Professor Ni is one of the most disorganized professors I have had at UCLA. On our midterm, she forgot to include the right answers on the multiple choice and stopped us every 5 minutes to say that there was a typo on her free response. When students say they are confused, she openly doesn't explain it and just moves on and sees no issue. She is a nice person, but a terrible teacher. The TAs often didnt know anything about the class because it wasn't communicated to them and what we did in discussions were completely different than lectures because our TAs said they weren't told what was going on in lecture. Professor Ni is the kind of professor who still gives a midterm even when classes are cancelled due to fire warnings (this happened). She also doesn't post the lecture notes until ~2 days before the exam for you to study. This class is basically "how well can you teach yourself physics". Take another physics professor if you can.

A lot of these reviews make Ni's class sound worse than it is. While she was a bit disorganized at times and would suddenly jump from introducing a concept to flying through derivations with terms seemingly coming out of nowhere, these were probably the worst parts of the class. Besides that, she really cares about her students and making sure that everyone understands the material. Throughout the quarter she setup countless demonstrations to show real-life examples of the concepts we were learning. In terms of homework, we would have one Mastering Physics assignment due per week which had enough problems to practice concepts without being too much work. Her first midterm was very easy with the average being in the high 80s. She ended up making her second midterm more difficult to counteract this, but it was still a fair test. The final was more similar to the second midterm in terms of difficulty, but gave plenty of time to finish everything. For those who still find the class difficult, Ni grades the class on a curve so while it may be hard to get an A, but thankfully it's almost impossible get below a C.

Seeing some of the reviews on here scared me when I first enrolled in this class - I would say that they held true for the first few chapters. Ni is not the most patient lecturer and is not very good at expanding or explaining what she has done on the board, so often I felt like I had to copy down all the equations she derived and then look it up later in the book. As the class went on, it became more obvious that she was more interested in the material and could explain it a little better, especially electric fields and such. Her accent can make her somewhat hard to understand, so you have to pay attention to what she says and writes down to get it all. She also made a lot of little errors in class on the board which sometimes wouldn't be caught until much later. Lectures were definitely the hardest part of this class to get through.
Homework was on Mastering Physics and was never too tough, although some problems could be really tedious and take some time.
Her tests were fair, never out of the blue or crazy.

Professor Ni Ni really knows the material well. Occasionally I found it hard to understand what she was saying due to an accent, but for the most part it was not a problem. She was VERY helpful when it came to knowing what we would be covered on the tests and knowing which problems to focus on in preparation for the tests. Overall she is a good professor.

Easy A+ class if you can do calculus efficiently. I seldom went to class because learning the material by myself is way easier than listening to prof's explanation of course material.

Professor Ni is a very sweet and kind person that really cares about student’s learning. However her teaching is not the best. The tests are very fair, but it was weird to prepare for them because her teaching was a little all over the place and often preparation had to come solely from the textbook. Professor Ni is helpful in office hours when she can prepare or take time with responses but asking questions in lecture often led to getting answers to questions you weren’t asking. I believe professor Ni could definitely be a great professor because of her kindness and compassion, but right now she is not there teaching wise

Regardless of all the criticism that previous students have posted, I believe she is a good professor who does care about her students regarding learning. I believe it really comes down to how much they are willing to understand their professors. This is her 6th year at UCLA. Most professors are excellent teachers after they teach more than 10 years of experience! She is just dipping her toe on the water compared to other professors that I have experienced with. Most students barely come to her office hours. It's almost incredible. You can't expect for you to understand the materials if you are not utilizing all the materials that are given. Including OH! If you do come to office hours, you might be able to take some points back from your midterms. And she is very generous with grading when you ask for HELP during her OH. So please utilize them. But otherwise, there are 2 midterms for the quarter which are worth 24% each. Along with a 4% attendance/quiz. She takes the quiz as attendance. So fair warning, do come to lecture. The rest of the points are all finals. Regarding TAs, yes, they are completely inadequate. What that means is the discussion for the course was I think not useful. But I would recommend going to review sessions for midterms and final. They were held by one of AAP PLF and it was VERY useful. Last but not least, give her a break. OK. Things happen like the fire that happened in the middle of NOV 2019. And yes, the morning class did take the midterm. I was one of them. But the afternoon class did not because the school officially announced no class AFTER 11 am. So she was just following protocol. Good luck to all future students!

Professor Ni really tries her best, but that's usually not enough. I stopped taking notes after the first midterm, because it just wasn't worth it. I still went to lecture though, because she had clicker questions in order to boost attendance. The first midterm was very easy-- average 85%, which didn't allow for much error. The second was a little harder-- average 69% if I remember correctly. I did average on the first, and a little above average on the second. However, I ended up with an A because I aced the final. She's quite generous with the curve, about 60% A's and B's, and not many minuses, which is great. To conclude, not the best lecturer, but you can easily get out with an A if you try a little.

Please do not take this class. It is not for me , it is for you. If you choose to go to lecture every week, make sure to also schedule in time at CAPS, because you WILL go insane. The only option to continue living a normal life is to stop attending class by week five and hope that you cover the right material in the textbook before each test. "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink."

Do not take this class with this professor. She is hard to understand and follow in class and does not do a good job explaining the material. The tests are horrible and the curve not helpful. For the midterms you had to get 16/100 points to pass the exam and it was rare that that happened. Do not take this class with this professor.