This course was a 100% meh course. It wasn't a horrible experience, but this class was definitely one to just get done and over with. I'm not sure if this was due to the class being 100% online due to COVID, the fact that this was summer with a 10 week course crammed into 6, or if this is how the course is normally, but this course felt very rushed and not very useful.

I technically took the course under Ni Ni, but I believe that both Ni and Arisaka design this course. Never saw or heard from either of the two, except through emails and possibly one video that Ni might have made of herself. In other words, your experience will be based on your TA and your groupmates, which depending on your TA, you might or might not be able to choose.

Since this was summer, the TA didn't really care about this class (I don't blame him, it would suck to teach this class during the summer). That meant we were given plenty of wiggle room when we did stuff wrong in lab, and that he graded leniently, but that also meant that he wasn't very helpful.

The grade was calculated as follows:

25% for assignments: 10% (pre-lab) + 15% (post-lab). Basically free points
10% attendance (-2% for first absence and -4% for the next 2). Also free points
5% survey: 2.5% each for pre-class and post-class. More free points
30% Unit reports (10% for each report). Somewhat difficult and VERY TIME CONSUMING
30% project (split as 15% presentation and 15% report). Somewhat difficult and VERY time consuming

​The grade ranges are:
A+ 95-100.0% A 90-94.99% A- 85-89.99%
B+ 80-84.99% B 75-79.99% B- 70-74.99%
C+ 65-69.99% C 60-64.99% C- 55-59.99%
D+ 50-54.99% D 45-49.99% F 0-44.99%

The labs themselves weren't very good, since they were ONLINE. The TA couldn't help us very much in the experimental setups, and it was hard to collect data since there were no labmates to help you set stuff up. The data analysis was through Python. I had no clue how the data analysis worked; the first three weeks were literally just copy and paste the code the instructors wrote for you, while the last three weeks were more or less copy and paste the code from the first three weeks, but tweak the code slightly. No previous knowledge of physics was really needed until the last project, since they told you what to do, down to the actual code.

Lab reports took a while to write, despite the fact I had 3 really good groupmates. They also came one after the other; I was constantly writing. It appears that the 4AL/4BL series was designed for the semester system. In other words, these people took a 16 week course, squashed it to 10 weeks for the quarter system, and further squashed it into a 6 week course for summer session. Also, instructions were super unclear for the lab reports. I had no clue how we were supposed to format, and in some cases, I HAD NO IDEA WHICH EXPERIMENTS I WAS SUPPOSED TO ANALYZE FOR THE REPORTS!!! Grading also felt arbitrary at times for the lab, despite the use of Gradescope.

The project was time consuming. Basically only one person was able to do the experiment, and we had to cross our fingers that the person did the experiment correctly. It came with a report and a presentation, and we had to video ourselves presenting the slides.

Tl;dr: This class should be an easy A, but you'll still have to work for it. There are lots of free points, but these points take time to obtain. You'll sort-of learn Python and learn how to use this software called Tracker, but that's really it.

The class ended up not being too tough, but it did feel like a lot of work for not too impressive of a result. The pre-labs and post-lab analysis are mostly just about following directions, you barely even need to know any of the physics that are being discussed since they basically hold your hand through everything, including giving you all the Arduino code that you need to work with.

The lab reports are, as advertised, a pain in the butt. They take a good amount of time if you want a good grade, and everything feels really vague in terms of requirements, since there's no clear rubric – you're kind of stuck guessing in the dark for what kind of analysis they want you to make. They do make up a substantial portion of your grade, so make sure that you get a good group, since those reports are enough of a pain with a group working on it, let alone doing it on your own.

Not a big fan of the class, but it's also not exactly Professor Arisaka's fault. It's a good introduction to how to write lab reports, but unfortunately, that's all I really got out of it.

This course was so free, but your experience in this class is entirely dependent on how strict your TA's grading is and how much your lab mates are willing to do work. You don't interact with the professor at all and the lab content is entirely laid out on these 10+ year old slides. Workload-wise, I spent at most an hour every week working on pre-lab/lab reports outside of labs. Also, your group only needs 2 Arduino's (in fact a majority of the labs only required one Arduino). So if your lab group already has two save your money!

I took this class during a 6-week summer session, so my experience might be different than that of people who took it during a regular quarter.

Overall, this class was very straightforward and simple. You work with two other classmates to complete group projects. The first half of the class is spent on completing in-class labs on JupyterLab, and the second half of the class is spent on your final project. Everything is done as a group, so as long as you have competent lab partners that understand what to do, this class will be a breeze. Other reviews say that they spent way too much time on reports, but during the summer, you only do two lab reports. These lab reports are very easy and not very time consuming as long as everyone contributes. The final project can be on any topic as long as it is related to mechanics.

Although Arisaka is listed as the professor for this course, he never shows up. This course is ran entirely by a TA. I'm lucky that my TA Noah Moran was very helpful and not overly strict. He was clear in what he expected. Just ask him a question and he'll let you know what he wants to see when grading.

TLDR; Take this class with Noah Moran if you can. This class is very easy as long as you have good lab partners.

Super chill course. I took it over the summer, so my experience might be different than that of people who took it during the regular quarter. We had a three hour lab twice a week for six weeks. Make sure to show up since attendance is 12% of your grade. (1% for every day you're there.) The two other people you sit with on the first day of class will be your lab partners for the rest of the course. The first half of the class was spent on in-class labs using JupyterLab, and the second half of the class was spent working on our final project. All of the course information can be found on the class website, just search up "Physics 4AL UCLA" on Google. You won't be doing all of the labs shown on the website since it is an accelerated summer course, and the website lists everything done during a regular 10-week quarter.

The professor who is listed as the instructor for this course never shows up. It is ran entirely by a TA. I'd recommend taking the class with Noah Moran since he is super helpful and is an awesome TA. Overall, this course wasn't overwhelming at all. I think the reviews that claim that this course has more work than their 4 unit classes just got really unlucky with their lab partners. As long as everyone contributes and has basic coding and physics knowledge, everything is super straightforward.

TLDR; Noah Moran is the GOAT. Just pray you get good lab partners, and it'll be a breeze.

You do not interact with the professor in this class, it is entirely led by TAs. Much more work than "2 units". I had a good time mostly because of my teammates, but the prelabs/lab/postlab writeups can become tedious.

my TA AL BAO was the goat

The professor does not teach the course. I believe he created the course material and slides, but they are outdated. The TAs are the ones who manage the course. Shoutout to BY, or Boran Guru. He was my TA for the class. He was really nice and understanding.
The lab is more coding than physics. You must buy an ESP32 kit that comes with the Arduino board + wires, etc. The lab consists of pre-labs, post-labs, and unit reports. They're not difficult but rather time-consuming. You actually use physics when doing experiments for the units report. And if you need help, the TA is available during lab time. You can also leave early if you get the work done early.
TLDR, not difficult but just a time-consuming coding class, and grade depedent on your TA

Overall this class is an easy A, but in my opinion it should be worth 3 units due to the amount of work I had to put in. A lot of the time the coding ends up all being put on one person in the group and there are way too many group assignments for my liking as there is always someone who doesn't do their part. I also learned absolutely nothing, still do not know how to code, and didn't learn any new physics concepts.

This class is a total waste of time. The fact that so many people have to take this useless course is ridiculous. It is just a glorified Python class without actually teaching Python. The primary instructor has essentially put everything into a step by step formula without doing any teaching. I do feel for the TAs as they are given very little information outside of the slideshows, but Tina really didn't know what she was talking about. We would ask her questions and it was rare that we got a helpful answer outside of "ask ChatGPT". My group and I just came into lab twice a week and stumbled through the labs while having the search up most of the answers. The assignments aren't necessarily hard, just a waste of time.