Professor Putterman is by far one of the most cocky professors I have had. He is obviously a very smart man, but he seems to have a problem realizing that the material he teaches is not easily understood by most people. He expects his students to learn the material as quickly as he is teaching. For people like me who have to be patient in learning Physics, and let it sink in for a while, he's not very helpful, especially in office hours. He will ask questions and try to help and I honesltly think he means well, but he doesn't listen to your answers to his questions and only hears what he wants to hear.
His lectures consist only of deriving equations . . . considering his exams were strictly from the homework, the lectures are next to useless. Reading the book and understanding all the homework problems is the best way to pass his class. Just hope that you have a good T.A. (which I didn't) to explain the homework thoroughly . . . otherwise your screwed.
Overall, I would say Putterman was an average teacher, probably a nice guy outside the class, and could have been worse, but he should stick to upper division classes.

All in all his class is ok. He bases his midterms and finals on the homework problems assigned. Just make sure, you really understand these problems inside out and don't make any silly mistakes because usually his midterms have only 3 problems with hardly any parts. Also, I think the way he curves the class at the end of the course seems fair. His lectures hardly make any sense and he does bash a lot on non-science majors. (i.e. in his words, phycho-sociologists)

All in all, he's an average professor. He only lectures about specific topics in the textbook (stuff he thinks isn't explained very well), so to do well in the class, basically all you have to do is read the book, do the homework problems, and understand them. The class would have been much better if he spent lecture explaining stuff in the textbook instead of deriving equations using differential equations and complex numbers, which none of the class understood. One good thing is that he is very approachable and friendly during office hours. I agree with others that he'd probably be a good upper division professor. And, he bashes non-science majors during lecture here and there, which I thought was pretty funny.

He is a pretty good guy - great lecturer. He makes you really care for the material that you learn - and he thinks non-physics majors are nobodys =) All in all, one of the best physics professors i've had at UCLA.