NOTE: I took AP Physics 1 in high school, which covers the material in Physics 5A (and goes a bit beyond 5A material). Thus, your mileage may vary, especially if you've never taken a physics class harder than high school physics before.

Overall, I'd say Dr. Tung did a pretty good job at teaching 5A. The lectures in class were somewhat helpful, and the physical demonstrations played a large part in anchoring my understanding of the material. However, I'd say that the biggest source of help is going to come from your TA's- they're the ones that make the practice problems that will save you on the MT's and finals, and they're the ones you're going to be requesting help from (I'm of the opinion that Dr. Tung is generally somewhat cold when it comes to student interaction, based on my limited attempts to converse with him about course material- again, YMMV).

Oh, and the extra credit- he gives extra credit for participation in lecture via Kudu, and he gives you EC for homework if you do more than 65% of the assigned problems (according to him, the EC roughly equates to 2-3% if you max it out). It is annoying that you have to buy software to do the HW and whatnot, but at least you're getting some extra credit out of it.

I will say that the lab portion is rather... poorly organized. It really isn't the lab TA's fault-I think my lab TA (at least) did well with what he had. Rather, the main problem was that the lab was often ahead of the lecture by a lecture or two- that meant that we had to spend extra time reading in order to finish the prelabs (which could get real annoying if we had no idea what to do).

By far the hardest class I've taken at UCLA yet. Coming in with zero background knowledge in physics made for an extremely tough time in this class, which was likely exacerbated by my lack of proactivity (not doing discussion worksheets and not going to office hours when I probably needed to). If you put in consistent work from the beginning to the end though, you'll have a much easier time than I did.

Lectures: Tung will introduce the concept and the theory, derive the equation, do a couple of simple practice problems, and tie it all up neatly with a demonstration at the end of class. However, you need to put in much more work beyond the lecture to actually understand the material at the level you need for exams. Lectures provide the intro, the rest of the work is up to you. Not mandatory but he very occasionally (maybe 4 times) does in-class extra credit questions on Kudu
Discussions: TAs would assign worksheets and go over select problems from those worksheets during discussion. Shoutout to Andrew, who was a wonderful TA. Not mandatory but definitely recommended.
Homework: Tung would assign Kudu questions as homework that had an official due date at the end of the quarter. 6ish units with 25 - 30 questions per unit. The questions were pretty straightforward but it was very easy to get stuck working on your own. Do not wait until the last minute to do them.
Exams: I heard from others that Tung uses his past exam questions very frequently, so for people with access to an organization's test bank, the tests might not be so bad, but the level of knowledge required for the exam was so deep that it was insane. Exam questions far surpassed the difficulty of practice questions gone over in lecture and Kudu questions. The ones that were the closest were the discussion worksheets from the TAs, so the best form of preparation is to do those worksheets before going to discussions.
Grading Scheme (what I remember of it): 15% for each of the two midterms, 30% for the final, and 3% extra credit to the OVERALL GRADE if you complete all the Kudu homework questions

I would never take this class with Tung again, but if you've got a background in physics or are prepared to put the work in, you won't have a hard time getting an A.

I LOST MY 4.0 TO TUNG.

Overall, two midterms are easy enough to get partial credit in / do well. There's 3% worth extra credit as well. BUT, the professor gives no practice problems in class and lectures are just deriving stuff, so it's hard to actually learn if you're never taken good physics in high school.

The final was the worst exam I've ever taken. I got lulled into a false sense of security by how easy the midterms were, but the final was really difficult. Bro's a known GPA killer. Good luck out there.

Tung is a great conceptual lecturer who utilizes engaging in-class demonstrations that helped me understand the principles of physics as someone who had never taken a physics course before this one. However, I felt like this was then completely lost on the exams, where the magnitude and depth of the questions went far beyond any of the supplementary materials covered in class or on Kudu (which he is aware of and states in the syllabus). I would say his exam questions most closely mimic the ones covered in discussion, but I felt the lecture did not adequately prepare me to approach that level of physics problem solving. He allows a cheat sheet for both midterms and the final, which I relied on heavily to be successful in this course. I think Tung is a solid choice of professor if you have prior experience with physics and can focus on the more complex problem solving, but I felt I was constantly juggling new fundamental concepts with applications and a demand for a deeper understanding of the material.

Tung is an okay physics professor. His lectures are very conceptual which is helpful to learning physics for people who have never taken physics before but he doesn't focus much on advanced problem-solving review during lectures nor does he give out any practice exams. I would say that going to the lecture was kind of useless but he gave us extra credit randomly through Kudu questions (kind of like clicker questions). TBH, his Nathan's Notes was a LIFESAVER for this class. You basically do not have to go to lecture and just read his Nathan's Notes which were most of the time an exact transcript of his lectures or just abridged versions. Use the Nathan's Notes as a study guide! His exams were multiple choice and short answer. I would say his exams are pretty difficult compared to the homework and problems in lecture/notes but there are a lot of similarities so it was not entirely too bad. The only thing that was difficult was that he would oftentimes give us problems where we had to come up with a symbolic answer without numbers so it is really important to understand the concepts and algebra behind things. As a person who has never taken physics before, this class is definitely doable but you need to study, review, and make sure to stay on top of things! I would say compared to the other physics professors here Tung is not a bad choice at all!

Dr. Tung is an incredible professor. He lectures clearly, taking the time to cover every detail that will come up on later assignments without being overbearing, while keeping a focus on understanding rather than just memorizing formulas. He answers questions very well in lecture and in OH, and his pre-exam reviews are amazingly helpful (it can help determine what you need to study). The exams are fair, but can sometimes be tricky (especially the first one). Make sure to review Nathan's Notes.
While the labs can sometimes be tedious, they do help with the rest of the course and pad the grade. Also, the discussions are really helpful for really cementing what you learn in lecture, so don't skip.

He is a good lecturer. He gives massive homework chunks that are all due at the end of the quarter so it's easy to get behind on those but if you do more that 65% everything past is partial credit.

His midterms are 24 open book, BUT they are very hard do not be fooled. He is very big on cheating so just don't do it or else you screw yourself and everyone else over. He also gives a form of clicker questions where they are used for extra credit.

Overall, he sets you up for success but the class is still very challenging nonetheless. Also contact me if you want my notes for this class **********) for a low price (even if you don't take the class with Tung, friends in other classes found them useful). Good luck!

This is BY FAR the WORST class I have taken at UCLA. I took AP physics in high school and it was a breeze but Tung managed to suck all the life out of physics. He is hands down the worst professor at UCLA! His test are completely unreasonable, the lecture don’t cover ANYTHING, you literally learn NEGATIVE F-ING information by going to class.

For Summer, it was all online and Tung streamed his lectures on YouTube, which I liked. For me personally, the material of this course was pretty interesting, probably because I'm EE. But it was also because his lectures were clear and his teaching style was very engaging for me. We had weekly Quizzes which were generally easy, if you watched the lectures and did practice/HW problems. Most of the HW was easy. The final exam was fair as well. It was like watching a streamer everyday, he has an intro video and everything.

Tung definitely is an engaging professor- he does a lot of cool demos in class, which I really enjoyed. He is also helpful- he answers questions during the 5 minute break/the end of class and is more than willing to help during his virtual office hours. Overall, I liked him, but the class is VERY content dense and moves extremely fast. Knowing what to focus on when studying for tests is a challenge, so staying on top of the kudu readings is key. He also offers ~3% extra credit for answering online questions in class and for doing more than the required amount of hw.