If you can avoid Williams, I would. He is not an engaging lecturer, and while you do learn some things, learning doesn't necessarily feel complete. The biggest problem I have with this class however lies in grading. For this quarter, there was a final, a midterm and five quizzes--the quizzes summed up were equal to the midterm. The quizzes especially were difficult and in my opinion way outside and above what was taught in lecture and the expectations were passed what was taught. Another thing that was an issue was how strict the grading was. Many people would get low scores on quizzes and there would be no rubric for them, just a raw score. And while he does post solutions, you aren't sure why you fully got those points and that many points knocked off. I even requested a regrade because something was there that should have received points but he ended up taking other points off because a derivation wrong--mind you I already didn't get points for the correct answer so I just got points taken mindlessly. Another point is that if you get a derivation or an equation wrong say in part b, if the following parts depend on your answer in part b, you aren't getting a single point in the following parts. This happened to me on the midterm. Overall, after experiencing all of this for an entire quarter, I can easily say that I dread mechanics and this class was so draining and not motivating and by the time finals came around I was more relieved to be done than stressed for the final itself.

Final note: Someone in the class attended his office hours before the final and according to them, he had said "I want to screw you guys over hard on the final." Take that as you will.

If you've taken physics before and are very familiar with the concepts, then I would say Gary would be a manageable professor to take. However if you have not taken physics at all, beware. The other reviews are true that this guy gives REALLY REALLY hard exams. I do think I learned a lot about physics this quarter as I truly worked hard, but just felt so crushed by the exams. (lets just say everything was a solid F without the curve) The homework assignments don't even compare to the exams, and although homework and office are helpful to learning physics, you still feel like you didn't prepare enough when you take his quizzes and midterm. He did nothing to make physics interesting and taught solely theoretical and with example problems and didn't actually show us how to have intuition for the huge word problems, like at all. It's so much stress and torture being in this class because you have no idea where you stand and the exams are made so you won't do well. Even if you bomb the midterm and quizzes, just know if you study hard and do decent on the final the curve will save you. You have a lot more time on the final which really helps, compared to the midterms and quizzes. Fuck this class and if you have to do it, just keep going even if you feel like shit about your physics skills for the quarter. DON'T give up!

What truly encapsulates what the professor's mindset on how he organizes his course is this one phrase he said after seeing the midterm scores on our midterm. A whopping 64% was the average. Clearly, the majority of this class was struggling with the content and the test was very VERY difficult. Despite this he looks at the 14 people (out of the hundreds of students who took this class) who received a 100% and says: "I need to make the final harder." He looks at the minority succeeding outliers and uses those as a baseline for the difficultly of his tests, which are very VERY difficult.

The lectures are also very unengaging. It is almost impossible to stay completely focused throughout the two hour lectures. He sometimes sounds as though he is not interested in the content he is teaching either. The lecture content itself seems very trivial in comparison to the textbook which basically teaches the exact same thing, but at least you can go at your own pace.

The difficulty spikes between the things you are required to do are nothing short of phenomenal. The homework are not too bad, fairly standard. Maybe have to search up a problem or two. Maybe slightly above average of a professor's homework expectations. The quizzes and tests are dreadful to say the least. Let me walk you through the standard physic's students process in taking these tests. Glance at the question, see some horrific contraption that you have NEVER seen in any form on the homework, lecture, or practice problems you might have looked up. On the first quiz you think "oh it might not be that bad! the given values are only equal to 1, 2, or 0.5. this can be doable." Then, you find that you are crafting these convoluted statements in order to write what hardly resembles a solid answer. You turn it in and the only relief you have is that the pain is over. Only to have quite an aftershock as you receive your grade back.

This class was hell. And if you were present for the very chaotic 2022 winter quarter where all hell broke loose, then you'll know just how bad it was. Avoid this class as much as you can. If you are unfortunate enough to take it, brace yourself.

My guy Williams is a physics legend as a researcher, but definitely not the best prof out there. His hw is pretty easy, which is just mastering physics assignments, however, beware of his midterms and finals: I scrapped an A- only cause I had a lot of previous knowledge. Do a lot of practice problems if u can and pray to your textbook. His lectures are basically useless and try to avoid him if it is your first time to take physics.

BRING YOUR CALCULATOR TO THE TESTS! Please don't mess that up. But here's my review:

The textbook was very comprehensive for an intro level mechanics course, and had many interesting applications (particularly the radio example, radius of gyration, exoplanets, and the section on thermal energy). Very clever, but not necessary to get an A in this class. Do the homework, understand the basic concepts, and you'll get at least a B. I am not even sure if anyone got below a B-. That's true even if you get poor raw scores on the tests. I got a B+ from getting a 53% on the midterm and a 46% on the final. There is some physical subtlety to pay attention to. I lost 20 points on my final because of this; may have been the difference between an A- and a B+. But I digress.

Spend ample time on the homework problems; there aren't back of the book solutions but you can look them up if you get really stuck. And that is likely going to happen. The particular TA I had was very good at explaining conceptual material, but section was practically useless because the problems he solved were so disorganized. I get what he was going for, trying to solve them on a first try himself in front of us, but it often times didn't work out. The quizzes were usually fair enough, but there was one where we had to make an assumption that lead most of us to getting a low score (Quiz 6 with the ball anyone).

Personally, I found the course SOMEWHAT enjoyable overall. Lectures were usually pretty clear, but diverted from the way the book did things. Don't let your struggles in this course make you dislike physics; your confidence may be shaken and tested in this course. Also, the online format is nowhere near optimal for discussion and studying. Absolutely nowhere close. But it was still okay. I often times felt really stupid and spent hours reading the textbook. I think I wasted a lot of time doing that. So, work on the problems and pay attention to lectures primarily.

Despite not being the most charismatic lecture, Prof. Williams is a good professor and researcher. Physics 1A is a very hard course, and you seriously have to do a lot of catch up after class yourself. Don't panic too much about what grade you are going to get! Just do your best and enjoy the process. Don't be scared off too much by rumors either. Overall, it's still a good experience.

I love physics, but this class gave me a run for my money. He's not a terrible professor, just difficult to learn from. Some tips for future students if you must take Williams:
- You don't learn from him, you learn from the textbook (which you must read before coming to each lecture)
- Take VERY good notes from the textbook, as his in-person lectures are often hard to decode and you don't have the time to sit there and wonder if he wrote "velocity" or "vector" before he moves on
- The Pearson homework assignments are long and poorly worded, but they are only worth 5% (that said they are the only comprehensive practice you get with the content so you should do them)
- Expect that the tests are way harder than the homework/in-person examples/discussion assignments (they are open note/book, but you can't rely on notes to set up the problem)
- Make an equation sheet (treat this like gold because he will often rely on the previous unit's equations for tests and homework)

Don't know why the rating is so low.

Curve is too kind. Content is too interesting(especially the damped harmonic oscillator and the related example of the door.)

Take him.

This class was pretty difficult, not gonna lie. The average on the first midterm was 56%, and on the second it was 46%. The final average was 59%. The curve was nice though, so I got an A- after scoring between a half and a whole standard deviation above the mean on each exam.

The grades were 10% homework, 22.5% for each midterm, and 45% final. The homework wasn't too bad, as it was one problem set per week that took about two hours on average. I've already touched on the tough exams. Partial credit is awarded, but one mistake can still tank your score because each midterm is only 3 questions (the final was 6).

His lectures were pretty dry, and there were times where he seemed somewhat condescending, such as when he said "it didn't seem that hard to me" or something along those lines about the second midterm. If you can, I would recommend looking elsewhere.

Williams is a professor who cares about his students. Don't get me wrong, but he is a pretty nice lecturer. Although he spends time deriving equations (which we don't really need to know), he still explains the concepts fairly well. But then again, I had three years of physics experience prior to taking his class, so I must warn you, if you have NO prior experience in physics, try to look for a better professor, although it would be kinda hard since Williams is pretty good.

In Williams' class, you will get a homework set every week. Some of the problems may seem hard, but after Williams lectures through the material and you have your Friday discussion, it really isn't that bad.

The midterms aren't that bad. But the final is pretty hard.

All in all, if you read the chapters in the physics book, go to every lecture, do all of your homework, you should be fine for the tests (especially when they give out partial credit they're pretty generous I must say).