Despite a lot of disdain my classmates may have had with Professor Lancaster, I thought he was a good professor, and even chose him over other ones for 5B. His tests were different than traditional tests; he would tell you to make up values for certain variables, and you would get extra points by adding things to the problem that would make it more difficult. At first this seems stupid, but once you get the hang of it it is more doable. Also, before every test he posted a practice test that was essentially the same thing as the real test, and he would post his notes on it to ccle to see how he solved it correctly. Also, the weekly discussion questions were in the same format so you got a lot of practice with his format. The MasteringPhysics homework was braindead, a lot of times the questions did not make sense and we only had a set number of attempts for problems. This coupled with the braindead nature of the problems made it so you could lose some points due to homework, which kinda sucked. The lab portion was annoying but if you get a good Lab TA then it will be worth your time. Overall, Lancaster was a good professor and his tests are tricky at first but once you learn to use your resources and adapt to them, I don't think they're as hard as some of my friends' tests that they took with other professors.

I took Lancaster on a whim because I couldn’t get other profs I heard good things about. I don’t regret this decision at all. I was very bad at physics in high school, and this class wasn’t a ray of sunshine for me either, but it was refreshing having a prof who acknowledges that physics is hard and doesn’t expect everyone to be amazing at it right away. He worked with everyone and basically begged us to come to office hours. A lot of people complained because midterm 2 was really challenging, but he apologized and made the final VERY doable if you studied. He also allowed calculators and used real numbers on his tests which apparently is rare for a physics class at UCLA. I would recommend him if you want someone who’s straightforward and caring.

SO nice to finally have a professor that knows how to teach well! I recommend taking physics with lancaster, he assigns slightly more homework than other professors and gives no partial credit for late work but his lectures are very clear and his tests are very doable. Weekly homework due online, 2 midterms, and a final. I was really stressed about taking physics but I actually enjoyed this class!

Perfect 5's all around for Lancaster. The guy is super nice, the class is easy, and he's actually really good at teaching. So glad I decided to take this class as a math major instead of the pesky 1 series.

Professor Lancaster is easily the best STEM prof I've ever had during my time at UCLA. You can tell he really cares about his students and helping people learn complex topics. His lectures were prerecorded this quarter and he used a lot of slides to demonstrate topics. I really liked this style of teaching because I was able to follow along and rewind or speed up the lectures as I needed (would watch them at 2x the speed almost always). There were two midterms and a final exam. The midterms were simple. I got a 97.5 on the first and a 100 on the second. I did not take the optional final. Mastering Physics was annoying but worth so little in the grading scheme that it didn't really matter if you missed a few. Labs were extremely annoying to do at home (would not recommend at all). My lab TA was unhelpful and disorganized and seemed just as lost as the rest of us, but again, labs weren't worth a whole lot so it didn't matter if you did well on the exams. Overall, Lancaster is an amazing professor and if you can take the entire series with him, do it without a second thought, he is AMAZING!!

This class consisted of weekly mastering physics sets (which consisted of 15+ problems so they were a bit time consuming) that were due every Friday at midnight, weekly discussion problems due Sunday night, two midterms, and a final. He lectures off the slides from Pearson but he's very clear and will explain the information in them in great detail, and he will include problems of similar caliber to what you would see in an exam. Questions on midterms are not similar to mastering at all, so pay attention to his own problems he creates and discusses in class. Discussion problems also closely resembled the level of difficulty for midterm problems! Our midterms were 24 hour open note with no collaboration with others. I highly recommend going to office hours if you can, he is very personable and truly excellent at answering your questions. Highly recommend taking 5B with him!

People are mean. Be was honestly a very nice guy and his lectures just went over his powerpoint slides which were easy to follow. His exams were fair if not a bit hard, but when he saw that the second midterm did not have much success, he offered EVERY STUDENT 12 POINTS BACK IN TEST CORRECTIONS. He was genuinely very nice and even gave in to letting us have equation cheat cards for the exams after he initially said he would not. I believe that the people who gave him bad reviews are the ones who did not get the grade that they wanted and do not want to own up to it. Homework was tedious at times but overall it was not a bad class.

I took this during an online quarter btw! But he is SO humane, cares about accommodating his students as best as he can. His exams are clear to the point, they are not overly wordy like most physics problems i've had. He wants the best for you, I really recommend this professor you guys !! Also note that I recieved an A+ whereas I was big struggling to even pass my previous physics class. So don't be scared, professor Lancaster will show you that physics really isn't so bad (:

Keep in mind that I took this class in Winter 2021 during COVID when reading this review. The lectures were prerecorded from Spring 2020, and there were no new lectures given, except a few towards the end. They were often very long (50+ minutes) and not the most engaging if I am being honest. If you are someone who learns well from slides, then you will do okay, but if not, you will have to learn to adjust. There are two midterms and a final, lab grades, discussion sheet grades and homework grades. The first midterm and the final were relatively easy compared to the second midterm, which was hard and required 5A knowledge. For midterms, you are given 35 minutes to complete the test and 15 minutes to submit it. On the final we were given two hours to complete the test and an additional 15 minutes to submit the test. There is an opportunity for extra credit by using the class campuswire and asking/answering questions. It maxed out at an additional 0.3% to your final grade. Overall, I think Dr. Lancaster has good intentions, but the material was not presented in an engaging manner and I wish lectures would have been over zoom. Do make sure to go to his office hours for homework help and clarification.

I can honestly say that, throughout my entire time at UCLA, Justin Lancaster is far and away the worst “professor” I have ever had. He straight up does not teach - the only things he knows how to do are read word for word off of slides that aren’t his and solve practice problems that he already has the solutions for. His midterms are timed and you only have 35 minutes to do long, poorly written, multiple-part problems. He also actively avoids interacting with students as his lectures are prerecorded and a year old, and he changed his office hour times whenever he pleased. I watched one lecture and attended one office hour session before realizing that I would gain zero knowledge from this man and I self studied my way through this course. The biggest takeaway I got from this course was that you don’t have to be competent at your occupation and you can get by in life being terrible at what you do.