PHYSICS 4AL has been one of the most frustrating classes I have ever taken. The workload was HUGE even with the help of softwares like MATLAB and LaTeX (did learnt a lot of these tho). The worst thing of all is that my TA held a very strict standard, while the instructions of the report were LOOSE and UNCLEAR. I got a shit tone of points deducted from places I never expected!

Overall, the class tends to punish you for what you miss, instead of encouraging you to improve your work. That is just HIDEOUS.

4AL made my quarter miserable. The labs are usually simple but frustrating, and the lab reports take FOREVER. The labs have been changed from past years so that you start off with a simple homework assignment, and a new element of the lab report is added each week until you write a hellish full lab report in week 10. We also had to write a random research report for the second lab.

You start the quarter by spending ~5-10 hours writing a lab, and ramp it up every week until you spend 20 hours on a 5,000+ word lab report. The lab manual isn't clear about what you're supposed to write either. The grading is completely arbitrary.

trash class honestly, they're trying to make it better (and I appreciate that) but seriously for 2 units I spend so much time writing up annoying lab reports and trying to get a god damn laser to shine on a god damn string for 2 hours. fuck I'm still angry about how tedious the labs are.

Anyway, pro-tip: a great TA goes a long way in making this class not a total nightmare. Kiera Fuller was my TA, and she's great, really helpful, describes things that weren't clear in the lab manual, and is overall a wonderful human being. She's also pretty lenient with late submissions (as long as you don't take advantage and submit stuff like super late all the time) and always helpful in office hours.

For a 2.0 unit class, I spent more time writing labs for this class than studying for my other major-required 4.0-5.0 unit classes.

The grading scheme should be updated. One visit to BruinWalk and you will read that many students agree with this logic. In this class, it is possible for a student to receive a a high grade on a report, but receive a C because other classmates averaged higher. This is by far the factor that demotivated me the most. A learning environment such as a lab should be designed to reward students for effort, and for participating in the experimental experience. A lab manual does not substitute for a professor and therefore grading should not be harsh on students' lab reports. With no professor, and only Helen's help during two hours for the entire week + email, the class should not have a curve which gives 1/3 A's, 1/3B's and 1/3 "C's and below".

Campbell, the professor, was not present to discuss the formatting and presentation of these labs. I have heard great things about this professor but unfortunately did not see him let alone learn anything from him or get any personal advice about the lab manual.

I wish the lab reports weren't so harshly graded. This is a class where you can lose a substantial amount of points if the TA does not particularly agree with the formatting of my report, even after spending multiple hours upon hours writing it. Participation grading + Completion should be more heavily weighted than the format of the report.

Run completely by TAs -- never saw the professor. Unreal amount of time for lab reports. Labs themselves are pretty basic, but take longer than they should because the TA is useless. All grading is completely subjective, so most points taken off reports are for font/size/diagram placement not meeting the grader's preference rather than actual report content. BEST ADVICE: find someone who has taken the course and look at their graded lab reports to get a sense of how to format and the types of things you'll get docked for.

I don't understand why people are so butthurt about this class on here. Yeah it sucks and it's too much work for 2 units, but so are all the other engineering labs. And this lab is actually significantly easier and less time consuming than others (ie. CS 35L) since NO new content is covered, NO new physics material is learned, and all you have to do to ace the labs is write a lot of educated-sounding BS about your procedure/methods while closely following all the guidelines in the book (those of you who took IB in high school are probably also experts at this).

This course took me no more than one day a week to write the labs (about 7-8 hours per lab), and I just made sure to write a lot (usually 20+ pages, double spaced) and thoroughly label my graphs to get good grades on all of them. Although this class sucked because of the length of write-ups, it'll help you get really proficient with using Excel, and it basically requires no brainpower since you don't have to learn or understand anything new about physics. Just a lot plotting and typing, you'll get an A.

Coming from a guy who got an A+, this class is absolutely terrible. Read any of the below reviews to understand why.

I feel like I don't really need to write anything bc all the other reviews have said it all. My least favorite class so far at UCLA. Only 2 units but SO much work. You're spending at least 8-10 hours a week to do a lab report that is basically useless. The last two lab reports are combined (6&7) and this took me almost 20 pages and 20 hours of work. The formatting is v strict and you don't really know what is considered "correct" formatting until you have had points taken away. The lab manual doesn't explain things well and you're either left with unsatisfactory data or data you don't really know how to use until you struggle over it for hours back in your dorm room. The curve that is set makes sense in theory since TA's grade with different harshness; however, it makes NO SENSE that 1/3 should get As, 1/3 should get Bs, and 1/3 get Cs. You're graded against the approx. 20 other people in your class meaning only 7 of you will get an A. (not including A-'s). That means if you're working with a partner (or two), the chances of you getting an A is relatively small. tldr: horrible class with extremely heavy workload for 2 units and terrible curve. I would say not to take it but you don't have a choice :-)

Okay this class flat out sucks-and if you are an engineer you basically have to take it. So here is what you do: take it during the summer if you can, work with friends (trust me it wont kill the curve), and learn from your mistakes early on in the class.

First some words on Campbell-he will never be in the class it is taught by you TA 100% Campbell is the one responsible for the sadistic grading scale. It is a strict curve against your OWN section so 1/3 of the 20 students will get A/A- etc. As a student who scored a high grade my advice is that you get older labs to model yours off of and learn from. Lol don't even try to copy, you have to put it through Turn it in. Work with friends in your section and out of your section-compile your lab reports don't make the same mistake you made last week and don't make the same ones your friends did. Keep in mind they grade every single small detail...from commas to tick marks and even printing errors! DO all the extra credit-remember it is a curved class so you kind of have to do it.

Also the work load for this class was insane 10th week I had to write up a 30 page report that too about 30+ hours to do (this happens basically every week if you want a good grade) Usually reports are 15 pages long and take 15-20 hours to do.

If you work with friends then you guys will all set the curve and that is what you need to get a good grade or else be prepared for a really rough time.

Campbell if you ever read this seriously remove the curve there is no need for it and try to listen to the 100's of student who have probably tried to tell you this.

This class is absolutely ridiculous and poorly run. Most of what I have to say has already been said below, with regard to the failings of this class to actually teach any useful physics or have a consistent grading scheme. I did have a nice TA, but unfortunately niceness does not make up for petty grading and a lack of clarity in what was expected for lab reports. Nevertheless, he did have a great quote about this class - "It's not a physics class, it's a report writing class" - with which I agree wholeheartedly. This class does NOT teach you any physical concepts - you are working at a much higher level of complexity in the 1 series. Yet beyond that, it barely even teaches you scientific writing. The majority of the red marks on my returned lab reports had nothing to do with the quality or style of my writing - they were petty points taken off for graphs or other formatting that didn't look EXACTLY as the professor desired (even though many of these requirements were written exactly NOWHERE in the lab manual). What would make this class more palatable is a required format for lab reports listed at the top of the lab manual, so one doesn't have to search through the 100 page long lab manual to find what the professor wants for each section. Beyond this, however, would be a much greater emphasis on physics and a lesser emphasis on the style of writing Prof. Campbell wants grad students to come into his lab with. My only theory for why Prof. Campbell tells the TA's to grade the reports with such a laser focus on minutiae is that grad students were coming into his lab not knowing how to write physics papers. For the 5% of the class who are physics majors, this MAY be a worthy use of their time (and that 5% is a generous estimation). For the VAST majority of the other students, this class is a waste of up to 13 hours a week (including lab time) for a 2-unit class who's grading scheme punishes smart classes. Overall, this is an extremely poorly designed class that is useless for many majors (especially CS, which I am). Hopefully, departments throughout South Campus will begin to realize how useless this class is for their major and STOP making it a prereq.