Professor

Nathan Tung

AD
3.9
Overall Ratings
Based on 148 Users
Easiness 3.0 / 5 How easy the class is, 1 being extremely difficult and 5 being easy peasy.
Workload 3.5 / 5 How light the workload is, 1 being extremely heavy and 5 being extremely light.
Clarity 3.9 / 5 How clear the professor is, 1 being extremely unclear and 5 being very clear.
Helpfulness 3.8 / 5 How helpful the professor is, 1 being not helpful at all and 5 being extremely helpful.

Reviews (148)

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PHYSICS 5A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Dec. 29, 2020
Quarter: Fall 2020
Grade: A

Tung made me enjoy physics more than I ever thought I would. He made concepts sound epic in the grand scheme of the universe, explained them in a way that made intuitive sense, and made me laugh out loud occasionally with his sense of humor, which kept the class engaging the whole way through. My FAVORITE professor so far at UCLA. Would 100% recommend this class.

(Some cool things he did: dressed up as a Sith lord for Halloween, gave us election day off, is a gamer.)

(This was during online era but it wouldn't change any of my above points except that the 24 hour window for exams were super nice. Some of the questions were quite challenging and they took me a few hours cause I got stumped.)

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PHYSICS 5A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Dec. 30, 2020
Quarter: Fall 2020
Grade: A

Dr. Tung is hands down the best professor I've had at ucla so far. I was initially nervous to take this class since I didn't do so well in high school physics but he does a great job at breaking down the tough concepts. Dr. Tung really cares about his students absorbing the information rather than just trying to get a good grade. His lectures are engaging and his video demonstrations really tie everything together. This class has a ridiculous amount of extra credit. It's the most extra credit I have ever been offered. The homework is due at the end of the quarter so there was no excuse for not attempting some of it. To make it even better, we were only responsible for 65% of the homework with the rest becoming extra credit. Extra credit points were also rewarded for answering top hat questions during lecture. Before every exam, Dr. Tung had a review session in which he would extensively cover everything that was on the coming exam. The labs were manageable and most were easy to finish during the allotted lab time. Most TAs seemed very reasonable with their grading of labs and were very helpful during office hours. Dr. Tung was very accommodating throughout the entire quarter. He moved exams when necessary and was always open to feedback. The class is very manageable if you're willing to watch all the lectures/review and do some of the homework problems (they're great practice). The TA worksheets are required for credit but I personally did not find them the most helpful. Other than that I have zero complaints. I highly recommend Dr. Tung to everyone.

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PHYSICS 5A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Jan. 26, 2021
Quarter: Fall 2020
Grade: A

After a hard time with physics in high school, Dr. Tung was the professor that I needed to clarify the material. This is not to say his tests were easy, but I felt that he prepared his students well to succeed on them. He went at his own pace to make sure the understanding was clear, I enjoyed how his lectures were him drawing out the problems and scenarios, and he gave good examples to connect to the real world. He was also fair with homework, and you had unlimited attempts to get the problems right without losing credit. The homework was due at the end of the quarter, but I would advise doing it week by week to stay on track. His tests were not easy, but with enough practice and attending the review sessions, you should do fine. Would highly recommend Tung for 5A.

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PHYSICS 5A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Dec. 31, 2020
Quarter: Fall 2020
Grade: A

Tung is a really great professor. He explains concepts really well, and he'll occasionally show his cat at the beginning of lecture, which is a nice bonus! This class is very straightforward. Complete your lab work and discussion worksheets on time and attend lecture. He provides a generous amount of extra credit, enough to bump you up a letter grade. Homework is due at the end of the quarter, so you're not really pressured to complete it before each midterm, though it can help. However, I came to find it wasn't really necessary. For the first two midterms, I completed the required homework assignments on time before the exam. However, for the third and fourth midterm, I did not and yet I still managed to do really well on the tests. The key is to take detailed notes during his midterm review because that is what is going to help you the most while taking your test. The tests are not set up like the homework, as they focus more on theoretical answers and solving for variables(**This could be a new change since going online to make the tests harder to prevent cheating). You could quite literally get away with not doing any of the homework until the end of the quarter and still score A's on the tests if you utilize your critical thinking skills and reference your notes from the midterm review. On the other hand, if you complete all the homework but ignore the midterm review, you will be lost on the test. In my opinion, the midterms don't really test how well you know the material but rather how well you can analyze a problem. This does make me question if I truly mastered the material enough to be prepared for something like the MCAT, but I do think this made the class a bit easier since I did not have to worry about completing the homework before an exam.

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PHYSICS 5A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Jan. 4, 2021
Quarter: Fall 2020
Grade: A

Tung is an amazing professor. His lectures are very engaging and he even shows demos of him doing certain projects in reality. He is very clear & well spoken, however, he does speak very slow, so I tend to watch him at 1.5x/2x speed. He is very conceptual and does problems conceptually; you will rarely see actual numbers in his problems. Since he only touches on the conceptual parts of Physics, you have to rely on labs & discussions to "teach" you the mathematical aspect. I had to Youtube and self teach myself how to do certain physics problems. My TA was also not very good at explaining problems and barely walked us through how to do the worksheets; fortunately I had a tutor, so outside help is definitely recommended!! Also, the worksheets are graded on completion.

I went to his office hours once about the homework problems & it was kind of awkward since it was through Zoom (& usually his lectures are through Youtube). He wasn't able to walk me through it and I had to check Campuswire to ask my questions. That being said, all his homework is due at the end of the quarter and you only have to complete 65% of it for full credit.

He is very accommodating of the online format & offers extra credit (participation points in his class through TopHat ($35, but this is technically optional)) and gives us a 24 hours window to submit the exams. He has 4 midterms instead of a midterm & final, which I appreciate since they aren't "cumulative."

I really enjoyed the Physics labs; they definitely helped me grasp the concept of Physics better (especially considering this was my first Physics class) and my TA for lab was amazing. Highly recommend going to Lab-TA office hours if you need extra help. On average, I spent about 30minutes (if I knew what I was doing) -2 hours (if I'm confused) on pre-labs & 3-5 hours on lab throughout the week.

TLDR; highly recommend. Four 24-hour (non-cumulative) midterms, no final. Labs were fun with a good TA. Discussion sections were meh. Extra credit is offered. Clear lecturing style, but mainly conceptual.

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PHYSICS 5A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
March 9, 2021
Quarter: Fall 2020
Grade: A

One of the best professors I've taken at UCLA! He was extremely accommodating and genuinely cared about students, their wellbeing, and their learning. His lectures were streamed on Youtube and were sufficient at explaining basic concepts. I would recommend reading the textbook for further clarifications and to complete the homework. The workload was also very doable and all the assignments (Mastering Physics) were due at the end of the quarter to accommodate any personal circumstances. There were also multiple opportunities for extra credit, such as TopHat and completion of more than 65% of the homework was extra credit.

There were weekly worksheets assigned based on completion and four midterms throughout the quarter. Our fourth midterm was our "final". Dr. Tung has review sessions before each exam is released and I recommend going to them because they are very helpful for the free response portion of the midterms. We had 24 hours to complete the exams and they would usually have a few multiple choice and 2-3 free responses. Dr. Tung definitely made physics a lot more enjoyable!

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PHYSICS 5A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Jan. 11, 2021
Quarter: Fall 2020
Grade: A

I thought I hated physics until I took this class!

Prof. Tung is very chill and personable but he also explains concepts SUPER well! He did lectures on Youtube livestream and had a cool video intro each time (super unrelated to this review but it was a nice way to start each class).

Class breakdown:

The Pearson Mastering Physics textbook/homework problems are mandatory to purchase and complete, although you only need to do 65% of the problems to get a full homework score (the rest is EC).

Discussion worksheets are not too hard and they were only graded for completion.

Labs are a little weird at first because you have to record objects and do some stuff with a computer program called Tracker in order to calculate velocity, height, etc. but its really not bad at all.

There is NO final, but there are 4 midterms of various difficulties throughout the quarter that make up 60% of your grade (so 15% for each exam). This sounds intense, but its really not that bad. For context, I got an 84, 70, 100, and 94 on those midterms. In my opinion it's imperative to go to the review sessions and write down every single detail, because the thought process for problems on the exam are VERY similar to what Tung reviews.

Like I mentioned, you can get extra credit by doing more than 65% of the homework problems (I recommend doing all of them ofc) and sometimes during live lecture, Tung uses this app called TopHat. It's kinda like if you had a clicker, and you can answer questions in real time. You have to pay for it at the beginning of the quarter, but you should get all the extra credit you can (I think that's what got me the A lol).

TLDR: This class is very well organized and I HIGHLY recommend Tung as a professor! You've heard the rumors about other profs, but trust me: Tung is the GOAT.

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PHYSICS 5A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
May 12, 2021
Quarter: Fall 2020
Grade: A

The tests lasted for 24 hours which helped a lot especially if you had other midterms on the same day. His lectures where live YouTube videos. He offered ALOT of extra credit. This class lessened my stress.

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PHYSICS 5A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
April 2, 2021
Quarter: Winter 2021
Grade: A

Probably one of the best professors I’ve had so far. I have never taken a physics class before, but Professor Tung seriously helped me and I’d say most of my class understand the material well. He’s a super funny and chill lecturer, and I felt like his lectures and the test questions were well-related and fair.

His exams were pretty short in terms of the number of questions, with each of the four midterms having around 6 to 8 questions. You want to make sure you do well on the last 2 or 3 questions, as those typically counted for a larger portion of the exam grade. There was no final exam which was great, and the midterms were spaced out and could be taken within a 24 hour window (no other time limit, so you basically had the whole day from one evening to the next). I really appreciate how Professor Tung scheduled the exams so that it wasn’t too overwhelming, and he even did class polls asking what days and times we preferred, and pushed back the fourth midterm a bit so we’d have more time to study.

There was one discussion worksheet due per week that sometimes covered material ahead of the actual lecture, but they were still pretty fair. Also all of the MyLab homework was due after the last midterm, so you basically had the whole quarter to complete at least like 70% of the HW, which is all he required for us to get 100% in the hw category.

He even gave us extra credit through completing HW and Top Hat (it’s like Clicker) participation points during his YouTube lectures (the EC was about 4 to 5 % which is awesome). Super cool professor who also did really funny but also engaging demonstrations of physics concepts.

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PHYSICS 5C
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
June 10, 2021
Quarter: Spring 2021
Grade: A

The lecture portion of the class was decent. Weekly worksheets and only needing to complete 60-65% of the MasteringPhysics homework for full credit (rest was extra credit). Tophat was a waste of money though. We only used it for like 5 classes in total this quarter. Exams aren't too bad, but most of them are mostly rearranging equations and not plug and chug. Lab was a hassle. All of the labs required extra time outside of class to finish since they were all very long.

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PHYSICS 5A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Fall 2020
Grade: A
Dec. 29, 2020

Tung made me enjoy physics more than I ever thought I would. He made concepts sound epic in the grand scheme of the universe, explained them in a way that made intuitive sense, and made me laugh out loud occasionally with his sense of humor, which kept the class engaging the whole way through. My FAVORITE professor so far at UCLA. Would 100% recommend this class.

(Some cool things he did: dressed up as a Sith lord for Halloween, gave us election day off, is a gamer.)

(This was during online era but it wouldn't change any of my above points except that the 24 hour window for exams were super nice. Some of the questions were quite challenging and they took me a few hours cause I got stumped.)

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PHYSICS 5A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Fall 2020
Grade: A
Dec. 30, 2020

Dr. Tung is hands down the best professor I've had at ucla so far. I was initially nervous to take this class since I didn't do so well in high school physics but he does a great job at breaking down the tough concepts. Dr. Tung really cares about his students absorbing the information rather than just trying to get a good grade. His lectures are engaging and his video demonstrations really tie everything together. This class has a ridiculous amount of extra credit. It's the most extra credit I have ever been offered. The homework is due at the end of the quarter so there was no excuse for not attempting some of it. To make it even better, we were only responsible for 65% of the homework with the rest becoming extra credit. Extra credit points were also rewarded for answering top hat questions during lecture. Before every exam, Dr. Tung had a review session in which he would extensively cover everything that was on the coming exam. The labs were manageable and most were easy to finish during the allotted lab time. Most TAs seemed very reasonable with their grading of labs and were very helpful during office hours. Dr. Tung was very accommodating throughout the entire quarter. He moved exams when necessary and was always open to feedback. The class is very manageable if you're willing to watch all the lectures/review and do some of the homework problems (they're great practice). The TA worksheets are required for credit but I personally did not find them the most helpful. Other than that I have zero complaints. I highly recommend Dr. Tung to everyone.

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PHYSICS 5A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Fall 2020
Grade: A
Jan. 26, 2021

After a hard time with physics in high school, Dr. Tung was the professor that I needed to clarify the material. This is not to say his tests were easy, but I felt that he prepared his students well to succeed on them. He went at his own pace to make sure the understanding was clear, I enjoyed how his lectures were him drawing out the problems and scenarios, and he gave good examples to connect to the real world. He was also fair with homework, and you had unlimited attempts to get the problems right without losing credit. The homework was due at the end of the quarter, but I would advise doing it week by week to stay on track. His tests were not easy, but with enough practice and attending the review sessions, you should do fine. Would highly recommend Tung for 5A.

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PHYSICS 5A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Fall 2020
Grade: A
Dec. 31, 2020

Tung is a really great professor. He explains concepts really well, and he'll occasionally show his cat at the beginning of lecture, which is a nice bonus! This class is very straightforward. Complete your lab work and discussion worksheets on time and attend lecture. He provides a generous amount of extra credit, enough to bump you up a letter grade. Homework is due at the end of the quarter, so you're not really pressured to complete it before each midterm, though it can help. However, I came to find it wasn't really necessary. For the first two midterms, I completed the required homework assignments on time before the exam. However, for the third and fourth midterm, I did not and yet I still managed to do really well on the tests. The key is to take detailed notes during his midterm review because that is what is going to help you the most while taking your test. The tests are not set up like the homework, as they focus more on theoretical answers and solving for variables(**This could be a new change since going online to make the tests harder to prevent cheating). You could quite literally get away with not doing any of the homework until the end of the quarter and still score A's on the tests if you utilize your critical thinking skills and reference your notes from the midterm review. On the other hand, if you complete all the homework but ignore the midterm review, you will be lost on the test. In my opinion, the midterms don't really test how well you know the material but rather how well you can analyze a problem. This does make me question if I truly mastered the material enough to be prepared for something like the MCAT, but I do think this made the class a bit easier since I did not have to worry about completing the homework before an exam.

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PHYSICS 5A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Fall 2020
Grade: A
Jan. 4, 2021

Tung is an amazing professor. His lectures are very engaging and he even shows demos of him doing certain projects in reality. He is very clear & well spoken, however, he does speak very slow, so I tend to watch him at 1.5x/2x speed. He is very conceptual and does problems conceptually; you will rarely see actual numbers in his problems. Since he only touches on the conceptual parts of Physics, you have to rely on labs & discussions to "teach" you the mathematical aspect. I had to Youtube and self teach myself how to do certain physics problems. My TA was also not very good at explaining problems and barely walked us through how to do the worksheets; fortunately I had a tutor, so outside help is definitely recommended!! Also, the worksheets are graded on completion.

I went to his office hours once about the homework problems & it was kind of awkward since it was through Zoom (& usually his lectures are through Youtube). He wasn't able to walk me through it and I had to check Campuswire to ask my questions. That being said, all his homework is due at the end of the quarter and you only have to complete 65% of it for full credit.

He is very accommodating of the online format & offers extra credit (participation points in his class through TopHat ($35, but this is technically optional)) and gives us a 24 hours window to submit the exams. He has 4 midterms instead of a midterm & final, which I appreciate since they aren't "cumulative."

I really enjoyed the Physics labs; they definitely helped me grasp the concept of Physics better (especially considering this was my first Physics class) and my TA for lab was amazing. Highly recommend going to Lab-TA office hours if you need extra help. On average, I spent about 30minutes (if I knew what I was doing) -2 hours (if I'm confused) on pre-labs & 3-5 hours on lab throughout the week.

TLDR; highly recommend. Four 24-hour (non-cumulative) midterms, no final. Labs were fun with a good TA. Discussion sections were meh. Extra credit is offered. Clear lecturing style, but mainly conceptual.

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PHYSICS 5A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Fall 2020
Grade: A
March 9, 2021

One of the best professors I've taken at UCLA! He was extremely accommodating and genuinely cared about students, their wellbeing, and their learning. His lectures were streamed on Youtube and were sufficient at explaining basic concepts. I would recommend reading the textbook for further clarifications and to complete the homework. The workload was also very doable and all the assignments (Mastering Physics) were due at the end of the quarter to accommodate any personal circumstances. There were also multiple opportunities for extra credit, such as TopHat and completion of more than 65% of the homework was extra credit.

There were weekly worksheets assigned based on completion and four midterms throughout the quarter. Our fourth midterm was our "final". Dr. Tung has review sessions before each exam is released and I recommend going to them because they are very helpful for the free response portion of the midterms. We had 24 hours to complete the exams and they would usually have a few multiple choice and 2-3 free responses. Dr. Tung definitely made physics a lot more enjoyable!

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
PHYSICS 5A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Fall 2020
Grade: A
Jan. 11, 2021

I thought I hated physics until I took this class!

Prof. Tung is very chill and personable but he also explains concepts SUPER well! He did lectures on Youtube livestream and had a cool video intro each time (super unrelated to this review but it was a nice way to start each class).

Class breakdown:

The Pearson Mastering Physics textbook/homework problems are mandatory to purchase and complete, although you only need to do 65% of the problems to get a full homework score (the rest is EC).

Discussion worksheets are not too hard and they were only graded for completion.

Labs are a little weird at first because you have to record objects and do some stuff with a computer program called Tracker in order to calculate velocity, height, etc. but its really not bad at all.

There is NO final, but there are 4 midterms of various difficulties throughout the quarter that make up 60% of your grade (so 15% for each exam). This sounds intense, but its really not that bad. For context, I got an 84, 70, 100, and 94 on those midterms. In my opinion it's imperative to go to the review sessions and write down every single detail, because the thought process for problems on the exam are VERY similar to what Tung reviews.

Like I mentioned, you can get extra credit by doing more than 65% of the homework problems (I recommend doing all of them ofc) and sometimes during live lecture, Tung uses this app called TopHat. It's kinda like if you had a clicker, and you can answer questions in real time. You have to pay for it at the beginning of the quarter, but you should get all the extra credit you can (I think that's what got me the A lol).

TLDR: This class is very well organized and I HIGHLY recommend Tung as a professor! You've heard the rumors about other profs, but trust me: Tung is the GOAT.

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PHYSICS 5A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Fall 2020
Grade: A
May 12, 2021

The tests lasted for 24 hours which helped a lot especially if you had other midterms on the same day. His lectures where live YouTube videos. He offered ALOT of extra credit. This class lessened my stress.

Helpful?

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PHYSICS 5A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Winter 2021
Grade: A
April 2, 2021

Probably one of the best professors I’ve had so far. I have never taken a physics class before, but Professor Tung seriously helped me and I’d say most of my class understand the material well. He’s a super funny and chill lecturer, and I felt like his lectures and the test questions were well-related and fair.

His exams were pretty short in terms of the number of questions, with each of the four midterms having around 6 to 8 questions. You want to make sure you do well on the last 2 or 3 questions, as those typically counted for a larger portion of the exam grade. There was no final exam which was great, and the midterms were spaced out and could be taken within a 24 hour window (no other time limit, so you basically had the whole day from one evening to the next). I really appreciate how Professor Tung scheduled the exams so that it wasn’t too overwhelming, and he even did class polls asking what days and times we preferred, and pushed back the fourth midterm a bit so we’d have more time to study.

There was one discussion worksheet due per week that sometimes covered material ahead of the actual lecture, but they were still pretty fair. Also all of the MyLab homework was due after the last midterm, so you basically had the whole quarter to complete at least like 70% of the HW, which is all he required for us to get 100% in the hw category.

He even gave us extra credit through completing HW and Top Hat (it’s like Clicker) participation points during his YouTube lectures (the EC was about 4 to 5 % which is awesome). Super cool professor who also did really funny but also engaging demonstrations of physics concepts.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
PHYSICS 5C
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Spring 2021
Grade: A
June 10, 2021

The lecture portion of the class was decent. Weekly worksheets and only needing to complete 60-65% of the MasteringPhysics homework for full credit (rest was extra credit). Tophat was a waste of money though. We only used it for like 5 classes in total this quarter. Exams aren't too bad, but most of them are mostly rearranging equations and not plug and chug. Lab was a hassle. All of the labs required extra time outside of class to finish since they were all very long.

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6 of 12
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