Let's address the elephant in the room: Physics 100A is hard AF regardless of professor. Period. Dr. G is a really good professor that tends to be more square on bureaucratic stuff than other professors, and her lectures are rigorous. Tests and HW are very hard, but what else do you expect? Good luck on your first upper div physics here at UCSB!

(I had her for 100A which isn't listed on here) Dr. G is a lovely person but her lectures are absolutely impossible to follow. She spends the whole class time doing proofs at lightning-speed, and never does any examples. It's unclear what material is important to know for exams. This was a very rough transition to upper division physics for me.

Great teacher. Lectures are really good at covering the base of information, but strong understanding of the textbook and homework is necessary to do well. She will at times skip over essential formulas and necessary examples, so be sure to read the book. Overall a great professor

Very hard to follow in the class because of her terrible accent and messy handwriting. The lectures are all about useless derivation of formulas. Have ridiculous policies in grading. Very unfriendly. The worst professor I've met so far. Will definitely avoid her at all costs in the future.

Professor Guruswamy is super-enthusiastic about physics, so she speaks so fast that it's tiring to keep focused in lecture, especially when they are kind of boring. As for grading, remember to show your work; I lost lots of points for not showing enough work. Overall she's not bad, but that's it.

Guruswamy is the best prof I've taken in the department so far. Her lectures are great. She goes slow and is very clear, and her tests are difficult but good reflections of the material. I would love to take a class with her again. You can tell she really cares about her students.

One of the best lower div physics professors. Discussion sections are really helpful and tests are fair and closely resemble homework. Don't expect an easy A, but expect to know what you need to do to get one.

Prof. Guruswamy is a super sweet woman who really cares about teaching physics. I feel like her lectures are usually good, but often left me more in the dark than when I came in. Maybe thats just physics lol. Her tests are tough, but fair, which she strives for. Homework assignments are pretty long and should not be done the night before.

She acts like she wants you to succeed, but grades homework and exams to impossible standards. She does not allow for consistent errors, and doesn't curve. Lectures aren't bad, but are ultimately unhelpful when it comes to homework. When it comes time for exams, you have to teach yourself everything. The way she organizes sections is ineffective.

I never really rate profs, but I saw 3.0 average on Guruswamy and was confused. She was one of the best in UCSB physics in my opinion, along with... Dr. B, Dr. Blaes, maybe that's it for great teachers here. Dr. Craig was good too, but Guruswamy is probs better. Organized lectures. Caring person. Dedicated to making the department better. Respect.

great professor, physics is fun, isn't it? :)

She's up there with Dr. B for me! I found her lectures straightforward and very clearly presented. Her accent is really not that heavy (and I'm especially bad with them). Her tests were fair. I knew that when I didn't do well on one it was because I hadn't prepared. I'm intentionally taking her again for 101 because I know I'll be in good hands.

Not a marvelous teacher in lecture, but definitely accessible outside of class and caring. Exams were very fair and similar to homeworks and sheets given during section.

Hands down the best physics professor I've had in this school so far. She teaches the material thoroughly and puts a lot of effort in explaining derivations. She cares for her students and will help you if you ask. She has an accent and kinda poor handwriting but it isnt that big of a deal. If your intuition is math based then she will be a godsend

Sathya is one of the best teachers or professors I have ever had. She explained the tough material very thoroughly in lecture, gave helpful and easy to understand lecture notes, and had homework that I looked forward to doing because it was helpful in really understanding the material. She really cares about her students, and I adore her. Inspiring

Her class is really the easiest physcis course I've ever taken in UCSB. If you attend lectures and read textbook you are ready for an A. Her exams and quizzes are also fair, many questions come directly from lecture, book or iclicker question.

If you're going to take a class with Guruswamy, your best bet is to read the book and learn the material yourself. The only things you really need to take away from lectures are the derivations. Other than that, the book does a much better job of explaining and including what you actually need to know. Don't take her if you have the chance.

Professer Guruswamy was an excellent professor. Her class was challenging and fast-paced, but she was always willing to help students out with the material. She really cares about her students.

Sathya was one of the best teachers I have had at UCSB so far. She is extremely helpful and very approachable. During her lectures she would constantly encourage students to ask questions, and would answer them plus some. It seems like her bad ratings here are from engineering classes, if you like physics, she is excellent.

I really did not like her. Lectures were pointless derivations of formulas, and the tests were random and difficult. She expects you to memorize every formula, and the questions on the exam were silly.

Lecture is useless, just derives pointless formulas. Midterm was somewhat straight forward but still hard. Final was insane, even if you studied hard questions were random and somewhat irrelevant. Has heavy accent so hard to understand in class. Avoid taking her if you can because she's pretty much useless.

Boring. Difficult to follow. Her exams are killer. The midterm was out of 15. 8 multiple choice, each worth 1 point each. Two multiple choice worth about 3 and 4 points respectively. Her lectures are extremely difficult to follow and the problems in the HW are never explained in class. It's a lot of self learning. Good luck.

could not stand her. guessed on a good amount of questions on both midterm and final and luckily i passed.

sathya is a very boring prof. she spends way too much time on trivial, obvious points and goes on many tangents which are unnecessary to explain. however, her tests are a joke and she has a great curve in case you do poorly. dont buy the textbook