wonderful professor...he uses lots of demos to explain concepts, his exams of fair, and he's personable. I started his class hating physics, and I'm now considering a physics major.

Very entertaining! Likes to connect physics to life sciences. His tests are hard though.

Fair class, we were given cheat sheets and calculators for tests. Can have somewhat hard test but gives u a syllabus of whats going to be on it. Fun demos, good personality and funny. The only downside is that too many fun demos less teaching. Needs to teach the material more and not go off on astronomy tangents. Over good prof. with a curve.

Makes lectures fun with demos, but doesnt always teach enough. You have to do all the reading and homework to learn. Nice and funny guy. The 1st midterm was really hard, but they get easier if you know what youre doing.

Though the class and exams may seem tough, the curve makes everything ok. As long as you're somewhat prepared and have all the formulas on the sheet for the exams, you should be just fine! He makes class fun with his demonstrations and weird reactions to them!

This guy is awesome. He's great at explaining everything, and does cool demos in lecture. And the tests are extremely easy, i dont know why everyone complains.

kinda hard but funny and wants to help

Fun and nice. Very helpful. Great demonstrations end engaging lectures.

Be ready to pay 60 USD to access the textbook and hw for a quarter. There are 3 online HW due dates per week and a mandatory in-class essay administered during sections each week. The exams are entirely MCQs so it is very easy to get thrown to B-. Lectures are fine but don't provide sufficient insight. Just take someone else's class...

Great professors, but the exams you need to take are harder than the assignments and harder to get a grade for.

This has been one of my favorite classes due to both material and professor. Geller is great and I loved the lectures. Tests were kind of hard, but weren't weighted very heavily (final = 20%). There is kind of a lot of homework, but it was generally pretty easy and didn't take long. Doing/understanding homework is necessary for good grade.

Only chance to ask questions is in lecture. He is responsive and helpful, but you're expected to rely on TAs for info outside of class. Lots of homework and reading per week. Lots of studying is recommended, you cannot just do the bare minimum in this class. Grading is dominated by your homework and quizzes but includes long midterms and finals.

In terms of difficulty, his class was not free, but I think if you put in the effort, you can get a decent grade. For his lectures, I attended every single one because they were so fun. He is clearly very passionate about what he teaches, and that passion is very contagious. I would suggest you do a quick review before the discussion sections.

The online version of Astro 1 is a blend of easy mathematics (Usually the hardest math being like AP Physics 1 level), really interesting concepts, and such. Expect to read a LOT for the online version of the class but it isn't hard at all. Great for a STEM elective, just okay for a STEM GE.

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.

Not too hard but you should go to lectures. Homework is a bit difficult but often harder than the tests.

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.

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 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.

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.