Professor

Jacqueline Pau

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3.9
Overall Ratings
Based on 57 Users
Easiness 2.7 / 5 How easy the class is, 1 being extremely difficult and 5 being easy peasy.
Workload 2.8 / 5 How light the workload is, 1 being extremely heavy and 5 being extremely light.
Clarity 3.5 / 5 How clear the professor is, 1 being extremely unclear and 5 being very clear.
Helpfulness 3.6 / 5 How helpful the professor is, 1 being not helpful at all and 5 being extremely helpful.

Reviews (57)

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June 3, 2015
Quarter: N/A
Grade: N/A

Selling PDF COPY of PHYSICS 6A,6B, AND 6C textbook for 40 dollars.

Email if interested: *************

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Dec. 11, 2008
Quarter: N/A
Grade: N/A

Prof. Pau is pretty chill. She's really nice about turning in homework if you have any problems. Definitely go to office hours, she's clears up a lot of stuff. I know sometimes she can be very unclear, and she can keep going even if the class doesn't get it. I took this course with her over the summer and it was the only class I had, and that may sort of make me biased, but I spent hours each day in the library doing practice problems, which is the only way to learn in this class. But yeah, I'd recommend her to my friends, she's not bad. It's the course really, not her. And the TA's were awsome too, so look for a good TA. lol I ended up with an A-, which is what most of the class got, so don't worry.

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PHYSICS 5B
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Aug. 21, 2020
Quarter: Summer 2020
Grade: A+

Jackie was a great prof! Her lectures were very easy to follow and the grading was very fair. The homework was pretty easy that you have a week to do it and 6 tries per problem (10%), the quizzes, however, were a bit tougher as they were out of 5 and 15% of the whole grade. If you miss one question its already a 80% so that can bring down the grade significantly. However she does give lots of extra credit and is very understanding!

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PHYSICS 5B
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Aug. 12, 2020
Quarter: Summer 2020
Grade: A+

This review is for the summer version of this course (we only had one midterm). I found this class to be okay. It is by far not the worst class that I have taken and I liked it a lot better than 5A. Dr. Pau was nice. All of the lectures were recorded and her slides were posted. If you miss something during lecture, you can always rewatch the lecture.

Homework was extremely fair. You get 6 tries and if you're really stuck most of the questions can be found somewhere online.
Quizzes were timed (4 questions/15 minutes) on mastering physics. We had one at the end of each week, except for the first and the last week. She drops your lowest one. The questions were similar to what you would see on your homework.
Labs were sort of easy. I highly suggest looking at the physics lab website ahead of time to see what materials you will need. I lived at home when I took this course and the required materials were reasonable. If you don't have an item/object on hand, reach out to your lab TA and ask about a substitute. They made us attend our enrolled lab section, but you can always use this time to ask the TA and LA questions (setup/calculations/codes) and do the lab beforehand. That way you can make sure you get most of the points.
The midterm was also fair. Make sure to have a formula sheet, go over discussion problems, quiz problems, and take the sample midterm (also figure out how you plan to scan/upload your photos of the midterm to gradescope). Dr. Pau gave us extra time for scanning and uploading. She also gave us a google voice number to call in the case of an emergency.
The final was also extremely fair and a lot of people did well. It was open notes and we had 200 minutes to complete the final, scan, and upload our photos. Use the sample final to time/pace yourself.

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June 17, 2010
Quarter: N/A
Grade: N/A

Professor Pau is super nice. Comparing her to my 6A professor, shes like heaven on earth cuz my 6A professor was really crappy. She explains all the materials very well and even with an accent, shes totally understandable. Shes funny too so I'm never asleep in her class. I rarely went to my 6A class but I went to every one of hers because they are entertaining.

Having said that, her tests are very fair. She expects people to read the book, but I never did. She does test on stuff in the book that she never mentioned in class. Her curve is nice: top 15% get A's (not including A-). The only thing I hated about her tests were the Multiple Choice and the time limit (50 min). You don't get partial credit and they can be tricky. 50 min is barely enough to finish the test. I also hate, hate, hate the quizzes. Webassign quizzes and hw were just tricky and hard. HW takes a while to do and that got frustrating.

6B material is just hard compared to 6A. Elec and Mag is more complex than mechanics so not many people can understand it well. She did her best to explain but she spent too much time on waves and left little time for E/M. She rushed at the end which sucked cuz E/M is harder than waves. She tries to cover too much material in 10 weeks and thats why she had to rush. I wish she would cut some of the material out.

Discussion was useless. I never went. Lab was useless too cuz it was ahead of the lecture so everyone was lost. They were fun tho but not much learning was involved.

Overall I recommend her. Shes good at explaining everything clearly and generous about the grading.

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June 10, 2010
Quarter: N/A
Grade: N/A

She's not the greatest physics teacher, but I'm sure there are a lot worse teachers. You need to go to lecture for her class, but she tends to go pretty quickly over the material. Only when looking back over my notes did I begin to understand the material. She also doesn't do many problems during class, and problems really help make sure you know what you need to. The problems she posts online really help. Reading the book really helps as well, and I would recommend doing the example problems. The practice tests are also a big help, but don't be fooled, she makes the problems on the actual test trickier than the ones on the practice tests, even if the type of question is the same. She also really likes spherical conductor/insulator problems. And make sure you understand the material conceptually; she has multiple choice questions on her tests.

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June 24, 2016
Quarter: Summer 2016
Grade: A

Overall, this class was a very positive experience.
Pau gives a lot of room for improvement and if a student is deficient in one category over another, there are other ways to make up for it.
The homework and quizzes were very straightforward, with the homework being calculation based and the quizzes being conceptually based.
The Midterms were average. As long as you pay attention in lecture and follow the examples she uses, it should be simple. Make sure to use all the resources that she puts on CCLE as they're a huge help.
The Final Exam was really tough. As someone posted earlier, there really is no way to be fully prepared for this exam. Do well on the Midterms so your stress for the final is much lower.
The Discussion Sections, in my opinion, were not helpful at all. The TA's spent time going over things that weren't very pertinent to the class and it gave no additional information that wasn't already covered in lecture.
Her accent can sometimes be a little hard to follow, but overall sit in the front so you can see her handwriting, and pay attention.
Her class is catered to the MCAT, which means that she will avoid certain sections in the textbook if it is not necessary. This makes the class pretty easy to follow and keep up with.

Overall, I would recommend this professor to a friend and take another class that she teaches.

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Aug. 12, 2017
Quarter: Summer 2017
Grade: A+

Dr. Pau, is in my opinion, probably the most average professor I've had. She gets the info across and is pretty thorough I suppose during lectures, but the class is not engaging at all, nor does it get me particularly excited about physics. I think part of it just has to do with the fact that Physics 6C (and 5C in the future) teaches a bunch of miscellaneous crap with little to no flow other than a couple topics about light and optics.

The material is ridiculously easy, especially to the level of understanding she wants you to have it at. The midterm was an absolute joke, with an average of an 89, which is unheard of. Her final was a bit tougher, and a couple questions tested if you actually knew what was going on rather than memorizing how to do the questions, which I know most lifescience people tend to do, but overall, the final was OK.

(Disclaimer: I'm not a lifescience person, I started this series and changed majors to physical science but they forced me to finish the series).

The class was so easy that I lost motivation for the class and hardly paid attention in lecture. Literally one or two formulas dictate almost everything that you'll learn in the class, so if you know the mirror equation, constructive destructive interference phase differences, and buoyancy, you'll be fine.

HOWEVER, her syllabus states only 15% of people will get an A+ or A, which you can see on the grading data on this website. 30 people dropped the class as soon as that syllabus came out, which means only 90 people, or less than 15 people getting A's. I'm not sure if that happened this session, but it isn't the best thing hanging over your head. Every point matters, buy a Chegg account, bullshit the Mastering Physics quizzes, get a good lab TA or fight for your points, look up the solutions manual. A surprising amount of people "couldn't keep up" with the quizzes because they didn't know you could look up the answers online as you were taking them.

Even if you take care of the small stuff, you need to still understand what the hell is going on, or else you won't be ready for that final.

Dr. Pau herself is a super nice person who cares about the class, she's a tiny little Asian lady who talks fairly fast, maybe it was just the class itself I didn't like, but I don't think I would take another class with her.

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May 4, 2017
Quarter: Winter 2016
Grade: A

I took the whole physics series with Professor Pau, and she really makes Physics (a "daunting") topic fun and exciting while still getting the large amount of material across. I took the classes as a pre-med and took the MCAT soon after, and I felt very prepared for the MCAT physics topics with the material that I learned in Professor Pau's classes. I Highly recommend taking the physics series with her!

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Aug. 12, 2017
Quarter: Summer 2017
Grade: B+

Physics 6C is way easier than 6B and maybe even easier than 6A. That said, this class was a chore because of how unengaging the class is. Don't get me wrong, Pau is a nice person and definitely not a bad professor but everything is very by the numbers and overall I didn't enjoy the class that much because of it.

The midterm for this class was ridiculously easy. The average was an 89 which is absurd for a physics class. Like most people have said, the final is where she gets you. It is much more difficult than the midterm IMO but not impossible. Most of the questions are doable but there are just a few very tricky ones.

The labs suck as per usual. Just follow along with the manual and you'll get through alright.

She gives homework out of the book and she gives quizzes which are from masteringphysics. Don't bother going to discussion and just study on your own.

Overall this class certainly wasn't a nightmare like 6B was. It was just really average in all aspects. I'd still recommend Pau though

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PHYSICS 6C
Quarter: N/A
Grade: N/A
June 3, 2015

Selling PDF COPY of PHYSICS 6A,6B, AND 6C textbook for 40 dollars.

Email if interested: *************

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0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
PHYSICS 6A
Quarter: N/A
Grade: N/A
Dec. 11, 2008

Prof. Pau is pretty chill. She's really nice about turning in homework if you have any problems. Definitely go to office hours, she's clears up a lot of stuff. I know sometimes she can be very unclear, and she can keep going even if the class doesn't get it. I took this course with her over the summer and it was the only class I had, and that may sort of make me biased, but I spent hours each day in the library doing practice problems, which is the only way to learn in this class. But yeah, I'd recommend her to my friends, she's not bad. It's the course really, not her. And the TA's were awsome too, so look for a good TA. lol I ended up with an A-, which is what most of the class got, so don't worry.

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0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
PHYSICS 5B
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Summer 2020
Grade: A+
Aug. 21, 2020

Jackie was a great prof! Her lectures were very easy to follow and the grading was very fair. The homework was pretty easy that you have a week to do it and 6 tries per problem (10%), the quizzes, however, were a bit tougher as they were out of 5 and 15% of the whole grade. If you miss one question its already a 80% so that can bring down the grade significantly. However she does give lots of extra credit and is very understanding!

Helpful?

0 1 Please log in to provide feedback.
PHYSICS 5B
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Summer 2020
Grade: A+
Aug. 12, 2020

This review is for the summer version of this course (we only had one midterm). I found this class to be okay. It is by far not the worst class that I have taken and I liked it a lot better than 5A. Dr. Pau was nice. All of the lectures were recorded and her slides were posted. If you miss something during lecture, you can always rewatch the lecture.

Homework was extremely fair. You get 6 tries and if you're really stuck most of the questions can be found somewhere online.
Quizzes were timed (4 questions/15 minutes) on mastering physics. We had one at the end of each week, except for the first and the last week. She drops your lowest one. The questions were similar to what you would see on your homework.
Labs were sort of easy. I highly suggest looking at the physics lab website ahead of time to see what materials you will need. I lived at home when I took this course and the required materials were reasonable. If you don't have an item/object on hand, reach out to your lab TA and ask about a substitute. They made us attend our enrolled lab section, but you can always use this time to ask the TA and LA questions (setup/calculations/codes) and do the lab beforehand. That way you can make sure you get most of the points.
The midterm was also fair. Make sure to have a formula sheet, go over discussion problems, quiz problems, and take the sample midterm (also figure out how you plan to scan/upload your photos of the midterm to gradescope). Dr. Pau gave us extra time for scanning and uploading. She also gave us a google voice number to call in the case of an emergency.
The final was also extremely fair and a lot of people did well. It was open notes and we had 200 minutes to complete the final, scan, and upload our photos. Use the sample final to time/pace yourself.

Helpful?

0 1 Please log in to provide feedback.
PHYSICS 6B
Quarter: N/A
Grade: N/A
June 17, 2010

Professor Pau is super nice. Comparing her to my 6A professor, shes like heaven on earth cuz my 6A professor was really crappy. She explains all the materials very well and even with an accent, shes totally understandable. Shes funny too so I'm never asleep in her class. I rarely went to my 6A class but I went to every one of hers because they are entertaining.

Having said that, her tests are very fair. She expects people to read the book, but I never did. She does test on stuff in the book that she never mentioned in class. Her curve is nice: top 15% get A's (not including A-). The only thing I hated about her tests were the Multiple Choice and the time limit (50 min). You don't get partial credit and they can be tricky. 50 min is barely enough to finish the test. I also hate, hate, hate the quizzes. Webassign quizzes and hw were just tricky and hard. HW takes a while to do and that got frustrating.

6B material is just hard compared to 6A. Elec and Mag is more complex than mechanics so not many people can understand it well. She did her best to explain but she spent too much time on waves and left little time for E/M. She rushed at the end which sucked cuz E/M is harder than waves. She tries to cover too much material in 10 weeks and thats why she had to rush. I wish she would cut some of the material out.

Discussion was useless. I never went. Lab was useless too cuz it was ahead of the lecture so everyone was lost. They were fun tho but not much learning was involved.

Overall I recommend her. Shes good at explaining everything clearly and generous about the grading.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
PHYSICS 6B
Quarter: N/A
Grade: N/A
June 10, 2010

She's not the greatest physics teacher, but I'm sure there are a lot worse teachers. You need to go to lecture for her class, but she tends to go pretty quickly over the material. Only when looking back over my notes did I begin to understand the material. She also doesn't do many problems during class, and problems really help make sure you know what you need to. The problems she posts online really help. Reading the book really helps as well, and I would recommend doing the example problems. The practice tests are also a big help, but don't be fooled, she makes the problems on the actual test trickier than the ones on the practice tests, even if the type of question is the same. She also really likes spherical conductor/insulator problems. And make sure you understand the material conceptually; she has multiple choice questions on her tests.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
PHYSICS 6C
Quarter: Summer 2016
Grade: A
June 24, 2016

Overall, this class was a very positive experience.
Pau gives a lot of room for improvement and if a student is deficient in one category over another, there are other ways to make up for it.
The homework and quizzes were very straightforward, with the homework being calculation based and the quizzes being conceptually based.
The Midterms were average. As long as you pay attention in lecture and follow the examples she uses, it should be simple. Make sure to use all the resources that she puts on CCLE as they're a huge help.
The Final Exam was really tough. As someone posted earlier, there really is no way to be fully prepared for this exam. Do well on the Midterms so your stress for the final is much lower.
The Discussion Sections, in my opinion, were not helpful at all. The TA's spent time going over things that weren't very pertinent to the class and it gave no additional information that wasn't already covered in lecture.
Her accent can sometimes be a little hard to follow, but overall sit in the front so you can see her handwriting, and pay attention.
Her class is catered to the MCAT, which means that she will avoid certain sections in the textbook if it is not necessary. This makes the class pretty easy to follow and keep up with.

Overall, I would recommend this professor to a friend and take another class that she teaches.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
PHYSICS 6C
Quarter: Summer 2017
Grade: A+
Aug. 12, 2017

Dr. Pau, is in my opinion, probably the most average professor I've had. She gets the info across and is pretty thorough I suppose during lectures, but the class is not engaging at all, nor does it get me particularly excited about physics. I think part of it just has to do with the fact that Physics 6C (and 5C in the future) teaches a bunch of miscellaneous crap with little to no flow other than a couple topics about light and optics.

The material is ridiculously easy, especially to the level of understanding she wants you to have it at. The midterm was an absolute joke, with an average of an 89, which is unheard of. Her final was a bit tougher, and a couple questions tested if you actually knew what was going on rather than memorizing how to do the questions, which I know most lifescience people tend to do, but overall, the final was OK.

(Disclaimer: I'm not a lifescience person, I started this series and changed majors to physical science but they forced me to finish the series).

The class was so easy that I lost motivation for the class and hardly paid attention in lecture. Literally one or two formulas dictate almost everything that you'll learn in the class, so if you know the mirror equation, constructive destructive interference phase differences, and buoyancy, you'll be fine.

HOWEVER, her syllabus states only 15% of people will get an A+ or A, which you can see on the grading data on this website. 30 people dropped the class as soon as that syllabus came out, which means only 90 people, or less than 15 people getting A's. I'm not sure if that happened this session, but it isn't the best thing hanging over your head. Every point matters, buy a Chegg account, bullshit the Mastering Physics quizzes, get a good lab TA or fight for your points, look up the solutions manual. A surprising amount of people "couldn't keep up" with the quizzes because they didn't know you could look up the answers online as you were taking them.

Even if you take care of the small stuff, you need to still understand what the hell is going on, or else you won't be ready for that final.

Dr. Pau herself is a super nice person who cares about the class, she's a tiny little Asian lady who talks fairly fast, maybe it was just the class itself I didn't like, but I don't think I would take another class with her.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
PHYSICS 6B
Quarter: Winter 2016
Grade: A
May 4, 2017

I took the whole physics series with Professor Pau, and she really makes Physics (a "daunting") topic fun and exciting while still getting the large amount of material across. I took the classes as a pre-med and took the MCAT soon after, and I felt very prepared for the MCAT physics topics with the material that I learned in Professor Pau's classes. I Highly recommend taking the physics series with her!

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
PHYSICS 6C
Quarter: Summer 2017
Grade: B+
Aug. 12, 2017

Physics 6C is way easier than 6B and maybe even easier than 6A. That said, this class was a chore because of how unengaging the class is. Don't get me wrong, Pau is a nice person and definitely not a bad professor but everything is very by the numbers and overall I didn't enjoy the class that much because of it.

The midterm for this class was ridiculously easy. The average was an 89 which is absurd for a physics class. Like most people have said, the final is where she gets you. It is much more difficult than the midterm IMO but not impossible. Most of the questions are doable but there are just a few very tricky ones.

The labs suck as per usual. Just follow along with the manual and you'll get through alright.

She gives homework out of the book and she gives quizzes which are from masteringphysics. Don't bother going to discussion and just study on your own.

Overall this class certainly wasn't a nightmare like 6B was. It was just really average in all aspects. I'd still recommend Pau though

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
3 of 4
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