I recommend taking PHYSICS 5A with Dr. Tung. The class taught me a lot while being low stress (as every class should be). Dr. Tung’s lectures were very clear, organized, and well thought out. They were more like conceptual lectures though, so example problems in the lectures will not exactly mimic homework problems. The lectures were sort of like extended Khan Academy videos with some participation questions that were extra credit. Dr. Tung also has an extremely cool intro video that he plays at the beginning of every lecture which amazed me every time I watched it.

Homework was collected all at the end of the class. These problems mostly prepared me for tests. Some of the homework problems were difficult, so ask on Campuswire for help. Only 60% of homework is need to get full credit for the homework part of your grade. Anything else over that is extra credit.

Discussions were somewhat useful. We worked on worksheets in groups and the TA’s went over the solutions at the end of class, which cleared things up. However, this might be the case just for the session I took.

Labs were tedious, but doable. They took a long time as we had to set up and record our own videos to analyze. The labs were also extremely independent, so no one really talked to their group members during lab. My TA wasn’t that helpful, but the lab manuals had enough instruction for me to figure out most stuff on my own.

The four midterms we had were similar to homework. Each midterm was 15% each and there was no final. There were only about 15 questions on each test, so one question was 1% of your grade. That can seem intimidating, but there was a lot of extra credit in the class. We were also given 24 hours to complete it and we could use the whole 24 hours if needed, meaning there wasn’t any time limit within the 24 hours.

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

Heading into this class, I already knew from other reviews that his exams lean on the theoretical, conceptual side over calculations/plug-chug. HIs exams did reflect that, and I would say was particularly true for the first midterm (which was not that great for many people, as it was a lot of short answer for free response). Be warned that the somewhat new test format included a good amount of multiple choice, which could make/break your total score, as each question could easily be worth 3 points. You should actually learn the concepts to do well, and above the level that the slides go into. His lectures are genuinely pretty engaging with frequent demonstrations (Tung is very knowledgeable with strong interests in the material he teaches), but I wish he provided more practice resources that's not only the kudu (long, though not as difficult). I found the second midterm easier, as it was more problem-solving and I liked some of the circuit material. The final wasn't too bad, and going to TA reviews definitely helped. The only unfair thing was that the two lectures were a few days apart taking the final, and the test ended up being incredibly similar.

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.

His lectures were impressive,,, I felt like he truly understood the kind of "physics fantasy" many freshmen come in with. Topics like astronomy or quantum mechanics naturally fascinate students, and he leveraged that excitement to keep us engaged. He seemed genuinely kind and thoughtful.

I liked the idea of giving unlimited homework attempts to discourage reliance on AI tools.... that showed he was trying to promote real understanding. But honestly, I’m not sure how well it translated into exam preparation.

Personally, I found the homework platform’s UI/UX a bit frustrating and distracting.

I also heard that he would give extra curve or grade boosts to lower-performing students if we consistently did quizzes and homework, but I’m not sure if that applied to me in the end.

The first two midterms were totally fine, I had no issues at all with them and was on track to get an A in the course. And then the final came... I am not going to say that I was the best prepared I could have been for the final, because I was not. However, that final was horrible. While Tung did not reck my 4.0 as I did not have one before, he did wreck my chance of getting latin honors.

Like many others, I thought this class would be a free A and be pretty easy, as it was for the first 8 weeks. Professor Tung's lectures were fun and engaging, and were recorded, though he takes attendance through Kudu, but if you have a friend, someone could tell you to log on remotely. However, this class was horribly paced. Too much time was spent on simpler topics such as kinematics, projectile motion, and forces and not enough content was spent on during class as Tung rambles about some random topics. By week 9, Tung was rushing to get through all the material, such as equilibrium and torque, making it super difficult to grasp these topics in time. Even though Tung had said the final would be cumulative, it wasn't and was almost completely based on torque. While he does give extra credit, it barely matters if you do well on the midterms. I had As on both the midterms and still ended with a B in the class.