Brent Corbin
Department of Physics
AD
3.7
Overall Rating
Based on 95 Users
Easiness 1.5 / 5 How easy the class is, 1 being extremely difficult and 5 being easy peasy.
Clarity 4.1 / 5 How clear the class is, 1 being extremely unclear and 5 being very clear.
Workload 2.6 / 5 How much workload the class is, 1 being extremely heavy and 5 being extremely light.
Helpfulness 3.7 / 5 How helpful the class is, 1 being not helpful at all and 5 being extremely helpful.

TOP TAGS

  • Tough Tests
  • Engaging Lectures
  • Often Funny
GRADE DISTRIBUTIONS
47.2%
39.3%
31.5%
23.6%
15.7%
7.9%
0.0%
A+
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
C-
D+
D
D-
F

Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.

53.4%
44.5%
35.6%
26.7%
17.8%
8.9%
0.0%
A+
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
C-
D+
D
D-
F

Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.

53.4%
44.5%
35.6%
26.7%
17.8%
8.9%
0.0%
A+
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
C-
D+
D
D-
F

Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.

22.8%
19.0%
15.2%
11.4%
7.6%
3.8%
0.0%
A+
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
C-
D+
D
D-
F

Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.

19.1%
15.9%
12.7%
9.5%
6.4%
3.2%
0.0%
A+
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
C-
D+
D
D-
F

Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.

30.3%
25.3%
20.2%
15.2%
10.1%
5.1%
0.0%
A+
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
C-
D+
D
D-
F

Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.

28.6%
23.8%
19.0%
14.3%
9.5%
4.8%
0.0%
A+
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
C-
D+
D
D-
F

Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.

25.4%
21.2%
16.9%
12.7%
8.5%
4.2%
0.0%
A+
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
C-
D+
D
D-
F

Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.

26.2%
21.8%
17.5%
13.1%
8.7%
4.4%
0.0%
A+
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
C-
D+
D
D-
F

Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.

30.1%
25.0%
20.0%
15.0%
10.0%
5.0%
0.0%
A+
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
C-
D+
D
D-
F

Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.

28.4%
23.7%
18.9%
14.2%
9.5%
4.7%
0.0%
A+
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
C-
D+
D
D-
F

Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.

29.7%
24.7%
19.8%
14.8%
9.9%
4.9%
0.0%
A+
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
C-
D+
D
D-
F

Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.

ENROLLMENT DISTRIBUTIONS
Clear marks

Sorry, no enrollment data is available.

AD

Reviews (77)

3 of 8
3 of 8
Add your review...
Quarter: Fall 2021
Grade: A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Dec. 22, 2021

Wow...this class was hard to go through but the curving made up for it.

I still have trouble believing that I really did get an A in this class, but I suppose the curving is really that forgiving. I have no idea how close to borderline B I was, but for a rough idea I consistently scored at least half a standard deviation higher than the average for each quiz (after Corbin does his thing where he replaces your lowest quiz score with a copy of your 2nd lowest quiz score). For the final exam, I got a 56% (w/ an average of 48.6%)

The 5 quizzes are quite difficult, to say the least, except for maybe one or two which were drastically shorter and easier from the rest. It all seemed a bit unbalanced to me. The first one definitely shook everyone to their core and made people question whether they should change majors!

Corbin is very funny, casually swearing, cracking jokes, and telling amusing stories about his injuries from demonstrating physics before the pandemic. His lectures are pretty entertaining, until he suddenly (and quite frequently) pulls out a confusing math-heavy derivation of a formula and goes off tangent to material he says is not covered in this course, which is great cause it shows his passion and pretty much fool-proof understanding of physics, but...not great for a complete beginner like me just trying to survive to major in computer science...

I'm taking Wang next quarter for 1B though I'll surely stop by his in-person lecture every once in awhile just to admire his great energy and enthusiasm!

Helpful?

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

I would strongly advise taking this class with another professor. Tests are unnecessarily hard

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Winter 2021
Grade: A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Verified Reviewer This user is a verified UCLA student/alum.
March 26, 2021

Professor Corbin is a great instructor. He gives beautiful derivations in lectures that will make you understand the concepts if you pay attention. He is always funny and passionate, which gives you the energy to tackle all the hard questions.

His quizzes are very hard and require a thorough understanding of all the principles and commonly used tricks. The average for the quizzes is about 20 out of 30. I personally think the final is even harder than the quizzes with 5 quiz-like questions to complete in about two hours. I got 139 out of 150 on the final and get a solid A.

Overall, if you are not passionate about physics and only want to get this course's credit, take someone else if you can. You will have a much higher chance of getting a good grade from another instructor. However, if you are someone really into physics and want to challenge yourself and really understand the concepts, take Corbin.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Winter 2021
Grade: A-
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
March 24, 2021

Class was definitely difficult, but if you put in the time you will get good results. First quiz I was almost two standard deviations below average, so I really thought I was gonna be screwed for the rest of the quarter. But I really started spending A LOT of time doing practice problems, which tbh is the only way you can get better and definitely helped me out in the end. Corbin's lectures I found to be very good, so I rarely consulted the book for extra info. Quizzes and final were hard, but manageable.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Winter 2020
Grade: B
March 23, 2021

This class was stressful, and my least favorite course this quarter. The homework load is unreasonable and the questions hardly prepare students for the BRUTAL exams which are timed and normally have means around 50%. Professor Corbin likes to swear and makes sassy remarks to students who ask questions during lectures and teaches as if students should already be proficient in physics.

My TA sympathized with the class's frustrations with Corbin, but nothing can change how unreasonable this professor makes the course. A few saving graces are that the lectures are recorded and TAs are normally very helpful, but I would still NOT recommend this professor.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Summer 2020
Grade: N/A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Dec. 9, 2020

Selling University Physics Textbook (required for class). Phone: **********

Helpful?

0 2 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Winter 2020
Grade: C
July 16, 2020

This class was not for me. The grade is 25% the first midterm, 25% the second midterm, 50% the final
His lectures are very short so it is insufficient to explain the concepts in depth. To succeed in this class, you need the discipline to do the homework regularly even when it isn't graded. Attend office hours whenever you can and TIME YOURSELF. I barely passed lol and I underestimated how much work I need to put in this class.
ALSO USE MASTERING PHYSICS because he tests us with the same type of questions.
The professor can be very blunt but he's helpful when you reach out and thoughtful overall.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Winter 2020
Grade: B
July 3, 2020

I got like 33% and 56% on the two midterms and got a B. So I didn't really study but took AP Physics in high school which helped. BUT he's a great lecture, but his midterms are hard in the moment especially with the time crunch. Yet, when he gives out the answers you actually feel dumb for not getting it because it's much more simple than you think. He usually solves the problems in about 5 steps so if you do more than that you are overthinking it and are doing it wrong. I honestly don't even know how to study for this class lol because I did practice problems and they don't help. So if you want to learn physics take him, but if you actually want to earn a good grade because you do well on the test, take someone else. He is really nice and wants to help his students, but it's tough love.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Winter 2020
Grade: A
June 19, 2020

There's already so many reviews for this fabulous man and most of them nail the major points of this class. It is really difficult and you'll have to approach it differently than any AP Physics class you took in high school. But it's all very possible to do if you put in the time and follow what he says. Just do the homework when he tells you to do it and it'll make your life a lot easier.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Winter 2020
Grade: C+
April 5, 2020

This class was quite hard for me, mainly because I had a pretty weak foundation of physics coming into this class. Your whole grade is based solely on exams: 50% from both midterms, and 50% from the final. Homework is optional, but honestly if you don’t do the suggested material regularly and you don’t have a solid foundation in physics like I do, you will do really bad in the class. Corbin is definitely a great lecturer, I personally found him pretty engaging. He doesn’t really do that many demonstrations, he instead opts to spend most lectures either mathematically deriving new equations or going over ways to approach different kinds of physics problems. Going to his office hours can be really helpful if you are stuck on something or just want more info regarding a certain subject, it really helped me improve from my first midterm to the second. The tests themselves were pretty hard, mainly because of the time limit. You only have 50 minutes to do 3 questions for each midterm, and if you are not really familiar with a topic or haven’t practiced problems on it enough, you will not finish on time. The final is more manageable as you now have 3 hours to do 6 questions, and it was definitely less pressure.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Fall 2021
Grade: A
Dec. 22, 2021

Wow...this class was hard to go through but the curving made up for it.

I still have trouble believing that I really did get an A in this class, but I suppose the curving is really that forgiving. I have no idea how close to borderline B I was, but for a rough idea I consistently scored at least half a standard deviation higher than the average for each quiz (after Corbin does his thing where he replaces your lowest quiz score with a copy of your 2nd lowest quiz score). For the final exam, I got a 56% (w/ an average of 48.6%)

The 5 quizzes are quite difficult, to say the least, except for maybe one or two which were drastically shorter and easier from the rest. It all seemed a bit unbalanced to me. The first one definitely shook everyone to their core and made people question whether they should change majors!

Corbin is very funny, casually swearing, cracking jokes, and telling amusing stories about his injuries from demonstrating physics before the pandemic. His lectures are pretty entertaining, until he suddenly (and quite frequently) pulls out a confusing math-heavy derivation of a formula and goes off tangent to material he says is not covered in this course, which is great cause it shows his passion and pretty much fool-proof understanding of physics, but...not great for a complete beginner like me just trying to survive to major in computer science...

I'm taking Wang next quarter for 1B though I'll surely stop by his in-person lecture every once in awhile just to admire his great energy and enthusiasm!

Helpful?

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

I would strongly advise taking this class with another professor. Tests are unnecessarily hard

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Verified Reviewer This user is a verified UCLA student/alum.
Quarter: Winter 2021
Grade: A
March 26, 2021

Professor Corbin is a great instructor. He gives beautiful derivations in lectures that will make you understand the concepts if you pay attention. He is always funny and passionate, which gives you the energy to tackle all the hard questions.

His quizzes are very hard and require a thorough understanding of all the principles and commonly used tricks. The average for the quizzes is about 20 out of 30. I personally think the final is even harder than the quizzes with 5 quiz-like questions to complete in about two hours. I got 139 out of 150 on the final and get a solid A.

Overall, if you are not passionate about physics and only want to get this course's credit, take someone else if you can. You will have a much higher chance of getting a good grade from another instructor. However, if you are someone really into physics and want to challenge yourself and really understand the concepts, take Corbin.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Winter 2021
Grade: A-
March 24, 2021

Class was definitely difficult, but if you put in the time you will get good results. First quiz I was almost two standard deviations below average, so I really thought I was gonna be screwed for the rest of the quarter. But I really started spending A LOT of time doing practice problems, which tbh is the only way you can get better and definitely helped me out in the end. Corbin's lectures I found to be very good, so I rarely consulted the book for extra info. Quizzes and final were hard, but manageable.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Winter 2020
Grade: B
March 23, 2021

This class was stressful, and my least favorite course this quarter. The homework load is unreasonable and the questions hardly prepare students for the BRUTAL exams which are timed and normally have means around 50%. Professor Corbin likes to swear and makes sassy remarks to students who ask questions during lectures and teaches as if students should already be proficient in physics.

My TA sympathized with the class's frustrations with Corbin, but nothing can change how unreasonable this professor makes the course. A few saving graces are that the lectures are recorded and TAs are normally very helpful, but I would still NOT recommend this professor.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Summer 2020
Grade: N/A
Dec. 9, 2020

Selling University Physics Textbook (required for class). Phone: **********

Helpful?

0 2 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Winter 2020
Grade: C
July 16, 2020

This class was not for me. The grade is 25% the first midterm, 25% the second midterm, 50% the final
His lectures are very short so it is insufficient to explain the concepts in depth. To succeed in this class, you need the discipline to do the homework regularly even when it isn't graded. Attend office hours whenever you can and TIME YOURSELF. I barely passed lol and I underestimated how much work I need to put in this class.
ALSO USE MASTERING PHYSICS because he tests us with the same type of questions.
The professor can be very blunt but he's helpful when you reach out and thoughtful overall.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Winter 2020
Grade: B
July 3, 2020

I got like 33% and 56% on the two midterms and got a B. So I didn't really study but took AP Physics in high school which helped. BUT he's a great lecture, but his midterms are hard in the moment especially with the time crunch. Yet, when he gives out the answers you actually feel dumb for not getting it because it's much more simple than you think. He usually solves the problems in about 5 steps so if you do more than that you are overthinking it and are doing it wrong. I honestly don't even know how to study for this class lol because I did practice problems and they don't help. So if you want to learn physics take him, but if you actually want to earn a good grade because you do well on the test, take someone else. He is really nice and wants to help his students, but it's tough love.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Winter 2020
Grade: A
June 19, 2020

There's already so many reviews for this fabulous man and most of them nail the major points of this class. It is really difficult and you'll have to approach it differently than any AP Physics class you took in high school. But it's all very possible to do if you put in the time and follow what he says. Just do the homework when he tells you to do it and it'll make your life a lot easier.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Winter 2020
Grade: C+
April 5, 2020

This class was quite hard for me, mainly because I had a pretty weak foundation of physics coming into this class. Your whole grade is based solely on exams: 50% from both midterms, and 50% from the final. Homework is optional, but honestly if you don’t do the suggested material regularly and you don’t have a solid foundation in physics like I do, you will do really bad in the class. Corbin is definitely a great lecturer, I personally found him pretty engaging. He doesn’t really do that many demonstrations, he instead opts to spend most lectures either mathematically deriving new equations or going over ways to approach different kinds of physics problems. Going to his office hours can be really helpful if you are stuck on something or just want more info regarding a certain subject, it really helped me improve from my first midterm to the second. The tests themselves were pretty hard, mainly because of the time limit. You only have 50 minutes to do 3 questions for each midterm, and if you are not really familiar with a topic or haven’t practiced problems on it enough, you will not finish on time. The final is more manageable as you now have 3 hours to do 6 questions, and it was definitely less pressure.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
3 of 8
3.7
Overall Rating
Based on 95 Users
Easiness 1.5 / 5 How easy the class is, 1 being extremely difficult and 5 being easy peasy.
Clarity 4.1 / 5 How clear the class is, 1 being extremely unclear and 5 being very clear.
Workload 2.6 / 5 How much workload the class is, 1 being extremely heavy and 5 being extremely light.
Helpfulness 3.7 / 5 How helpful the class is, 1 being not helpful at all and 5 being extremely helpful.

TOP TAGS

  • Tough Tests
    (39)
  • Engaging Lectures
    (35)
  • Often Funny
    (34)
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