He's really cool, teaches concepts well, and also enjoys discussing physics questions outside of class.

The class itself was pretty easy. Pretty much a review of vector calculus and physics E&M from an engineering perspective with a slight introduction to electromagnetic waves and transmission lines nearing the end of the quarter. The content, especially for electromagnetic waves, sometimes did not seem that intuitive since there were many random Greek symbols flying out of nowhere. However, looking back, it wasn't so bad. Transmission lines and using the smith chart was fun, too (to me at least). As long as you do some extra studying and possibly look at some other online resources, you should be fine.

The professor is a great guy, but an okay professor. He's not that engaging, and his lectures are difficult to follow at times. Since he posts his lectures (from COVID) online, you don't have to attend in person, and you'll be able to grasp the same material, since he pretty much goes over the same stuff. HW's, midterm and final were fair and straightforward (and provided a lot of partial credit/lenient grading). Quiz was questionable? I felt that there was some random stuff in there, but that could just be me. However, he does emphasize that he "doesn't like to surprise his students" when it comes to the exams, it does seem like that is the case. Also, if you can't seem to follow along, use the textbook. The slides/content he covers in class are pretty much the same as you'd see in the textbook. Half of his exam questions were also on there, so I'd highly recommend it as a resource when studying.

Overall, the class was interesting, the professor was alright, the exams were fair (and I'd say on the easier side), and looking back, I shouldn't have worried about this class as much as I did. I definitely would say this would be one of your easier classes to take in the EE curriculum when taking Sam. I'd definitely recommend!

This is the easiest class I have ever taken. I dropped like one point this entire class.

The professor uses slides straight out of the textbook so it does not make any difference if you read the book or his slides. The lectures were boring and consisted mainly of showing proofs for different equations without any context. The midterm and the homework were relatively easy. This class gets confusing in the last two weeks for transmission lines and Smith charts. I did not like this professor and I would strongly recommend taking this class with someone else if you want to understand what you are learning. No practice exams or problem sets were provided before the exams so what you studied before the test was really hit or miss. The posted solutions for homework were messy and unclear. The discussions were lazy reviews of the material.

Emaminejad is a good professor. His lectures are clear and the slides are very helpful. The tests were pretty difficult but looked similar to lecture. It's just too bad that semiconductors is a field invented by satan to torment EE students. Nothing about the field is intuitive. There are a bunch of random formulas/graphs and weird chemistry/physics. This class is very similar to ECE 2, so know that it is more of the same. I thought that this course would give me more of an insight and understanding, but I am still confused. Many things from ECE 2 were cleared up but a lot of the new material added to my confusion. I studied it the best I could and did pretty well in the course, but I feel like there is much more for me to learn if I wanted to work in fabrication.

This is a core course and I would recommend taking it with Emaminejad. Other core courses I would recommend are 141 and 101B. There are some much worse core courses and professors that are more worth your two skips.

For this class, it helps to be strong in the material covered in physics 1B for the first half of the course. As long as you do your homework and watch lectures you will do fine in the midterm and the final. The second half of the course was really fun. Using smith chart is like memorizing an algorithm so once you have it down you will be fine. Sam is a really good professor and explains everything thoroughly and clearly if you ask questions during lecture.

Sam is a great professor. He cares a lot about making sure that all of his students fully understand the material. His lectures mainly consist of him teaching from slides, and deriving equations on the slides with chalk on the blackboard. He's not the most engaging lecturer, but he is very responsive and helpful in office hours/outside of lectures.

Homework sets in this class were a mix of book problems and his problems that he created. They didn't take that long in comparison to other EE classes, so outside study is necessary to do well on his tests.

Exams were tough, but not ridiculously tough. If you spend enough time studying, you will find that the questions are very fair. Sam is a very generous grader and takes an improvement score into account. So if you do poorly on his quiz and midterm, but do very well on his final, he will account for that.

All in all, a great professor. One of the better professors in the EE department. I strongly recommend taking 101A with him.

Exam and homework materials require thought and patience, but aren't crazy difficult or barely related to what is taught. Sam uses slides but also writes down derivations and examples, so it's important to follow along. Textbook is also useful, a couple formulas not in the slides can be found there.

Not as easy as people make it out to be. Homework is easy. Quiz is average. Midterm is tough. Final was tough as well.

E&M is an inherently difficult class. This professor used slides but used examples in solving problems that would eventually be seen in homework and exams. Read the book and attend lecture. Overall great prof for the class and gives good grades.