The lectures are very difficult to follow and unengaging. I found some teaching quirks (such as hand writing exams and homeworks) make the course difficult. It seems in class questions frequently went unanswered. Most people I talked to feel as if they know no more about quantum mechanics now than before the course started.

Unbelievably difficult. I cannot even begin to explain how challenging this course is. Kirtman makes no effort whatsoever to present the material in a reasonable manner. The homeworks are utterly insane, and unbelievably long, routinely the questions were 6 pages long with paragraphs of instructions. Most of my submissions were 15-20 pages.

I have learned absolutely nothing from attending his lectures. Not that they'd help you tackle the homework problems either, good luck finding resources for help other than AI I suppose. Not that it matters either, since studying the HW is useless for reviewing for the midterm. Disaster of a class, just pray the gods pity you and pass b/c of curve

Some profs teach by throwing you into the deep end; Kirtman ties cinder blocks to your legs before dumping you into the ocean. He leaves you for dead, until, by some miracle the paramedics (the Curve) come and drag you out. You leave the beach terrified after a near death experience, with no knowledge whatsoever about how to swim. GL HF!!! :)

Genuinely the worst class I've ever taken at UCSB. Professor Kirtman was NOT equipped to teach this course. He is 89 and I think he forgot what it was like to learn. He answers questions with "I talked about it in lecture". The TA's are as lost as you. Good luck learning anything from him just cross your fingers that you pass.

This class is meant to suck. However, somehow this is worse than I imagined. I learned nothing from this class, felt panicked and lost the entire time, TAs can't even help us. I hope to god the curve saves us. Oh, and the professor is 89 and incredibly unhelpful with any questions. You essentially have to try to teach yourself quantum physics.