% of each homework was based on completion) prepared you well. By the end of the quarter I understood the material so well that I didn't even study for the final and only reviewed equations the night before.
Some equations you will need to memorize, but 1) he provides a sheet of them so you know in advance, 2) they're not difficult to memorize, and 3) the memorization really helps you actually understand when/why to use them and the related concepts. Lecture participation is also required through lecture sheets, but sheets are graded on completion (only comprise about 2% of your grade) and you can miss up to 3 lectures without a documented reason.
Professor Samani structured his class really well, was incredibly kind, and was such a great professor; you can truly see his passion for teaching come out in his lectures. Overall, I had a wonderful 5b experience and would without hesitation take another class of his!!

Definitely should've studied more. Also wished he curved. However, he is my favorite professor. I am confident that I can most of the concepts due to how his class was structured. I literally love him and he's the GOAT and completely restored my confidence in myself. even though I kind of flopped (first two midterms) I ate up that final and I've never done that well on a physics exam before. He's amazing and I will always wish him the best.

Samani is a truly an amazing teacher. He explains concepts perfectly and keeps students on track with his 4 tests + team test before the final. He leaves you very well prepped if you wish to take tests like the MCAT.

10/10 recommend.