Dr. Tung is an excellent professor who really cares about his students. He explains concepts very easily and always addresses questions throughly. His homework policy is very generous as its not due till the end of the quarter and if you do more than 65% you can receive Extra Credit. Exams were definitely fair overall. The multiple choice portion was pretty straightforward but the free response was definitely more difficult. It was still very doable for a 24 hr exam. I highly recommend Shardul if he is a Lab TA for 5A because he made labs really enjoyable. I highly recommend Dr. Tung for any physics class.

Tung is a great professor! He speaks in a manner that is very straight-forward and clear. He's able to break down concepts well and gives relevant examples. He cares very much about the students, his tests are fair and similar to the homework and in-class questions. He gives us review sessions before the midterms, which are exactly like the tests. You just need to do the homework and go to his review sessions in order to do well on the class.

I'm retaking this class with a different professor right now because I was unable to finish the first time due to personal issues. I'm coming back to say that, after taking this class with a different prof (Rombes), I think that the way Tung teaches makes the course a lot harder than it needs to be. His lectures were engaging for the most part, and he was good at explaining things clearly, but I think he tried to teach concepts in a way that was too in-depth for an intro physics course. There are a lot of things in my old notes from this course that haven't even been mentioned in the one I'm taking now because they're not necessary to understand the curriculum.

If you like physics and want a deep, integrated understanding of the different concepts in 5A, then this might be the professor for you. Otherwise, I found that other profs like Rombes make their courses a little more beginner friendly.

Great dude. So worth taking

This was easily one of the worst classes I have taken at UCLA. Professor Tung started off well and after reading some reviews I was excited for his class because people made it seem as though he made physics more digestible. This could not be further from the truth. Not only did he teach us nothing related to what we would be tested on, he also gave us no practice material so there was no way to even teach yourself the concepts. A lot of the other reviews for Fall of 2025 are much lengthier and I recommend people look at those to see just how bad this class was, but please just DO NOT TAKE IT.

It was an absolute honor to take Physics 1A with Dr. Tung! I was very scared about taking this class beforehand as I had never taken a Physics course in high school before, but his clear explanations and demonstrations really made physics intuitive for me. His midterms weren't a walk in the park, but they were very doable given the 24 hours he gave. Some tips: I strongly recommend going over class examples before the midterms and exams and making sure you understand every step. Also, the homework and worksheets he assigns are often much harder than his exams, so it's more useful to focus on Tung's lectures to study.

The few lectures that Tung gave this quarter were very engaging, and I could tell that he has a genuine passion for physics. However, considering the range of material we learn in 5A, I don't think the class was appropriately paced. He spent the first 3 weeks of the quarter explaining displacement, and crammed some of the most important topics (that extend to 5B/5C) in the last 2 weeks of the course. Furthermore, the videos that he sent to us were past lectures for Phys 1A, so it was unclear what we should be studying for the final. Homework and extra-credit supplementary math assignments are assigned through Kudu, which I found to be an unhelpful AI-heavy resource. Focusing more on the discussion worksheets and review sessions from our TAs was much more helpful for exams than any of the material Tung provided.

While I understand that Tung was going through a tough time, his lack of communication throughout this quarter, not just with students but with his TAs, was unacceptable. It's genuinely distressing to think about how much stress this guy probably put on Jinyang and James, who basically ran his class for him despite having their own PhDs to worry about.

Overall, I'm disappointed that I paid UC tuition for this class. Stay away from Tung if you aren't interested in taking a class that's almost entirely AI generated. If you have to take him, you might be lucky if your TAs are as gracious as ours were this quarter.

Ooooooooooooommggg there are no words to explain the stress and frustration I felt in this class. Genuinely. I have never felt so disrespected by a professor in my life. I understand that he had a personal situation and I hope all is well with his family but I don't think it's fair that he left us to rot. This dude spent the first 3 weeks explaining displacement and then left us until finals. Take this class if you're cool with disregarding every single piece of information he puts out and completely learning everything yourself. Not to mention that every email he sent was AI generated and WRONG. We are lucky that we had TAs as great as we did who really wanted us to succeed and tried their absolute best. His homework is shit and does not help during exams in the slightest. I recommend pulling a Tung and just Chatgpting that because it is not worth your time. I will give him the benefit of the doubt and say that he does really seem to love physics.

So many things to say about this professor, but long story short, do not take him if you WANT to learn physics. It was absolutely draining this quarter to be in his class.

If you want to take an AI generated class content, no professor, and self-teach yourself the whole quarter without any practice materials, Tung is for you. I do not know what happened this year but he was absolutely unprofessional this quarter, leaving his students stranded (as you can probably read with other comments from F25).

The first midterm was absolutely awful given the fact that we didn’t have any solid foundation of knowledge and practice materials given/presented by professor.

Second midterm was hard (in my personal opinion) I self studied, did all the kudu homework and TA’s review notes but did not get up to my expectation. I am not sure how people were able to find his past exams as he never published it and no one in physics group me shared any resources/past midterms to each other, so obviously people who already understand/taken physics and people who have his past midterms already have advantage.

The final came like a truck and boom, we spent total 3 lectures on the new topics and 80% of them were on questions he never even showed before. I am absolutely mortified for my grades and GPA. This is my first quarter here and it just sucks to think that my tuition went towards this awful education system.

When I tell you I lost hair, sleep, sanity, and my dignity over this quarter, I am not exaggerating in the slightest; and look at the other reviews both prior AND I know damn well there will be some subsequent to mine to back everything up. I began the quarter honestly very terrified for the content of this class, specifically, as I'm not some goated AP Physics warrior; my high school barely offered basic math so yeah, I'd say I had NO PRIOR KNOWLEDGE. For the first 3 weeks, this fact didn't seem like it would hinder my ability to excel in this class, so long as I put in the work (which I was damn well prepared to do). Also note of subtle foreshadowing, Tung spent one whole class period, of the few actually in person, demonizing how Chatgpt could do anything he asked us to do in this class but we just needed to be smarter than it....how the turn tables...just keep reading.....However, as others have said on that fateful October day, in person, Tung Tung Tung warned us about an upcoming medical situation that he could be out for 1 maybe 2 weeks. We were incredibly sympathetic to this and understood; and I was expecting maybe a zoom lecture or something of that nature. but NO, that is not what we got.

Tung got sick first then proceeded to prolong his absence (I'm not trying to pass judgment on a situation I am totally unaware of personally) for THE NEXT 6 WEEKS AND SENT US HELLA VIDEOS FROM PHYSICS 1A. YEAH I KNOW WHY WE TAKE 5A INSTEAD OF 1A BECAUSE YOU ARE A LIFE SCIENCE MAJOR, YOU DONT WANT ANY OF THAT CALC BS. The videos, prerecorded from years ranging from 2021-2024 were all skewed in content and some weeks he even just kept sending as the same fuckass video about centrifugal force and the anti-gravity ride (which I will never fuck up at the county fair anymore due to the nightmares I've now been subject to...). Okay, despite Tung's personal circumstances, we are all aware of how tuition makes our pockets hurt, and I personally pay for that tuition to get in person, enhanced classes from a world renowned university. What we got is tears compared to that. I feel scammed out of an education I worked so hard for, all thanks to Tung's lack of preparation or action to mitigate the pre-existing situation. The class just kept further digging itself in a hole and Tung's absence was not only physical, as he fully lost communication with students, TAs, and admin through this 'unprecedented' time so you can say.

The communication we did get, as like Tung's whole being, was AI generated, given all of his office hours were canceled. I know others have mentioned this but lemme just copy the words Tung sent us (at first they were hella funny but weren't funny once I realized bro uses ai for everything including exams pretty sure...)

Okay first email: "You're right, let's lock in those details. Adding the note about emails is a very smart move. It's a "pro-student" way of managing your own backlog.Here is the revised, finalized draft. It's ready to copy and send." 3:33 PM

Second (FOS) email: "It appears I accidentally included some of my personal drafting notes at the top of the last announcement.Please disregard that extra text. " 3:40 PM

Bro realized he was fried; bro is NOT PRO STUDENT BRO IS PRO STUDENTS FAIL AND HAVE DEPRESSION OVER TS. Okay but in all seriousness why can't you even write a few lines of your email? You clearly have extra time given that you are reusing ass videos that spend 6/7 of the time talking about other class (1A), and the whole homework (Kudu) is also Ai and is absolute hairless cat shit. Now you cannot even take accountability for doing the exact thing you discouraged so heavily way back in the days of week 1? Nah thats some bs

Another tangent, everyone cheated on the midterms too and yes I know they may not have been most difficult, yet I saw and heard of countless people pulling out their literal phones and using chat gpt or fully taking the test with their seat neighbor. No wonder averages are that high....The TAs (bless their hearts I love them both so much) had no way of regulating this in any way, as there's like 200-300 people doing this exam, they can only take so many actions against each individual. I never cheated and it made me extremely anxious that everyone else was so I did horrible on the first midterm; unsure of what to even expect anyways. Maybe a bs excuse but seriously it was just so upsetting and insane. But don't worry! the average was upwards of 90 (insane tbh) and I did ass, and it made me so discouraged, but the second midterm I was able to self-study a lot and pull it together and do pretty good besides the stupid mcqs I'd misread (be careful about that those easy ones can trip you up). Tung didn't give any resources to be successful on such exams; so I suggest doing what I did and finding practice exams online or joining a PLF session.

You can see everyone elses comments about the final bc i know they'll have stuff to say as well. But what I will say is that if James or Jinyan is reading this---you are heaven and angels sent from above. The TA review sessions are the only reason I even feel mildly confident about my performance on the final. They truly cared so much about our learning and understood the gravity (tehe) of the circumstances we were in and did the most to give us everything they could. They deserve a raise or 67,000 dollars in compensation for their sacrifices. They have their own PhD and lives to worry about but were selfless enough to put all 600 of us on their backs to carry us; both parties in extreme disdain. They truly made the only content I actually feel like i learned based on their worksheets and reviews for all the exams.

I just hope this shit gets curved or adjusted by the department itself and they realize the pain we endured and we all get the As we deserve. I know Tung had these difficulties and I hope everything is okay in his personal life as I do find myself an empathetic person; yet simultaneously, I feel for the thousands of dollars we all paid for a stressful experience in which we have all earned nothing. I want 1/3 of my tuition back!! Good luck to 5b soldiers, hopefully we have a redemption arc... Good luck to any of y'all in Tungs class now, maybe he will actually show up to class. Don't be fooled by his stunts of dressing up as Indiana Jones or jumping off a table or swinging a glass around; he is a performative male at his core.