Professor Vassiliev seems like he's very smart and knowledgeable in physics, but unfortunately that doesn't make him a good teacher. I had him for Physics 1BH, so maybe it's a different story for his upper division courses, but he had a way of making things more confusing and had little patience when students didn't understand what he was teaching (which was pretty often).

He also looks and acts a lot like the bad guy from the Professionals, which creeped me out.

you must be out of your mind to take anyone other than vvv for quantum mechanics.

Why would you want to take another professor? This guy knows his stuff, he teaches it in an awesome way (though he tends to overlap too often so we don't get to enough of the material), and he sounds like a bad guy from a James Bond movie. Seriously though, go to office hours if you get him because there is no doubt he will hate your class for being idiots (because everyone will be too intimidated to answer his questions for fear of answering incorrectly) and you will succeed. He's a great one-on-one teacher, and he also has some interesting ideas about quantum mechanics.

I'll start off by saying Vassiliev is a very nice, approachable guy. The curve in this class was very generous, and there were plenty of opportunities to get extra credit. He makes it impossible to not pass the class.

However, IF YOU CONSIDER YOURSELF AN AVERAGE OR BELOW AVERAGE PHYSICS STUDENT KEEP READING. My grades in the 1 series and 105A lead me to believe I'm an average physics student here at UCLA. And if you're like me (no shame in being average at one of the best universities in the world of course), RUN THE OTHER WAY. Vassiliev holds his students to very high standards; he thinks we came out of the womb knowing linear algebra in Einstein notation (what?) I was lost from the start and never found my way back. Weekly homework assignments with 4 problems took up to 12 hours and an enormous amount of help from my TA and friends to complete. I've always loved mechanics and I loved 105A but all throughout this quarter I just wanted it to be over.

Vassiliev is an excellent instructor, don't listen to anyone if they say otherwise. He tries to teach us high level material and I greatly appreciate that as well as his enthusiasm for teaching. However, along with high level material comes a fast work pace and a requirement for pre-existing knowledge. These two conditions cause some issues in the class. Some topics moved very quickly and could not be covered in sufficient detail such that the whole class could understand. Vassiliev taught the methods out of the Marion book but the official class book was Taylor (this should definitely be changed). In addition, due to the nature of the material, myself and many other students felt lost from the very start of the class. Some of us managed to pick it up as the quarter went on but many remained lagging behind. Again to reiterate, I loved Vassiliev and will be taking another class with him next quarter, however, I do feel he certainly has areas which need improvement. Also he speaks and looks like a bond villain, is named freaking VVV and grunts in the affirmative to himself all the time "mmhmm". I recommend Vassiliev 7/10.

The course material for 105B can be very challenging, and Vassiliev tends to do some things differently from the books. The homework problem sets take ages to finish, and often can't be done unless you get some help from the TA. However, Vassiliev is very generous with the curves on the tests and offers A LOT of extra credit. If you take the time to understand the material, and go to office hours, you'll be able to get an A.
TLDR- Time consuming and hard class with, but still sort of an easy A

The professor introduced a lot of concepts in class, however, none can be found directly on the textbooks and he tends to skip around class materials a lot. In addition, he gave out a lot of extra credits on hw and test (although none of us have time to do them). I will say the class is really hard and he didn't explain all concept thoroughly. The exercises he gave out during discussions are also not that relatable to class material either.

VVV is I think the best QM professor at UCLA. His tests are tough but fair and with lots of extra credit opportunities. His grading scale is also very generous, so as long as you do the homeworks and score about average on exams you should be fine. The material is also really interesting and useful in any field. Its all just ways to approximate differential equations that can't be easily solved. If you have the chance to take it with vvv you definitely should

VVV has his own way of understanding physics, and lecturing them out, so you probably need some time to get used to his style. However, once you manage to keep pace, you'll find that he really has a profound knowledge in physics, and his point of views on various materials are thorough and in logic with each other. Each time I ask him a question, I will always get even more than I ask for from his answer. If you choose VVV, it is definitely a hard path, but if you manage it, you'll get much more than you expect.

Yes, the other reviews are true - this is not an easy class BUT it is worth all the struggle, especially if you are interested in physics. Vassiliev will spend most of his lectures going over problems that seem incredibly difficult at first, but actually end up being manageable and doable with our current physics knowledge. Personally I really appreciated that but I can understand how that's not everyone's deal. He certainly goes above and beyond the course material but a key thing to note is that none of the extra topics or concepts are on the tests. You can totally rely 100% on the textbook and homework and get an A in the class.

Additionally, there is quite a bit of extra credit on both the homework and exams, and you will likely get over 100% on many of your homework assignments. His exams can certainly throw you for a loop, but I would say they're still very fair. And if all you're looking for is to pass the class, a 30% in the class was curved to a C, so I doubt any of us failed, despite the apparent difficulty of his lectures.

Overall, definitely take Vassiliev's class if you have a strong interest and background in physics, and even if you don't have either of those, the class is designed so an A is certainly still very possible.