I seriously wish there was a rating higher than 100% for Professor Samani. My friends were probably tired of me talking about how after 4 years of undergraduate schooling I finally got a professor who teaches the material in a way where I grasp the material best who I feel genuinely cares about my learning. Prior to this class, I had little to no knowledge of physics. I was actually dreading this class because Physics 5A, the pre-requisite, went horribly for me in the sense that I failed every exam and left the course not feeling confident in any of the learning objectives. He does a lot of things right like how he speaks clearly using terms we can understand, provides extremely engaging examples that genuinely make us excited and determined to discover the behind-the-scenes physics phenomenon of every day activities, plays music prior to lecture getting suggestions from students which builds connections, offers chatting office hours to connect with students, asks questions we can answer as a class, and so much more. I knew Professor Samani had our best interest in mind when he started off the quarter with a lecture on how the human mind retains information most effectively giving real data and examples of how to study in general, and he implemented those tactics in class in order to give us our best opportunity at understanding the material. I really appreciate how he continues to include content from all of the prior weeks in the current week's exams because I spend almost no time studying since the learning method he suggested on day 1 of class truly works and the information sticks with continuous practice. I also appreciate how he incorporates collaboration with your seat partner for every lecture. It honestly helps me with my understanding as it gets me thinking out loud and it allows me to process what I'm learning as opposed to just copying down and answer and moving on like in most of my lectures. It also keeps me accountable to pay attention during class because I want to be able to contribute to the collaboration with my seat partner and not appear as if I haven't been paying attention. It's also nice because most of the time in pair-share, when I don't know how to answer a question my seat partner also doesn't know so exposing that builds my confidence to let me know that I am not falling behind in the class, but rather that everyone is at the same pace generally. I also like it because I found new solid friends who I communicate and hang out with outside of class because of the pair-sharing opportunities, since we spent so much time powering through these physics concepts together, simultaneously getting to know each other. I love that on every worksheet professor samani asks for feedback. It shows that he actually cares and wants to make sure that everyone is learning and keeping up to the best fo their abilities. He shows he cares even in the little things like going out of his way to buy high quality expensive chalk to use on the chalkboard for students in the back to follow along more easily. I also like that he goes through the tougher, more difficult angles of applying the physics concepts he teaches on the homework and in class as opposed to on the exams. He understands that exams are stressful enough as it is and throwing curveballs by adding question types that we have never seen before to test our abstract knowledge is time consuming, frustrating, and inefficient for successful learning so he refrains from doing it and that is very admirable as most professors do it the opposite way. I've learned so much from Professor Samani that I also take with me to my other courses, such as applying how to best learn which is by recalling rather than the common misconception that reviewing material is the optimal study method. Overall, Professor Samani is an 11/10. I wish he could teach every class I take from here on out!

Easily my favorite professor at UCLA so far, very concerned about his students and genuinely wants students to succeed and more importantly learn the material in his course. Class was very enjoyable and course load was fair and manageable as well. Seems to enjoy teaching and is a great communicator and lecturer who makes difficult concepts approachable and uses bite-sized approaches to teaching. Again, an amazing professor whose class I will always be glad I took.

Samani was a great professor actually one of the most passionate organized and on top of it professors at UCLA. The only thing I would suggest is that making lecture attendance mandatory is not really necessary for my own learning in the class. It felt like more of a burden than something helpful.

Prof Samani is actually the goat. He is SO GOOD at teaching. I heard he won an award for it but he deserves more. He's really good at breaking down concepts in a way that a physics pleb like me can understand. Samani's definitely one of my favorite STEM professors. Exams are straightforward, class attendance is mandatory.

To start, this class is not a walk in the park, however, it also is not a trip down Hell. Professor Samani is very clear on the goals/objectives that you need to know. His lectures were some of the best I've ever had at UCLA, he truly does care about student success; they are so engaging and make you feel like you actually learned something walking out. The midterm has a group portion 7% of your grade, which is essentially redoing the questions on the individual portion of the midterm which was 18% of your grade. He does offer extra credit through Campuswire status. Discussion is required and you get to work with your group that you take the midterm with. In terms of the tests, they were very fair. They reflect the homework and practice quizzes he would give. Nothing necessarily out of left field. The homeworks were also very nice, which number of questions ranging from 4-12 (nothing over 12 questions). They are weekly but do not take much time, especially if you do it throughout the week. These questions are written by the professor and are not just a waste of time like Mastering Physics and Kudu (both of which can feel irrelevant to the material of the class). Samani does not hold your hand like some other physics professors do, but he also will not sink your grade and GPA. You will definitely learn during this class and that could prove useful if you wish to take tests like the MCAT.

Overall great professor for learning. Is not an easy A(like the other physics classes) but if you come to lecture and understand how to do the weekly quizzes, you'll be fine.

Dr. Samani is one of the most engaging and fun professors I have had. He genuinely tries his best to prioritize long-term learning, hence the lack of a formula sheet. Despite this added difficulty, I appreciate the effort he puts in, and the effort he gets his students to put in. I also like how structured each lecture is, he applies course concepts and walks us through a class-long problem. He has an itinerary for every class, but he also will delay his plans for seemingly as long as needed in order to answer student questions. Overall I am satisfied with my Physics 5B experience, my only regret is not going to office hours enough.

Favorite professor by far at UCLA!

Samani not only brings in real examples to help understand the applicability of the material from the very beginning, but also makes you feel like you are not even learning physics. Attendance is taken through in person reflection sheets, yet I found them so much more engaging than iClicker used for other classes, as they had us working through ideas and actually encouraged discussion with our peers around us. The homework is an automatic 90% through completion, and are the SAME level of difficulty as exam problems - which I found challenging in the very beginning, but appreciative that there were absolutely NO curveballs thrown whatsoever. No online access for a textbook is needed for the homework too (which is a plus), he just releases assignments through BruinLearn.

On the note of not having an equation sheet - it honestly is not that bad, coming from someone who took 5A with an equation sheet. Through lecture, Samani gives tips for memorizing the least information possible and use that information to create a logical system of reasoning to get to almost any equation you need. Also, using active recall by redoing the homework and the practice exams he releases without looking anything up really helped me succeed. Also, by doing so many problems over and over again, you'll find that most of the equations become muscle memory.

Lastly, one piece of advice I would give is to go to office hours! I found that my discussion section wasn't particularly helpful in my understanding of the material. However, once I started going consistently to office hours, I saw how my conceptual understanding of the material improved drastically - which just made it easier when studying and doing homework. (one tip though, try to show up as close to the beginning as possible - his office is super small and fills up quite fast).

I could not recommend him enough, and I honestly really wish he taught other classes just so I can have him as a professor again!

Bro take 5B with Samani and you will actually feel like you got your money's worth coming to UCLA. This guy is the best Professor I've ever had, he might just be one of the best teachers you've come across in your life. Insanely good at teaching really hard concepts and actually finding practical ways to use them in our daily lives, everything made sense, everything was interesting. I also found that because lecture attendance was forced through the reflection sheets, I learned so much more and barely had to study for the final. Also the fact that he makes you discuss questions within lecture with your peers and the mandatory discussion sections makes for a really social experience in an otherwise really STEMmy class, always a bonus to make new friends.

Bottom line: Take Samani
5B and the physics series in general is difficult but Samani makes learning the material very easy to do. His exams are fair. His homework is graded on 90% completion and 10% correction so essentially the lowest you can achieve on a homework assignment is a 90%. He does take attendance for class but the attendance serves as extra credit and you can miss up to three lectures without giving an excuse.