Corbin is an extremely divisive professor and very hard to evaluate. For context, I had him for Physics 1A also. Before I start griping, Corbin is definitely good at explaining physics. He explains concepts well and breaks things down so that everything is understandable. That being said, while I feel I had a very strong conceptual understanding, as Corbin did a lot of derivations, I often felt unprepared for the quizzes and tests. Also Corbin could go on long tangents about radios, which was often only slightly related to the content he talked about.

Corbin did biweekly quizzes, as this quarter was partly online. Those quizzes could be very brutal at times, with concepts he talked about for a few minutes, coming back to bite you. The average scores on these quizzes ranged anywhere from 40-70%, even though he is pretty generous with partial credit. During this quarter of 1B, Corbin also set up Mastering Physics to deduct points for every incorrect attempt. This made the homework a lot more stressful to do, as with the multiple choice questions, you essentially only had one or two attempts to get it right.

Corbin also does curve, however I was one of the unlucky ones. Corbin basically gives the top third of the class A, middle third B, and bottom third C. He sets cutoffs for grades based on putting people into these three categories. I was a few people below the cutoff for A, so I got a B. This was frustrating, as Corbin also does not do + or -.

All in all, Corbin is a mixed professor. I didn't enjoy the subject much, and Corbin didn't particularly help with that. If you really enjoy physics and don't mind the strong possibility of a B or C, you'll like Corbin.

I absolutely loved taking this class with Corbin. Prior to the start of the quarter, I had heard so much about how he's a great lecturer but has difficult tests. Safe to say I was nervous for the class, but I can without hesitating say that I will take any class with Professor Corbin again if I get the chance.
I had never been very interested in physics. Before the summer, I hadn't taken a physics class with a professor who could actually get me excited about it. Corbin getting me excited about physics is putting it lightly. I cannot begin to explain how much I loved having him as a teacher. I think I could safely say that throughout my experience at UCLA, he has been one of my favorite professors.
Every day, I would go to lecture excited to learn. Obviously, with all his years of experience, Corbin is a great lecturer, but he went above and beyond just being great. I didn't have to look at the textbook once, because he was just that good at teaching us about everything relevant to the course. He would teach us the concepts flawlessly while also connecting it to the real world and diving into the applications of the topics we learned. For example, I have never been so interested in a concept such as the frequency of radio waves until he spoke about it. Him explaining his hobbies of tuning radios and listening for satellites at different frequencies made me want to pursue hobbies relating to physics outside of class. As someone who hadn't previously been interested in physics, I would sometimes walk out of class feeling like I was interested enough in it to pursue a career in physics. I think a professor who can lecture and get students this excited to learn has such a special power.
Of course, it isn't all fun and games. Professor Corbin is very well-known for his difficult exams, and unfortunately, I will say that the final exam I took for this class was the hardest test I've ever taken. So yes, it's safe to say that his exams will challenge his students. Yet again, I have to say that I wasn't upset by this. Yes, the exam was difficult, but I felt like after all I had learned from his lectures, I wanted to face challenging problems to see how well I could perform the skills I'd learned. The best part? Corbin doesn't grade based on how many problems you get right. He grades based on how well you've shown your mastery of the skills, which helps out a lot with your final grade in the class.
In conclusion, this is an interesting class, but in my opinion, Corbin is what makes it incredible. It may not have been the easy-A class I'd hope for, but I loved the experience of taking his class and I would do it again every single time. I definitely recommend taking a class with Professor Corbin if you get the opportunity to, because it is such an incredible experience. Having a professor like him could be life-changing for your education and career path.

Stopped going to lectures after midterm 2. For how hard his tests are, basically everyone fails, so as long as you stay within the average, a B is very easy to get. And the average would be around 30%. For his tests he gives a lot of partial credit so much to the point where if you wrote some scrabble for each questions (random equations and solving them) you'd get credit. If you got some form of credit for each question that would be enough for the mean, giving you a B.

This class was a lot of work. Going into it I knew I would have to work incredibly hard to try to get a passing grade, but as time went on, I stopped working as hard -- BIG MISTAKE. The hardest part about this class is undoubtedly the tests, but more specifically studying for the tests. I only really started studying for the tests/ doing homework problems about 5 days before the test (sometimes like 3 days). This was definitely not the right approach. You have to force yourself to do the homework early. Although it's not the best representation of what'll be on the test (given the homework uses numbers and the test only uses variables), it will get you used to the equations that you'll have to memorize for the test, and what each equation means. I would recommend going to office hours and go with at least one question- this way the professor will get to know your name and know that you care about your grade (which I think helped my grade in this class). But if you start your studying for the test like the week before the test, you should have questions about processes and when to apply concepts, which will clear things up in finishing studying for the test. Ultimately, when studying, I would say to start early and review ALL of the examples he gave in class and make sure you can do those yourself, and, especially for electricity, go watch youtube videos to possibly go through example problems and have them explain how they work. I would say the second hardest thing in this class is understanding how to solve problems, because he doesn't like doing homework problems for you in office hours, so it makes it difficult knowing how to actually solve problems -- for this, I would go to your TA's office hours and have them solve it. Although, they might not be the most helpful, at least you'll see a process and approach to a problem you're struggling with, and then you can try to read textbook examples/homework examples to try to understand the process better.

Undoubtedly a difficult class, but I would say to not get too comfortable in just going to class and taking notes. Like, every weekend you should try to do homework problems/example problems to try to re-understand your notes, because it'll make your studying for the test a lot easier if you are more familiar with the in class material, and don't have to spend hours trying to re-remember how he approached a certain problem.

I know this was a lengthy response, but I am trying to give my advice on how to approach this class, if I were to take it again.

This class is a fever dream. Every single lecture I walk out with a bunch of notes that don't make sense to me. I rarely ever confidently box an answer on the exams. I truly believed that I would not be able to pass the class. But as long as you put in the effort to dissect his notes and do practice questions, the curve will save your grade. This is not to say that Corbin doesn't know what he's doing- it's actually very clear that he knows a lot about what he's teaching. It's just that he's not the best when it comes to breaking down the concepts he's presenting in a clear way. There are also no recordings/ zooms/ adequate resources or prof notes/ slides to refer to when studying. I felt pretty isolated in the whole process, so make sure to go to discussion and office hours at the very least.

This class will kick your ass. About every engineer I've talked to has a Corbin horror story. Get ready for tests with averages in the 30s and content that makes you question your choices in life. Electric fields and voltage distribution is the hardest content I've been exposed to in my first year. All that being said, Corbin's lectures are engaging and he is helpful during office hours. He's a bit scary and will shoot down any questions asked during lecture, so save any of that for office hours. There is no safety net if you miss lectures as everything is 100% in person on a chalk board. At the end of the day, the grade distribution is pretty fair as it is most A's and B's. I was in the 47th percentile of the class and got a B. All in all, you'll have to work for it and accept you'll be confused a lot of the time, but it's not the worst thing in the end.

He is an astounding professor. If you are looking for a proper understanding of physics, take this class. Otherwise, absolutely avoid it. There was another review that said that you should not take this class unless you have a deranged need for complicated physics problems. I have a deranged need for complicated physics problems, so I liked it, but I would not recommend it to anyone just looking to get through their physics 1b requirement.

I had Corbin for 1A, 1B, and 1C. He's easily one of the best instructors I've ever had at UCLA.

Take Corbin if you REALLY want to learn physics. If you're looking for an easy A that can be obtained by memorizing a ton of equations and spitting them out on a test, then you should look elsewhere.

His tests tend to have low averages, but they really test if you know the material well or not. They tend to test deeper concepts, instead of just facts or simplistic examples. For instance, his lecture might discuss a simple mass on a spring for oscillations. The homework might ask about two springs attached to a mass. While his exam will go the next step, and ask about the movement of charge in an RLC circuit. While initially one would think that a circuit has nothing to do with mass and springs, upon further analysis the charge is oscillating in the circuit.

His lectures are pretty good. He's reasonably entertaining; he makes a few puns here and there with varying humor rating. He introduces the material in a pretty logical fashion and he's pretty enthusiastic about the material. But most importantly he actually does the derivations on the spot. (Although occasionally he refers to his notes). He'll describe his thought processes out loud which makes it easier to understand what an equation actually means. Other instructors I've had do some textbook-like derivation with some lame examples that don't really give a good taste what an equation means, and what it can do.

He's got OH 4 times a week if you are confused. They're pretty helpful, as he'll try and sort out misconceptions you may have, and he'll also give out some other cool examples that are actually pretty interesting/pragmatic. Corbin is also pretty chill by nature, so it shouldn't be too difficult to ask him questions. Even if it's really really stupid (read: trivial), because I've asked him a boatload of "stupid" questions.

If you're an EE, you should really take this guy's 1B course. It'll actually teach you electrostatics pretty damn well if you put the time and effort into it. So much so, that EE1 becomes a "joke" compared to 1B.

As far as grades go, Corbin is one of the more difficult instructors at UCLA, but he's also not draconic in his grading policy. He's pretty fair, and understands that sometimes people have crappy testing days. He does give a reasonable amount of As/Bs out (and not too many Cs and lower). As long as you're doing 1 standard deviation+ on all the exams, you should be in the range for an A. (Don't quote me on that). The Final Exam counts the most for the class- if you haven't been doing well on the midterms, then you should be prepping yourself to murder the Final as even with poor midterm scores you can still get an A.

For reference, I managed to get an A in 1A,B,C and I can assure you that I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed haha. (Although I think I was lucky in 1C) So it IS possible!

TL;DR
Classic dilemma that a college student faces: do I want an easy A, or do I actually want to learn the material? If you really want to learn, but still want a decent chance at an A (it's not really free) then take Corbin.

Also, for entertainment purposes, you should ask him about the Color Conspiracy of Muppets.

DON'T TAKE HIS CLASS IF YOU ARE NOT A PHYSICS MAJOR OR HAVE AN ABSOLUTE DEVOTION TO THE STUDY OF PHYSICS. THE GUY IS KNOWLEDGEABLE, BUT HE INTENTIONALLY MAKES HIS TESTS DIFFICULT MAINLY TO BREAK YOUR SPIRIT. I'M NOT SURE WHAT LOW AVERAGES ARE SUPPOSED TO TEACH US. HIS LECTURES ARE ORGANIZED, I JUST LOST RESPECT FOR HIM WHEN HE CLAIMED HIS MEMORY WASN'T AS GOOD BECAUSE OF "THINGS HE SMOKES". HMMMM........MAKES ME WONDER WHAT I SHOULD BE LEARNING FROM HIM.

Corbin is probably the best professor I ever met at UCLA. He is effective, interesting and helpful. He's been holding office hour every single day the past quarter and replies emails in time. His lectures are so much fun that I always feel excited to go to his class. His tests are hard, but interesting. In short, I really enjoyed this quarter with him.