Vladmir is both a great person and great teacher. Once you get past his heavy accent, he is a good lecturer. The class content is not very difficult especially if you took AP Physics. I will say his tests are very difficult and the class average are typically around 50% but if you pay attention in class and don't cheat on the homework its very manageable to get well above that. Vladmir's grading scale is very generous and he will most likely curve the exams tremendously.

***I'm updating my review because so many people seem to have slammed Vassiliev's class and ruined his rating. I do recommend this class with him even if you don't think you'll understand everything because he does explain the basic topics very clearly and writes very fair exams.***
Before everyone comes and writes Dr Vassiliev a bad review for making the class very difficult (especially compared to the other 1B professor this quarter), I'm just going to say that if you have a strong understand of the material in math 32A and 32B and you pay attention in lecture, you're going to learn a lot about physics and have a great appreciation of it. Even though I'm not a physics major, professor Vassiliev made me very interested in the course material and goes above in beyond in his efforts to motivate and explain concepts in physics. I also found the professor very clear at explaining topics.
That being said, if you are less mathematically inclined or are taking 32B this quarter, I will warn you that lectures can get a little mathematically intense. The two midterms we've had so far haven't been too difficult and haven't included any math that was too complicated.
I guess the main complain people might have with this class is how densely packed with information the lectures are and the fact that the professor expects math 32B as a pre-req when it is only a co-req for this class.
The professor gives a lot of extra credit and homework and midterms with almost 50% of the marks on the midterms coming from extra credit. The grading scheme is very generous with 100%+ being an A+, 90-100% being an A, 80-90% being an A-, 70-80% being a B+, 60 to 70% being a B and so on.
TLDR: take this class if you really love physics and want a deeper appreciation of the subject matter (though even if you don't particularly care about rigor, the exams aren't that difficult and the grading scheme is quite generous).

Professor Vladimir is THE most underrated professor in Physics Department from my opinion. Surely his class is intense, but with extremely clear structure and logic. It is normal to find yourself unable to follow his pace in lecture, but if you review his lecture slides later, you will absolutely find how beautiful these physics theories are. His homework and exams are not easy but doable as long as you sort everything out from the lectures. Besides, you would one hundred percent want to attend his optional lectures on the connection between analytic and quantum mechanics if applicable. It will be mind-blowing if you take quantum mechanic classes in the following quarter.

Lastly, if you find vvv's class is boring and unhelpful, I would suggest you to change your major as he could be the very first professor to show you how beautiful physics is. He definitely deserves a 5.0 rating.

Professor Vassiliev has a very thick Russian accent. For many people this is a huge roadblock for their understanding of the class and personally, it took a good amount of concentration to make sure I got 100% of what he was saying. Once getting over that, I think he is a pretty strong lecturer, and it's very clear that he is passionate about physics. He also included a 10 minute break for every single one of our 110 minute classes as well as having regular demonstrations that keep the lectures interesting. His lecture slides do move a bit quick, however, and he rarely does the derivation of problems and formulas live, which meant that I spent time in lecture deciphering what it was that he was writing down. I took AP Physics 1 in high school, which was a big help for me because it made a lot of the material and mental imaging pretty trivial. This is really useful because he gives A LOT of extra credit. The homework assignments each have small amounts of extra credit, but he gives A TON on the test (it was possible to get more than 160% on multiple) because he does not expect all students to finish all the questions. Because of how much partial credit you can get, I would honestly do the questions you know, leveraging both extra credit and normal questions because they are not designated so by difficulty, and then writing as much down for the other questions to rack up points. The extra credit is huge because there isn't a midterm or final, just 4 exams, and that meant that I could've missed the last exam and gotten a 96. It is, however, still a weeder class so the averages on the tests were still in the 55-70 range but he does curve on top of the extra credit. Discussion attendance is recorded and mandatory, but I would just walk in, scan a QR code and walk out. I think it's well within possibility to excel in this class (especially given that an A- is an 80%), so I would recommend Vassiliev if you can handle the accent and the lectures.

Professor Vassiliev is a great professor. His exam is challenging but doable. As long as you master all of his homework assignments and practice, you will be fine. He offers tons of extra credit in his exams and tests. Some of the extra credits are just free points for you. Also, if you show your work, you will at least get some partial credits. One thing you have to get over is his accent, and I took about 4-5 lectures to get used to his accent. Overall, I will recommend him as your Physics 1A professor.

I really loved VVV's teaching this quarter. He is of course brilliant, and doing astrophysics research. He makes a lot of the material from the textbook feel intuitive and real. I still wanted to read the textbook, and did, which was of course very helpful. Still, specially with the denser concepts towards the end of the quarter, lecture felt much more natural than textbook reading. He is very kind, and always willing to answer any questions you have. I spent a lot of time in office hours this quarter, and have thoroughly enjoyed learning from him and spending time with him. He is also a fair grader, and often encourages and grants regrade requests on exams. His exams offer a lot of credit opportunity for those who can excel, but are still graded decently friendly for the average student. He likes for his students to understand the material well which is reflected in his teaching (often deriving things and writing his own slides/modifying textbook material to communicate material naturally, thoroughly, and intuitively) and his exams.

triple v is da goat

Professor Vassiliev is clearly dedicated to ensuring his students grasp the material, demonstrating a genuine interest in our learning. However, there are significant challenges in understanding his lectures that need to be addressed to improve the overall learning experience.

Firstly, Professor Vassiliev’s strong accent, combined with frequent mumbling, makes it difficult to follow his explanations during class. This issue is further compounded by the poor quality of the microphone, which often results in muffled audio. As a result, many students struggle to pay attention and fully comprehend the content being presented.

One potential solution to these challenges is for Professor Vassiliev to record his lectures. Recorded lectures would allow students to replay sections they find difficult to understand, providing the opportunity to better grasp the material at their own pace. Additionally, these recordings could include clearer audio, which would significantly enhance comprehension.

The good thing was that the final is not cumulative but instead there are 4 midterms/exams which are well paced in my opinion. The only reason I didnt struggle was becasue I had a background in Physics. If you did not, this is going to be insanely hard.

Professor Vassiliev has a way of frustrating you and intriguing you at the same time. In 8 AM lectures, he is almost impossible to understand, but it is clear that he is passionate about his subject and wants you to love it as much as him. I learned almost the whole subject through the textbook, but I gained a newfound appreciation for Physics by visiting office hours, where we could spend close to an hour talking about a single problem. One-on-one, he is a far better teacher than during lecture, so if you sign up for this class, take advantage of office hours more than lecture time. His exams are quite difficult. There are 4 across the quarter, and no final exam in Week 11. Each exam and homework assignment has a lot of extra credit opportunities, so it's good idea to at least attempt the homework ones. If you're a Physics god, try the exam ones too.

I am writing this review for Physics 1A. This website sucks.

Take another professor or take this class over the summer. VVV will not help you at all. His lectures are horrible and flush you out with information that is either 1) straight out of the textbook or 2) derivations that he doesn't explain. The best way I can describe this professor is that he is basically a narrator. He only goes over what's on the slides or talks in gibberish. It is impossible to full comprehend what he is talking about without uncertainty. He never explains where things come from or helps connect the dots which is important because Physics is filled to the brim with word problems. This is supposed to be an easy class as it is the first physics class; the concepts aren't too difficult to understand and the formulas aren't very complicated but for some reason this guy wants to overcomplicate things. The answers to the homework problems are all online. Otherwise, you can struggle. Read the textbook to get a basic understanding but the problems are complicated & you get a 25% deduction when your answer is wrong for any problem. This prof. offers a generous amount of extra credit but considering it's asking things more difficult than the exam questions themselves good luck even getting a single extra point. Also, his lectures aren't recorded, but he posts the slides so copying down that works too I guess.

Positives: VVV has a soul and is very passionate about Physics. He does not belong as a teacher, but he is cool and quite obviously pretty intelligent. He laughs every five seconds when anything weird, funny, unique, or easy pops up in a lecture. His grading scheme is very easy and generous, 30% is a C- and the grades increment by 10% i.e. C is 40%, C+ is 50%, etc. So, if you are a strong Physics student, or can teach yourself excellently, taking this class won't ruin you or anything, but you won't learn anything new from the professor. Exams aren't too complicated, just study the homework.

Also, hope you have a good TA. Mine just sat there and went through the problems and just narrated them. There are no resources to help you understand things outside of yourself so just cross your fingers and hope for the best. UCLA undergrad STEM is a joke.

It's pathetic some other dude in the comments try to show off their brilliance by saying VVV is easy and beautiful. This is not the class where I felt the beauty of physics. A year later, I also don't remember much what I learned.