Corbin is the best for 1A/B/C. Why?
No BS: no textbook required, none of that "Mastering Physics" nonsense - and he makes sure to call out that BS for what it is
Engaging lectures: it's entertaining and you're gonna *want* to go, which is good, because lecture is incredibly central to the class

Other notable features of his classes, which are good for some people but not others:
Optional homework: so awesome! but with great power comes great responsibility - basically you could save a lot of time by not doing the homework, but if you don't already have the experience to be sure you do well on his tests, you're gonna need the practice
Challenging tests but generous curve: it's a learning experience in itself
Super popular office hours: obviously they must be good, like the lectures, or they wouldn't be so popular - but I basically never went just because of how packed they tend to be. The man needs a bigger office. If you want individual attention, you might want to look to other resources

You're gonna learn, you're gonna like the lectures, and you're not gonna have to put up with BS. Take his class.

By the time you take Corbin, you will have heard how hard he is and how great of a professor he is. While both of these are mostly true, there is a little more to it than this.

Though his final and midterm scores are extremely low, the tests themselves aren't as hard as they seem. The main problem on the midterm is time. The problems are pretty predictable, and even if you miss all of the challenging parts you can still score way above the average because most people freak out for these tests and neglect to study the basics. If you don't waste time on what you don't know and think carefully before attempting each part then time is the only thing holding you back. This means practicing many problems is key so that you can recognize what to do quickly. The final gives you a lot more time per problem, but there is also a LOT of material that is fair game. If you have kept up with the material all quarter long then you should be fine. The questions themselves are much easier than the midterms if you studied the right things.

He is a great professor for many people, but not all like the comments seem to make you think. If you are someone who understands physics and math pretty well, then Corbin is about as good as you can get. If you don't have a very strong background in physics and math, then you will often get lost in his lectures. If you just write everything down and go back and look at your notes after you have practiced some problems, then things will go more smoothly. But if you are still having trouble then each lecture will get more and more confusing because his lectures really do build upon one another. And his office hours are apparently great, but good luck getting one-on-one attention if you need it.

If you are good and physics and want to become great then this is the guy for you. If you are shaky at physics and want to get better, then there are probably better options, unless you have a very good TA. Also, he often lets it be known how bad most textbooks (including the one for the class) are, but the practice problems and the simplified explanations actually complement his notes perfectly, in my opinion. Also, he makes it sound like the notes that you take are the key to doing well, but often other explanations can help make things make sense too. So, while he is a GREAT teacher, he's not quite as immortal as he wants to come off as.

Bottom line: Don't let him intimidate you. You'll hear many stories about how hard and scary he is, but he gives more A's than any other lower division physics professor, makes very useful notes to help summarize what he does in class, doesn't collect homework (but still gives suggested problems), gives a TON of partial credit, gives very predictable tests, and considers all of the test in you grade, so one bad test won't hurt you much at all.

In short: take him if you like physics and are at least moderately good at it, and don't take him if you struggle, as you will fall through the cracks. I learned to love physics even more than I did, and I got an A without going to any office hours or doing a ton of homework, but the experience is different for everyone, so, while he is a great professor, he isn't for everyone.

Best professor in physics ever, though I'm not a physics major. Corbin is so nice and funny and accessible to students. He definitely cares about the students and the test are doable and a little hard.

Brent Corbin is a legend and is undoubtedly one of the best Physics professors out there . His test were so well written and his explanations were just amazing . I have always loved physics but the way Brent Corbin "preaches" the subject is paranormal . His Office Hours are always worth going . I used to sit in each of his office hours and I didn't regret a minute of it . Believe me folks , you are a bruin which implies you are intelligent and so don't run behind grades because what matters is how good you learn and I am hella sure that no one can make you learn Physics better then this godly person does .
JUST GO FOR IT .... YOU WILL HAVE THE BEST TIME OF YOUR LIFE

By far the worst instructor I've had at UCLA. The physics postdocs, who are primarily doing research, teach the physics 1 series far, far better than this guy. This guy's only job is to teach, so its sad that he can't even outdo the overworked and underpaid postdocs.

The so-called "handouts" that he occasionally uploads throughout the quarter are hastily written, short, and pretty useless. He may as well just not upload anything onto CCLE. He just lectures off the board and his lectures are very average. Office hours are so packed that often one cannot even see properly. His office hours are a real pain to attend.

If you look at the grade distribution of other instructors teaching this class, you'll notice that Corbin's grade distribution is harsher. In other words, despite teaching this class in a mediocre fashion and giving tests too long to finish in the allotted time, he goes on to punish people with his curve.

Avoid this instructor and retain your peace of mind. Take it with anybody else.

Corbin is the best lecturer I have had in my time here. His midterms don't test how good you are at physics, but how well and how intensively you have done the practice problems from the textbook. After taking this class, I found 1B much easier than those who hadn't taken Corbin's 1A.

For those who are wondering how Corbin grades: I got 60/90 on the first midterm (~20 points above median), 28/90 on the second midterm (~10 points below the median), and felt I did really well on the final to pull off an A-.

I was sure I was going to get a B after seeing my score on the second midterm, but Corbin assured us that he looks at individual scores on the final, and rewards improvement. The final has a lot of derivations related to gravitation, which if you study beforehand, makes the final very doable.

Overall, doing well in this class is achievable with hard work.

Taking Physics 1B with Corbin was one of the most grueling and arduous experiences I’ve had at UCLA so far. Granted, prior to taking this course, my foundation of physics was worse than a table missing three of its legs during an earthquake. However, as a student at UCLA, I believe my opinion to be valid and at least a decent reflection of what students who struggle with physics thought of this class.

So if you’re debating whether to take Corbin and only want a brief answer, here it is: DO NOT TAKE CORBIN UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES (unless you’re already an expert in physics, in which case go ahead). But if you want a more in-depth explanation, grab yourself a glass of water and some snacks as I tell you why you should avoid Corbin like the plague.

Let’s start with the lectures. In all fairness, Corbin is a very charismatic guy and genuinely seems like a good person. He makes a lot of funny jokes in class and is clearly passionate about the material he teaches. However, that is where the positive qualities of his class end; everything is downhill from here.

Corbin suffers from a problem that many professors at UCLA suffer from, something I call “professor apathy.” It is where a professor has such a good understanding of their material that they are completely detached from the position of the student, who is viewing all these new concepts for the first time. Corbin’s lectures may seem decent at first, but it quickly becomes apparent that even if you are diligently taking notes and listening, you will have no clue what he is talking about. What makes things worse is that the material he teaches in lectures differs from the textbook and homework. And the cherry on top of this rocky road ice cream (Get it? Because it’s a difficult time) is that he does NOT record any of his lectures, so if you miss a crucial detail, you will either have to go to office hours or just hope that it is not on the exam (SPOILER: it will be).

Now, you may be thinking, “Well, the lectures might be confusing, but I’m sure things will become clear once I attend his office hours.” Oh, you have no idea how WRONG you are. For the fall quarter of 2022, he held two office hours throughout the week; and you think that after so many office hours, he’d eventually get better at explaining topics. But no. Just like his lectures, Corbin’s explanations get consecutively worse as we progressed through the quarter. If you were to blindfold a two-year-old, give them a dried-up highlighter, and told them to solve a complex multivariable calculus from sheer memory alone, their work would still be more coherent than Corbin’s office hours. His explanations and diagrams are straight-up incomprehensible. You’ll probably be more confused leaving office hours than when you entered. Even the TAs were confused about the material Corbin was teaching, so there wasn’t much help during discussion sections either.

And now we get to the creme of the crop of Corbin’s class: the exams. The people who passed his exams with flying colors need to be studied in a lab immediately because it baffles me how anyone would do well with the tests Corbin expected us to complete. To put it into perspective, after reviewing all the material, completing practice problems, and attending all lectures, I got an 8/90 on Midterm 2. EIGHT OUT OF NINETY!!! THAT’S NOT EVEN TEN PERCENT!!!

Luckily for me, and likely several other students, Corbin decided to be much less lenient with his grading due to the UC strikes and other circumstances. For that reason, he assured everyone he would pass students who demonstrated some sort of understanding or improvement throughout the quarter. So through sheer luck, Cobrin’s grading allowed me to pass the course (jokes aside, I am deeply grateful for this decision. Thanks Corbin).

Oh yeah, there’s also homework. Corbin assigns all homework assignments at the beginning of the quarter through the Mastering Physics website. They're all due at the end of the quarter and you can complete them at your own pace. I do not have much to say since the material asked in the assignments differed from the topics discussed in lectures. So my advice is to work in a group and use a certain website that starts with a “C” (I couldn’t imagine anyone doing these problems by themselves. And if you could, I applauded you). Also, don’t do them all last minute like I did.

So, in conclusion, taking Physics 1B with Cobrin is like putting yourself in the position of Sisyphus, a mythological figure who was forced to roll a boulder up a hill for eternity. Trying to understand the material is like pushing the boulder up, and once you think you’ve reached the top, it will fall back down, leaving you as clueless as you were at the beginning of the quarter. However, unlike Sisyphus, this eternal torment can be defied. For one, you can opt not to take Corbin by taking another professor or just wait an extra quarter. If that is not an option, just prepare for the worst.

Thanks for reading this extremely long review. I wish you the best of luck. Also, he loves radios, so if you want to get on his good side (which I recommend you do), brush up on your radio knowledge ig.

I was so so scared before I took this class because I've heard all the horror stories -- I was worried ruin my GPA in my first quarter here by taking his class. However I'm super glad I was able to take 1b with Corbin and it ended up working out. A lot of professors don't care about teaching a lot; this man is truly the opposite. He will run office hours every other day just to talk physics with us so we can really understand it. He is very anti plug-and-chug physics which might startle people coming straight from high school but honestly his way makes way more sense. He derives everything from first principles and cares that we actually get the concepts.[Knowing calculus well is a big thing by the way! He loves BC-calc level integrals (trig subs, u subs, etc) so being strong on that is super helpful!] It was definitely scary because no matter how much discussion or homework you did (a ton of work by the way, and it was all due at the end of the quarter with no other check points. do it early/divide it up across the quarter!) you could not predict what would be on the midterms. But partial credit is super nice in this class -- for the first problem on the first midterm I *genuinely* got no part of the problem right (literally every final answer in subpart was incorrect) but I still got 24/30 on the problem (which is good in this class!), so even if you feel like you're flailing you're probably fine. I do think it helped that I had physics background from high school (AP Physics C both parts); my Gauss's law prep helped me do super well on the second midterm, so it's really good if you have that. Also I will add this he implemented his "pandemic grading scale" this quarter due to the strike, so I don't know if he will be as lenient on grading as he was this quarter. But anyway if I had any advice to give, I would say go to office hours and build a relationship with the guy! He cares to learn your name! And if you have a TA (I only did for half the quarter) go to them! Mine was super nice and I'm sure most of them are. It was super helpful for homework and just understanding general ideas. I would definitely take again! He is super nice don't let anyone tell you differently.

Unpopular opnion, that Corbin is an amazing lecturer, and that if you understand what he says, and understand his way of thinking, his tests are not the killers people say they are...He is amazing at explaining the theory, he derives most of the formulas, and his examples show how one can derive stuff.
Honestly I never opened the textbook in this class, I just looked over my notes, learned to derive the equations, and learned to understand the material/think his way, and I got above average on the midterms. That is why no cheat sheet, no scratch paper, no calculator, nothing but a pencil is required, because if you can think his way, you can just derive all the equations on the spot, and thus remember all of them, if you truly understand the material, you don't need to write any of it down.

while the averages were a 39%(35.8/90) on the first midterm, and around a 32% on the second midterm(29/90), the problems offered quite a bit of partial credit
usually part C depends on part B which depends on part A, so if you got part A, B is easy, and C is basically free pts, if you don't get A...well that is not to good. His questions are a true test of your knowledge, can you apply all that you learned, to derive a solution to a problem you haven't seen before, can you go the extra step or two. The subparts asking about limits really helps give you a reality check, and forces you to think what your answer means.

So how to suceed on the exams(or beat the average at least, cause no one really suceeds), master one topic(be it doppler, be it circuits, be it current in a field), be able to derive all the equations, think of weird twists, etc etc, so you can get a question right, then the other ones you will know a decent amount through the mastery of the first topic, and then you'll get 50-55/90 which is more then enough for a good grade.

I really wish I took him for 1A. I would have had an amazing understanding of mechanics. I am honestly hoping he teaches 1C in the spring, because while I might be getting 50% on midterms, I understand the material quite well, much better than 1A.

Physics 1B with Corbin shouldn't be difficult if you took and did well in AP Physics C in high school.