Everything is on a curve. You have literally no idea what your grade is until its finalized. A good metric is try to be 1 standard deviation over the mean and you should get a decent grade.

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.

Corbin is an extremely divisive professor and very hard to evaluate. For context, I had him for Physics 1A also. Before I start griping, Corbin is definitely good at explaining physics. He explains concepts well and breaks things down so that everything is understandable. That being said, while I feel I had a very strong conceptual understanding, as Corbin did a lot of derivations, I often felt unprepared for the quizzes and tests. Also Corbin could go on long tangents about radios, which was often only slightly related to the content he talked about.

Corbin did biweekly quizzes, as this quarter was partly online. Those quizzes could be very brutal at times, with concepts he talked about for a few minutes, coming back to bite you. The average scores on these quizzes ranged anywhere from 40-70%, even though he is pretty generous with partial credit. During this quarter of 1B, Corbin also set up Mastering Physics to deduct points for every incorrect attempt. This made the homework a lot more stressful to do, as with the multiple choice questions, you essentially only had one or two attempts to get it right.

Corbin also does curve, however I was one of the unlucky ones. Corbin basically gives the top third of the class A, middle third B, and bottom third C. He sets cutoffs for grades based on putting people into these three categories. I was a few people below the cutoff for A, so I got a B. This was frustrating, as Corbin also does not do + or -.

All in all, Corbin is a mixed professor. I didn't enjoy the subject much, and Corbin didn't particularly help with that. If you really enjoy physics and don't mind the strong possibility of a B or C, you'll like Corbin.

I absolutely loved taking this class with Corbin. Prior to the start of the quarter, I had heard so much about how he's a great lecturer but has difficult tests. Safe to say I was nervous for the class, but I can without hesitating say that I will take any class with Professor Corbin again if I get the chance.
I had never been very interested in physics. Before the summer, I hadn't taken a physics class with a professor who could actually get me excited about it. Corbin getting me excited about physics is putting it lightly. I cannot begin to explain how much I loved having him as a teacher. I think I could safely say that throughout my experience at UCLA, he has been one of my favorite professors.
Every day, I would go to lecture excited to learn. Obviously, with all his years of experience, Corbin is a great lecturer, but he went above and beyond just being great. I didn't have to look at the textbook once, because he was just that good at teaching us about everything relevant to the course. He would teach us the concepts flawlessly while also connecting it to the real world and diving into the applications of the topics we learned. For example, I have never been so interested in a concept such as the frequency of radio waves until he spoke about it. Him explaining his hobbies of tuning radios and listening for satellites at different frequencies made me want to pursue hobbies relating to physics outside of class. As someone who hadn't previously been interested in physics, I would sometimes walk out of class feeling like I was interested enough in it to pursue a career in physics. I think a professor who can lecture and get students this excited to learn has such a special power.
Of course, it isn't all fun and games. Professor Corbin is very well-known for his difficult exams, and unfortunately, I will say that the final exam I took for this class was the hardest test I've ever taken. So yes, it's safe to say that his exams will challenge his students. Yet again, I have to say that I wasn't upset by this. Yes, the exam was difficult, but I felt like after all I had learned from his lectures, I wanted to face challenging problems to see how well I could perform the skills I'd learned. The best part? Corbin doesn't grade based on how many problems you get right. He grades based on how well you've shown your mastery of the skills, which helps out a lot with your final grade in the class.
In conclusion, this is an interesting class, but in my opinion, Corbin is what makes it incredible. It may not have been the easy-A class I'd hope for, but I loved the experience of taking his class and I would do it again every single time. I definitely recommend taking a class with Professor Corbin if you get the opportunity to, because it is such an incredible experience. Having a professor like him could be life-changing for your education and career path.

Stopped going to lectures after midterm 2. For how hard his tests are, basically everyone fails, so as long as you stay within the average, a B is very easy to get. And the average would be around 30%. For his tests he gives a lot of partial credit so much to the point where if you wrote some scrabble for each questions (random equations and solving them) you'd get credit. If you got some form of credit for each question that would be enough for the mean, giving you a B.

This class was a lot of work. Going into it I knew I would have to work incredibly hard to try to get a passing grade, but as time went on, I stopped working as hard -- BIG MISTAKE. The hardest part about this class is undoubtedly the tests, but more specifically studying for the tests. I only really started studying for the tests/ doing homework problems about 5 days before the test (sometimes like 3 days). This was definitely not the right approach. You have to force yourself to do the homework early. Although it's not the best representation of what'll be on the test (given the homework uses numbers and the test only uses variables), it will get you used to the equations that you'll have to memorize for the test, and what each equation means. I would recommend going to office hours and go with at least one question- this way the professor will get to know your name and know that you care about your grade (which I think helped my grade in this class). But if you start your studying for the test like the week before the test, you should have questions about processes and when to apply concepts, which will clear things up in finishing studying for the test. Ultimately, when studying, I would say to start early and review ALL of the examples he gave in class and make sure you can do those yourself, and, especially for electricity, go watch youtube videos to possibly go through example problems and have them explain how they work. I would say the second hardest thing in this class is understanding how to solve problems, because he doesn't like doing homework problems for you in office hours, so it makes it difficult knowing how to actually solve problems -- for this, I would go to your TA's office hours and have them solve it. Although, they might not be the most helpful, at least you'll see a process and approach to a problem you're struggling with, and then you can try to read textbook examples/homework examples to try to understand the process better.

Undoubtedly a difficult class, but I would say to not get too comfortable in just going to class and taking notes. Like, every weekend you should try to do homework problems/example problems to try to re-understand your notes, because it'll make your studying for the test a lot easier if you are more familiar with the in class material, and don't have to spend hours trying to re-remember how he approached a certain problem.

I know this was a lengthy response, but I am trying to give my advice on how to approach this class, if I were to take it again.

This class is a fever dream. Every single lecture I walk out with a bunch of notes that don't make sense to me. I rarely ever confidently box an answer on the exams. I truly believed that I would not be able to pass the class. But as long as you put in the effort to dissect his notes and do practice questions, the curve will save your grade. This is not to say that Corbin doesn't know what he's doing- it's actually very clear that he knows a lot about what he's teaching. It's just that he's not the best when it comes to breaking down the concepts he's presenting in a clear way. There are also no recordings/ zooms/ adequate resources or prof notes/ slides to refer to when studying. I felt pretty isolated in the whole process, so make sure to go to discussion and office hours at the very least.

This class will kick your ass. About every engineer I've talked to has a Corbin horror story. Get ready for tests with averages in the 30s and content that makes you question your choices in life. Electric fields and voltage distribution is the hardest content I've been exposed to in my first year. All that being said, Corbin's lectures are engaging and he is helpful during office hours. He's a bit scary and will shoot down any questions asked during lecture, so save any of that for office hours. There is no safety net if you miss lectures as everything is 100% in person on a chalk board. At the end of the day, the grade distribution is pretty fair as it is most A's and B's. I was in the 47th percentile of the class and got a B. All in all, you'll have to work for it and accept you'll be confused a lot of the time, but it's not the worst thing in the end.