SCHRIVER IS A UCLA TREASURE. this quarter, he started teaching us during week 4 due to professor changes but he was extremely understanding and attentive to all of his students. you can genuinely tell how much he cares about his students. each friday he'd dedicate 2 hours for office hours and was always willing to answer questions after lecture, and his midterms and final reflected that. there was no overcomplicated conceptual question or very tedious conversions. he is very straightforward and to the point, which i absolutely loved. i hated physics in high school but this course was really fun for me and i recommend 5a with him!! do not be afraid of this class!

I believe Professor Schriver is a professor very concerned about our learning and as such is very organized and has a structure to his course. Super fair and if we attend lecture and study the homework we will be fine.

Given that the professor came midway through (we had McKeown at first), I thought he did an amazing job transitioning and being accommodating. All expectations were clear, homework was consistent, and the exam was fair and very forgiving. Always offering help at office hours and the lecture is clear/examples of problems are well explained. Honestly, as someone who took physics in high school and didn't enjoy it, I understand the concepts much better now and do really find it interesting. Super thankful that he ended up teaching instead of McKeown. Go to his lectures!! Profesor Schriver is the reason I wake up at 7 to go to my 8am!!

I absolutely LOVED this class under Professor Schriver. I’m a soft stem major (environmental science) and I was terrified for this class because I don’t have a math-oriented brain. David makes it so simple and straightforward that I was able to end with an A+, despite the fact that I’m not really an A student at UCLA. I’m a huge procrastinator and usually this ends badly for me but I was able to learn all the material I needed the day before each of the exams. I just used the provided practice problems and learned how to do them as I solved them, and in doing that I learned everything necessary. Another huge plus of taking Schriver: he provides all necessary formulas on tests, no memorization needed! He says it’s not about proving who can memorize the most stuff, it’s about showing that you know how to use formulas effectively. I wish every class was like that. He genuinely cares about student learning despite the sheer volume of students he teaches each quarter; a testament to his character. If you have to take this series or really any physics class in your time at UCLA, take it with Schriver. You won’t regret it.

This professor is an absolute gem.

Just like everyone said, Schriver is a great professor for 5A! He is a sweet old man that pretty much knows physics won't be something we will ever pick up again in the future, so he does his best to teach us the practical problem solving skills for the class. His class is broken down as: Homework (10%), Lab (15%), Midterm 1 (20%), Midterm 2 (20%), Final (35%).
Homework: Schriver uses MasteringPhysics and has 10 questions to do every week, but he often extended deadlines if you asked him to. The questions were at times difficult but doable, and they'd often match up with the problems he taught in lecture and used on the exams.
Exams: Schriver's hallmark are his exams and especially his exam review session the lecture before. During these review sessions, he does problems that closely resemble the ones that are on the actual exam. Contrary to what others said though, our first midterm was not the same as the questions he did during the review session, though they still resembled previous lecture and homework problems, so it was still very fair. His second midterm was the exact same as his review session though. I found for the midterms that 4 questions with 5+ parts meant that 50 minutes might leave you a little strapped for time, so prepare for that. Since this quarter was during the TA strikes, he made our final non-cumulative, however he said his finals are typically 6 questions instead of 4.
Cons: The only con I had with Schriver is his lecture style. While he does primarily focus on problem-solving, he wouldn't actually work out the problems with you, he would sort of just run through his slides showing all the calculations at once, which got overwhelming often because he would go through these questions pretty fast. As someone who never took physics prior, it was tough to make sense of the equations you JUST LEARNED in these problems because there was no time for me to even think. This quarter, the lectures were recorded, so I started just watching the recordings so I can pause any time I want to take everything in.
Overall, if you want an easy A for 5A, I highly recommend Schriver!

Hands down the best Professor I have ever had at UCLA. You won’t regret taking the class with him.

Professor Schriver made my first physics journey comfortable. All he does is goes over problems and on review days those problems he goes over JUST STUDY THOSE (and ones similar to them that he's gone over before or on homework) and you will pass. No matter how badly you think you did on his exams, especially the first one, your grade will someone come out to be great. At one point I thought he was grading exams based on completion bc of how lenient he was on grading. Do yourself a favor and take him and you won't regret it. This is the first review I have ever wrote about a professor bc it is literally a glitch in a system to take professor Schriver, a guaranteed A if you actually try to memorize the review day problems.

Schriver is literally the best professor you could have for Physics. He’s extremely caring, engaging, and just an overall wonderful person. His exams were also extremely fair— if you studied the problems given during class and the homework problems, it’s an easy A.