Ni Ni
AD
Based on 45 Users
Easy A+ class if you can do calculus efficiently. I seldom went to class because learning the material by myself is way easier than listening to prof's explanation of course material.
Seeing some of the reviews on here scared me when I first enrolled in this class - I would say that they held true for the first few chapters. Ni is not the most patient lecturer and is not very good at expanding or explaining what she has done on the board, so often I felt like I had to copy down all the equations she derived and then look it up later in the book. As the class went on, it became more obvious that she was more interested in the material and could explain it a little better, especially electric fields and such. Her accent can make her somewhat hard to understand, so you have to pay attention to what she says and writes down to get it all. She also made a lot of little errors in class on the board which sometimes wouldn't be caught until much later. Lectures were definitely the hardest part of this class to get through.
Homework was on Mastering Physics and was never too tough, although some problems could be really tedious and take some time.
Her tests were fair, never out of the blue or crazy.
Ni ni was an amazing lecturer! She deserves better ratings here on bruinwalk. She makes the material super easy to understand, and is definitely engaging in lecture. Her lectures were really interesting and I genuinely walked out of each lecture having learnt something new, and actually understood it. She is super nice and always willing to help! Her midterm was very fair, very similar to what she said it would be like. The final was a lot harder, but still doable. Even if you don't do stellar, the curve will likely be in your favor, and you will get a good grade. Literally unless you get like a 0% on everything you will probably end up with at least a C in the class. She is also very concerned with students learning, and is always open to comments or suggestions and often sends out polls asking students about their opinions on the course and her teaching so far. She really cares and it shows! And by the way, her accent does not at all impair her teaching abilities, like others may suggest. Ni ni is one of the best physics professors I've had here at UCLA, I would definitely recommend taking phys17, or any physics class with her!
A lot of these reviews make Ni's class sound worse than it is. While she was a bit disorganized at times and would suddenly jump from introducing a concept to flying through derivations with terms seemingly coming out of nowhere, these were probably the worst parts of the class. Besides that, she really cares about her students and making sure that everyone understands the material. Throughout the quarter she setup countless demonstrations to show real-life examples of the concepts we were learning. In terms of homework, we would have one Mastering Physics assignment due per week which had enough problems to practice concepts without being too much work. Her first midterm was very easy with the average being in the high 80s. She ended up making her second midterm more difficult to counteract this, but it was still a fair test. The final was more similar to the second midterm in terms of difficulty, but gave plenty of time to finish everything. For those who still find the class difficult, Ni grades the class on a curve so while it may be hard to get an A, but thankfully it's almost impossible get below a C.
I really enjoyed taking this course with Professor Ni Ni. From my experience, she was extremely clear and explained concepts very well- more so than a majority of professors in the physics department could ever do. She is also extremely concerned with our learning and wants to make sure we get the material She must have improved on her teaching greatly because she really deserves a higher score here on bruinwalk.
Ni Ni was awesome, she gave engaging lectures and thorough explanations. Her exams were very fair and straightfoward.
The lecture was not clear at all. Prof was not good at answering questions. Not recommend.
Ni was a great professor and taught things very well. She is very nice and cares about all of her students. With it being an online class, she had some trouble setting things up but it still went fairly smoothly. The textbook was helpful for me, especially for the open book exams. She gave some extra credit by giving us quizzes that would add some points to our midterm and final exam grades.
Quick disclaimer, my lab section was basically run by my TA, so this review is more so regarding the class itself and my TA Maximilien Liese, rather than the professor herself (who I never saw). The entire class basically revolves around a bunch of small lab experiments that you work on in a group. You are assigned a group and are stuck with that group for every lab until the end of the class, unless you talk to the TA at the start to change groups (so make sure your group is responsible and splits work evenly!). We had prelab and postlab assignments, all of which were straightforward since clear instructions were given via google slides. The lectures were basically just background info and instructions being read off slides (so nothing special, but it gets the job done). The TAs and LAs are helpful and usually respond to emails quickly. No midterms, and the final is just a final project you choose and work on with your group, then present at the end. Overall, this class is quite a bit of work for 2 units, but it isn't super difficult and having a good group will make it manageable for sure.
Lecture isn’t necessary; personally I like to self-teach so I read the textbook. The homework comes from the textbook, and they’re not that easy. You do need to put in an effort to figure them out.
The first midterm came exactly from the homework, but I’m assuming most people didn’t actually understand how to do hw, so everyone did kinda badly (median was probably ~70%?). She did let us do corrections and make up half the points we lost though! The final was super easy because everyone did so badly on the midterm. Anyways, easy class; can’t believe I scraped by an A+ after getting a meh grade on the midterm [joy]
Seeing some of the reviews on here scared me when I first enrolled in this class - I would say that they held true for the first few chapters. Ni is not the most patient lecturer and is not very good at expanding or explaining what she has done on the board, so often I felt like I had to copy down all the equations she derived and then look it up later in the book. As the class went on, it became more obvious that she was more interested in the material and could explain it a little better, especially electric fields and such. Her accent can make her somewhat hard to understand, so you have to pay attention to what she says and writes down to get it all. She also made a lot of little errors in class on the board which sometimes wouldn't be caught until much later. Lectures were definitely the hardest part of this class to get through.
Homework was on Mastering Physics and was never too tough, although some problems could be really tedious and take some time.
Her tests were fair, never out of the blue or crazy.
Ni ni was an amazing lecturer! She deserves better ratings here on bruinwalk. She makes the material super easy to understand, and is definitely engaging in lecture. Her lectures were really interesting and I genuinely walked out of each lecture having learnt something new, and actually understood it. She is super nice and always willing to help! Her midterm was very fair, very similar to what she said it would be like. The final was a lot harder, but still doable. Even if you don't do stellar, the curve will likely be in your favor, and you will get a good grade. Literally unless you get like a 0% on everything you will probably end up with at least a C in the class. She is also very concerned with students learning, and is always open to comments or suggestions and often sends out polls asking students about their opinions on the course and her teaching so far. She really cares and it shows! And by the way, her accent does not at all impair her teaching abilities, like others may suggest. Ni ni is one of the best physics professors I've had here at UCLA, I would definitely recommend taking phys17, or any physics class with her!
A lot of these reviews make Ni's class sound worse than it is. While she was a bit disorganized at times and would suddenly jump from introducing a concept to flying through derivations with terms seemingly coming out of nowhere, these were probably the worst parts of the class. Besides that, she really cares about her students and making sure that everyone understands the material. Throughout the quarter she setup countless demonstrations to show real-life examples of the concepts we were learning. In terms of homework, we would have one Mastering Physics assignment due per week which had enough problems to practice concepts without being too much work. Her first midterm was very easy with the average being in the high 80s. She ended up making her second midterm more difficult to counteract this, but it was still a fair test. The final was more similar to the second midterm in terms of difficulty, but gave plenty of time to finish everything. For those who still find the class difficult, Ni grades the class on a curve so while it may be hard to get an A, but thankfully it's almost impossible get below a C.
I really enjoyed taking this course with Professor Ni Ni. From my experience, she was extremely clear and explained concepts very well- more so than a majority of professors in the physics department could ever do. She is also extremely concerned with our learning and wants to make sure we get the material She must have improved on her teaching greatly because she really deserves a higher score here on bruinwalk.
Ni Ni was awesome, she gave engaging lectures and thorough explanations. Her exams were very fair and straightfoward.
Ni was a great professor and taught things very well. She is very nice and cares about all of her students. With it being an online class, she had some trouble setting things up but it still went fairly smoothly. The textbook was helpful for me, especially for the open book exams. She gave some extra credit by giving us quizzes that would add some points to our midterm and final exam grades.
Quick disclaimer, my lab section was basically run by my TA, so this review is more so regarding the class itself and my TA Maximilien Liese, rather than the professor herself (who I never saw). The entire class basically revolves around a bunch of small lab experiments that you work on in a group. You are assigned a group and are stuck with that group for every lab until the end of the class, unless you talk to the TA at the start to change groups (so make sure your group is responsible and splits work evenly!). We had prelab and postlab assignments, all of which were straightforward since clear instructions were given via google slides. The lectures were basically just background info and instructions being read off slides (so nothing special, but it gets the job done). The TAs and LAs are helpful and usually respond to emails quickly. No midterms, and the final is just a final project you choose and work on with your group, then present at the end. Overall, this class is quite a bit of work for 2 units, but it isn't super difficult and having a good group will make it manageable for sure.
Lecture isn’t necessary; personally I like to self-teach so I read the textbook. The homework comes from the textbook, and they’re not that easy. You do need to put in an effort to figure them out.
The first midterm came exactly from the homework, but I’m assuming most people didn’t actually understand how to do hw, so everyone did kinda badly (median was probably ~70%?). She did let us do corrections and make up half the points we lost though! The final was super easy because everyone did so badly on the midterm. Anyways, easy class; can’t believe I scraped by an A+ after getting a meh grade on the midterm [joy]