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- Alvine Kamaha
- PHYSICS 126
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Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.
Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.
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I honestly cannot recommend this class enough. Kamaha was a great lecturer, and clearly is very knowledgeable about the material, and the content discussed is very engaging and interesting. The tests are pretty fair, in addition to a large chunk of the test being taken either directly from the slides, homework, or past exams, making an A very achievable in her class. She does occasionally have in-class worksheets (which we do together and take five minutes) which she uses for participation, but she certainly did not want anyone in the class to lose any points for participation (7% of the final grade). Attendance was not the best in class, with roughly half of the class showing up to most lectures (It was at 9am during the spring, but I believe this is not typical for this class), and still at least the lower quartile for attendance in canvas was a 100.
Again, the material is lots of fun, and honestly, for me, I enjoyed showing up to class in the morning, since it was a nice chill way to start the day.
The exams were pretty fair; the homework, not so much. There were often questions that tested knowledge or skills that weren't even mentioned in class, and that you basically wouldn't be able to do unless you went to office hours.
During this quarter, the professor also introduced in-class worksheets. These were frustrating for several reasons. First, they often had questions we were not at the time equipped to answer. For example, when we just started talking about Feynman diagrams, we had a worksheet asking us to draw a bunch of them, and some could only be done with the strong force -- which isn't covered until several more weeks into the quarter. Second, a lot of class time was devoted to going over these worksheets, which is honestly more suited towards discussion section. (To be fair, ours was at 8 am so maybe nobody showed up and the professor still wanted us to get practice -- but then, the discussion section worksheets were uploaded so we still could have chosen to look at them in our own time.) Third, the professor expected us to hand the worksheets in to her by hand at the end of lecture, but almost always her lectures would go at least five minutes overtime, which was a problem for anyone with a class or other commitment immediately after the class. I emailed her with my concern, and she said she'd try to do better, but never did. So, I had a friend turn in my worksheet (which I completed myself) for me so that I could leave on time, and she emailed me accusing me of cheating (even though I've emailed her about my situation and she's the one who refuses to accommodate it). She was overall really unfriendly there, which made me hesitant to reach out to her about other class related issues. Lectures were recorded, but only the audio (which is a way to appreciate that the professor incorporated visuals a lot, wrote on the board, etc, although slides were also used and uploaded). The homework was graded pretty harshly, but that depends on the grader (I've gotten points docked for answers that were very similar to what students got full marks for in previous quarters). There is also considerable class time and homework devoted to Feynman calculus, which is considered a graduate level topic and should not appear on any exams.
I honestly cannot recommend this class enough. Kamaha was a great lecturer, and clearly is very knowledgeable about the material, and the content discussed is very engaging and interesting. The tests are pretty fair, in addition to a large chunk of the test being taken either directly from the slides, homework, or past exams, making an A very achievable in her class. She does occasionally have in-class worksheets (which we do together and take five minutes) which she uses for participation, but she certainly did not want anyone in the class to lose any points for participation (7% of the final grade). Attendance was not the best in class, with roughly half of the class showing up to most lectures (It was at 9am during the spring, but I believe this is not typical for this class), and still at least the lower quartile for attendance in canvas was a 100.
Again, the material is lots of fun, and honestly, for me, I enjoyed showing up to class in the morning, since it was a nice chill way to start the day.
The exams were pretty fair; the homework, not so much. There were often questions that tested knowledge or skills that weren't even mentioned in class, and that you basically wouldn't be able to do unless you went to office hours.
During this quarter, the professor also introduced in-class worksheets. These were frustrating for several reasons. First, they often had questions we were not at the time equipped to answer. For example, when we just started talking about Feynman diagrams, we had a worksheet asking us to draw a bunch of them, and some could only be done with the strong force -- which isn't covered until several more weeks into the quarter. Second, a lot of class time was devoted to going over these worksheets, which is honestly more suited towards discussion section. (To be fair, ours was at 8 am so maybe nobody showed up and the professor still wanted us to get practice -- but then, the discussion section worksheets were uploaded so we still could have chosen to look at them in our own time.) Third, the professor expected us to hand the worksheets in to her by hand at the end of lecture, but almost always her lectures would go at least five minutes overtime, which was a problem for anyone with a class or other commitment immediately after the class. I emailed her with my concern, and she said she'd try to do better, but never did. So, I had a friend turn in my worksheet (which I completed myself) for me so that I could leave on time, and she emailed me accusing me of cheating (even though I've emailed her about my situation and she's the one who refuses to accommodate it). She was overall really unfriendly there, which made me hesitant to reach out to her about other class related issues. Lectures were recorded, but only the audio (which is a way to appreciate that the professor incorporated visuals a lot, wrote on the board, etc, although slides were also used and uploaded). The homework was graded pretty harshly, but that depends on the grader (I've gotten points docked for answers that were very similar to what students got full marks for in previous quarters). There is also considerable class time and homework devoted to Feynman calculus, which is considered a graduate level topic and should not appear on any exams.
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