PHYSICS 5C
Physics for Life Sciences Majors: Electricity, Magnetism, and Modern Physics
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour; laboratory, two hours. Requisite: course 5A. Electrostatics in vacuum and in water. Electricity, circuits, magnetism, quantum, atomic and nuclear physics, radioactivity, with applications to biological and biochemical systems. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 5.0
Units: 5.0
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2023 - 5C is rumored to be the easiest in the 5 series, but I would repeat 5B five times before taking 5C again with Simpson. I want to like her and have nothing against her as a person, but it is clear with every passing day that she is not equipped to teach. She only uses the blackboard for lectures, which is fine, but she miswrites equations at least once in most lectures. She spends lecture sharing the philosophy/derivations behind certain concepts but never tells us how to apply them to problems, or even mentions which formulas to use half the time. I don't need to be spoon fed, but I have never felt so lost in a class until now and I have dealt with many other first-time professors and started in the Physics 1+Math 32 series. I have been teaching myself entirely out of the book for the first time in my life (which is a regular old physics textbook, not like a "for dummies" handbook) and learning the important equations from the directions/hints on the MasteringPhysics homework. The average on the first midterm was a 52, which is lower than any other class I've ever taken, and for reference I'm a godawful test taker but managed an A on my 5B midterms. She told us she hopes we do better next time (bruh), as if collectively failing was a reflection of us. She also said she would curve grades up to an average of 85 (!), which is more than generous, but then she decided after the first midterm that she will not adjust any raw scores until we have our final grades. She will not commit to a curving scheme until after we finish the class, so we really have no way to know how we are doing until it's too late. Again, she has her upsides. She is curving generously, releases (messy) practice midterms, does (unproductive) midterm review sessions, is dropping our lowest midterm, and she never seems unkind or unwilling to help. Also, all the TAs are helpful. I want her to improve and hope she does with time. But this quarter with her was a nightmare. Ok sorry for writing a whole dissertation. Just be careful yall. xoxo gossip girl
Fall 2023 - 5C is rumored to be the easiest in the 5 series, but I would repeat 5B five times before taking 5C again with Simpson. I want to like her and have nothing against her as a person, but it is clear with every passing day that she is not equipped to teach. She only uses the blackboard for lectures, which is fine, but she miswrites equations at least once in most lectures. She spends lecture sharing the philosophy/derivations behind certain concepts but never tells us how to apply them to problems, or even mentions which formulas to use half the time. I don't need to be spoon fed, but I have never felt so lost in a class until now and I have dealt with many other first-time professors and started in the Physics 1+Math 32 series. I have been teaching myself entirely out of the book for the first time in my life (which is a regular old physics textbook, not like a "for dummies" handbook) and learning the important equations from the directions/hints on the MasteringPhysics homework. The average on the first midterm was a 52, which is lower than any other class I've ever taken, and for reference I'm a godawful test taker but managed an A on my 5B midterms. She told us she hopes we do better next time (bruh), as if collectively failing was a reflection of us. She also said she would curve grades up to an average of 85 (!), which is more than generous, but then she decided after the first midterm that she will not adjust any raw scores until we have our final grades. She will not commit to a curving scheme until after we finish the class, so we really have no way to know how we are doing until it's too late. Again, she has her upsides. She is curving generously, releases (messy) practice midterms, does (unproductive) midterm review sessions, is dropping our lowest midterm, and she never seems unkind or unwilling to help. Also, all the TAs are helpful. I want her to improve and hope she does with time. But this quarter with her was a nightmare. Ok sorry for writing a whole dissertation. Just be careful yall. xoxo gossip girl
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2019 - In my opinion the bad reviews are unwarranted. Although it was Professor Tung's first quarter teaching, he definitely deserves credit for the effort and dedication he put into teaching this class to the best of his ability. My advice for passing this class is simple : LISTEN in lecture, take detailed NOTES, attend DISCUSSION, and review CONCEPTS. I never had a problem with the way he utilized lecture time. If people actually bothered to pay attention and listen to what he was saying, then his lab demonstrations made sense and the concepts were easier to grasp. Some reviews argue that he spent too much time deriving formulas, but I have to disagree. He skipped over tedious calculus that was used to derive the formulas, and instead used the formulas to show the relationships between parameters (i.e. proportional, inversely proportional). This was actually very useful in multiple choice problems in his exams. I did put in effort to take notes during class, but even if I hadn't, on CCLE he posts NATHAN'S NOTES which are his own written notes that covers everything he says during lecture. Moreover, I found discussion to be extremely helpful. I think many people struggled with this class because we did not see many problems during lecture and mainly focused on concepts. However, discussion is where we actually got to see problems relating to the concepts. With this said, out of the 38 enrolled spots in discussion, only about 10 people actually bothered to show up weekly. I think this lack of attendance definitely contributed to negative reviews for this class. Anyways, my discussion TA reviewed important problems that were reflected on midterm multiple choice problems and helped me grasp concepts even better. In regards to the midterms for this class, I was also blindsided by the first midterm. Nevertheless, just writing down everything you know scores you points. Even if it was a hard test, if you truly understood concepts, then you should be able to score 1 or 2 points above average. As for the second midterm and final, they were completely fair. Professor Tung held review sessions that covered everything he expected. All in all, this class wasn't terrible and I feel like anyone can pass this class if they bother to listen in class and spend time understanding concepts. (Make sure to sit up front to see the board).
Fall 2019 - In my opinion the bad reviews are unwarranted. Although it was Professor Tung's first quarter teaching, he definitely deserves credit for the effort and dedication he put into teaching this class to the best of his ability. My advice for passing this class is simple : LISTEN in lecture, take detailed NOTES, attend DISCUSSION, and review CONCEPTS. I never had a problem with the way he utilized lecture time. If people actually bothered to pay attention and listen to what he was saying, then his lab demonstrations made sense and the concepts were easier to grasp. Some reviews argue that he spent too much time deriving formulas, but I have to disagree. He skipped over tedious calculus that was used to derive the formulas, and instead used the formulas to show the relationships between parameters (i.e. proportional, inversely proportional). This was actually very useful in multiple choice problems in his exams. I did put in effort to take notes during class, but even if I hadn't, on CCLE he posts NATHAN'S NOTES which are his own written notes that covers everything he says during lecture. Moreover, I found discussion to be extremely helpful. I think many people struggled with this class because we did not see many problems during lecture and mainly focused on concepts. However, discussion is where we actually got to see problems relating to the concepts. With this said, out of the 38 enrolled spots in discussion, only about 10 people actually bothered to show up weekly. I think this lack of attendance definitely contributed to negative reviews for this class. Anyways, my discussion TA reviewed important problems that were reflected on midterm multiple choice problems and helped me grasp concepts even better. In regards to the midterms for this class, I was also blindsided by the first midterm. Nevertheless, just writing down everything you know scores you points. Even if it was a hard test, if you truly understood concepts, then you should be able to score 1 or 2 points above average. As for the second midterm and final, they were completely fair. Professor Tung held review sessions that covered everything he expected. All in all, this class wasn't terrible and I feel like anyone can pass this class if they bother to listen in class and spend time understanding concepts. (Make sure to sit up front to see the board).
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Most Helpful Review
Summer 2020 - I took this class online during summer session A and I felt this class was harder than expected. The exams were timed and closed note and I felt very rushed during them. All of the lectures were pre-recorded which was nice but it definitely went very fast. The labs were time consuming and tedious but that seems to be a trend with the physics 5 series online labs. There is no curve for grades above a C and a 95 was an A. He says that generally 20% of people get an A but he doesn't curve down. First midterm avg was an 88 and second was a 92. I didn't love Professor Waung but his class wasn't terrible.
Summer 2020 - I took this class online during summer session A and I felt this class was harder than expected. The exams were timed and closed note and I felt very rushed during them. All of the lectures were pre-recorded which was nice but it definitely went very fast. The labs were time consuming and tedious but that seems to be a trend with the physics 5 series online labs. There is no curve for grades above a C and a 95 was an A. He says that generally 20% of people get an A but he doesn't curve down. First midterm avg was an 88 and second was a 92. I didn't love Professor Waung but his class wasn't terrible.
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