DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS with Amar!!!!!!!!!!!!!
105D material is inherently difficult to capture, but Amar makes it even more difficult by not engage the material clearly. He barely know technology, including writing on surface / iPad, which makes taking a class with him a terrible experience. He talks really slowly and without a focus on what is important, he goes everywhere. The homework is A LOT and was BARELY RELATED to the material covered in class. Half of the equations used on homework does not even appear in class lectures, nor was covered by class examples, so you have to read tedious textbook for answers. You will take roughly 8 hours per homework to finish them. The exams are tricky and he is ALWAYS AMBIGUOUS about what is covered for each exam (Quote: "covers everything"). This is especially terrible when the homework and the lectures are NOT the same thing AT ALL!!! He WILL attempt to trick you with something never taught in class.

Professor Amar is a great teacher. He focuses on problem solving in his class and goes over a lot of examples. Pay attention to the examples in class as he doesn't lie when he says they're the same as the exam problems. Homework was fairly simple. Quizzes and exams are a bit difficult and can go a bit fast, but are very doable.

Professor Amar is a great professor, aside from some common mic problems during the class. He gives fair homework, and his pop quizzes/midterm was quite similar to practice problems done in class. His final was slightly harder, but doable if you've practiced and have paid attention throughout the quarter. Would recommend taking this class with him, but remember to sit towards the front to be more engaged.

This is one of the better upper div mech e classes that are out there. Sit near the front if you want to actually learn (you won't be able to hear the prof or see the board otherwise). The lectures were REALLY helpful. You don't need to touch the book at all. The prof explains concepts pretty well and goes through enough examples that you should be able to learn most of the material just through going to lecture.
There is weekly homework that is not too hard, but a bit time consuming because you have to follow the professor's format. There are 4 pop quizzes, with the lowest quiz score being dropped. The problems on the quizzes aren't particularly hard, but there is very little time to complete them, so make sure you're up to date with the lecture material (especially the homework problems from the previous week). The midterms have problems that are a bit harder, but there is a lot more time to do them, which makes them not too bad (I think ~80% average for midterm).
Overall, I would really recommend taking the class with this prof. If you sit near the front and pay attention in lecture, this class shouldn't be too bad.

I really liked this class! Very standard upper div mech e class- homework, one midterm, four pop quizzes (lowest dropped), final. Lectures could be dry and he was a little hard to hear, but I thought he did a really good job of having us work through examples. A lot of my classmates agreed that they didn't have to study very much outside of class and homework, so if you put the work in during lecture, the material wasn't so bad. However, you do have to come to every lecture and pay attention. He gave pop quizzes during lecture that were worth quite a bit of your grade and were definitely difficult. Homework questions were standard, out of the book, but he posts them online so you really don't need the book as long as you take good notes in lecture. Discussion was not mandatory, and they basically went through three or four problems each week. I thought discussion was super helpful and helped me out on the midterms and quizzes. I thought the midterm was very fair. He wasn't very transparent on averages/curves, but I think the average was around a B/C. For the final he liked to find problems that combined all the things we'd learned throughout the quarter. I thought he was a pretty nice guy, but could be a little tough on people who answered wrong or asked bad questions, so come in with a tough skin and don't be too put off if he doesn't respond very nicely. Overall I would recommend him! Especially if you learn best by working through examples.

I don't think he's bad at teaching. When I mustered the will up to actually go to lecture, I think I learned things. AND the midterm and final both used questions he had specifically done in lecture, so you should just bite the bullet. But the class is just a terrible experience, he encourages questions and then is very condescending towards those who asked. The quizzes were SPECIFICALLY designed to not be something we directly learned, but to be a twist on the concept (this was said explicitly). Very few people got higher than like 70% on even one quiz. You had to realize some trick during a 20 minute quiz, and otherwise you would not be able to solve it. You literally have to print 30 pages of tables and figures yourself and bring them to the exams (it would make too much sense for him to provide them). If you forget an important table, good luck solving the questions :). The first quiz was funny because he just projected the question on the screen and said to write it on your own paper. There was no warning that this was the format ahead of time (because who the hell does it like that?) so half the class that uses paper had to give the half that uses ipads paper and pencils. The TAs got him to change this and print out our exams. The TAs tried their best to give us actually clear information, and fix the terrible structure of the class the professor tried to use, so just hope for good TAs. I would absolutely recommend a different professor, I don't think it can get much worse.

Be aware of the other reviews as if you read them they all say what a great professor he is but ONLY IF you're a perfect student (sit at the front, always engaging, going to every office hour etc.).
As someone who doesn't characterises themselves as the teacher's pet, this class is OK at best. His lectures are like watching paint dry and the amount of technical issues with microphones Prof Amar had were staggering. He does go through things in a methodical way but never pays attention to the textbook - good luck trying to use that to help.
His pop quizzes and midterms required far more time to complete than he gave us because of the long-winded method he wanted us to use and the homeworks were very similar. He also likes to think he is teaching the most sacred, important class at UCLA which simply isn't the case which really got on my nerves.
All in all, I wouldn't take this class with this professor. The actual content is fairly interesting but you need a professor who knows how to host engaging, well explained lectures for it to be a good class.

Very disorganized, hard tests and homeworks are nothing like the exams. His quizzes are based on lecture content but the final was brutal.

Amar is super passionate about the topics in this class and makes it clear why we were learning what we were learning. His lectures were very clear and helpful. The homework he assigned aligned very well with what was on the quizzes and tests. Overall, very solid professor in my opinion.

Prof. Amar is one of the best professors I've had here. You don't really need to read the books except for clarification or homework problems. I studied with his lecture notes and exampels. also, did many problems from the book. the final was pretty hard, but if you can firmly grasp the concepts, 1st law and 2nd law of thermodynamics, you should be able to know what to do right away when you see the exam problems.