really bad teacher but a nice guy, he seems do not know how to teach at all and not confident about what he is teaching, I am really questioning the knowledge base of this professor, he does not seem know too much about what he is saying.

First and hardest physics class. Physics 20 is made to push some people leave the major. Monreal was a nice professor although he can be intimidating sometimes. Lectures are fine, iclicker questions were hard and were 30% of grade... Curve was amazing so don't worry if your midterm average is below C. Have to try in his class.

Lectures were confusing and somewhat irrelevant to the material on the homework and tests. This may be because he cants you to "get intuition", rather than showing us concrete examples and/or applications of what he's teaching. Large curve, but a hard class since I had to teach myself a lot of it out of the textbook. Graded iClicker questions too.

Had him for 21, 22 & 24. "I want you guys to have intuition for this," he continually says, & tries to teach you how to solve problems (ineffectively) w/o actually trying to teach much physics. You're better off learning it yourself but he forces you into lecture w/ iClickers worth at least 20% of your grade. "Ben curve" saves. Nice guy, but avoid.

Honestly Monreal would be a good teacher if he was teaching second grade physics. The problem is that the material is tough and he prefers to "teach" problem solving over physics, which really cant be learned through listening. Furthermore, clicker questions are graded and worth 30-50% of your grade and have little to no relation to the textbook

A nice guy

Teaches you the relevant material, although you will have to do harder homework and other textbook problems to have the same depth of knowledge required for the exams. A few relevant demos here and there. Tests are tough and he is a tough grader, however the curve really helps. For example the midterm average of 55% was considered a B+.

He's a pretty straightforward teacher -- don't expect to be really surprised (but get ready for difficult tests) if you pay attention in class. He didn't really assign a lot of homework, but the problems are pretty challenging. Also make sure to get to class early, as he usually starts iClicker questions right at the beginning of class.

Cool guy. Kind of "all over the place", but not enough to be a bad thing. He has a grading criteria which emphasizes iclicker questions over midterms and finals. Many find this system to be nice, but beware, it can be REALLY stressful since missing clicker questions can have a bigger impact on your grade. HW is long, but overall, class is nice.

His class is really straightforward. If you know physics, you will do well, if you don't, you won't. Homework takes a long time but isn't tedious, and the iClicker quizzes in class are good if you're like me and get nervous a lot during big tests. The midterm and final are difficult but similar to questions on homework or in class.

Monreal's lectures are pretty monotone and tend to be very bland. He knew the material very well and got in-depth/advanced in lectures and then had more conceptual things on the tests. Overall I wasn't pleased with him because he seemed too busy working on things outside of class and didn't want to put in extra effort for us.

this special topic was nuclear physics. Absolutely the best class I've taken at UCSB. He was even better for this class than he was for the 20 series and he was very excited about the subject. If you can take a class with Monreal, do it. His lectures are a little chaotic sometimes, but he explains stuff very well and answers questions very well.