Professor
Gabriel Freiman
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2022 - LMAOOOOOOOOO DONT DO IT 💀💀💀 Like all of the other reviews from Spring 22, unless you know physics already from high school, DO NOT take it with Freiman 😠I literally went to FOUR lectures before I decided that I was losing more brain cells trying to understand what he was talking about. No, I did not watch the lectures later either because they are so bad. If you have to take this, I recommend just reading the textbook (NOT Kudu, the actual textbook) and doing Khan Academy practice/videos. Kudu is probably the worst invention ever. At one point, it literally said something along the lines of "we're not going to show the calculation, just trust us." BRO?? And the practice problems were ABSURDLY complicated too. The only good side of this course was the TA, he literally taught so much better during discussion in just 10-15 minutes. But unfortunately, the discussion was like 4-5 weeks behind lecture so idk. The exams were easy to be honest, very conceptual, but like in a good way. The questions were much, much easier than any of the practice problems in class, Kudu, and discussion. They were similar to Khan Academy practice problems (ratios etc.). Now, how did I get an A? To be honest, I don't know and I don't want to ask. I literally got a D in both midterms, missed some of the Kudu sections (graded on completion), missed points on discussion worksheets, and didn't even do all the extra credit labs. If you've taken AP physics in high school or you're SURE that you're solid on mechanics, then this class will be easy for you, but otherwise AVOID AT ALL COSTS!
Spring 2022 - LMAOOOOOOOOO DONT DO IT 💀💀💀 Like all of the other reviews from Spring 22, unless you know physics already from high school, DO NOT take it with Freiman 😠I literally went to FOUR lectures before I decided that I was losing more brain cells trying to understand what he was talking about. No, I did not watch the lectures later either because they are so bad. If you have to take this, I recommend just reading the textbook (NOT Kudu, the actual textbook) and doing Khan Academy practice/videos. Kudu is probably the worst invention ever. At one point, it literally said something along the lines of "we're not going to show the calculation, just trust us." BRO?? And the practice problems were ABSURDLY complicated too. The only good side of this course was the TA, he literally taught so much better during discussion in just 10-15 minutes. But unfortunately, the discussion was like 4-5 weeks behind lecture so idk. The exams were easy to be honest, very conceptual, but like in a good way. The questions were much, much easier than any of the practice problems in class, Kudu, and discussion. They were similar to Khan Academy practice problems (ratios etc.). Now, how did I get an A? To be honest, I don't know and I don't want to ask. I literally got a D in both midterms, missed some of the Kudu sections (graded on completion), missed points on discussion worksheets, and didn't even do all the extra credit labs. If you've taken AP physics in high school or you're SURE that you're solid on mechanics, then this class will be easy for you, but otherwise AVOID AT ALL COSTS!
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2024 - Awful and outdated textbook, way too much content expected to be covered in this course. Course needs to trim off extra topics as there is not enough time to cover them well and the core material suffers as a result. Lecture presentations were very confusing and only amounted to copying textbook equations with no context or explanations, and lecture slides are a collection of textbook figures with no commentary or context presented. Homework exercises were pulled straight from the textbook, very confusing, and not useful for preparing for exam material. Midterm exam was well beyond the mastery level reasonably achievable from lecture presentations and studying of textbook, leading to an average score below 50%. No dedicated office hours in an already confusing and difficult course made the experience even worse. Lecture presentations routinely went over the allotted time and still did not cover the content adequately. Update after final exam: The final exam was significantly different than the midterm exam, largely for the better. Questions were mostly focused on providing descriptions of course concepts with a reasonable level of depth. Additionally, while the written assignment did feel a little tacked on, likely to fulfill some ABET requirement for graduate courses, it was not too strenuous to complete and will likely serve as a nice grade buffer if it is not graded too harshly. Overall, while Professor Frieman did have shortcomings as a lecturer and preparer of homework and exams, I believe that the issues with this class primarily stem from the selection of course content being exceedingly large. Even at the fast pace of this class, we still ended the quarter around two weeks behind the content listed on the syllabus and only covered content from 4 out of the 5 intended chapters. I believe that if Frieman continues to teach this class he will undoubtedly improve as he showed towards the end of this quarter, but it is still hard to recommend this class without specific prior experience in its content unless the breadth of content is significantly reduced.
Fall 2024 - Awful and outdated textbook, way too much content expected to be covered in this course. Course needs to trim off extra topics as there is not enough time to cover them well and the core material suffers as a result. Lecture presentations were very confusing and only amounted to copying textbook equations with no context or explanations, and lecture slides are a collection of textbook figures with no commentary or context presented. Homework exercises were pulled straight from the textbook, very confusing, and not useful for preparing for exam material. Midterm exam was well beyond the mastery level reasonably achievable from lecture presentations and studying of textbook, leading to an average score below 50%. No dedicated office hours in an already confusing and difficult course made the experience even worse. Lecture presentations routinely went over the allotted time and still did not cover the content adequately. Update after final exam: The final exam was significantly different than the midterm exam, largely for the better. Questions were mostly focused on providing descriptions of course concepts with a reasonable level of depth. Additionally, while the written assignment did feel a little tacked on, likely to fulfill some ABET requirement for graduate courses, it was not too strenuous to complete and will likely serve as a nice grade buffer if it is not graded too harshly. Overall, while Professor Frieman did have shortcomings as a lecturer and preparer of homework and exams, I believe that the issues with this class primarily stem from the selection of course content being exceedingly large. Even at the fast pace of this class, we still ended the quarter around two weeks behind the content listed on the syllabus and only covered content from 4 out of the 5 intended chapters. I believe that if Frieman continues to teach this class he will undoubtedly improve as he showed towards the end of this quarter, but it is still hard to recommend this class without specific prior experience in its content unless the breadth of content is significantly reduced.
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