Tests are very difficult (averages ~50-60%) but grades are curved. Work as fast as you can to do well since a lot of people will struggle to finish all the problems on time. If you're taking physics for the first time, don't take this class as many students who have taken it before will do better than you and destroy your chances of getting a good grade. If you've taken Physics C or Physics 1 in HS, the tests will still be hard, but it should be easy to outscore the curve.

I really like Gelmini, but her class was definitely tough and would be a struggle for those taking physics for the first time. Tests were really hard and everyone left feeling miserable because they ran out of time. It didn't really feel like the tests were a good representation of our knowledge, because they were time constrained and often included what seemed like "trick" questions, where it didn't matter how well you knew the material, if you didn't see the "trick" then you would score very poorly. I also thought her lectures were long and a little boring, and sometimes her wording was unclear. We also mainly did conceptual work in class, which made the problem solving on the test difficult to understand (mostly because we weren't used to the way she worded her questions). She definitely tried to help, but the pace of the class was very fast.

Very bad teacher who makes very hard test averages on midterms and finals around 60%. This is because the midterms are to long to finish in a hour so most people don't finish. Very poor teacher won't learn much in lecture but show up to get clicker credit, many learning occurs during HW. All HW online with mastering physics. The program is expensive $50 and some people don't like it deducts points for sig figs (not a big deal will learn sig figs very easily) but doing the extra practice problems and fully learning the concepts will make or break your test grades.

Keys to do well:
-attend lecture get clicker credit even though waste of time
-do online HW (all problems answer online so can copy and paste question and cheat, but will waste your time actual learn how to do all of the problems the same concepts will be on test which is all computational)
-Work super fast on midterms partial credit given need to attempt all questions to score well
-Take AP Physics (I already new all concepts coming into the class and scored 30-40% above avg on every test and got an A+)

If you didn't take AP physics study hard and good luck. Also she curves to a low B so need to do well above the curve for an A

I think that Professor Gelmini means well, and she does put in effort to make the class a good learning experience; however, the execution is just a bit off. Lectures are often filled with clicker questions (which test very basic fundamental knowledge), and mathematical proofs of formulas - which can be interesting at times, but don't delve into how to solve the kinds of problems that appear on our homework, midterms, and finals. As a result, I felt rather unprepared.

The homework is what's supposed to prepare you for the midterms, but I still felt like there was a gap in the difficulty of the homework problems and the midterms/finals; compound with the fact that Mastering Physics is just a bad piece of software, and coupled with the fact that you can't really understand where you went wrong, makes the homework somewhat unimportant in midterm and final preparation.

The pacing was also a bit awkward: a majority of the material seemed packed in the last third of the class, as we went over rotational motion (i.e. torque and angular momentum); this made up almost the entire final, which seemed a bit... off. We weren't even tested on some of the other material that we spent quite a bit of time on (e.g. Gravitational Potential), which seemed a bit unfair.

The midterms and the finals were quite hard, with a significant curve in our class; some of it is definitely me not being that good at physics, but overall our class struggled with the material.

Overall, I didn't love having Gelmini, and I didn't hate having her, but I wouldn't recommend this class to others.

I was pretty scared to take Professor Gelmini's class when I first saw the grades she gives out and the other reviews on Bruinwalk. However, I this she is a pretty humorous and good professor who really enjoys teaching students and will be more than willing to answer questions during breaks/office hours. Her lectures are definitely more conceptual and basic and she has a lot of demos to show these concepts in action, however she doesn't really go over how to do any challenging examples in class, which is a shame. The tests are challenging, but like others said the midterms are doable (around the same level as some of the challenging masteringphysics homework problems), but the final is on a different level (as it forces you to apply many of the topics covered in class on a single problem). She gives a pretty generous amount of partial credit and likes to average her tests around 60%. For reference I received a 76% on MT1 (median 77%), 82% on MT2 (median 58%) and 61% on the final (median 61%).

Professor Gelmini is really passionate about physics but the exams are way harder than the homework assignments. You use an online program called Mastering Physics for the homework. She sets it up so you get like 5 attempts per problem but deducts credit for each attempt you use. The midterm exams both have ridiculously hard questions worth almost half of the exam by themselves. The averages were near the 50-60% range. There was definitely a huge disconnect between the difficulty of the homework/clicker questions and the exam questions.

Where to begin with Gelmini....she's nice, passionate, helpful, friendly and all of that good stuff but her exams...oh man....her exams are killers. I don't see why she obsesses over trivial mathematics, as she is completely in love with unnecessary geometry and trigonometry. From her lectures, appreciating physics is quite difficult, because all she does is prove formulas (and some demonstrations). For an introductory mechanics class, her exams should not be as hard as they are; seriously, the time crunch and the ridiculous amount of geometry were grade killers. As for homework, Mastering Physics is one of the worst programs out there. She doesn't grade homework for completion (she puts in your mastering physics scores into the grade book), so good luck with that. Tips: do a lot of practice problems, fully understand the concepts, and if you think something won't be on the exam, trust me, it will be. If this is your first physics class, I really do feel badly for you. Please, head on over to Flipping Physics (YouTube), Khan Academy and any other sources you can get your hands on. Good luck....you're probably gonna need it.

While Professor Gelmini is compassionate and wants the best for her students, her intentions did not line up with our experience. Here's some more information on what to expect:

–In lecture, we typically start with a series of clicker questions. While some of these questions are well put together and thought provoking, none of them help with the exams at all. These questions take up a significant amount of time from 30-50min. While clicker questions do not affect your grade directly, she says if you are on the border, she will round you up/down depending on participation.
–Afterwards she lectures and does some demos. There's just a lot of dead time of her messing around with demos, or trying to get student participation at 8am, etc. As a result, she moves very quickly through lecture material in an unclear, ineffective manner. She handwrites pdfs before lecture of her notes, which can be helpful in review/absences, however they are hard to follow as she scrolls up and down around them in class.
–The discussion sections are more helpful, and the problems picked do help with student understanding. I would highly advise going to them. While my TA, Nick, was pretty good, he was disconnected from Gelmini. It seems as if they never talked.
–The exams. Questions are often poorly written, and do not reflect student understanding. During the midterms, there is never enough time, and whenever Gelmini realizes her mistakes and corrects them she speaks very softly. As far as studying goes, practice a lot and understand the concepts, but don't expect to see much familiar. It's a game of failing but failing less than others.

Overall, while Gemini means well, and I respect her for showing up to teach four 8ams, I would not recommend taking this class. Especially if this is your first mechanics class.

Gelmini definitely is very knowledgable and cares about student learning, but in my opinion doesn't have a very engaging or helpful teaching style. In lectures she will teach off her summarized notes and also work through extra math on the whiteboard. For the most part, I think her notes were helpful, but in lecture she tends to focus too much on the complex mathematical proofs and derivations of formulas in comparison to the actual problem solving process and conceptual understanding that we need to understand to actually do well on the exams. Which are, for the record, very difficult with averages in the 50s/60s. There is massive time pressure on both midterms, and while you have more time on the final, there are extremely confusing questions on there as well. Also mastering physics is a pain in the ass, but you need to do it because its worth just enough of your grade to make a difference. All in all, I wouldn't really recommend taking her class unless you have no choice. Lots of unnecessary stress and frustration.

Professor Gelmini is a responsible professor and all, and I believe she's quite talented at this field, it's just the exams are unnecessarily hard. I mean, this is 1A, the first course of lower division physics, why are you making it so hard? Plus, if the true final is this hard, at least release a practice final with similar difficulty level, but no, not even this. So you review and review, pay attention to classes, do homework carefully, but the tests are still gonna ruin you.