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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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!

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%

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!

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.