Participate in the class, do the questions that he asks. The textbook is not that helpful.

Potkonjak is definitely a genius and let's us know often by explaining how he did this and did that and how he was the top 0.2% of his class or some other fact. He can always answer your questions if you have any, and he'll take the time to explain it again if you didn't understand. My only gripe with him is that I aced the midterms, aced the quizzes, and did alright on the final and ended up with a C+...he regraded my final to a 17/100 from 70/100. If you are taking this class, just make sure that he is abundantly clear on how he is going to grade or regrade the final...because he gave absolutely 0 partial credit. The obvious approach to our final was to complete 1 or 2 problems and neglect the other 4. Good luck.

I'm not sure why he's rated so low, maybe cause people are scared of him. But Miodrag is hands down the best professor I've had at UCLA. Yes, he is extremely scary and WILL make fun of you, but deep down he really cares about his students. He would ask the class every week if he was moving too fast or too slow, allowed us to negotiate dates and materials on quizzes and exams, and repeatedly told us not too worry because there would be "plenty" of A's. I got slightly above average on both midterms, never got a final exam score, and a solid A in the class.

You must go to every single lecture and discussion, otherwise you will learn absolutely nothing. The class starts off pretty slow with boolean algebra, but by the end it is extremely difficult. There were five homeworks (never collected) and five quizzes in discussion which were composed of a randomly assigned homework problem. So do the homework, and it's a guaranteed A+ on all the quizzes.

The way to excel in this class is to participate in lecture. Yes, it is extremely intimidating, and 90% of the class never spoke up or went up to the board, but since Miodrag's lecture style (which was extremely effective) is ten minutes of lecture followed by an hour and half of having students come up to the board and doing ridiculously difficult problems (which he will tell you is a 3 in difficulty on a scale of 1-100), the best way to learn is to go up to the board. He literally walks you through everything you have to do in front of the class, so don't worry if you have no idea how to do the problem. You will after you're done on the board.

The midterms and finals were all extremely difficult, but he posts previous midterms and finals on his website for you to practice. Studying for the exams just consists of doing the previous midterms and finals. He won't give you the answers but he holds and extra session before the midterm (2 before the final) and will do whatever problems you ask him too. The TAs will do this too, both in discussion and office hours. The midterms and finals consisted of 6/7 problems, 1 straight off the HW, 1/2 straight from previous midterms/or finals, and the rest were new.

As difficult as this material is, I feel that Miodrag prepared us extremely well and I was confident walking in and out of all the exams.

PS Saro is perhaps the greatest TA I have ever met, and if I could I would have him TA for every class I take at UCLA, but sadly I think he left for a job at Google (go figure).

The only review about him you need is the one from 3/26/2011. Completely comprehensive and as accurate as it gets without interacting with Miodrag.

Best prof I ever had.

I have nothing good to say about this professor. The only things that come to mind involve a lot of profanity. Hopefully that says enough about this worthless professor. Don't take him.

Either Miodrag’s outlook has changed since previous evals, or I simply perceive him differently, but m51A with him was my favorite class this quarter. I hope to provide a Much-too-comprehensive, honest review that I hope still applies next quarter. Due to my inescapable human personal bias, I invite my fellow classmates to add additional angles (especially if conflicting) to anything I’ve said. And I broke it up into sections so you can look for the ones that are important to you if you are too busy to read all of it. If you end up taking this class, I wish you the best!

Thinking:

I like that I always had to be thinking and fully engaged in class, my brain had to always be on. Similar to what previous evals have said, he would often give us difficult problems to solve based on the topic we just learned, often integrating topics or strategies we’d previously covered. The problems would sometimes seem impossible at first, but if you dedicate your mind to them for a bit (or a while), they all can be figured out. Sometimes its straight-up logic, and other times it takes some kind of ingenious twist (these can require hints to get, since they hadn't been mentioned before). After the seemingly impossible problem is over, he’ll sometimes say something similar to: “the easiest midterm problem will be twice as hard as the one we just did”. The scary part is that he’s telling the truth. The exciting part is that if you dedicate enough effort and mental CPU time, you Will be able to solve them. Impossible if you don’t keep up though. Definitely ask questions, and definitely make study groups. You don’t want to come to class tired or distracted. He lets you bring food, and gives you a break halfway through. Have some “brain food” during it.

Difficulty:

Yes, he is Very hard. This class can require extensive work outside of lecture time. Don't let yourself think you fully understand a topic until you can solve difficult problems on your own. Be prepared for at least 1 Very hard problem on each test. He “doesn’t want to insult our intelligence by giving us easy tests”. I respect that and appreciated the challenge. If you don’t appreciate challenges, then you won’t be very happy. If you like challenges but are afraid you won’t measure up, don’t be afraid: the TA is awesome, Saro hopefully (his last quarter TAing is this spring 2011), and you can go to him for very good help, and Miodrag adjusts the pace of the class based on student input (to a degree), so if you aren’t understanding, then BE VOCAL, and MAKE STUDY GROUPS and SOLVE PROBLEMS AT HOME. Actually, I’ll even tutor you too if you need, I loved the class and I love helping people out, Academ.M*************, for free or for pay, whatever you want : )

Raising your hand in class:

I liked that when someone didn’t understand something they could express that anytime they wanted, and he’d almost always address it. Another good thing about raising your hand in class is that can be really good at balancing When he calls on you. If a professor is in the middle of a critical explanation, it can be an important decision whether they let their flow be stopped to take a question. As a tutor I know this decision is hard even in a setting with a few people, let alone 80. Some professors let themselves be sidetracked by every question and miss finishing some of the points they need to make, and some just leave you with your hand hanging until it gets tired and you give up. But his usual response is to almost instantly recognize that you have a question, say “I will come to you”, barely breaking his sentence, and finish his point and then come to you. He gets to you soon, which is good especially if you aren’t the only one who is confused.
But, as he told us the first day, he expects us to pay attention, and he doesn’t like answering the same exact question twice since it’s a waste of time, he will usually say (with either humorous or exasperated sarcasm) “For the 27th time, […]” and explain it again, or in a couple instances (if I remember correctly) not answer it again. Exasperation isn’t ideal, but it’s not that bad.

As far as “picking favorites” goes:

Having read bruinwalk, I was very worried about this when I entered his class. Every class, there is at least one problem that is to be done by or assisted by a student in the class. Sometimes he calls on people, sometimes he asks for volunteers. But he did make a concerted effort to include as many people as possible in the “going up to the board”, whether or not you go is mostly your choice. However, there were indeed about 9-12 people he got used to being willing or eager to go up, and this could be considered favoritism since there were times he straight-up called on them before opening the floor (I think perhaps he could have opened the floor Every time). However at other times, he expressly denied the people who usually came up, to give others a chance. And I’m fairly sure grades were not determined by favoritism (from my limited knowledge of people’s grades, and my inferences about his fairness). If you want to go up, then tell him after class, I Guarantee you he will get you up there.

Problems on the board:

Yes, you should try to go up. It’s scary, but it’s a good experience. I did it once or twice. It shouldn't be about showing off. No use going up if you already knew it all before you stepped into class, but if you just figured it out, or are right then figuring it out on the fly,, go up, that’s when it’s worth it. But when you aren’t up there, which will be most of the time in a large class, don’t turn your brain off. Go through the mental process with the person who is up there, and you’ll learn more. Figure it out with them, figure it out with the help of their explanations, or actually help them figure it out when they get stuck or go astray. It’d be best if you didn’t think about useless things like comparison or jealousy and let them siphon your brain power. God’s got so much more for you in this life than an identity hinged on comparison anyways : ).

Research:

He is very interested in having some undergrads do research with him, he will say this either occasionally or often, and he isn’t joking. He is a very prolific researcher in a variety of innovative fields, and he wants undergrads to get involved, not to do busy work, but to do real research and consider research in the longer term. I don’t know how he picks who he invites, but try not to be hurt if its not you (others' opinions, especially since they are necessarily imperfect, don't define you unless you let them), and don’t be shocked if it Is you.

“Crystal-Clear” :

Don’t wanna miss the first day of class. He tries to be “crystal-clear” about the format of the course and the format of the tests, so there are very few surprises. Also, you can actually have input into what will be on the tests, when they will be, and whether/when review sessions will be, and what even percentage of your grade comes from quizzes and midterms and finals (decided communally first day). No you don’t have Control over these things, but you can have meaningful input.

Mistakes and Communication:

He’s not perfect, but he is almost always unafraid to admit and correct mistakes, and often throws humor in. I respected and appreciated this. And as far as communication, though his English really is pretty good, it can still be difficult at times, and there are misunderstandings. When voicing a question or confusion—think about it ahead of time, and be clear, be concise. When listening-- don’t be afraid to ask him or the TA then or later what he meant. Usually you’ll be able to understand each other though. Sit close if you can.

Bottom Line:

Very hard class. Very fun class. Can be very interesting, even if you’ve never had a nostalgic thought about circuits before. He can be intimidating, but “doesn’t kill students, in public”. He tries hard to be very fair and succeeds mostly. Don’t be insulted if he messes with you, 80-96% of it is humor. Don’t let up or give up for a moment.

You can do it! and Have Fun!

I totally agree with the previous comment about his heavy accent and his communication skill. And the material itself is pretty dry, and a large portion of the class feels lost like I do. I tried really hard and eventually pulled off a B-. By the way, if anyone is interested in the BOOK lease email me *************

I'm not sure how to rate him. Like everyone below said, yes he is hard to understand sometimes with his incredibly thick accent and bad grammar. And the format of the class is lecture for a short amount of time, then call on his favorite students to try to solve problems on the board. Was it effective? Maybe. During class I would not understand a thing and space out. Sometimes the students doing the problems would make things clear. Other times, when they themselves are confused, all hell breaks loose. Yet in the end, I did well on the midterms and final, and now I feel like I have a solid understanding of the material. How did this knowledge magically come about? Possibly the quizzes which comes directly from HW not turned in, or the midterms and finals that guarantee a problem from HW and previous midterm/finals. Also maybe the scare tactics the professor uses. Most likely the very helpful TAs. This class may seem incredibly difficult while you're in it, but at the end you'll find that you learned a lot, and get a decent grade because the professor truly believes that if you put in effort in the class, you deserve a good grade. He is and instructs the TAs to be very generous with partial credit and to not grade harshly. They want you to do well and learn.