If you're looking for a professor who is more concerned with his status within the Physics department than he is with working with actual students, you've found the one! Be prepared to study with very minimal resources and the possibility of complete curveball exams where he ramps up the difficulty to "even out the curve"...

If you want a good GPA, avoid at all costs

Take Geller if you want to make your life difficult. grade is HW and 2 exams. The practice exams are not at all similar and you're going to see questions you've never seen before in your life. It is VERY DOABLE- hw is ok, exam is mostly questions u can figure out, but so much worse than it should be. Save urself the Geller bs- take Freund.

The midterm is easy, but the final is hard. He will try to mislead you with the formula sheet, giving many equations, but you will only use half of them. Ask around to find out what is important. The hardest part of the class is finding out what to study and finding practice problems. Started the quarter off by talking rudely about Prof. Freund.

. He doesn't have the etiquettes a UC Professor should have. Be more accessible to students.

He was okay but not as good at explaining a lot of the concepts as Freund. Also he assigned us a lot of lecture videos to watch but they ended up being very redundant to the content he covers in lecture in person.

Every time I left lecture, I was unsure about what Geller wanted me to take away from it. The final for 6C was the hardest exam of my life. So many question types that were unlike anything we have seen before. Practice tests don't really help you. The Achieve homework is a nice grade buffer. Definitely take Freund if you can!

Professor Geller is a very interesting and funny lecturer. His class is fascinating and a fun GE to take. He is passionate about the subject. There is quite a bit of textbook readings and weekly homework assignments, but overall, an enjoyable class.

great lecturer, loves to talk about astronomy. Very friendly guy, but gives a lot of textbook readings and assignments on a weekly basis. All in all, not that challenging of a class. Enjoyable GE.

This class can be a lot of work for non stem majors but is very fascinating. He is super funny and very passionate about all things astronomy so his lectures are always interesting. Exams are multiple choice and very straightforward. He is happy to go down any rabbit hole about physics.

Honestly I'm not sure why Geller gets so much hate. I find him to be quite entertaining and his commentary in his lecture videos makes me laugh. He is a good professor and I feel like I've learned the most physics than the other two classes in the series. I strongly dislike physics but I will say that Geller definitely does keep me engaged.

Geller is a good professor. Not gonna change your life but he is super into astro and the class is generally fun and basic. He will not teach you the math, however there is very little math and you are probably fine if you know basic algebra and memorize what each variable means (T for time etc.) Just be ready to read and do constant achieve work

Geller teaches in a conceptual way. The pro about this teaching style is you're likely to understand how the world works better. The con is that learning problem-solving that matters for MT's is done on your own time. He gives you all the tools though. Know how to do the BP's (which aren't a lot) by heart and look at "good-student" notes. (6.75/10)

A funny dude but his lectures are very heavy, not to mention the huge study load which included homework and 8 sections of reading a week. His sections are where you are graded (weekly quizzes), which can mess you up because his grading is weird. Just not my cup of tea.

Amazing lectures, is always communicating with students about questions before, after and with emails. Essays in sections are usually straightforward, and multiple-choice exams. Geller also loves answering questions about random topics.

Lectures are packed with info but if you find astronomy, math, geology, etc interesting then it will be a fun but semi-hard class. Lots of reading, minimal math, mostly memorization.

professor seems chill, but too too much homework. As a summer online course, it takes about at least 3 hours per day.

Lots of homework which make up a lot of your grade which is super nice. Exams are hard but fair, if you keep up with the homework and do the practice problems he gives you will be fine. His lectures are super entertaining and interesting, always doing some fun demos.

geller is very passionate about astronomy but you have to stay on top of the lectures and assigned reading or the concepts will be hard to understand. homework was online but easy, sections were essay questions (also easy), but some midterm/final questions were tricky and weren't covered in lecture.

He's a chill guy. He loves Astro which makes it fun to hear him talk about things like the multiverse. Hw is through Achieve which is not my favorite but its manageable although kinda annoying. For a GE though, it does take a lot of time for reading and then rereading to study.

Prof Geller was very thorough with his lectures, you should go to lecture if you want to understand the material fully, along with reading all the chapters assigned. If you're interested in this topic, its not hard to pay attention and grasp the concepts, if you're not interested, its probably going to be rlly hard. Lots of hw too, but easy.

I was placed into his class because the other sections were full and was a little nervous due to the other rate my professor ratings. However! Geller is my favorite teacher at UCSB so far, even as someone who isn't fond of physics. You will succeed if you understand problems from HW, textbook, and assigned practice problems (not rote memory).

I adored Geller's Astro 1 class. You can tell he loves teaching it. The class was thought-provoking and made me appreciate life more. If understanding the universe, stars, planets, and other celestial phenomena sounds boring to you don't take the class. His physics courses artificially lower his rating. Don't let that deter you from taking Astro 1!

Geller is so funny and his lectures are so interesting yet easy to understand. Homework is pretty simple. Lectures and hw correlate directly to exams so they're pretty easy. Since he wrote the textbook, his lectures basically follow the textbook so if you miss one it's not a big deal. Loved Geller and this class!