Really love Freund, such a fun professor and really teaches welllll!!!
Best professor in UCSB
the best teacher ever met.
Geller's astro 1 is the first course I took in this UCSB which is great!. His lectures are interesting and he's a nice person if u join his office hour. However, the reading is mandatory and quite tough for a freshman if u have little astro storage (but not me). There the homework is not friendly for people deficit in writing and carefulness.
I took all of his PHYS6 with no regret, and the only difference between the classes was the content. We know what to expect in class and grading is fair. He responds to students' questions quickly. I appreciate how amusing he is even though I did 6C online. Tests are important, but you will easily do well if you repeat module practice problems.
Not too hard but you should go to lectures. Homework is a bit difficult but often harder than the tests.
I took PHYS 6AB with him and found his teaching style helpful and very fun. The homework and quizzes are very challenging, and the class is very fast-paced, but it is possible to excel. Even though exams are worth most of your grade, they are relatively fair since they are similar to the quizzes and optional practice problems, which I appreciate.
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.
Freund made physics really enjoyable. We had 2 midterms, quizzes for each module, and a final. He only includes question types that are included in the practice material/quizzes and he has a ton of practice midterms and finals. He made physics as stress-free as someone can make a physics course.
Easily one of UCSB's best. He is absolutely hilarious, loves all his students, is easily approachable and accessible, and will never throw you any curveballs. His tests come directly from his practice exams - my friends and I are convinced it is literally impossible to get below an A in this class if you do the practice problems. LOVE him!!
The class is not as math heavy as other sciences, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't expect any math at all. If you just suck it up and ask questions, the course is pretty simple. While there is a good bit of homework, it's pretty easy. The midterm and final are graded fairly, and they DO involve both lecture AND book material.
I took Geller for 6A and and struggling a little bit so I switched to Freund for 6B and it was the best decision ever. Freund is kind of quirky so his lectures are amazing and really funny, but he's also just really kind and caring and made physics feel a lot more accessible and easy. If you have to take the physics series do it with Freund!
I loved this class! Not everyone did, but he was fair and made it really easy to get a good grade if you put the work in; weekly assignments that reinforce material were a huge portion of your grade, so just read the textbook and do your homework. lectures were boring but he was a cool guy and funny, either way the textbook covers the material.
Astro1was such a fun course to take if you want to know more about the universe in a very generic way. There were a couple of topics that we went super deep into, but nothing too bad. There is math involved, however it is very basic plug in equations. Reading the textbook is a must. Geller was a great lecturer and I enjoyed learning in his course.
I made a big mistake taking this class as a GE when I hate math, this class involves physics. He has his on own book which you must purchase online to access homework. TEST HEAVY your graded on the homework that is so easy to do because its online and everyone uses sources to do it, professor even pointed it out. Don't recommend taking this.
I can't understand why people would rate him badly. I think he is amazing, despite of what other people think. He is cool, does some amazing demos, and gives us quizzes on Achieve that let you earn an A on it. I do believe it is a easy A, as long as you show up to sections and the lectures, study hard and then it will pay off in the end. Love this!
This man is a king. No exams or final this quarter just quizzes and homework. Although online, lectures are as interesting as they are helpful. Geller is not only an extremely capable lecturer, but is overall just a nice, cool guy who cares about his students' success. I could not recommend him more, the best professor I've had at UCSB.
Truly one of the best prof's from UCSB. Is entertaining, engaging, makes lectures available online, and most importantly, actually teaches physics in an understandable manner!
The class isn't necessarily easy, bc it's physics, but he makes physics way more fun than I thought it could be. His humor is awkward and hilarious--the only reason to go to class, since his lectures are posted online. Highly recommend visiting office hrs regularly. Don't wait until the day before a test to go bc there will be a line out the door.
He was fair most of the time! Midterm was very easy and always tries to cut down on material in order to save time and make the students' lives easier. His final was very hard unfortunately but just study a lot and you'll get well above average. Do the practice problems he posts and go to office hours. I wouldn't take him again but he was alright.
Unfair tester, totally screwed over the class with the final in 6B and 6C apparently. Just take Ernest Freund, he actually knows how to give a fair exam!
Great person, terrible professor. Just demos in his lecture, he even said that his "lectures are complimentary to the book". No amount of studying could prepare for the final, there were at least 8 questions on it that we've never seen before. It was purely to bring down the class average. Said there was going to be 30 questions but there were 38.
Nobody enjoyed this class at all. Long and boring lectures that are extremely off-topic. Barely any material is actually covered, only broad and off-topic discussions. Lots of "rambling" in a sense. Class was mostly empty. The final was extremely difficult and the average was very low compared to him praising 6C and saying how easy it was vs 6A & B
Professor Geller is a really passionate professor and has a love for physics, but the final exam was really frustrating. He had a full practice exam with none of the same topics as the real exam and didn't provide practice problems for the topics on the test. I studied a lot for the final but ended up putting an emphasis on the wrong things.
