Professor Tung is a genuinely nice guy who cares about his students and wants them to succeed. Unfortunately, the class can feel a bit unstructured at times. Additionally, it’s hard to feel prepared for the exams because he really doesn’t give any supplementary materials or any past exams to review. He is really good at explaining the concepts but I wish he would do a better job at preparing us directly for his tests.

The class is divided up in four categories, 20% comes from homework, 5% comes from discussion section, 15% comes from labs, and 60% of your grade comes from four midterms spaced out throughout the quarter. The homework is pretty easy to complete and you get unlimited tries and it’s not due until the end of the quarter! I found it to be quite useful since he doesn’t give any practice materials. The discussion worksheets were pretty ambiguous and I don’t know if it was just my TA but I felt that sometimes what we were being graded on it was not very fair because we had not yet given it in class. The labs are just glorified busywork, they’re not hard to do but they take a ridiculous amount of time and you have to use this software called tracker...it sucks. They’re not fun to film and they’re not fun to do but they’re pretty easy to complete and since we’re doing this at home the TA’s are quite lenient with the grading. Finally, the midterms, they are not particularly hard and he does give a 24 hour window to complete them which is very useful! However I do feel that they are very tricky in the sense that they do not use numbers and they do require you to go slightly above what we gave in class. My recommendation is to try and do all the related homework problems before the test because that’s basically your only source of practice. Additionally, I would recommend asking him to do his review sessions because he does give out very similar problems to what he would expect on the test and they’re very useful in understanding what he is expecting of you. Overall he is a good teacher that genuinely cares about his students and his video demonstrations are amazing, I just wish we would’ve had a little bit more of material given by him so that the concepts and ideas he worked so hard and explaining would better stick in terms of problem solving! He does however give a lot of extra credit which is very very useful. You’re only required to do 65% of the homework which means that anything you do above that is extra credit, he also uses this app called top hat which is kind of like assistance and participation which also counts for extra credit. In the end I believe the extra credit comes out to be around 5% of your grade which is amazing.

Overall would recommend if he is available to give this class just be willing to put in the work on your own time. It honestly is not a difficult class to do well in.

Selling past labs and exam materials that could be helpful for this class!
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Tung is a really nice guy but his exams almost made me cry. Even having taken a few years of physics in high school, paid attention to Tung's classes, watched review sessions (which as the other reviews describe cover problems very similar to those on the exams) and all the good stuff, I couldn't fully understand the written response sections in his exams (the multiple choice questions were very reasonable though). Tung is a super passionate teacher who obviously cares about his students but he really needs to re-level his exams, because I spent hours and hours on what were supposed to be short exams, so I can't imagine what students who'd never studied physics before must've felt like during the midterms. My other critique is that Tung was a bit too flexible with his schedule because it was flip flopping every other week; yes COVID is an unprecedented situation and the professor was just trying to accommodate as much as possible, but not sticking to schedule sometimes made things stressful.
That being said I wanna say how cool Tung is. He brings in awesome video demonstrations to explain concepts, is a big nerd like myself, absolutely loves teaching and gives a bunch of extra credit, so I think that with improvement he can become the best 5A professor.

This is Professor Tung's first quarter teaching 5C, he got his phd in the spring form UCLA and had TA'd here before. Despite all of that his class is impossibly hard. For the first midterm the average was 50% and he sent us an email saying if you got more than 4 pts below average you were in danger of not passing the class. In his syllabus he says that his exams are nothing like the homework or lecture so he can really test your ability to do physics. He never got mastering physics to work either so if you didn't already have it then it was a total waste of money because the homework is completely optional. The only useful thing in this class so far was the midterm 2 review session. I would completely recommend AGAINST this professor. He has no mercy even though he literally just started here

Physics 5C was very interesting in regards to the information but the class was very poorly structured and taught by the professor. He derives a lot of equations but won't do example problems on the board to help students apply the concepts. The exams had questions that weren't properly reviewed in class and expectations of the students in this class did not match that of what is being taught in lecture, not to mention the class averages for midterms were really low. I strongly advise against taking this class with this professor.

I think the negative reviews here are really unfair. The first midterm I scored a few points below the average which was a 20/40. Yes that's a 50% but he scales your scores... And after receiving much complaint and concern from students he made many more resources available to us, gave us review sessions which he led himself instead of the TAs, and the second midterm and final were way easier and had questions that came straight from his lectures and review session (just changed a sign or direction of a force/field). He's super passionate, super understanding, really wants his kids to learn and understand physics. With this having been his first time teaching straight out of his PhD, I think he did really well adjusting to student feedback and comments, always encouraged us that we could still do well in the class no matter our past scores, as long as we kept working at it. Idk why y'all mad, I got a 45% midterm 1, 85% midterm 2, and landed an A in the class which I'm really happy about considering that first score.

Professor Tung is one of the best physics professor I ever had! As a person he is clearly very passionate about what he is doing and he actively tries to make his class easier for the students by alleviating any concerns they have. His class structure is essentially 2 midterms, a final and the lab component (we got full points on hw because Pearson wouldn't work).

I see so many negative reviews against him and I just want to point out several mistakes: 1) we didn't get explicit 'extra credit' but he did hint to us some of the questions on midterm 2 and the final so if that doesn't scream 'extra credit' I don't know what does (its a physics class; you ain't getting shit if you don't work for it AND its difficult to hand out extra credit for A PHYSICS CLASS as opposed to a life science or south campus class. 2) I can't see past the 5th row-> sit closer. Seriously. Tung is a really nice dude so if you can't see, raise your hand AND TELL HIM instead of choosing to be ignorant of the material. 3) his syllabus stated that the tests are nothing like the lecture or hw -> while it did say that in the syllabus, Tung has told us/hinted MULTIPLE TIMES in class to focus on certain examples or topics and if you payed attention in class, you can clearly tell which problems came from which sections once you get your test. 4) provides little examples -> absolute bullshit; he provides as many examples as he can whenever possible. 5)averages are low -> have you been to a physics class? ROFL; dude a 65% is high for a midterm score; my previous physics class were essentially at a 50% for both midterms so stop whining-.-

So in conclusion, I just want to say that Tung is one of the best professors I took for physics. I suck at physics; it is one of my worst subjects and yet I enjoyed this class. If you pay attention in class and sit closer, you will do great. And he is such a communicative professor that it is not hard to ask any question you have. Don't look at the majority of his reviews; they are absolute bull based on flimsy and stupid reasoning.

Prof Tung is definitely one of my favorite professors so far at UCLA. He is extremely engaging (often showed lots of cool demos) and was extremely good at answering/explaining concepts to us. He was super nice and just an overall great guy.

His class is definitely flexible with grading as he offers a shit ton of extra credit. Here is his grading scheme:
- 4 non-cumulative midterms (17.5% each)
- homework (25%)
- discussions worksheets (5%)
- Tophat questions (participation in class)/extra hw problems (extra credit)

My grades were as follows:
- Midterm 1 - 84%
- Midterm 2 - 90%
- Midterm 3 - 91.5%
- Midterm 4 - 98%
- Homework - 100%
- Discussion Worksheets - 96%
With these grades, I was in the B+ range. I didn't attend lecture much as I found watching the recording much better so I didn't earn much extra credit from lecture participation. However, I did a lot of extra homework problems. Tung only requires students to do 65% of all the homework. I did about 90% of the problems and that was able to boost me to the A range. Also a lot of the homework questions or very similar problems can be found online. All the homework is due at the end of the quarter but I highly recommend not cramming it till the end and doing at least some parts during the units.

His midterms are very reasonable and do not require more than 4 hours max (this coming from a kid who still struggles with the basics in physics). There is plenty of time to take the exams as there is a 24 hour window.

GO TO YOUR DISCUSSION SECTIONS. Quick shout out to Liz and Jonah for being some of the best TAs this past quarter. You don't have to attend discussions, but it would be dumb not to since you literally do the discussion worksheets (which were hard as shit) during discussion.

As much as I hate physics, Prof Tung and his class actually made me like physics and I HIGHLY recommend you choose Tung over any other professor.

Professor Tung is a great lecturer, his exams are easy if you understand his lectures. This class has 4 exams which are conceptual. Before each exams, he holds a review session where he solves problems which are similar to the problems you see on the exams. So definitely attend the review sessions.
Overall this class is easy A.
4 Midterms each worths 15%
Mastering Physics 20%
Discussion 5%
Lab 15%
Attendance: extra credit

Professor Tung is an amazing professor who was very accommodating to us during the pandemic. He gave detailed reviews before his exams and was very lenient while describing everything so well :) He cares so much for his students and always went the extra mile to make sure everyone understood (he answered all the questions in the chat and risked getting injured to give us physics demonstrations). He has detailed notes for his whole course (literally like a second textbook). During the pandemic, he had 24 hour exams and offered extra credit questions to take roll. Homework only needed to be done to 65% and if you did 100% you got a little bit of extra credit. Coming in with no background physics knowledge, he made the subject approachable. Thank you Dr. Tung!

I'm surprised by all these good reviews. I mean, he wasn't entirely awful, but I certainly wouldn't rank him as one of the best professors ever. His lectures were somewhat confusing to follow, and there was WAY too much homework. I don't know how anybody possibly completed it all. I had to pull an all-nighter to get it done by the deadline.
Most importantly, his midterms are quite difficult. Yes, they're 24 hours, but they're NOT open internet (open notes only, if you're not a cheater). And the questions are not straightforward; they're very confusing, and often ask you to apply concepts that aren't directly from his lectures or HW, but rather some physics knowledge that we're somehow supposed to have, despite this being the first physics lecture ever for many students.

Also, the people who say he’s a genuinely good person never had any real-world issues come up during the class.

I had a genuine family emergency as one of my closest friends tried to commit suicide and I was devastated. I was inconsolable. I communicated with Professor Tung and asked him for an Incomplete, because there was no way I was going to be able to continue the classes.

Not only did he refuse my request for an incomplete, he DIDN’T BELIEVE ME at all. He asked for multiple DOCTOR’S notes reporting that I was “distressed” from what happened with one of my closest friends?? Y’all, I couldn’t even SLEEP because I was so mentally out of it. Like having nightmares and waking up in terror.

The lack of respect and empathy for my situation will always stick with me. He could’ve chosen to give me the benefit of the doubt, but instead he made my situation arguably worse and more stressful during what was literally the lowest point in my life.