Good professor. I think many people in my class found the lectures too theoretical and boring, but I really enjoyed the thorough derivations because everything felt so connected. It's quite impressive how many things one can derive from Maxwell's equations. If you have genuine interest in physics, I highly recommend him, but if you just want to get by in the class (which I can understand), his lectures are probably not for you. He does go over a lot of material that's never even remotely tested, but regardless, I found the lectures worthwhile.

His tests were fairly challenging. I'd say half of the midterm questions were pretty straightforward, sometimes even exact homework problems, while the rest would be stuff a bit beyond the scope of the textbook that he specifically talked about in class (ex. AC circuits with complex notation, relativistic kinematics, spinning charged spheres). He does not go through many examples in class, but if he does, you can almost guarantee it will show up on an exam in some form. If you know how to do the homework problems and understand the more challenging concepts he goes over in class, you should do relatively well on the test. Take advantage of your note card and write down a tough question or two if you still have room. I thought his final was easier and most of the questions only tested a basic understanding of the topics, save for a few tough questions.

I also recommend going to discussion sections at least before the exams because sometimes the TA's will do problems that are similar to the ones on the test.

Midterm 1 average: 56
Midterm 2 average: 49
Final average: 60

Regan was very passionate about the content in the class which showed during lecture but lectures themselves weren’t helpful. Sometimes there would be a nugget of good information in one of the derivations which would help on a homework problem but the homework problems were mostly self taught. Don’t bother going to office hours, he can be really helpful when on track but most of the time it was just a hang out. The two midterms were nearly the same as the homework and the notecards were helpful. The final was brutal and the highest score was a 35%; it was not in any way similar to content we found in class. Overall my advice would be to read the chapters before you do th homework. Don’t be stressed by the first 3 weeks of the class, it’s supposed to be overwhelming. The last 3 weeks were a breeze because everything interconnected and the first 3 weeks finally made sense. I only got a B because I wrote an equation wrong on my notecard but otherwise I think I would have probably gotten an A- . I think beside the mishaps, Regan was pretty fair and reasonable.

Most difficult and stressful class I've ever taken, and it doesn't need to be, so avoid this professor if you can. Saddly he was a really entertaining lecturer, I actually enjoyed class, he also told jokes, always tried his best to answer questions, and held lots of office hours. But that doesnt make up for the fact that I thought I was gonna fail most of the quater. I walked out of both midterms and the final thinking I could have studied weeks more and not been able to get a 60%. The average grade on both midterms was around 50%, but if you stay around the average (I was below by a few percent both times) and turn in all your homework, you might be okay besides the anxiety and depression. I still don't understand how I got a B-, honestly, the curve must have been crazy. If you are a quick study, extemely knowledgable on all physics, and phenominal on creative problem solving, you might be one of the f***ers who can get an A, otherwise you're in for a wild ride.

Lectures: It's clear that he loves what he's teaching, and he'll bring in his own personal taste into things. If you're interested in physics, then it'll be awesome. If you just want to pass this class, this can feel a bit intimidating. He does a good job telling you what you need to know.

Homework: Reading the textbook is a must since his lectures sort of assumes you either already have some previous exposure to the topic or have read the textbook. Homework itself is of reasonably length, though sometimes the formulas required are in the textbook but are not mentioned in lecture.

Office Hour: Really nice and will talk to you about anything.

Exams: Quite challenging. The test questions are definitely complicated and a time crunch to think through and write down as much as you know. However, he curves fairly well.

Overall: If you enjoy lectures from someone who's really interested in Physics, then you'll like this class. You'll not only learn the course material but hear it talked about from the perspective of a physicist. However, be prepared to also put in the time because the content material is not easy tp master.

the goat. I have no idea wtf maxwells equations are but I still got an A. Like others, I am a stupid CS major who does not care whatsoever about physics, but I actually ended up being mildly interested after taking this class. If you do the homework, skim the textbook, watch lectures and try to understand how he goes from 1 step to the next (even if you don't understand the problem as a whole), you should be okay. MASSIVE curve. the two best tips are to:

1. write stuff down on the exam, even if you don't know wtf the question is even asking!!! You get points for anything and/or written conceptual answer (you will only get 0 on a question if you leave it blank).

2. GO TO DISCUSSION!!! I actually learned so much from doing the discussion worksheet even if I didn't understand anything in lecture that week, plus the people in my breakout rooms were pretty cool. IAN powell i love you <333

Finally, Regan is so funny. I actually enjoyed this class much more than I expected (finally got my first A in college physics!). the average for midterm 1 was i think 58, midterm 2 was like 65, and idk for the final but i got like 64. I still don't know wtf AC current or relativity is. You will be FINE.

Regan is...interesting. He skips the Physics 17 review that's scheduled in the beginning of 115A and focuses on special relativity: his favorite. As you make your way through 115A with Regan, you'll see that he has a problem with h_bar, energy, momentum, mass, and Griffiths. Anyway...here's a longer breakdown:

1) He assigns a lot of homework. Problem sets are mostly from the textbook (which is good), but the Regan specials are a hit or miss. His lectures are not that helpful for the HW (as he kinda just talks about what he finds interesting), but once in a while (maybe the day before the HW is due), he will say some useful stuff for the HW. He expects you to read the textbook (without telling you to read the textbook), so read and do the HW.

2) His exams are...interesting. If he gives a question similar to the textbook, be sure to get full points on that. The Regan specials are hard to do. Most of the time, I'm not sure what he's asking on his questions. If you can reach him during the exam to get clarification, please do so. HIs questions aren't necessarily impossible, but they are just worded confusingly. If exams were in-person (or synchronous), I would've asked for clarification and scored better. His curve is nice though, so that's good.

Overall, Regan is a funny guy. He's very likeable and is happy to talk to you about almost anything during office hours. He loves physics and he wants you to love physics too. But, his exams weren't that good and he thinks we can work faster than we actually can. If you have to take Regan, it's not the end of the world (as his class was kinda fun), but be prepared to do some work.

Regan's such a cool guy. He loves QM. He teaches you to appreciate a more elegant formalism of physics that used wavenumbers and frequencies instead of momentum and energy. Tests are moderately hard but generally exciting. Homework is long and generally not that fantastic. He also covers relativity in an abstract, linear algebra-heavy, but informative manner. It's hard but rewarding.

Take this class. You'll love it, and it's worth the work.

Regan is a cool dude and liked to joke around a lot. The tests in this class are pretty difficult and the homework often took forever to complete. Regan also likes to start the class off with special relativity which was surprising to say the least. In fact, the SR in this class is harder than what I did in 105B but it was admittedly more helpful than what was done in 105B. After that, though, the class was what you'd expect out of a QM class.
Also, the curve in this class is fucking great so that always helps.
Overall, the class was genuinely fun and I would recommend taking a class with Regan if you get the chance.

I think this professor has unrealistic expectations for what should come obvious to students. I think the materials in the class (textbook, homework, aside essays, tests, etc..) are fair and help one learn what they are supposed to for this class. This class was very fast paced in content but also had a manageable workload. Although I found prof. to be a very entertaining lecturer and great at explaining concepts, I found myself uncomfortable asking any questions for the fear that they might be seen as trivial or obvious. I would have appreciated more explanation for where many of his lecture derivations come from.

I feel that Regan has a lower rating than he deserves because his exams are difficult. He really does care about students doing well in the class, which is why he curves so much.

HOMEWORK: Some questions are hard, some are just plug and chug. I really like the questions Regan writes, and I wish he wrote more of the homework questions because they usually take a while, but I come out of it with a deeper understanding of the topic of the question. They were graded on correctness, but I feel they graded pretty easily, and the TAs were nice with regrades.

EXAMS: Honestly, they were all reasonable in my opinion. There were definitely difficult questions, but a lot of the problems were straight off the homework, or straight from a derivation he does in lecture that he makes sure we know is important, so make sure you understand those. Also, when I say some questions are straight off the homework, I don't mean the plug and chug problems. I mean the problems that really get us to think about the concepts at a deep level. Sometimes, he will even tell us that a certain topic is definitely going to be on a midterm/final.

OFFICE HOURS: Sometimes they're helpful and sometimes they're not. He will go over homework problems if you ask him about them, or at least get you started on them.

COURSE CONTENT: Although I personally didn't hate how Regan structured his class, it isn't for everyone. His lectures focus more on what he thinks is important for a physicist to know, which I actually like. However, his homework is mainly questions from the textbook, and he often doesn't talk about the content covered in the homework until the lecture on the day the homework is due. Because of this, the homework is often self-taught. The tradeoff is that you are able to learn certain things that other professors would not have taught. For example, I don't think statistical mechanics is usually covered in this course, but Regan talked about it for 2ish weeks before we did any quantum. Regan also curves the class at the end rather than each test, so it's hard to tell what grade you have during the quarter. This is a big factor of stress for students, but I feel that Regan acknowledged that this quarter and is trying to make easier tests now so the averages aren't super low.

Overall, I would recommend Regan because he is a very entertaining person, and he does care about students learning the content.