Use Professor Huang's lectures as a list of what to study that takes him 50 min to say, not as a way to learn. Because of this, I stopped showing up to lectures in Week 3 as I found they were actually WORSE for my learning because he tends to severely downplay how difficult the concepts are / their difficulty on exams. He gives out a list of exam topics a week before the midterm via email (if they haven't been sent out via email just watch the previous week's lectures on 2x speed they are NOT WORTH WATCHING). Again, DO NOT TRUST PROF HUANG because he says the exams will be easy. THEY ARE NOT EASY. However, his lists of exam topics are reliable. I recommend PhysicsNinja because a lot of the more difficult PhysicsNinja examples were what appeared on exams...like...exactly...I almost wonder if he gets his problems from PhysicsNinja. The previous midterms are 50/50 representative of exams, just take them with a grain of salt. Make sure your cheat sheet is decked out because the way to do well on exams is copy pasting from your cheat sheet.

Huang was not a great teacher. You can read the other reviews to see the breakdown of the class, but he's not a great teacher. He doesn't teach the material, he just REVIEWS it, so if you don't have a background in physics, you're basically fucked. He will go over problems in class that are very simple and not that in depth about the topics, but his exams combine multiple different topics into one problem that is virtually impossible. Good luck if you have him.

Rather than add to all the negative reviews, I will write what tactics I found most helpful to pass his class:

1) youtube practice problems based on class content for each test and the professor's practice problems (do these for hours and you will be prepared as possible for the tests, they're truly the only way I could prepare for the tests)
2) don't worry to much about homework or quizzes, he ends up giving everyone 100%. The homework is a little helpful but literally the quizzes aren't relevant
3) don't copy down practice problems on your cheat sheet, actually learn them through youtube because his problems are slightly different
4) attend lecture because he will emphasize specific concepts that will be on the test. However, don't expect to learn anything from them. THIS IS VERY MUCH A CLASS WHERE YOU WILL BE TEACHING YOURSELF

*also, the fact that his exams are all free response is actually very helpful. if you don't know how to solve it, writing down equations that you think might apply and your best guess will usually get you partial credit

I was initially afraid of this class based on previous reviews, but he is actually a professor I would gladly take again.

His exam review gave us a general idea of what sorts of topics and types of problems would be covered, and he made it very clear that we might see new types of problems and be expected to figure out how to solve those, and I never felt like these new problems were very different than what he taught. As long as you thoroughly understand the material and why each problem is solved in the way it is, you'll be fine.

As for lectures, I will admit it can get hard to understand his accent at times, and sometimes it feels like he just doesn't know the words to communicate what he wants to say. So, he does end up leaving problems half-solved or unsolved in lecture, but you can easily find similar problems on Youtube with explanations (I recommend Michel van Biezen).

He ended up giving everyone 100% on the homework and quizzes, but I would definitely do the homeworks, as they were good practice for the exams. Also, he curves the class such that at least 30% get an A-, but he never curves anyone down if more than 30% has an A-.

Overall, this class shouldn't be too difficult if you set aside the proper time and effort to understand the content and do as many practice problems as possible (he provides past exams that are pretty similar to the exams he gives). He genuinely cares about his students' success and understanding of the material and is very approachable with any questions you have.

Huang has a lot of negative reviews, just because his lectures are unclear and the grading scheme does make it such that the average is curved to a B- per departmental policy. HOWEVER, I would say that if you take 5A with him, it's not the end of the world at all. Come into the class ready to take advantage of TAs/LAs for support in clarifying content since his lectures/office hours are not the clearest due to his strong accent. His exams are honestly fair and are very similar to examples in lecture/discussions– the hard part is finishing on time since they're administered during the 50min lecture window. This was the real challenge of this class: I ran out of time on both midterms, scoring about a 70% on both. But, his final does not take the full 3 hours and I was able to double check everything-- I got a 95%. THIS is what saved me: his grading policies aim to really help students that put in the work. 1) Any student scoring above 90% on the final would get a guaranteed A- in the class. I actually was able to get an A after absolutely flopping both midterms. 2) His philosophy is that he'd rather you do the homework late than not at all. So, he grants extensions NQA for any homework assignment, so there's a decent amount of padding you can do for your grade (Labs/HW/Quizzes). Plus, at the end of the quarter, he ended up just giving everyone full credit if they completed it.

ignore the negative reviews, this class is the equivalence of ap physics 1. Midterms are 4 questions and finals are 10. To be fair, he outlines a list of concepts/questions that will be on the midterm and finals. That means you are either not paying attention in class or not attempting to get help, so stop blaming the professor's teaching ability... Weekly homework: he ended up giving everyone full credit regardless but I honestly suggesting doing them and asking for help. For labs, as long as you show up to class, complete projects on-time and don't mess your partners up, should also be a perfect score.

Forget the previous negative reviews, 5A is the equivalence of ap physics 1 and his workload is definitely manageable. In terms of the online weekly modules, he ended up giving everyone full credit but I honestly suggest you do them. Midterms are only 4 questions. To be fair, he outlines a list of concepts that will be tested, and the test questions on the real tests resembles the practice tests. I also had a wonderful TA that was giving office hours on sundays. Lab component of 5A should be easy. Show up to lab, don't disappoint your lab partners, submit assignment on-time.

Yes, this professor is as bad as the reviews say he is. First of all, he doesn't even attempt to solve the example problems, he'll simply have slides up that on the board that are just overall very unorganized and will say something like "the answer is ___ because ____" very vaguely. With a topic like physics, a powerpoint isn't helpful at all when trying to learn, we need to actually see the problems done step by step. The exams are 4 questions long, but have multiple parts each so it's more like 12 problems that you need to solve by hand in 50 minutes. The exam averages were about a 60% for both midterm 1 and 2. Oh and another thing, his accent makes it even harder to understand what's going on, I realize this isn't something he can control but it's honestly still a bit frustrating. Lecture was usually about more than half empty because people just didn't bother showing up since you'll probably leave more confused than you were when you walked in. The professor isn't necessarily a bad person, he seems like a nice man, but respectfully, he should not be teaching at a university that's supposed to be the top public university in the country. Discussion sections aren't mandatory but I attended anyways just so I can have at least a little bit of an understanding of the material. They do help a little because the TA's seem to actually know how to teach a college class better than the professor, but there's only so much material they can cover in just an hour.