Dennis M Briggs
Department of Electrical Engineering
AD
3.9
Overall Rating
Based on 53 Users
Easiness 3.7 / 5 How easy the class is, 1 being extremely difficult and 5 being easy peasy.
Clarity 3.4 / 5 How clear the class is, 1 being extremely unclear and 5 being very clear.
Workload 3.8 / 5 How much workload the class is, 1 being extremely heavy and 5 being extremely light.
Helpfulness 3.9 / 5 How helpful the class is, 1 being not helpful at all and 5 being extremely helpful.

TOP TAGS

  • Uses Slides
  • Gives Extra Credit
  • Has Group Projects
GRADE DISTRIBUTIONS
32.1%
26.8%
21.4%
16.1%
10.7%
5.4%
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.

46.0%
38.4%
30.7%
23.0%
15.3%
7.7%
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.

28.1%
23.5%
18.8%
14.1%
9.4%
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.

26.0%
21.7%
17.4%
13.0%
8.7%
4.3%
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.

26.4%
22.0%
17.6%
13.2%
8.8%
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.

23.8%
19.8%
15.9%
11.9%
7.9%
4.0%
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.

33.9%
28.2%
22.6%
16.9%
11.3%
5.6%
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.

38.5%
32.1%
25.7%
19.3%
12.8%
6.4%
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.

47.7%
39.7%
31.8%
23.8%
15.9%
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.

41.4%
34.5%
27.6%
20.7%
13.8%
6.9%
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.

31.4%
26.2%
20.9%
15.7%
10.5%
5.2%
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.

42.1%
35.1%
28.1%
21.1%
14.0%
7.0%
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.

40.0%
33.3%
26.7%
20.0%
13.3%
6.7%
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.

45.4%
37.8%
30.3%
22.7%
15.1%
7.6%
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.

45.6%
38.0%
30.4%
22.8%
15.2%
7.6%
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.

39.3%
32.8%
26.2%
19.7%
13.1%
6.6%
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.

35.5%
29.6%
23.7%
17.8%
11.8%
5.9%
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.

37.9%
31.6%
25.3%
19.0%
12.6%
6.3%
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.

34.4%
28.6%
22.9%
17.2%
11.5%
5.7%
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.

33.1%
27.6%
22.1%
16.5%
11.0%
5.5%
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.

54.5%
45.5%
36.4%
27.3%
18.2%
9.1%
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.

31.9%
26.6%
21.3%
15.9%
10.6%
5.3%
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.

22.2%
18.5%
14.8%
11.1%
7.4%
3.7%
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.

31.6%
26.3%
21.1%
15.8%
10.5%
5.3%
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.

33.3%
27.8%
22.2%
16.7%
11.1%
5.6%
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.

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Reviews (40)

3 of 4
3 of 4
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Quarter: Fall 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.
Dec. 18, 2021

I was curious about this class coming into it after having read the reviews. The consensus seems to be that it's super easy and so on, but I don't think that speaks to the content itself being easy. The grading scheme is what's easy. The final we had in fall 2021 had around a 60% average and was extremely tough, but it only gets weighted 5% while the project (the robot car you program) gets weighted 60%, and everyone gets 100% on the portion determining whether you had success, weighted 30% of the grade, and the other 30% is due to how good your project report is - and that's not hard to score high on either.
The practice problem sets and homeworks can be difficult, and though physics 1B isn't listed as a pre-req, Dr. Briggs assumes that you're familiar with much of its content anyway.

I don't think I learned much. It was easy to get an A, and I even failed half the quizzes and the final. The content was hard to grasp and his lectures are confusing for somebody who doesn't have prior circuit/EE experience and knowledge (esp. if you hadn't taken 1B and 1C prior).

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Summer 2021
Grade: A-
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Nov. 4, 2021

Professor Briggs is old. He is unhelpful and disrespectful in office hours. He refused to help me with the homework and did not teach me anything. The class is easy and I was able to figure things out anyway. I got an A- because he gave me a C- on the final project report. The grading for this report is completely arbitrary and the instructions were unclear. This class is required and it shouldn't be too hard, but don't bother trying to get anything out of the professor. Figure it out with classmates or TAs.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Summer 2021
Grade: A+
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Aug. 17, 2021

Pretty straightforward class. That being said:

If you have no programming experience, get some before the class.
If you have limited physics experience, take 1B/1C before the class.

The class is basically a sampler class of EE things, though the quizzes were mostly circuits things. Not too difficult, but not so easy you can breeze through them without practice If you practice and do all the problems, you should have no problem with them.
Most of the grade is getting a car to follow a path. You can go as slow as you want. There's also a report thats pretty chill.
Overall, not a bad class to take over summer. It feels very slightly harder material-wise than other introductory classes I've taken, but the grading is lenient and overall the course is not challenging by any means. Briggs is a someone who genuinely seems excited about history and teaching. Even if I did not participate much myself, he always seemed nice when I did interact with him.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Spring 2021
Grade: A+
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
June 20, 2021

Briggs is a solid professor. His lectures are pretty straightforward, weekly quizzes were at 8am sharp which was rough but the quizzes themselves were objectively quite easy (averages usually near 100%). The lab sections were helpful, and homework assignments were decent for the most part (later homework assignments were a bit difficult). The main focus of this class is on the car project and PID control. Getting credit isn't too hard, but quite some time is required if you want a fast completion time for extra credit. Overall, I don't have much to say; Briggs is a decent teacher and the class is overall not too difficult if you put the time in.

Helpful?

0 1 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Fall 2020
Grade: A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Jan. 4, 2021

Should have a prerequisite of Physics 1B and possibly CS30/31 (the main project involves simple code). Briggs actually didn't believe me when I told him Physics 1B was not a prerequisite for the class. Having never taken physics before, the material was difficult, but if you've taken Physics 1B then I'm pretty sure it would all be quite easy. The main project is essentially worth 60% of the grade, 30% for completing the project and 30% for the report, neither of which is very difficult. There were quizzes at the start of every class, which were not hard. Briggs is not an engaging speaker, so lectures move extremely slowly. I would not recommend taking it with him if you can avoid it. I would recommend Xin Li as a TA, if he's there.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Fall 2020
Grade: A+
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Dec. 26, 2020

I would highly recommend taking this class with professor Briggs. Even though his lectures were sometimes unorganized, they were really interesting and fun to watch. The only part that I didn't like was the weekly quizzes that he gave - even though those were extremely easy, having people attend 8am classes for a 15-minute quiz every single week was kind of redundant as he could've made those once every two weeks instead. The first half of this class was definitely more important than the rest since all of the quizzes were based on the materials taught in the first five weeks. Overall, this class was really enjoyable and I believe people would like it a lot.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Spring 2020
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.
July 2, 2020

Professor Briggs is a really caring and helpful professor. The class consisted of a few labs at the beginning, and a project and report for the rest of the quarter. The project was very straight forward, and the grading was generous. It consisted of having a car follow a path. Quizzes were given out during the first 15 minutes of lecture, and were very similar to the practice problems. The final was similar to this, and not too difficult.
The class had a little trouble transitioning to an online format, but Professor Briggs was a pretty good lecturer, and it was enjoyable.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Spring 2020
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.
July 2, 2020

Easy class with fun project. Dr.Briggs had a lot of technical difficulties during lectures and is may not be the best at giving zoom lectures. But the lecture content can be easily found online and self-taught. Mandatory 8am quizzes were hmm..... but just do what you gotta do to submit that answer by 8:15. The best way to prepare for quizzes and the final is to look at practice problems and solutions. if you're stuck to any degree on the project, get help from your TA - it'll be much faster than trying to figure it out yourself. Overall not difficult but also not exciting online but oh well it's another requirement for your major that you just have to deal with.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: A+
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
June 20, 2020

Do not hesitate to take EE 3 with Briggs. He is a very helpful professor and only wants his students to succeed. The classes had 8 or 9 quizzes, which were each one question long and based on the previous week's problem set material and straightforward. There's no midterm. Half the grade is the line following robot car, which pretty much everyone gets close to or 100 on. The final was a joke. Overall, easy class and helpful professor.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Spring 2020
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.
June 19, 2020

Professor Briggs is extremely kind and helpful, making this class pretty enjoyable. The content isn't super difficult, though some of the new circuit components/setups are difficult at first. There isn't any "homework" other than the final project/report of a path following car, but he posts weekly problem sets to help prepare for quizzes (which are far easier than the problem sets).

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: Fall 2021
Grade: A
Dec. 18, 2021

I was curious about this class coming into it after having read the reviews. The consensus seems to be that it's super easy and so on, but I don't think that speaks to the content itself being easy. The grading scheme is what's easy. The final we had in fall 2021 had around a 60% average and was extremely tough, but it only gets weighted 5% while the project (the robot car you program) gets weighted 60%, and everyone gets 100% on the portion determining whether you had success, weighted 30% of the grade, and the other 30% is due to how good your project report is - and that's not hard to score high on either.
The practice problem sets and homeworks can be difficult, and though physics 1B isn't listed as a pre-req, Dr. Briggs assumes that you're familiar with much of its content anyway.

I don't think I learned much. It was easy to get an A, and I even failed half the quizzes and the final. The content was hard to grasp and his lectures are confusing for somebody who doesn't have prior circuit/EE experience and knowledge (esp. if you hadn't taken 1B and 1C prior).

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 2021
Grade: A-
Nov. 4, 2021

Professor Briggs is old. He is unhelpful and disrespectful in office hours. He refused to help me with the homework and did not teach me anything. The class is easy and I was able to figure things out anyway. I got an A- because he gave me a C- on the final project report. The grading for this report is completely arbitrary and the instructions were unclear. This class is required and it shouldn't be too hard, but don't bother trying to get anything out of the professor. Figure it out with classmates or TAs.

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 2021
Grade: A+
Aug. 17, 2021

Pretty straightforward class. That being said:

If you have no programming experience, get some before the class.
If you have limited physics experience, take 1B/1C before the class.

The class is basically a sampler class of EE things, though the quizzes were mostly circuits things. Not too difficult, but not so easy you can breeze through them without practice If you practice and do all the problems, you should have no problem with them.
Most of the grade is getting a car to follow a path. You can go as slow as you want. There's also a report thats pretty chill.
Overall, not a bad class to take over summer. It feels very slightly harder material-wise than other introductory classes I've taken, but the grading is lenient and overall the course is not challenging by any means. Briggs is a someone who genuinely seems excited about history and teaching. Even if I did not participate much myself, he always seemed nice when I did interact with him.

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: Spring 2021
Grade: A+
June 20, 2021

Briggs is a solid professor. His lectures are pretty straightforward, weekly quizzes were at 8am sharp which was rough but the quizzes themselves were objectively quite easy (averages usually near 100%). The lab sections were helpful, and homework assignments were decent for the most part (later homework assignments were a bit difficult). The main focus of this class is on the car project and PID control. Getting credit isn't too hard, but quite some time is required if you want a fast completion time for extra credit. Overall, I don't have much to say; Briggs is a decent teacher and the class is overall not too difficult if you put the time in.

Helpful?

0 1 Please log in to provide feedback.
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Fall 2020
Grade: A
Jan. 4, 2021

Should have a prerequisite of Physics 1B and possibly CS30/31 (the main project involves simple code). Briggs actually didn't believe me when I told him Physics 1B was not a prerequisite for the class. Having never taken physics before, the material was difficult, but if you've taken Physics 1B then I'm pretty sure it would all be quite easy. The main project is essentially worth 60% of the grade, 30% for completing the project and 30% for the report, neither of which is very difficult. There were quizzes at the start of every class, which were not hard. Briggs is not an engaging speaker, so lectures move extremely slowly. I would not recommend taking it with him if you can avoid it. I would recommend Xin Li as a TA, if he's there.

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 2020
Grade: A+
Dec. 26, 2020

I would highly recommend taking this class with professor Briggs. Even though his lectures were sometimes unorganized, they were really interesting and fun to watch. The only part that I didn't like was the weekly quizzes that he gave - even though those were extremely easy, having people attend 8am classes for a 15-minute quiz every single week was kind of redundant as he could've made those once every two weeks instead. The first half of this class was definitely more important than the rest since all of the quizzes were based on the materials taught in the first five weeks. Overall, this class was really enjoyable and I believe people would like it a lot.

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: Spring 2020
Grade: A+
July 2, 2020

Professor Briggs is a really caring and helpful professor. The class consisted of a few labs at the beginning, and a project and report for the rest of the quarter. The project was very straight forward, and the grading was generous. It consisted of having a car follow a path. Quizzes were given out during the first 15 minutes of lecture, and were very similar to the practice problems. The final was similar to this, and not too difficult.
The class had a little trouble transitioning to an online format, but Professor Briggs was a pretty good lecturer, and it was enjoyable.

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: Spring 2020
Grade: A
July 2, 2020

Easy class with fun project. Dr.Briggs had a lot of technical difficulties during lectures and is may not be the best at giving zoom lectures. But the lecture content can be easily found online and self-taught. Mandatory 8am quizzes were hmm..... but just do what you gotta do to submit that answer by 8:15. The best way to prepare for quizzes and the final is to look at practice problems and solutions. if you're stuck to any degree on the project, get help from your TA - it'll be much faster than trying to figure it out yourself. Overall not difficult but also not exciting online but oh well it's another requirement for your major that you just have to deal with.

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: Spring 2020
Grade: A+
June 20, 2020

Do not hesitate to take EE 3 with Briggs. He is a very helpful professor and only wants his students to succeed. The classes had 8 or 9 quizzes, which were each one question long and based on the previous week's problem set material and straightforward. There's no midterm. Half the grade is the line following robot car, which pretty much everyone gets close to or 100 on. The final was a joke. Overall, easy class and helpful 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.
Verified Reviewer This user is a verified UCLA student/alum.
Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: A+
June 19, 2020

Professor Briggs is extremely kind and helpful, making this class pretty enjoyable. The content isn't super difficult, though some of the new circuit components/setups are difficult at first. There isn't any "homework" other than the final project/report of a path following car, but he posts weekly problem sets to help prepare for quizzes (which are far easier than the problem sets).

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
3 of 4
3.9
Overall Rating
Based on 53 Users
Easiness 3.7 / 5 How easy the class is, 1 being extremely difficult and 5 being easy peasy.
Clarity 3.4 / 5 How clear the class is, 1 being extremely unclear and 5 being very clear.
Workload 3.8 / 5 How much workload the class is, 1 being extremely heavy and 5 being extremely light.
Helpfulness 3.9 / 5 How helpful the class is, 1 being not helpful at all and 5 being extremely helpful.

TOP TAGS

  • Uses Slides
    (26)
  • Gives Extra Credit
    (26)
  • Has Group Projects
    (25)
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