PHYS 6A
GELLER R M
Robert Geller
3.4
272 reviews
FREUND E G
Ernest Freund
4.4
221 reviews

493
3.9000000000000004
PHYS6A6B6C . Freund E G 4 Months Ago

never wrote an RMP before but I have so much respect for him for sticking up for his students. the most amazing, fun, and encouraging lecturer. go to office hours, ask about conceptuals (not just memorize questions), do practice exams, and you'll crush it. he's so goated, if I ever get Alzheimer's he'd probably be the last person I forget

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PHY6A6B . Freund E G 5 Months Ago

Freund is the man! He balances the mental health of students while also teaching physics intuitively without the extra fuss. He understands we're life science majors, not physicists! I got an A- after the Geller final, but he changed it to an A on gold, likely due to a curve which he usually doesn't do in the A range. He is a great guy!

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6A . Freund E G 6 Months Ago

Freund has been my favorite professor by far. He truly wants his students to succeed and prepares them with engaging lectures and plenty of practice. Redoing quizzes, practice tests, and going to office hours with any questions you have will allow you to succeed in this course.

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6A6B . Geller R M 6 Months Ago

geller is an awesome prof and most of the negative reviews on him are people not wanting to put in the work for his class. physics is a difficult subject, he warns you AND tells you how to succeed on the first day. listen to him. i didn't in 6A and almost didn't pass, now i'm in 6B actually following his advice and i have an A.

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6A . Geller R M 8 Months Ago

Geller is a good lecturer but PHYSICS IS HARD. Test averages are pretty low, but Geller always sets reasonable curves to ensure the success of his students. The online homework is tedious, but a big grade booster and good for practice. Downside to taking Geller is you don't know what to expect on exams since he only has 5 practice questions total.

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6A . Freund E G 8 Months Ago

Freund is amazing and his lectures are very engaging. If you do the practice questions you will be fine on the exams. There are a lot of wee little quizzes for homework but they are not too bad. The demonstrations are so fun and I like how he also cannot stand how long lectures are.

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6A . Geller R M 9 Months Ago

Class average for the Midterm and Final were 57%. Multiple students emailed him and his only reply was "you should try harder". The same class with Freund had an 85% average.

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6A . Geller R M 9 Months Ago

fun lectures that are both interesting and informative. cool demos. focuses more on the concepts rather than how to solve a problem in lectures, but it works b/c the textbook. tests are reasonably difficult. only dropped due to a medical emergency and not Geller himself

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6AB . Geller R M 10 Months Ago

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.

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PHYS6A6B6C . Freund E G 10 Months Ago

Freund is the goat, that's it, that's the review. Do not miss his last class of 6C -- there was a special guest appearance, that's all I can say.

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6A . Geller R M 10 Months Ago

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

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6A . Freund E G 10 Months Ago

The lectures are decent, but what makes Freund such a great professor is how clear and straightforward the course structure is. The practice problems for each module are nearly identical to the quiz and exam problems, and there are notes/videos on Canvas for each lecture topic.

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6A . Geller R M 11 Months Ago

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.

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6A . Geller R M 11 Months Ago

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.

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6A . Freund E G 11 Months Ago

Freund is the best physics prof. Physics lectures can get boring, but he does his best to keep everyone's attention by cracking jokes and doing demonstrations. His exams are easy, because they're like his homework quizzes and practice tests. He answers questions on his discussion forums frequently and whenever students have questions. Nice guy.

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6A . Freund E G 11 Months Ago

It's literally a Christmas miracle I passed this class I don't know how this happened. Don't get me wrong this man is my day 1 opp, but he did something magical to his curve to get me to pass. I could never make sense of what he was trying to say/teach, he would never produce a coherent thought or sentence. Bro has the worst ADHD I've ever seen

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6A . Geller R M 11 Months Ago

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. .

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6A . Geller R M 11 Months Ago

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%

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6A . Freund E G 11 Months Ago

Freund is a sweetie pie and you can tell he cares but he also is super frantic and anxious and seems to struggle getting his ideas out in an understandable way. Chiller though

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6A . Geller R M 11 Months Ago

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.

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6A . Geller R M 1 Year, 1 Day Ago

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.

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6A . Geller R M 1 Year, 1 Day Ago

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!!

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PHYS6A6B6C . Freund E G 1 Year, 5 Days Ago

He simplifies material so much, avoids calculus equations and, goes over practice problems which help for each module. Great professor. You always know what to expect for midterms and finals because it's the same as all the practice problems.

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6A . Freund E G 1 Year, 1 Month Ago

TLDR: Take Geller physics for easy A. When I got to UCSB, I was clueless about physics. Everyone else discussed energy while I was still learning kinematics. When I got one module, my peers were light-years ahead. I wanted to cry into my textbooks, but it was this demon called Achieve. All my friends in 6A with Geller had it easier than me. :(

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