For 6A:

The two evaluations before this are useless/fake, since they were posted right around when first pass opened up and Sakai hasn't taught 6A since fall quarter. And she definitely was not terrible.

Fall 2012 was her first quarter teaching 6A, and she wasn't too bad compared to the other professors. For the first midterm, the test was in fact too easy that the curve was almost at a 90%. But she got a little more difficult for the second midterm and final.

Overall she was fair in my opinion. Williams taught that quarter too and I heard he was more difficult. He tested on more topics, like 3D collisions, which Sakai didn't expect us to know. And Forrester was some crazy dude that only gave A's to like 10% of his class. But who knows how Sakai will be in the future now that she's had a quarter of teaching 6A under her belt.

Overall, take this class seriously. People say 6A is the easiest of the physics series, but in my opinion, it was the hardest. But that's just me. If you do well in this class, then you'll be set for 6B and 6C (if you pick a decent professor).

I had Professor Sakai for Astro 3 during winter quarter of 2012. Let’s just start off with some facts: Out of 150 open spots in the lecture, only 50-60 were filled. The other section of this class, taught by Mclean, was completely full. We ended up switching rooms because the size of MS4000 was unnecessary. At the final, one of the TAs proctoring saw the number of students in the room and not-so-quietly remarked to another TA how Mclean’s class was packed. I saw the numbers and previous bruinwalk reviews going into the class, and as expected, Sakai wasn’t the greatest lecturer. I would definitely take Mclean if I had the choice. That said, she is very nice and does seem to try. Unfortunately, with the class being so basic and her lectures not expanding on her slides, after 3 weeks I stopped going to lecture and just read the slides online.

If you want an easy GE, take this class. Just don’t expect it to be the most fun or interesting thing you’ll take at UCLA. It requires minimal effort and fulfills your lab requirement. The curve is pretty generous and the online homework is easy. I basically didn’t study for the second midterm and still managed an 87. I studied for maybe 2 hours before the final and got a 93, which was the highest score overall. As I said, the curve is generous and I ended up with an A.

***(ignore the above course, didn't have her for that!!)***
Course: Physics 6A

First off, if she is available for physics TAKE HER!! She is a VERY easy physics professor. AND she is NICE! (totally unheard of!)

Professor Sakai is actually concerned about her students and whether or not the material understood or not. She takes the time to work problems through and always goes over concepts that the class might be having trouble with.

She goes at a relatively steady pace that is perfectly fine to follow along at, although I found that she always tried to cram in material before a midterm or a final -- which was annoying. But then again, her class wasn't too difficult to begin with.

Unlike the reviews below me, I didn't find that she got frustrated when she couldn't explain something well, maybe its simply because she is better at explaining physics than astronomy. She seemed to be very patient and really interested in the students feelings about the material.

If you've ever taken physics before, this class should honestly not be difficult for you. The only problem is that too many people feel that way and so the curve is relatively high. Don't expect the curve to help your grade too much.

To ace her class, all you need to do is the problems at the end of each chapter. She really likes using the even general problems at the end of the section -- if you can do those, her final and midterm should be a piece of cake.

The only other thing that I didn't like about her class is her obsession with Mastering Physics. It's expensive and it just plain sucks. You'll have three assignments a week, 2 short ones and one long one -- all designed to help you stay on track with the material. The thing is that this program just doesn't work, you can always google the question and find an answer (which is probably what most of the class did) so it's not really testing how well you know the material. All of this, is annoying but really doesn't make her class any harder.

Just take her. She's nice. Her class is easy. What more could you want?

Do not take this professor. She complicates every subject and doesn't seem to know what she is talking about. Whenever a student would ask her to elaborate on a topic, she would get tongue-tied and flustered, as if answering questions wasn't in the scope of her teaching. She's probably very knowledgeable but her ability to communicate topics can definitely be improved upon. Not only is she ridiculous and convoluted when explaining topics, but she expects more of her students than they can give her, which only so much information that she supplies. AGAIN, do NOT take her for Astro 3. She is absolutely ridiculous.

--------------------PHYSICS 1B--------------------

Sakai is a good teacher. Although the lectures were lengthy (two hour lectures, twice a week), she really cares about her students, is willing to help out in office hours, and is fair on exams. She also allows students to bring in a 3x5 index card for exams, which I found helpful.

Since the lectures are so long and since there is a lot of material to cover, she uses powerpoint slides to lecture. This is a kind of weak and uninteresting way to teach the material (but understandable, given the circumstances). In office hours, however, she does a great job of going into detail about the material, and tries to emphasize understanding the material conceptually (as opposed to having students memorize a bunch of physics equations).

If I had to take another physics course, I would take it with her.

As long as you can commit a decent amount of material to memory, this is a fairly easy class. Only focus on her lecture presentations. Her exams consist of multiple choice questions that test knowledge of simple facts. Weekly online quizzes almost entirely mirror both midterms and the final.

*This review is actually for Physics 1B

Sakai was a good professor to take, her review scores are unfairly deflated.

You should attend lecture, because she likes to write solutions to selected problems on the board, and these problems are similar to the ones used on her exams. She's not the best at controlling the powerpoints, but she does post slides and the content on these slides is both relevant to the course and the midterms. Attend lecture, she's personable and is really good at answering specific questions you have at the halfway point in one on ones.

Don't be afraid to point out errata, she isn't always right and she sends out and makes corrections if you do.

Attend office hours, she knows what she's talking about and is better at explaining concepts in small settings.

Exams are half computational, but you're going to want to really understand the mechanics of what you're working with; since the other half the problems could be described as curveballs or "concepts with a twist". You get a notecard of equations and notes if you want one, but if you need it for anything but double checking, you're not going to do well; her exams are timed aggressively. Her exams sometimes are occasionally poorly worded, ask for clarifications before beginning work if you're not sure exactly what's desired.

All in all, good professor, put the time in and you'll enjoy it too.

Physics 6A:
Sakai was a decent lecturer. Everyone gets perfect or near perfect scores on the homework and labs, so your grade is basically determined by the two midterms and final. Her tests were all very straightforward, and if you did the homework and the study guide you'll do well on them. However, because of this the average on the tests were very high, so the curve was useless. I got perfect scores on both midterms, did slightly above average on the final, and ended up with an A-.

Prof Sakai was really nice and caring but she wasn't very clear some times. She would make mistakes and some times it seemed like she didnt really know what she was doing. Her tests were really fair but the final was definitely harder. She was pretty easy compared to the other physic professors so if I had to take physics again, I would take it with her.

Professor Sakai was a very nice lady, but a bad professor (at least for me). She gets so confused that eventually she starts giving chocolate if you correct her. For someone who did not take physics in high school this was a terrible class, because not even her could figure her own problems sometimes. I'm sure that if you feel comfortable in physics she's fine.