Professor
Jason Petta
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2025 - Petta is a fantastic professor, easily one of the best I have had so far at UCLA. His lectures clearly explain the concepts, first giving a brief overview using slides, then going more in-depth with calculations he helps you work through. The best part of each lecture was the demonstrations, which while didn't help to explain the material much, provided a bit of an idea for real life applications of these concepts, and was just plain entertaining, especially after an hour of dense lecture. His problem sets were very difficult. He would assign around six textbook problems per week, each of which took on the order of 30 minutes to complete. Discussion sections helped immensely with the homework, as at least one problem would be solved basically in its entirety. Exams were fair, with the midterms being significantly easier than the final. Both often pulled problems from the textbook, and were essentially designed to be curved up, with an average of around 60-70%. Though this class was very rigorous, I would recommend it to anyone interested in physics or willing to challenge themselves. I would not worry about the grading too much, as there is a generous curve, like in most honors classes.
Winter 2025 - Petta is a fantastic professor, easily one of the best I have had so far at UCLA. His lectures clearly explain the concepts, first giving a brief overview using slides, then going more in-depth with calculations he helps you work through. The best part of each lecture was the demonstrations, which while didn't help to explain the material much, provided a bit of an idea for real life applications of these concepts, and was just plain entertaining, especially after an hour of dense lecture. His problem sets were very difficult. He would assign around six textbook problems per week, each of which took on the order of 30 minutes to complete. Discussion sections helped immensely with the homework, as at least one problem would be solved basically in its entirety. Exams were fair, with the midterms being significantly easier than the final. Both often pulled problems from the textbook, and were essentially designed to be curved up, with an average of around 60-70%. Though this class was very rigorous, I would recommend it to anyone interested in physics or willing to challenge themselves. I would not worry about the grading too much, as there is a generous curve, like in most honors classes.
AD
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2024 - The professor uses demos that are very engaging and that help you understand the material. He uses iClicker and you are graded on attendance, but it was only 2% of the grade. The grade was based off of the 2 midterms (each 20%), problem sets (20%), the final (38%), and attendance. The tests were manageable, but slightly more difficult than the problem sets. Overall, I'd definitely recommend this class!
Spring 2024 - The professor uses demos that are very engaging and that help you understand the material. He uses iClicker and you are graded on attendance, but it was only 2% of the grade. The grade was based off of the 2 midterms (each 20%), problem sets (20%), the final (38%), and attendance. The tests were manageable, but slightly more difficult than the problem sets. Overall, I'd definitely recommend this class!
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