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.

Vlad is a kind-hearted old man who is undoubtedly a genius but lacks a few basic but critical skills to make this class manageable. His accent is definitely a factor to consider because at 8am he is unintelligible without 110% focus, which I often could not muster. The real kicker however was that the slides and formula were PREWRITTEN AND NOT DERIVED LIVE. No other math or science class that I've taken has ever had every formula prewritten and not allowed students to derive along with the professor. This makes it extremely difficult to remain engaged - instead of following along with the lecture, we would have to copy down the lecture frantically while Vlad rambled in the background.
The demonstrations that supposedly make mechanics interesting were mediocre at best, although that had more to do with faulty equipment than it did with Vlad's teaching. The tests were difficult but also closely rooted in textbook problems and curved somewhat generously with extra credit opportunities, so in theory they should have been approachable to a well-prepared student. The worked out solutions to homework problems would make a huge difference - I found them in week 8 but they would have greatly enhanced my understanding if they had been outright provided instead of pirated independently.

Overall, as far as Physics 1A goes Professor VVV is certainly not the worst possible options. He means well and wants his students to succeed because he is passionate about physics. Unfortunately, his inability to deliver lectures in a meaningful or engaging way is his one downfall, but thanks to my AP physics background I was able to skate by.

There was very little opportunity for help and I feel as if the professor didn't teach to what was on the test. I also never did get past his accent. His slides are also horrible. I had no prior physics knowledge so this was quite the struggle.

I wouldn't recommend VVV for anyone who didn't take physics in high school. I took AP physics C and I agree with this previous review that said his lectures were only barely comprehensible with 110% focus. If you slip for one second, he leaves you in the dust as you scramble to copy down derivations that you don't fully understand. Personally, I feel like he overcomplicated introductory physics. Our TA Noah was the only TA of the course and managed like 200 students. He was pretty goated tho and was the saving grace of this course.

There is generous extra credit from HW and exams. Try the HW and textbook questions w/o chatgpt. If you can, get your hands on past exams. In our class of 171, there were 10 A+, 12 A, and 29 A-. Overall, VVV means well, and wants students to succeed, but... doesn't really set people up to do that.

Avoid this class if you can.

He offers a lot of extra credit through homework and tests but tests are still extremely challenging (avg is around 50%)

Professor Vladimir, or "triple V" cares about having students learn but lacks clarity in his lectures; he dresses nicely, however. Although he posted slides, I would often resort to the required Pearson textbook that was much simpler and easier to understand. I'm only getting by because I took AP Physics 1. HW is assigned through the textbook, so you gotta buy it. Problems on tests and hw were complex. Oh yeah, you do lose points for getting a question wrong on the hw, 10 attempts each, 10% deduction each error, but the extra helps pad it up. The exams imo were too difficult because most of the questions asked to solve for unknown variables and complicated the calculations. I guess he expected everyone to be a physics genius. There is extra credit on the exam, a lot, so that can help make up some points. The saving grace of this class is that he curves your grades from the start; a 30% overall grade in his class is passing. On average, people score a 50%, which is good, but expect to study even more. I wouldn't take him again, but he wouldn't be my last option. I'd rate him 4/10 tacos

VVV is very smart and he is very willing to help you can tell he is passionate about the subject and very welcoming in office hours. However, his lectures are not very educational. For one, he rarely writes anything down and it is just all prewritten down, so while you copy it down, he explains it and you miss all of it. He just talks to you for 4 hours of lecture a week in a mildly thick accent. He also overcomplicates the subject far more than it has to be, maybe because he is coming from an advanced physics background, but it often makes concepts a lot more confusing. His tests are almost always no numbers just variables. It is helpful if you like the centered focus on the chapters, so that you don't have to review TOO much since there isn't a final just a test for the last few chapters, but he again tries to overcomplicate it so that unless you are attuned to all topics you don't do that well. I realistically would advise against him, but there isn't much better I don't think, and given the resources he provides and the willingness to help, you will survive. Many people stopped showing up to lecture after the first half of the quarter if that gives you any intuition on whether or not to attend. Good luck!

TLDR: If you did well in AP Physics C Mech, this class is an easy A and even A+ because there’s so many extra credit opportunities.

However, Prof. Vassiliev’s lectures were often extremely convoluted and were a jumble of equation derivations and complicated algebra which in my opinion, were not necessary at all for answering most of the exam questions. The textbook problems and chapters were mostly all you need to succeed in this class. The downside was that it was mandatory to purchase the textbook (~$35) to complete the Pearson MyLab Mastering Physics HW problems.

For context, however, I came in already having done AP Physics C and having completed all of the lower division math requirements, including 32AB and 33AB which will make learning the concepts and methods in this class significantly easier.

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.