Professor
Nathan Tung
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2020 - Dr. Tung was one of the best professors I've had at UCLA! I had a very poor experience with physics in high school and was very nervous coming into 5A, but Tung broke down the material in a way that was really easy to understand. He mostly goes over concepts in lecture with little emphasis on "plugging and chugging." He really cares about his students and was very accommodating for the current situation. He did his lectures via YouTube for spring quarter (COVID). You need to be able to solve problems on exams without numbers, which can be slightly confusing, but after the first midterm it becomes a little easier. The best advice I can give you is to GO TO HIS REVIEW SESSIONS! They really make the exams a lot easier and help you with the reasoning behind a lot of the questions. Make sure you understand how things are derived instead of just memorizing them. I'd say the biggest pain in this class was Mastering Physics, but he only required us to do 65% of the problems and the rest was extra credit. Extra credit was also provided through TopHat, typically with 1 point for attempting the question and 1 point for getting it right. Don't be worried by reviews from his other classes, overall I'd say this was a great class and Tung is a very clear instructor.
Spring 2020 - Dr. Tung was one of the best professors I've had at UCLA! I had a very poor experience with physics in high school and was very nervous coming into 5A, but Tung broke down the material in a way that was really easy to understand. He mostly goes over concepts in lecture with little emphasis on "plugging and chugging." He really cares about his students and was very accommodating for the current situation. He did his lectures via YouTube for spring quarter (COVID). You need to be able to solve problems on exams without numbers, which can be slightly confusing, but after the first midterm it becomes a little easier. The best advice I can give you is to GO TO HIS REVIEW SESSIONS! They really make the exams a lot easier and help you with the reasoning behind a lot of the questions. Make sure you understand how things are derived instead of just memorizing them. I'd say the biggest pain in this class was Mastering Physics, but he only required us to do 65% of the problems and the rest was extra credit. Extra credit was also provided through TopHat, typically with 1 point for attempting the question and 1 point for getting it right. Don't be worried by reviews from his other classes, overall I'd say this was a great class and Tung is a very clear instructor.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2019 - In my opinion the bad reviews are unwarranted. Although it was Professor Tung's first quarter teaching, he definitely deserves credit for the effort and dedication he put into teaching this class to the best of his ability. My advice for passing this class is simple : LISTEN in lecture, take detailed NOTES, attend DISCUSSION, and review CONCEPTS. I never had a problem with the way he utilized lecture time. If people actually bothered to pay attention and listen to what he was saying, then his lab demonstrations made sense and the concepts were easier to grasp. Some reviews argue that he spent too much time deriving formulas, but I have to disagree. He skipped over tedious calculus that was used to derive the formulas, and instead used the formulas to show the relationships between parameters (i.e. proportional, inversely proportional). This was actually very useful in multiple choice problems in his exams. I did put in effort to take notes during class, but even if I hadn't, on CCLE he posts NATHAN'S NOTES which are his own written notes that covers everything he says during lecture. Moreover, I found discussion to be extremely helpful. I think many people struggled with this class because we did not see many problems during lecture and mainly focused on concepts. However, discussion is where we actually got to see problems relating to the concepts. With this said, out of the 38 enrolled spots in discussion, only about 10 people actually bothered to show up weekly. I think this lack of attendance definitely contributed to negative reviews for this class. Anyways, my discussion TA reviewed important problems that were reflected on midterm multiple choice problems and helped me grasp concepts even better. In regards to the midterms for this class, I was also blindsided by the first midterm. Nevertheless, just writing down everything you know scores you points. Even if it was a hard test, if you truly understood concepts, then you should be able to score 1 or 2 points above average. As for the second midterm and final, they were completely fair. Professor Tung held review sessions that covered everything he expected. All in all, this class wasn't terrible and I feel like anyone can pass this class if they bother to listen in class and spend time understanding concepts. (Make sure to sit up front to see the board).
Fall 2019 - In my opinion the bad reviews are unwarranted. Although it was Professor Tung's first quarter teaching, he definitely deserves credit for the effort and dedication he put into teaching this class to the best of his ability. My advice for passing this class is simple : LISTEN in lecture, take detailed NOTES, attend DISCUSSION, and review CONCEPTS. I never had a problem with the way he utilized lecture time. If people actually bothered to pay attention and listen to what he was saying, then his lab demonstrations made sense and the concepts were easier to grasp. Some reviews argue that he spent too much time deriving formulas, but I have to disagree. He skipped over tedious calculus that was used to derive the formulas, and instead used the formulas to show the relationships between parameters (i.e. proportional, inversely proportional). This was actually very useful in multiple choice problems in his exams. I did put in effort to take notes during class, but even if I hadn't, on CCLE he posts NATHAN'S NOTES which are his own written notes that covers everything he says during lecture. Moreover, I found discussion to be extremely helpful. I think many people struggled with this class because we did not see many problems during lecture and mainly focused on concepts. However, discussion is where we actually got to see problems relating to the concepts. With this said, out of the 38 enrolled spots in discussion, only about 10 people actually bothered to show up weekly. I think this lack of attendance definitely contributed to negative reviews for this class. Anyways, my discussion TA reviewed important problems that were reflected on midterm multiple choice problems and helped me grasp concepts even better. In regards to the midterms for this class, I was also blindsided by the first midterm. Nevertheless, just writing down everything you know scores you points. Even if it was a hard test, if you truly understood concepts, then you should be able to score 1 or 2 points above average. As for the second midterm and final, they were completely fair. Professor Tung held review sessions that covered everything he expected. All in all, this class wasn't terrible and I feel like anyone can pass this class if they bother to listen in class and spend time understanding concepts. (Make sure to sit up front to see the board).
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