Lipman is a pretty good professor but the 2 homework assignments due per week did not prepare me for the tests. Grading based on homework 20% midterm 30% final 50%. Midterm was 12 multiple choice questions, final was 25. Averages for both were around 65%. The exam problems were not at all like the homework, making the tests the most difficult part.
Lipman was my favorite physics professor. He's hilarious, explains things well, and relates the material to the real world to give it meaning. His tests are open book (and practically open note since the book has 15 blank note pages in the back). Tests are MC only. There is only one midterm, so don't screw it up. Sprint through them, jump around.
Has a really interesting sense of humor, and his lectures are often focused on derivation and intuition building, if you're into that kind of thing. Open book tests, but book not likely to be very useful due to its winded explanations. Tests look a lot like the harder homework problems, know how to solve them and the class is a breeze.
He's a great math teacher but not that good of a physics lecturer. Sometimes he would go off on a random tangent and waste time. Sometimes lecture was helpful. Understand the hw well and you will be fine. Know how to derive as many equations because there are no formula sheets on tests. Put simple equations in your calculator.
His lectures were useless.
Everyone in the previous reviews must be crazy. Lipman is a fantastic professor. His lectures were clear and gave us formulas we needed for hw. He also had tons of great demos. However, the easy hw did not prepare me for the exams. The midterm was too difficult for 50 minutes. The final was difficult too. This B- is my lowest grade so far at UCSB.
Pretty difficult professor. I got a B+ in Phys 2 and a A- in Phys 1 with Freedman/Gwinn and found this class considerably more difficult, even though I studied at least twice as much. Lipman's lectures are VERY theoretical, and not very helpful for the exams. He also doesn't give you a complete equation sheet for exams, making them even harder.
Without a doubt the worst professor I've had yet. He derives unrelated equations in class, does not discuss how to use aforementioned equations, does not cover topics relevant to the homework or his tests, and believes that "real learning should be done from the book" (resnick and halliday, which is a terrible textbook by the way). AVOID.
Lipman sucks, plain and straight forward. He is dull as hell. His lectures are usually inconsistent with homework due. His tests are overly hard. He is a really poor teacher and is unable to get points across.
He was somewhat helpful in class, but he assigned way too much work. One homework set a week, one lab due each week, as well as assigned reading. And a final. The homework sets were very unclear and usually the TAs didn't understand the questions. Does not understand that students have other classes to deal with. Labs were extremely time consuming.
Really nice professor. He seems to enjoy teaching. What was disappointing was the discontinuity between lecture and homework. The reading does little to give insight on problems and I know many people who looked at pass solutions for help. He didnt post the homework solutions till dead week so we couldn't learn from mistakes. Final not too bad tho
Should be teaching math, not physics. Honestly he is a great math teacher, and not just by the very low UCSB math prof standards. But that's the problem, he just derives formulas, which does not help at all for homework/exams. Doesn't allow any formula sheets so unless you program your calculator like many people did, you will do poorly.
Honestly, I enjoyed the class and his style of teaching. Unfortunately, the final exam was straight out of left field.
Lipman is definitely a smart guy, but he is simply not a good teacher. He definitely tries and seems to enjoy teaching and his students, but he just can't get the points across. Midterm was very tough and I am not looking forward to the final. Here's hoping for a fat curve. I though Freedman was easier.
Homeworks are extremely difficult, tests and multiple choice, but...each of them are insanly difficult, it would literately make you wish the exam was in free response format, so that you can get some partial credit.
Althoug he teaches well, i believe his selection for hw problems is horrible. doing hw does not help you learn physics at all, esp. when your background in physics isn't strong. in conclusion, almost no connection btwn lecture and hw. i hope he doesn't teach phys 3 next year.
He's a decent teacher, but I don't like him. And I like physics. Homework is hard as hell, but tests are quite fair.
This class is awful, the material is extremely difficult, and Lipman doesn't help at all. His lectures are confusing, boring, and do not help with the homework at all. The homework is extremely hard, I spent hours working on it and most of the time I could only get half of the problems.
Really good prof. He knows his stuff and can explain well. But tests are hard with so many conceptual crap.
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Best physics prof. his lectures are interesting and he has demos almost evertyday. Test are very hard but multiple choice, you only get 1 hour on the midterms so do not take your time.
Lipman is a very nice guy but his lectures can be hard to follow. Homework is hard but if you go to CLAS drop in you will get it done everytime. With little expamples in either the book or his lectures it can be very hard to do hwk or follow in lecture.
lectures are easy to follow but he focuses entirely on concepts and rarely mentions applications. the homework is really hard, and the tests (all multiple choice) is kinda a toss up, either really hard or decent. u have to be prepared to spend at least like 6 hrs on homework a week
He is a really nice guy. His lectures are clear and straight foward, and his tests are relatively easy. Tends to focus on concepts a bit to much though rather than applying them to examples like the homework (which is hard), but still an overall good prof.