Lectures are mandatory because iClicker, but lectures are very pointless. If he is not ranting about something he is doing a demo. Little to no notes are taken during lecture. Exams are free game and formula sheet given is not helpful whatsoever. It is best to find your own resources and learn from the homework and CLAS
He was a solid teacher. He's focused but keeps you entertained with the way he talks at the same time. The tests were very similar to the practice tests, just make sure you understand the scenarios (not only the specific aspects asked on the practice test as he does change it). He's not interested in babying anyone but practice and you'll be fine.
2 midterms and 1 final exam. Material covered include optics, light, EM waves, atoms, nuclei, relativity. Super nice and funny. Tells cringey dad jokes. Tests are for the most part very similar to practice exams. In order to get an A you should study a week beforehand, go to CLAS, and do practice problems/practice tests.
For an early morning class, Freund made me enjoy physics, and I had no exposure to physics before college. He's entertaining, his practice tests are similar to the actual exams, and there's no Sapling! His demos are really intuitive, albeit somewhat tangential, and his lectures are sufficient enough to do well on tests. Best prof of the 6 series.
Geller does not teach his students at all. All he does is demos in class, and maybe covers 1 or 2 equations. He should stick to research and let someone who has a passion for teaching do the teaching. There's no clear level of expectations that he has. Be prepared to teach yourself everything, because he won't be the one to teach you.
He's the best!!!! Very easy teacher, makes the concepts intuitive
Geller's lectures were really fun to attend because of the fact that he does a lot of demos and talks about real life applications of the physics. We do a lot of problem solving on Sapling so it's helpful to see why. He uses iClickers but that helps boost your grade. A lot of people don't like his lectures but they're also the ones who don't go.
Really cares about his students, lectures have iclicker and homework on masteringphysics sucks but the whole department uses it. Really accessible outside class, make use of office hours and you will easily get an A even with no experience in physics.
Lecture is focused on concepts and demonstrations instead of problem solving which isnt for everyone. I personally think its better that way bc the math isnt hard but if you dont understand the concepts you wont know where to start. Read the textbook and do Vinces CLAS problems and its not too hard of a class.
The Mastering Physics homework is pretty useless and the midterms can be pretty tough but the final is much easier and the curve is generous. I will say he makes his lectures very interesting but you still need to spend some time outside of class studying yourself in order to understand everything.
Geller's lectures are pretty interesting but they wont help you pass the tests. Reading the book is a necessity in order to pass. CLAS is also super helpful, as Geller does not do practice problems in class and the tutors help fill in a lot of information he skips over. No curve but his test averages were quite high (78 on mideterm and 72 on final)
Interesting lecturer, class will be pretty easy if you have taken physics before. The curve also bumped my grade up to an A.
To be honest, Geller's lecture is boring, he doesn't talk a lot about problem-solving strategies but a lot of experiments and other stuff. So then you have to really read the textbook and do all the questions from CLAS. he doesn't even have practice exams which would make you feel very nervous before exams. His exams are way easier than homework.
Average was super high. Was hoping to get a B because the class has a historically nice curve but ended up with C+ because there was no curve in the course.
If you have taken AP physics in high school, good for you, phys 1 is an easy A for you. But if you don't really know about physics, you better study hard. The class is so unfair since only 9% gets and A and one letter bump (ex: A- to A) depends on 1/3 of standard deviation from the mean. This is a tough class and he goes by the concepts so quickly.
The exam is not difficult, but he is not a good lecturer. I cannot learn anything from his class. But he is good at arousing students' attention. He is not a good professor for students who did not take physics class since you need to spend a lot of time learning physics after the class.
Homework is on mastering physics and not hard to finish. Very interesting person but failed to teach clearly. Bad at summary and cannot bring your own cheat sheet to the exams (and the cheat sheet he provided is lack of some formulas) No practice exam. Hard to predict the questions. You will save a lot of time for other class by not taking this.
Very Hard and Confusing. It's his first time to teach PHYS4. DO NOT TAKE UNLESS YOU BLOW YOUR MIND.
https://imgur .com/a/U0AqOYZ I have no idea why his rating is so high. In general, I have found that Freunds lectures were more confusing than helpful. Hes certainly not the worst professor, but I would say hes mediocre at best.
From my experience with just the Physics 1 class: He has entertaining experiments and explains concepts in very much detail. However it is fast-paced even in the lecture. The Mastering Physics online homework is tedious, and may not help you study for tests. Find the practice tests, read the questions thoroughly and fast, and crunch numbers faster.
Once, there were many (by many I mean many) people that talked to him about their bad midterm score. Want to know his response? He said they should have gone to a community college. Good luck.
Geller's lectures are absolutely terrible, but you kinda feel the need to go anyway. Out of an entire quarter (TR lectures), he had three day's worth of iClicker. Doesn't teach, just talks about applications and astronomy. Also, he sounds like Bentley from the Sly games. Big oof.
Geller is an average professor. He is really passionate about physics which is great, but his lectures are very conceptual, and he doesn't cover much of the 'practical' stuff. The final only covered the concepts that he discussed in class, so just do problems to familiarize yourself with the equations and you'll be fine.
Lecture is mostly conceptual stuff that wont be test material, but still go for the equations and problems that he wants you to know. Practice hard problems and go to CLAS. Read the book. No curve or very little curve.
