On your next pass time look at Geller vs. Freund on gold. Freund's class will likely already be full. Geller's will have 300 open seats. That says enough, doesn't it.
Bro loves Achieve, and while it's irritating, I learned more from Achieve than I did from him. You gotta teach yourself. He's passionate, but lectures are highly conceptual and fairly disorganized, with very few examples. Tests are all MCQ and mostly fair; you just have to practice. CLAS helped a lot, and so did the practice problems and exams
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).
Not very good at teaching, but I was fine because I took physics in high school. The content is essentially the same as AP Physics 1. There's also a few homework assignments due every week and they're graded by accuracy. Start learning the content before the quarter starts and be prepared to teach yourself almost everything.
Conflicting feelings. Lectures are pretty useless, purely conceptual. Homework is a large percent of your grade, so failing is pretty impossible, but that's offset by the low test averages (71, 60, 57). These were his highest averages ever, according to him. You have homework due every day. Take Freud if you can't take a mild hit to your GPA.
He's is SO DISORGANIZED and BAD. He openly stated on the first day that his class wasn't meant to be a weeder course, but it definitely felt like one. He also mentioned that the department was unhappy with the discrepancy between his class and Freund's. His teaching made class impossible. He gives 3 question practice exams with no explanations. .
NEVER TAKE PHYSICS WITH GELLER. Be prepared to spend the entire quarter teaching yourself and fail every midterm! Literally one of the worst professors i have ever had here at UCSB. His teaching is completely theoretical and does not relate to exams or homework what so ever. Incredibly hard tests. Final average was a 57%
Take literally anything else. This was the most unpleasant experience I have ever had in a class. His lectures are entirely conceptual and completely unhelpful regarding homework or exams, which are entirely mathematical. Do not expect any practice exams longer than maybe three questions. Only take if you want to teach yourself the entire course.
Overall, there is a lot of pros and cons. Pros could be his midterms are all multiple choice and Cons is that his practice exams doesn't really help much it is not structured well. His explanations on it doesn't make sense. He should post an ACTUAL practice midterms or finals with good explanation that way students can learn from him better.
Honestly, this class wouldnt be bad if geller could actually teach. I feel like ive spent the entire quarter teaching myself physics because this man could not teach a class to save his life. That combined with how tough he makes his exam questions is horrible. He expects you to be a physics major with extensive background in an intro class. RUN!!
His lectures are all conceptual and have nothing to do with calculations. After asking friends, I heard a majority of his questions are mathematical-based. In addition to his teaching, he also does not post any resources. His notes are from a student, not himself. And he does not provide any videos of himself explaining those mathematical problems.
Geller's 6A class is quite challenging, but with diligence and the right resources, you can succeed. The homework can be time-consuming, but using tools like unstuckstudy ai alongside the free textbook can really help. Attend lectures and stay engaged - the tests are difficult but manageable if you put in the work.
Exams are harder than they should be.
Geller is the harder of the two physics lecturers solely because he does not give students practice problems that directly correlate to the test like Freund. In addition, there is A LOT of homework which is the most challenging part, but overall if you understand the homework you will do good on the tests.
If you are not good at logic solving then probably not the best course to take. Thought professor was fine, just that the hw's did not scale properly so you would get hw that was really easy then it immediately became really difficult and you would not know how to solve it. Hws usually took a while so prepare for that.
If you haven't taken AP physics DO NOT TAKE GELLER.
Taking Geller for 6A was the most miserable experience I've had in any class so far. He is useless. You would expect for a math heavy class he'd run through problems in lecture, but he didn't do a SINGLE practice problem with numbers. Unsurprisingly, class average on the final was a 50%. Prepare to spend many hours teaching yourself the material.
Absolutely terrible! If you have to take physics and you're stuck with Geller, wait and take it with Freund. Geller has incredibly hard tests with problems that have never been seen in class before. He doesn't tech to his tests in lecture, and gets off by making exams incredibly hard. AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!!! HE'S THE WORST!!
This guy loves to use Achieve, which is the most stupid homework system I have ever used. His tests are easy and his lectures are always useless. Achieve is enough. The most time I spend on is Achieve. You just need to do the practice test he gave for his test, they are really easy.
This professor is the worst one I have ever met, he has unlimited and extremely hard HW to do once a week, almost 6 achieve and very tough to have good grades. Never take his class, never ever take his class
Not too hard but you should go to lectures. Homework is a bit difficult but often harder than the tests.
The homework is harder than lectures/tests. The exams are similar to lectures, so it would be wise to attend. If you took AP Physics 1 then this is very very easy, otherwise pay attention to mechanics.
Pros: I left his class knowing more about physics than I did with freund. HW is worth 40%, only one midterm and a final. Lots of in class demos Cons: Likely more effort than freund, and things you are expected to know for exams are less straightforward. More HW than freund, exams are a little harder, and less practice problems done in class.
Please take any professor over Geller. He provides no practices for the midterms or final, so you have no clue what you are getting into. Additionally, he assigns TONS of homework that benefits in no way, just soley busy work. Lectures are ok, however, he does not provide any practice for the extremely difficult exams.
