DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS WITH THIS PROFESSOR EVER!!!!!! I have never had an exam where I literally feel like I can't answer the questions and need to leave things blank. The format of his midterms are absolutely BRUTAL for 50 minutes (4 MCQ and 6 IN DEPTH FRQ) and NO ONE finishes on time or early. This specific quarter he told the TA that he was going to drop our lowest midterm score (oh wow yay)...JUST KIDDING!! He changed his mind after the TA told all of us and then made the next midterm twice as hard as the first. Not to mention, he doesn't even come to class on midterm days, it's just the TA, he KNOWS how hard he makes them and avoids the confrontations with students by claiming "he is sick" (he was sick on both midterm days, never others). This was also the quarter of the fires in LA and he had NO SYMPATHY of any of the students impacted. Before taking the first midterm (week 3), I had been physically in person for 3 classes total because we were online for the rest of the weeks. Not to mention "online" meant his lecture recordings from 2020 so you can't ask questions or get any sort of help from him. HE WILL CALL YOU OUT IN CLASS IF YOU EVEN GLANCE AT YOUR PHONE AND WILL THREATEN TO KICK YOU OUT!!!!!! I honestly have never had a professor at UCLA like this and it is VERY disappointing that this man is still able to teach at this school. We pay so much money to get our education and unfortunately professors like this do NOT teach and do NOT care about your learning. DO BETTER UCLA

Do not take this class oh my god I'm begging you. Unless you love the excitement of gambling with your learning and gpa with inconsistent communication, poor lecture-test-homework connection, and constantly changing grade policies, do not take this class.

Let me start by saying, if there has ever been a professor more deserving of a review, it’s Mehta. Much like the other comments from this quarter, this class was a complete disaster. I have never had a professor who so blatantly cared less about the well-being of his students and the organization of a class. Despite only having three instructors—Mehta and two TAs—there was effectively ZERO communication between them ever, and there was never a clear answer as to what would be on a test. Concerning the lectures themselves, he frequently ended the lectures early, as if he just wanted to leave asap; he only ever read from pre-made slides, clearly never putting extra effort into making the material even remotely interesting.

While the midterms were not too bad, the final was an actual joke. Not only incredibly difficult, but it was unproctored for portions of the test and we were given (supposedly) 4 hrs to take the exam— both of which are completely against university policy regarding a final. Additionally, and perhaps most insane, students went outside after the test proctoring was over, still with tests in hand, and collaborated on the tests together.

Despite all of this chaos and disorganization, the TAs essentially didn’t even read the finals and curves most people’s grades really highly.

TLDR

hear me now, listen to me later: do NOT take this class w Mehta. I have never had a professor so undoubtedly unfit to teach students at this university. Ripp all y’all fouls that end up taking him ha.

Worst class ever! Professor simply read from the Pearson slides, didn't even know when there was an exam, constantly changed class policies. Would strongly recommend against taking this class.

This class was unbelievably disorganised. The class is over, and our homework from week one has yet to be graded. The TAs did not seem to know what was happening in the class any more than the students did.

In the first week, Mehta mentioned that he "doesn't like teaching" 5B because it "crams too many topics into one course"; Mehta's disdain for this class caused problems for everyone involved, as he sped through slides and skipped over sample problems during lectures.

There was a lot of miscommunication between the TAs, Mehta, and the students regarding exams; we would receive contradictory emails from Mehta and each of the TAs telling us "no equation sheet" followed by "print out an equation sheet" followed by "here is a PDF of an equation sheet, but don't bring it to the exam." Our first two midterm exams were ridiculously easy, our final was ridiculously hard due to missing information and confusingly-worded exam questions.

Overall it just felt like nobody knew what was happening, which topics were on exams, and Mehta's disorganisation made this class deceptive. I would highly recommend other professors after taking the final for this class, what the f$#@ was that???

TAKE THIS CLASS WITH MEHTA!

Easily one of the most accommodating professors I had during Physics 5B. Grading scheme is as follows:

Quizzes: 85% of grade, 5 quizzes + lowest quiz dropped
Lab: 15% of grade

Quizzes are easy as long as you listen to the lectures, which were recorded, and take good notes on them. I did, however, take this course during COVID so if he teaches again during the school year I don't know how different it would be.