First major gripe: Monday's pre-recorded lectures, which are scheduled for 50 minutes on MyUCLA, would sometimes last TWO AND A HALF HOURS; the first week he put in the effort to edit it and condense it down, but then he just gave up and uploaded them at ridiculously long length.

Quizzes: instead of midterms and such, we had weekly timed quizzes on gradescope. Having one every week got overwhelming at times, and they were quite challenging themselves. Difficulty was similar to 5A tests I had with Prof Tung.

Overall not a bad class. These were my only real struggles. A is definitely doable. Samani is a good lecturer and nice person.

I thought this class was great! Prof Samani was very accomodating throughout the quarter, and he made his policies very clear from the start. Although I disagree with them (ex. no equation sheet), he was clear from the first day, so people shouldn't be upset about it on the very the last day of class. To be honest, us LS majors couldn't give a rat's ass about physics and learning these equations, but they aren't even that bad to memorize. At most, it was just a minor inconvenience for the final exam if you did not study. As a professor, Samani was great at explaining tricky concepts. He took constant feedback about what the class wanted to do for the quizzes, and he was pretty considerate about student's needs. I switched out of Lancaster's 5B into Samani's 5B and my god was it the best decision I ever made. You can't go wrong with this prof.

You definitely need to work hard in this class to understand the concepts. Instead of a Monday lecture, we have 24-hr timed weekly quizzes over the content we learned. No midterms at all! No homework! I really appreciated this approach as I thought it was way less stressful. The quizzes themselves were pretty straightforward. If you pay attention to his lectures, he pretty much goes over examples that are very similar to the ones of the quizzes. He gives an optional practice packet of questions every week, but I didn't find them helpful while studying. The best thing to do to prepare for the quizzes and finals is to look over the discussion worksheets and the examples he goes over in class.

One thing I wish Samani did differently though was the way he structured his content videos. Instead of Monday lecture, we would have the weekly quizzes. Samani would post a pretty lengthy content video that goes over all of the content for the week, and he spends class time on Wed and Fri talking about specific example questions relating to that week's content. I really liked this format because we got to see what kind of questions he would ask us. However, the content videos would often be 2hrs long, which sucked. Again, the lack of an equation sheet sucked, but it was at most just a minor inconvenience.

Most of the people complaining in these reviews either didn't show up to class, didn't watch his content videos, or just didn't know how to study for his quizzes. Newsflash: Physics is tough! A prof can only do so much for your grade, and there is a very small minority that will use the lack of an equation sheet to justify why they couldn't do well throughout the entire course. His lectuers are more than sufficient to be prepared for the quizzes, which I felt were pretty straightforward. Great class, and if I had to take it again, I would take it with Samani.

Samani overall was a great Professor, in that I learned alot from what he taught, and the way he lectured made me interested in physics. However, do not take this class if you want an essay A. He invests alot of time in this class including posting well-made demos simulations and weekly content videos. The videos were a little long but weren't horrible if you watched at double speed. The weekly quizzes were pretty manageable assuming you went to class and watched the content video. However, they were closed notes so that definitely made them more difficult. While the class isn't easy if you put in the time and work you can defiantly succeed. If you actually want to learn physics would definitely take this class.

Samani is a great professor. He is passionate about the subject and has thorough explanations. Many of the people writing poor reviews here likely never showed up to class and/or refused to study for the final.
Surprise! Physics is hard... but as somebody who has had actually bad physics professors in the past I can assure you this is the guy to take. If you show up to class and study for just 15 minutes a week outside of class, you will do great on every quiz and the final. Plus, there are no midterms, which means less stress on you when all your other professors are breathing down your neck weeks 4-7. Look at the grade distribution.

I think professor Samani is the greatest physics professor I've ever met. Other than teaching physics concepts, he really cares about students' needs. He changed the quiz duration to be much longer than usual in order to reduce students' anxiety on unsuccessful gradescope submission. The difficulty of quizzes and the final is reasonable as long as you follow the lectures carefully and do most of the practice pracket problems. Also, go to his office hour which is really useful! To be honest, as a math major, I spend 60-70% of my time on this physics course, but I think it's worth it. I really enjoy this course because I can feel Samani's passion when teaching it. I'll definitely enroll in other courses of Samani in the future if I had a chance. Take his class if you really want to learn sth!

BEST PROFESSOR EVER!!! Samani will make you LOVE physics even if you've never loved physics before. He is so engaging and funny and makes every single lecture relatable and applicable to your life. Like I would leave lecture wanting to learn more and I never really liked 5A so Samani completely turned the experience around for me. TAKE PHYSICS WITH SAMANI HE WILL MAKE YOU LOVE SCHOOL!!!

Prof Samani is actually the goat. He is SO GOOD at teaching. I heard he won an award for it but he deserves more. He's really good at breaking down concepts in a way that a physics pleb like me can understand. Samani's definitely one of my favorite STEM professors. Exams are straightforward, class attendance is mandatory.

To start, this class is not a walk in the park, however, it also is not a trip down Hell. Professor Samani is very clear on the goals/objectives that you need to know. His lectures were some of the best I've ever had at UCLA, he truly does care about student success; they are so engaging and make you feel like you actually learned something walking out. The midterm has a group portion 7% of your grade, which is essentially redoing the questions on the individual portion of the midterm which was 18% of your grade. He does offer extra credit through Campuswire status. Discussion is required and you get to work with your group that you take the midterm with. In terms of the tests, they were very fair. They reflect the homework and practice quizzes he would give. Nothing necessarily out of left field. The homeworks were also very nice, which number of questions ranging from 4-12 (nothing over 12 questions). They are weekly but do not take much time, especially if you do it throughout the week. These questions are written by the professor and are not just a waste of time like Mastering Physics and Kudu (both of which can feel irrelevant to the material of the class). Samani does not hold your hand like some other physics professors do, but he also will not sink your grade and GPA. You will definitely learn during this class and that could prove useful if you wish to take tests like the MCAT.

Overall great professor for learning. Is not an easy A(like the other physics classes) but if you come to lecture and understand how to do the weekly quizzes, you'll be fine.

Dr. Samani is one of the most engaging and fun professors I have had. He genuinely tries his best to prioritize long-term learning, hence the lack of a formula sheet. Despite this added difficulty, I appreciate the effort he puts in, and the effort he gets his students to put in. I also like how structured each lecture is, he applies course concepts and walks us through a class-long problem. He has an itinerary for every class, but he also will delay his plans for seemingly as long as needed in order to answer student questions. Overall I am satisfied with my Physics 5B experience, my only regret is not going to office hours enough.