Saltzberg is amazing! He is so fun in the classroom and creates well balanced lectures between slideshows and interactive demos. The class has two midterms and one final all of which were pretty simple, but you do need to study for them especially when the material gets more difficult. Homework and in class assignments were very simple and the TAs really help with labs so you don't have to worry about that. If you want a fun and easy GE defiantly take his class!

This class is definitely manageable if you take your time with the material and come to lectures. For students who are not used to this type of mathematics, the TA's and professor were very understanding. Professor Saltzberg is good at explaining the topics and if you are interested the ideas come naturally. Honestly, just by coming to lectures, you will have a good chance of scoring a good grade. So I definitely recommend it!

Have no complaints about this class whatsoever. The class is graded on in class assignments, labs, homeworks (which you have multiple attempts on), and midterms/finals. The exams aren't hard since they cover the material the professor teaches in class. Lectures are laid back and interesting, and Mr. Saltzberg is very nice/understanding. Always willing to help in class or in office hours. Overall a very great pick for a GE.

I loved Astro 3 with Saltzberg. Learned a lot and the tests were not too difficult. It is acknowledged that the class is a GE and many students are not on math/STEM courses so there’s not a ton of math content. The class genuinely sparked my interest and taught me a lot of interesting things that I was able to retain even after tests. Classes are recorded and slides/notes are also posted which was super helpful plus there is an option to attend every lecture via zoom. Definitely recommend reading the textbook alongside the lectures though if you do decide to take this class. Thankfully I actually found the textbook pretty easy to read and insightful, and definitely necessary if you want to fully grasp the content.

This class sucks, but I don't think it's the professors fault. Grading is 40% weekly quizzes, 15% homework, 10% discussion worksheets, and 35% final. Weekly quizzes are hard, almost felt like a mini midterm I was studying for each week. Homework and discussion are impossible to not 100% if you give effort (infinite tries on HW, discussion graded on completion). Final was very fair and felt like the weekly quizzes, just longer. Overall, you will struggle in this class unless ur very cracked at physics, and if you have little/no physics experience you will really struggle. However, this is true for any 1A professor, and IMO Saltzberg is probably ur best bet. His lectures are great and hes very helpful (I had a question after class, we went to his office and worked on it for 10 minutes, and it changed my way of thinking about physics entirely). Gear up, put in the work, and it'll be a very rewarding experience.

As with all physics classes, I think performance in this class mostly comes down to being willing to read the textbook and do a lot of practice problems. Saltzberg is not really a good lecturer and also seems easily frustrated with students but I don't think he really negatively affected my experience or anything. There's no curve (which is fine) so the final exam is pretty important; it's mostly quiz repeats and with some bad luck they'll be the quizzes you did poorly on, so those are really crucial to review and understand. It's an okay class.

Professor Saltzberg's Physics 1A class was a positive experience for me. Rather than two midterms, there is a quiz every week (each second lecture of the week), so you'll have to stay on your toes a little (even though it might be tempting to slack off at first, you might regret it by week 3 or 4). However, I think it is a good system, and, as a bonus, Professor Saltzberg will generously drop the worst quiz!

I thought the exams and quizzes were definitely fair, and he even used questions directly from the previous homeworks and lectures! Therefore, doing the homework honestly and understanding its problems are crucial. Moreover, as is true with any physics class, practice problems are ESSENTIAL to making progress--I learned this the hard way after not doing well on a few quizzes. Fortunately, Professor Saltzberg gives copious amounts of extra practice problems through the Pearson Textbook Software, which he also uses to assign homeworks (unlimited attempts). In my opinion, reading the textbook--which is worth reading from time to time--is cumbersome through the software. I would suggest finding a pdf online: not so hard to come across.

Also, his office hours were all excellent, yet, surprisingly, very few people go! Working through problems alongside him was very helpful in furthering my physics intuition. Another benefit of attending office hours is that he is a very kind, understanding man who cares a lot about his students, especially when they make the effort to be engaged. This class helped me gain confidence approaching physics, and it has excited me to continue the series. I would take Physics 1A with Professor Saltzberg again.

This class was probably the most difficult class I've taken at UCLA. We had quizzes every week. We were expected to essentially master the material and be prepared to take a quiz within a week. I worked extremely hard in this class but the quizzes greatly varied in difficulty and I felt that I could never fully prepare for them.The quizzes are very similar to the homework, but there was always one trick question that threw me off. I couldn't understand what was happening during the lecture because we didn't have enough time to write things down. Given it was my first time taking physics, I would not advise those new to physics to take this section. There was a clear knowledge gap between those coming in with experience and those without, and everyone without experience was definitely struggling. The grading scheme is also unforgiving, and the professor said he doesn't curve the class. It definitely took a toll on my mental health and I think this course could be revamped, and students could get opportunities to show their mastery of the material in ways besides exams.

Absolutely the worst instructor I have ever come across. Lectures unclear and disorganized. Weekly quizzes insanely difficult. He tries to act understanding and friendly but is very misleading. After many students expressed concerns of difficulty of course, he continued to ignore everyone. Do not recommend Saltzberg.

Take this class if you want an easy A, not if you want to learn physics.

Don't bother with lecture; he's bad at lecturing and doesn't go through many examples. Either read the textbook or find online resources (of which there are many, considering this is an introductory physics course. Michel van Biezen is my personal favorite) and do some of the textbook problems.

Literally every question on every quiz and the final was taken from either the homework problems or the in-class slides that he posts. A high B/low A in this class is very doable if you actually do the problems. If you're consistently getting 60s in the quizzes, that's a skill issue. His homeworks are graded on accuracy, but you have infinite tries on them and they tell you whether you got the answer right or not. There are also weekly mandatory discussions.

The people I see complaining on the GroupMe and here about the quizzes being "hard" and there being no curve have no idea how bad physics 1A can be lmao. I assure you that in terms of 1A professors, Saltzberg is one of the better ones because you can easily get an A if you put some effort in.