I think the reviews are so low because its many of peoples first time taking physics. Theres just a lot to cover no matter how its taught. The homework is pretty easy and there is a weekly quiz. His office hours are pretty helpful.

Saltzberg the goat. Class is pretty easy if you just do practice problems

Few things about the class.
Lectures are recorded, (if you fancy looking at 2 of the 4 boards in the hall and missing whatever is written on the other two at all times) resources for this class are pretty good (the worksheets and tests seem to be like the previous year's questions (all provided).

However, if you're going into this class thinking that you're gonna learn anything, don't take it. Prof. Saltzberg is passionate about physics and overall a good person, however, does not know what to teach or how to build your conceptual understanding in any way possible. He is also easily frustrated by people not knowing stuff which I can understand, it must be annoying to answer the same questions every year. Given that, I would've appreciated knowing a detail of which textbook sections to read or what we were actually trying to cover in the class, cause I came to every single class skimming the textbook but still could not figure out what he was trying to teach. I spent time trying to learn physics from the book or organic chemistry tutor, but I believe that was horrendous given the pacing of the course and the fact that I'm taking a full course load. Absolutely no time was spent on making concepts clear and coming to class was an absolute waste of time (its mandatory). The discussion section was you just sitting with yourself and working on problems which was also a sheer waste of time. If I could go back I would not take this class.

If somebody had given me clear direction on what to learn exactly and let me do it on YouTube instead of forcibly showing up to the class and discussions, I would have had a better time in this class.

However if you're already pretty good at physics, take the easy A

Not a huge fan, but also this class wasn't like terrible. No midterms and weekly quizzes instead was honestly unnecessarily stressful because the turnaround always felt so fast, and they aren't particularly hard, but just like another thing to stress about. The final was pretty terrible, I got a 73 and I don't even know how because I got like everything wrong. His partial credit and curve is pretty generous. An 87 final grade was an A, but that's also bc the final average was a 68.

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.