Nathan Tung didn't prepare well enough for this class. Although this is his first time teaching his test were poorly worded and he continued having poorly worded tests all throughout the quarter. I would highly advise against taking this class with him if you want to learn. Not only did he want us to practice the questions on mastering physics, but they had no correlation with his tests. The only way to describe this class is chaotic. Every lecture he had a new experiment which was visually appealing however we're here to learn and to prove that we understand the material. It's impossible to do so when the tests don't reflect what we studied which was unguided. How were we supposed to study what we didn't know was going to be on the test.

As a 3rd year taking this class, I've never failed any course in my life until taking this class. To the people who said the class was easy, yes the class itself (concepts, ideas) are pretty easy, but the exams are the problem. Tung did not do a good job of emphasizing what was important takeaways for the course. The midterms and final were obviously physics related, but going to lecture, doing mastering physics, or reading the book will not help you. For Tungs exams, you either get it or you don't. I had several friends take the same course, and they all say the same thing-- they had no idea how to study for mt2 or the final because of how open ended Tungs approach to asking questions are. He stated himself multiple times that mastering physics will not help us answer his exam questions. I think as a person Tung is passionate, and wants us to learn which I appreciate, but his approach is all wrong. I originally failed this class, but he likely realized too many people failed his class and gave me a passing grade. Would not recommend taking this professor.

Professor Tung did not prepare us enough for the tests in this class and the materials covered in class were much too easy compared to the material tested. The first midterm was a complete shock to me as I had reviewed over the class material religiously and still could not do HALF of the test. The second midterm was a bit better due to the review session but it was still quite difficult to me, and a lot of the wording was just confusing for no reason. Lectures were generally not very engaging besides several experiments, and all the notes were done on the chalkboard. It was EXTREMELY difficult to see any of the notes past the fifth row from the front of the lecture hall and the material we did in class was usually pretty easy, like explanations of simple conceptual ideas or formulas. Professor Tung also did not give out any extra credit, even after the entire class was very upset over the first midterm. The only helpful thing from this class was the final exam review. I would strongly advise against taking this professor unless you already have a solid foundation in Physics knowledge.

I feel like many of the negative reviews are unwarranted. After the low scores on the first midterm, Tung did change things. Like others said, he hosted his own review sessions which were extremely helpful and told everything we needed to know for the exams.

I do agree that the Mastering Physics homework was useless. But, he provided “Nathan’s Notes” which supplemented the textbook and covered almost everything he talked about in lecture. These notes were super useful to me and prepared me well for the final.

The class is heavily concept based, so the examples provided in class weren’t exactly “examples” as we’d expected. However, he pulled most exam material directly from lecture. The second midterm and final were fair, in my opinion, given that he covered everything in class and review sessions.

This was professor Tung’s first quarter at UCLA and he was by far the worst professor I have ever had. He would spend all of lecture reviewing formulas and expect students to answer elaborate problems on exams. Not to mention, he provided no preparation for the exams and was absolutely a mess.

Honestly, dont listen to those bad reviews, those are the people that just rely on the lectures and dont take the time out of their day to commit and use other resources. While it is the professor's first quarter teaching the class, i believe he is doing well in it because i was able to score decently in both the first and second midterm. A huge part was due to his lectures and whatever i did not understand, i went home read the book, did practice problems, or i went onto khan academy. This guy teaches you on concepts, not pure numbers and formulas you have to memorize. Honestly, he is a good professor, those people complaining want everything given to them including an easy A.

Professor Tung is a really lovable person and his video demonstrations are very helpful and enjoyable. That being said, he is not the best professor. Having 4 midterms over a 10 week quarter is way too many and despite the sentiment that it would help relieve the stress of finals by not having one, many of us would have rather had a final than 4 difficult midterms back to back, literally one being week 9 and one being week 10 which are already extremely stressful weeks for most of us as we wrap up the quarter. Despite the review sessions, the problems that we were tested on in exams did not reflect what was reviewed. So we spent almost 2 hour long sessions going over problems that were only vaguely similar to what we were expected to know how to do on the midterms. Tung offers a lot of extra credit, but it is barely enough to make up for scoring bad on his difficult midterms. If you're good at test taking and want the extra credit to boost your grade, I would recommend Tung. If you're not good at tests and physics already isn't your strong suit, maybe try a different Professor. Overall, Tung has lectures that are very enjoyable and he breaks the material down really well, however his exams are way too difficult and ended up being the reason I had to change to P/NP.

Good and understanding professor! Gave lots of extra credit through homework and Tophat. If you would like past exams and study guides for cheap, email *************.

Dr. Tung is engaging, responsive, cracks occasional jokes, and gives homework and assessments that help students learn.

Professor Tung was a GOAT!!! He had his lectures on Youtube, which made it easy to go back and rewatch any parts that I needed to. Although I felt like he went a little slow in the beginning, it was overall a good pace because it allowed me to sit with the material longer instead of trying to speed through everything. The only homework was Mastering Physics, which I think all physics classes do; however, Prof Tung made all the homework due at the end of the quarter, which was super helpful when one week got especially busy.

I think I mainly have 2 things I'd say to watch out for. Although we were given a tentative schedule in the beginning, we didn't actually end up sticking to it. I think it made me a little anxious at times because I wasn't really sure when our next midterm (of 4 midterms) would be. However, he usually gave us at least 2/3 days notice before he posted it, so I guess it wasn't too bad. The other thing is that the exams are more about knowing how to manipulate the equations and knowing which equations to use. There weren't a lot of problems involved numbers, and it was encouraged to solve using variables first and then plugging in. I guess this was helpful for learning the material, but it made the exams a little difficult.

Overall, Prof Tung was super understanding of the pandemic and student's situations, and also gave very clear lectures during class. Really appreciated his class!!