Professor Brown was super good-- as many reviews point out, he very clearly cares about his students. He takes COVID seriously, and encourages us all to take the survey, get tested, etc. He's clearly passionate about physics, and for good reason: it's interesting stuff! He's been teaching this class since before I was born, so he's definitely got a lot of practice haha.

Homework is 20% of the grade, and it's on Mastering Physics so you'll get multiple tries to get it right, so definitely take advantage of that! It could make all the difference; plus, it's good practice for the quizzes...:

There are weekly quizzes (20%), and they are difficult. They're based on the homework, but they often go into more depth, so make sure you understand the homework. The quizzes don't offer too much partial credit, since they're rather short, and you'll need to memorize the equations used on the homework.

There is only one midterm (25%) and although there was quite the kerfuffle this year due to multiple complications (printer issues, professor was at a meeting in another state haha, etc), the professor was quick to remedy the situation. He was gracious and conscientious about the whole thing, which was much appreciated-- although he can be a bit scattered, he clearly cares about the class.

The final (35%) is definitely tough, similar to the midterm, and largely focuses on post-midterm material. Memorize equations, and make sure you understand them. Go through practice problems in the book and in the homework. You'll do fine, but definitely take it seriously.

There are so many demonstrations in this class, and they're all great. We're talking Tesla coils, liquid nitrogen, etc. The professor enjoys them, too-- he spent a long time trying to get his prism to work so we could see a rainbow. It eventually worked! That was one of my favorite classes lol.

If you, like me, are taking this class with the Samueli Exception (you're taking this class along with, rather than after, Math 32B), don't worry, it's very doable, and it'll help you in 32B. Go to office hours if anything doesn't make sense, but you can totally succeed in this class even if you're a quarter late in math!

This class is super interesting and very doable, but it's not a super easy class (I mean, it's physics at UCLA, what do you expect haha). Go to office hours-- Professor Brown offers virtual office hours at least this last quarter, so hopefully that's still a thing! You'll learn a lot and have fun!

Oh, and a fun resource I found helpful for gaining a bit of intuition about special relativity: https://archive.org/details/timespaceofunc00stan
As a kid, I enjoyed learning about special relativity with this book. It was neat to read over it before the final to give myself a break while still studying! It's free to borrow don't worry lol.

Professor Brown really cares about the students he teaches. Even with the hiccups in technology or tests, he communicates quickly and is very fair whilst still challenging his students.

Professor Brown's tests and quizzes were hard, as it was all conceptual, though many partial points are given as well as gimme questions that make sure the student has a basic understanding before going into the more complex questions. His grading was fair, with a generous curve and being able to do corrections for the midterm.

Overall, this class was challenging, but Professor Brown did his best to help those who put the effort forth. I also loved every single one of his demonstrations! It was something that I did not have in previous classes due to Covid, so it was awesome to see the concepts applied to real world things.

For Physics 1A, I had Mostafa El Alaoui-Nice guy, but with his overuse of examples ("Here is an example...Here is an example...etc, etc.) I barely got anything out of the class.

For 1B, I had Ni Ni, and oh dear, at least El Alaoui's accent was understandable. That said, I did learn more in 1B (not hard to achieve) but she was not a good professor.

Just as I thought it couldn't get worse, I was right-it didn't.

Brown is a decent professor. Not bad, like my two previous ones, but he's certainly no master at explaining concepts really clearly. Since he teaches mostly upper divs and is somewhat scatterbrained, he finds it difficult to phrase some concepts in class, but to his credit, he eventually does this in an understandable way most of the time.

The class is mostly concept based, and the Mastering Physics homework is easy gimme points -16 tries!

Both midterms, in retrospect were fair in content but the second one was much more time constrained (even though I did better on that one).

My recommendations are to follow his study guide, but beware-he has two sections-1) Concepts, defintions, equations (stuff you MUST know) 2) Concept keywords (he says to just have a feel of what these mean, but this is not always the case. For the second midterm, he didn't put the formulas for inductance, reactance, etc. in the first section-he put it in the second, but we still had to use those equations).

I never went to office hours, so I can't comment on that. Overall though, he gets the job done in an acceptable manner. I got a B+, and had I done better on the first midterm, I would have gotten at least an A-. He posts distributions for all exams, so I know that I am happy with how I did on midterm 2 and the final.

Another recommendation-when he gives you a problem, don't overthink it. Some questions don't even test your understanding of physics since they are mathematical derivations and manipulations, albeit not complicated ones. Just make sure your derivation is NOT crazy because it won't be that way on the answer sheet. Also look at the geometry of relevant questions (if I take sin theta of this, what do I get, etc). To reiterate, do not overthink because you'll be slapping yourself on the head (not really, but you get what I mean) when you see the solutions. Grading is also not harsh, and if you find a relevant mistake, just write what you want regraded and leave it on the desk during lecture, and Brown will look it over.

If you like learning concepts, not having to do tedious calculations with you TI-83 Plus during an exam, looking at the geometry/trigonometry of problems, and doing some mathematical manipulations, take him. If you like to do hardcore derivations in class and don't care a hoot about learning concepts, then I would look somewhere else. When you're taking his exams, just do not, do not, do not overthink like I did. Then, time constraint will be less, trust me.

Off all the physics courses I took, I learned the most out of his 1C class, even though relativity isn't wxactly what I call exciting. If you know the basic concept in his class, you're good to go. On his first midterm I only got a 10/40 but after reading up more on concepts i gotta 36/45 on his second midterm. Granted, a lot of his class is concept-based, I would recommend him highly.