Professor

James Rosenzweig

AD
2.5
Overall Ratings
Based on 67 Users
Easiness 1.8 / 5 How easy the class is, 1 being extremely difficult and 5 being easy peasy.
Workload 2.0 / 5 How light the workload is, 1 being extremely heavy and 5 being extremely light.
Clarity 2.2 / 5 How clear the professor is, 1 being extremely unclear and 5 being very clear.
Helpfulness 2.6 / 5 How helpful the professor is, 1 being not helpful at all and 5 being extremely helpful.

Reviews (67)

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PHYSICS 1BH
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
March 25, 2021
Quarter: Winter 2021
Grade: A-

Prof. Rosenzweig is a nice guy who is very knowledgeable and passionate about physics, however I would strongly recommend avoiding his class. It was very painful, and it made me want to never take a physics class again. This class was very challenging and confusing. Although I really disliked this class, it should be noted that Dima Vaido, the TA, was excellent.

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PHYSICS 1BH
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
March 31, 2021
Quarter: Winter 2021
Grade: A

Dima is GOAT, glad we have him for 1CH

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PHYSICS 1BH
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
April 2, 2021
Quarter: Winter 2021
Grade: A

Honestly, the class is as hard as every review says it is. Jamie is also as described by the other reviews. However, I wanted to come on here to give him some credit. Even though he made the course so difficult and hard to understand, (compared to all the other courses I have had at UCLA this course is through the roof) there is some sort of appreciation I have developed for his course. Towards the end of the course, I was finally able to understand what was going on and it felt like my physics skills had become so sharp and so refined. I ended up taking the regular course for physics 1C and it made me appreciate Jamie's class even more. He basically taught the majority of the physics 1C content to us in 1BH and it makes my current course feel like child's play. Also, the style of questions in 1BH is truly beautiful when compared to the plug and chug questions given in the regular course. Furthermore, Jamie's exams were all written really comprehensibly and nicely (although I'm not quite sure how to describe it but they were really good). So even though mid way through this course I was ready to give it a 1 star, and never take a honors course again, I reflected upon my experience and decided it is worthy of a 4 star. Not only that but I regret my decision of not continuing the honors class with him even though it was torture (call my a masochist). I'd say, the struggle is well worth it and if you do decide to take this course, just do 1CH and struggle on. It'll be valuable it at the end.

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PHYSICS 1BH
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
March 25, 2021
Quarter: Winter 2021
Grade: N/A

Learning with this professor is simply equal to self-learning. If you have enough time to learn on yourselves and read everything in the textbook you can try this course, otherwise avoid him.

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PHYSICS 1CH
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
June 19, 2020
Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: A

Jamie's a cool guy, but he really tries to cram way too much information and too many derivations as possible into his dense, often incomprehensible lectures. His homeworks would easily take hours without help from our amazing TA Trevor, especially since the problems assume comfort with high-level mathematics far beyond what basically all students are reasonably prepared for. According to other TAs, the content covered was at a pace and comprehension level on par with upper-division physics courses.

Even so, the class is generously curved with roughly 50-50 As and Bs. Even with the brutalizing amount of content and difficult tests, the grading certainly won't murder you. Take at your own risk!

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April 7, 2018
Quarter: Fall 2017
Grade: A-

I took 1AH and 1BH as a second year chemistry major. My high school had not offered AP physics, but I got a 5 in AP Calc AB, transferred an A in Calc II from community college, got As in Math 32AB, 33A in my first year, and took 33B (also got an A) concurrently with 1AH. For reference: I got an A- in 1AH and a B in 1BH. These classes are hard.
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From what I could see, the ideal student for 1AH or 1BH would have:
1) taken AP Calc BC in their junior year of high school
2) taken multivariable calculus and linear algebra in their senior year of high school
3) gotten a 4 or 5 in both calculus-based AP Physics tests

Most of the people in the class were not this ideal student, but several were (as first quarter freshmen) also in my math 33B section, and, like the other reviewer said, those fast track EE students were the real deal.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Content-wise, 1ABCH is divided up differently from 1ABC in this way:

1A covers mechanics through torques (not including oscillators), while 1AH covers all of this as well as changing mass systems (rockets, water wheels, snow plows); oscillations, including unstable, damped, and driven oscillators, systems of coupled harmonic oscillators (solved using eigenvalues, a math 33A technique), and the derivation of the wave equation from infinitely many coupled harmonic oscillators; and central forces/the many body problem. The textbook is An Introduction to Mechanics by Kleppner and Kolenkow, originally written for an MIT honors class. We covered chapters 1-7, 10, and 11. The textbook chooses not to include solutions, which is frustrating because many of the problems are unusual to set up in some way. There are lots of examples in each chapter, but the examples are also sometimes esoteric (solar sails!). Math-wise: the book says knowledge of differential equations is not necessary, but I found taking 33B concurrently very helpful for this class in particular. Light multivariable calculus is used for rigorous definitions of stuff, but the problems usually reduced to one dimension. Linear algebra showed up several times, especially in the coupled oscillators.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
1B covers three weeks of oscillations and waves, then spends the next seven weeks working through electrostatics, DC circuits, and the lightest of touching on simple magnetic fields. But, 1BH is not content to settle for that, oh no. Skipping the SHO content, we spent five weeks on electrostatics (3 chapters in the book), then rushed through electromagnetism (chapters 4-10, skipping chapter 8 on AC circuits) in the five weeks after that. It was, frankly, very difficult. The book is Purcell and Morin’s Electricity and Magnetism, which makes the unfortunate (for us) choice of showing how magnetism derives from relativity in chapter 5 and using it throughout the book (most undergraduate E+M books, like Griffiths, don’t cover that material until the end). As a result, you essentially have to learn special relativity in the middle of the quarter to do well – luckily, the mechanics textbook that Morin also wrote was a helpful supplement. Electrostatics is also pretty difficult without a rigorous mathematical understanding of boundary value problems (which I did not have). The good news about the book: the problems are much more sensible than in the 1AH book, and most chapters include 20-30 completely worked out problems in the back. The text itself also does not jump off the tracks for solar-sail type diversions, so reading is much smoother. The course is very heavy on multivariable calculus (particularly math 32B content, like Stoke’s Theorem), but linear algebra and differential equations were not used very much.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1C starts by finishing electromagnetism in about four weeks, continuing through optics, then ending with a single chapter on special relativity. Since 1BH already covered all of E+M, 1CH becomes a class in optics (plus 3 weeks of special relativity at the end). The textbook is Eugene Hecht’s Optics, written for upper division physics students and very expensive. Since I am a chemistry major, I opted not to take this class, instead taking 1C and enjoying my curve advantage in already knowing the E+M and special relativity content.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As far as the professor: Professor Rosenzweig can be confusing at times, but he does a pretty decent job all around and obviously lives and breathes breathes physics. I found him much easier to follow in 1BH than 1AH because in 1AH, he tended to dive off-topic to mechanics problems that he found interesting, like the snow plow. He did not seem to enjoy just presenting the new content very much. In 1BH, outside of a 1 hour diversion into statistical mechanics to show why potential is not ‘exactly’ zero on a conducting surface, he seemed much more interested in the physics and mathematics involved, and his lectures were much better because of it. To theorize, I think the 1BH content is just much more relevant to the modern particle physicist. His problem sets are generally from the book, with maybe 1 or 2 additions that he wrote himself. The curves on exams jumped around wildly, but in general, you get an A or a B. I only went to office hours twice – they were generally scheduled from 2-5 PM on Wednesdays, when I had a lab conflict. Discussion was not really necessary, unless you wanted to see your graded homework covered in red marks (hehe).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you feel unprepared for this class, I would recommend Chemistry 20AH, which I took as a freshman. It covers quantum mechanics in a lot of detail, so it will be intellectually rewarding for a physics/engineering major, but it is less prerequisite heavy (a tiny, tiny amount of multivariable calculus, some straightforward single-variable calculus). There is also the math honors series, but by all accounts, that series is very proof heavy.
Anyway, to all incoming freshman: welcome to UCLA! And good luck.

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PHYSICS 1CH
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
June 17, 2020
Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: A

As much as I like Jamie as a person, he is an absolutely terrible lecturer. His lectures are confusing and downright boring. Most of the time, he'll just go on and on about something that doesn't make much sense because he doesn't really explain anything. I stopped attending lecture altogether about halfway through the quarter because it just wasn't helping.
Homeworks are extremely hard and the only reason I was able to do some of the problems was because of our TA, Trevor (this man was by far the best part of this class and really is a godsend). The book for this class also helped a little with the material but overall I wasn't too impressed with it.
Jamie's tests are graded extremely leniently (you could get a decent grade by just attempting the problems) and the class itself is curved very nicely.

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PHYSICS 1CH
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
June 17, 2020
Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: B+

Jamie's lectures are boring as hell. Barely watchable on 2x speed this COVID quarter.
Homework is hard as hell. Pray your TA is good; Trevor Schoepner carried all of us through the class.

Read the book, try the problems, go to TA office hours. Lecture is kinda optional.

Curves and tests are relatively lenient; if you study an A is easily achievable.

Jamie is a nice guy and does genuinely care about the topic and you tho.

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PHYSICS 1CH
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
July 2, 2020
Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: A

If you've taken 1AH and 1BH already, might as well finish strong with 1CH as well. You already know how the honors series works; it feels like hell but you'll learn a lot and get a decent grade anyways.

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July 2, 2020
Quarter: Fall 2019
Grade: A

If you're interested in physics at all, I HIGHLY recommend the honors series. Jamie is may not have the best handwriting for online lectures, but the honors series is just great. I appreciated the opportunity to actually learn interesting physics instead of just learning how to apply formulas to questions. His homework assignments are impossible and his tests make you questions your life, but go to the TA office hours for homework help and trust the way this class is curved. Everyone in my section got some kind of A's.
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I remember anxiously searching through bruinwalk during my freshman orientation so I thought I'd drop some hints for those considering to take this class :)
---
1. if you didn't feel comfortable with AP Calculus BC and AP Physics C material, you might want to reconsider the physics honors series.

---
2. if you have some time in your hands and nothing better to do in quarantine, do consider taking a multivariable calculus class at a community college.
familiarity with multivariable calculus is a must for this class; you'll either come in with some experience or try your best to learn as you go.

---
3. if you don't find the lectures helpful, find other ways to learn the material.
no one is forcing you to go to lectures. if you learn better by reading the textbook or watching lectures from other people, you should do what works for you.

---
4. DON'T PANIC.
even when the you don't know what the homework questions are asking. even when you look at the test and feel like you should drop the class. even when they just through a shit ton of math on you as if you should know this already. just breathe and go find Trevor.

---
5. Trevor. he's your TA (hopefully). go find him. use him. get to know him.

---
6. make/join the class groupchat.
physics honors series is relatively small and most people stay together through the entire year. get to know some of your classmates in groupchats because you WILL need emotional support after those tests. and your classmates are actually really smart.

---
7. no matter what they tell you, you choose which classes you take.
they're not letting you take 3 stem courses in fall? well if you'd be happier taking a stem course than a GE, do what you gotta do. it's week 4 and an unnecessary class is giving you hell? DROP that shit and take it later/find other options. they're scaring you into repeating a class you already have credit for? judge for yourself and decide for yourself.

---
8. you can drop classes. you won't die or not graduate on time because you drop one class and find other ways to fulfill the requirement. just make sure you do your research and decide before it's too late to go back.

---
9. try to enjoy feeling dumb
most of us never found any of our high school classes too challenging and probably never got below an A on a test in stem courses, without even trying so hard. some of us continue to do so in college, but that's probably not a good sign because in college you're supposed to challenge your mind. and in freshman year you're supposed to get a taste of what the next 4 yrs are going to be like and decide if you really want to do what you chose to do. so if you're feeling lost and/or feeling like a dumb piece of shit, just trust that you're doing it right. if it helps you, always remember curves do exist. if you found the test difficult, your classmates did too. don't worry.

---
10. ignore all above and just do what you gotta do to be happy. take care of yourself. this class only lasts 10 weeks but you are stuck with yourself for your entire life. so if you ever have to choose between being good for the class/grade or being nice to yourself, choose the latter.

---
+ talk to upperclassmen.
if you don't know any, just find random people in clubs. most of them will be more than happy to share their tips and resources. they've been through this already and therefore already have all you need to get through this class (probably). the resources they have collected are just sitting in their google drive. befriend them. swipe them. join their clubs.

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PHYSICS 1BH
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Winter 2021
Grade: A-
March 25, 2021

Prof. Rosenzweig is a nice guy who is very knowledgeable and passionate about physics, however I would strongly recommend avoiding his class. It was very painful, and it made me want to never take a physics class again. This class was very challenging and confusing. Although I really disliked this class, it should be noted that Dima Vaido, the TA, was excellent.

Helpful?

4 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
PHYSICS 1BH
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Winter 2021
Grade: A
March 31, 2021

Dima is GOAT, glad we have him for 1CH

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3 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
PHYSICS 1BH
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Winter 2021
Grade: A
April 2, 2021

Honestly, the class is as hard as every review says it is. Jamie is also as described by the other reviews. However, I wanted to come on here to give him some credit. Even though he made the course so difficult and hard to understand, (compared to all the other courses I have had at UCLA this course is through the roof) there is some sort of appreciation I have developed for his course. Towards the end of the course, I was finally able to understand what was going on and it felt like my physics skills had become so sharp and so refined. I ended up taking the regular course for physics 1C and it made me appreciate Jamie's class even more. He basically taught the majority of the physics 1C content to us in 1BH and it makes my current course feel like child's play. Also, the style of questions in 1BH is truly beautiful when compared to the plug and chug questions given in the regular course. Furthermore, Jamie's exams were all written really comprehensibly and nicely (although I'm not quite sure how to describe it but they were really good). So even though mid way through this course I was ready to give it a 1 star, and never take a honors course again, I reflected upon my experience and decided it is worthy of a 4 star. Not only that but I regret my decision of not continuing the honors class with him even though it was torture (call my a masochist). I'd say, the struggle is well worth it and if you do decide to take this course, just do 1CH and struggle on. It'll be valuable it at the end.

Helpful?

2 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
PHYSICS 1BH
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Winter 2021
Grade: N/A
March 25, 2021

Learning with this professor is simply equal to self-learning. If you have enough time to learn on yourselves and read everything in the textbook you can try this course, otherwise avoid him.

Helpful?

2 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
PHYSICS 1CH
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: A
June 19, 2020

Jamie's a cool guy, but he really tries to cram way too much information and too many derivations as possible into his dense, often incomprehensible lectures. His homeworks would easily take hours without help from our amazing TA Trevor, especially since the problems assume comfort with high-level mathematics far beyond what basically all students are reasonably prepared for. According to other TAs, the content covered was at a pace and comprehension level on par with upper-division physics courses.

Even so, the class is generously curved with roughly 50-50 As and Bs. Even with the brutalizing amount of content and difficult tests, the grading certainly won't murder you. Take at your own risk!

Helpful?

2 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
PHYSICS 1AH
Quarter: Fall 2017
Grade: A-
April 7, 2018

I took 1AH and 1BH as a second year chemistry major. My high school had not offered AP physics, but I got a 5 in AP Calc AB, transferred an A in Calc II from community college, got As in Math 32AB, 33A in my first year, and took 33B (also got an A) concurrently with 1AH. For reference: I got an A- in 1AH and a B in 1BH. These classes are hard.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From what I could see, the ideal student for 1AH or 1BH would have:
1) taken AP Calc BC in their junior year of high school
2) taken multivariable calculus and linear algebra in their senior year of high school
3) gotten a 4 or 5 in both calculus-based AP Physics tests

Most of the people in the class were not this ideal student, but several were (as first quarter freshmen) also in my math 33B section, and, like the other reviewer said, those fast track EE students were the real deal.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Content-wise, 1ABCH is divided up differently from 1ABC in this way:

1A covers mechanics through torques (not including oscillators), while 1AH covers all of this as well as changing mass systems (rockets, water wheels, snow plows); oscillations, including unstable, damped, and driven oscillators, systems of coupled harmonic oscillators (solved using eigenvalues, a math 33A technique), and the derivation of the wave equation from infinitely many coupled harmonic oscillators; and central forces/the many body problem. The textbook is An Introduction to Mechanics by Kleppner and Kolenkow, originally written for an MIT honors class. We covered chapters 1-7, 10, and 11. The textbook chooses not to include solutions, which is frustrating because many of the problems are unusual to set up in some way. There are lots of examples in each chapter, but the examples are also sometimes esoteric (solar sails!). Math-wise: the book says knowledge of differential equations is not necessary, but I found taking 33B concurrently very helpful for this class in particular. Light multivariable calculus is used for rigorous definitions of stuff, but the problems usually reduced to one dimension. Linear algebra showed up several times, especially in the coupled oscillators.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
1B covers three weeks of oscillations and waves, then spends the next seven weeks working through electrostatics, DC circuits, and the lightest of touching on simple magnetic fields. But, 1BH is not content to settle for that, oh no. Skipping the SHO content, we spent five weeks on electrostatics (3 chapters in the book), then rushed through electromagnetism (chapters 4-10, skipping chapter 8 on AC circuits) in the five weeks after that. It was, frankly, very difficult. The book is Purcell and Morin’s Electricity and Magnetism, which makes the unfortunate (for us) choice of showing how magnetism derives from relativity in chapter 5 and using it throughout the book (most undergraduate E+M books, like Griffiths, don’t cover that material until the end). As a result, you essentially have to learn special relativity in the middle of the quarter to do well – luckily, the mechanics textbook that Morin also wrote was a helpful supplement. Electrostatics is also pretty difficult without a rigorous mathematical understanding of boundary value problems (which I did not have). The good news about the book: the problems are much more sensible than in the 1AH book, and most chapters include 20-30 completely worked out problems in the back. The text itself also does not jump off the tracks for solar-sail type diversions, so reading is much smoother. The course is very heavy on multivariable calculus (particularly math 32B content, like Stoke’s Theorem), but linear algebra and differential equations were not used very much.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1C starts by finishing electromagnetism in about four weeks, continuing through optics, then ending with a single chapter on special relativity. Since 1BH already covered all of E+M, 1CH becomes a class in optics (plus 3 weeks of special relativity at the end). The textbook is Eugene Hecht’s Optics, written for upper division physics students and very expensive. Since I am a chemistry major, I opted not to take this class, instead taking 1C and enjoying my curve advantage in already knowing the E+M and special relativity content.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As far as the professor: Professor Rosenzweig can be confusing at times, but he does a pretty decent job all around and obviously lives and breathes breathes physics. I found him much easier to follow in 1BH than 1AH because in 1AH, he tended to dive off-topic to mechanics problems that he found interesting, like the snow plow. He did not seem to enjoy just presenting the new content very much. In 1BH, outside of a 1 hour diversion into statistical mechanics to show why potential is not ‘exactly’ zero on a conducting surface, he seemed much more interested in the physics and mathematics involved, and his lectures were much better because of it. To theorize, I think the 1BH content is just much more relevant to the modern particle physicist. His problem sets are generally from the book, with maybe 1 or 2 additions that he wrote himself. The curves on exams jumped around wildly, but in general, you get an A or a B. I only went to office hours twice – they were generally scheduled from 2-5 PM on Wednesdays, when I had a lab conflict. Discussion was not really necessary, unless you wanted to see your graded homework covered in red marks (hehe).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you feel unprepared for this class, I would recommend Chemistry 20AH, which I took as a freshman. It covers quantum mechanics in a lot of detail, so it will be intellectually rewarding for a physics/engineering major, but it is less prerequisite heavy (a tiny, tiny amount of multivariable calculus, some straightforward single-variable calculus). There is also the math honors series, but by all accounts, that series is very proof heavy.
Anyway, to all incoming freshman: welcome to UCLA! And good luck.

Helpful?

3 1 Please log in to provide feedback.
PHYSICS 1CH
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: A
June 17, 2020

As much as I like Jamie as a person, he is an absolutely terrible lecturer. His lectures are confusing and downright boring. Most of the time, he'll just go on and on about something that doesn't make much sense because he doesn't really explain anything. I stopped attending lecture altogether about halfway through the quarter because it just wasn't helping.
Homeworks are extremely hard and the only reason I was able to do some of the problems was because of our TA, Trevor (this man was by far the best part of this class and really is a godsend). The book for this class also helped a little with the material but overall I wasn't too impressed with it.
Jamie's tests are graded extremely leniently (you could get a decent grade by just attempting the problems) and the class itself is curved very nicely.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
PHYSICS 1CH
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: B+
June 17, 2020

Jamie's lectures are boring as hell. Barely watchable on 2x speed this COVID quarter.
Homework is hard as hell. Pray your TA is good; Trevor Schoepner carried all of us through the class.

Read the book, try the problems, go to TA office hours. Lecture is kinda optional.

Curves and tests are relatively lenient; if you study an A is easily achievable.

Jamie is a nice guy and does genuinely care about the topic and you tho.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
PHYSICS 1CH
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: A
July 2, 2020

If you've taken 1AH and 1BH already, might as well finish strong with 1CH as well. You already know how the honors series works; it feels like hell but you'll learn a lot and get a decent grade anyways.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
PHYSICS 1AH
Quarter: Fall 2019
Grade: A
July 2, 2020

If you're interested in physics at all, I HIGHLY recommend the honors series. Jamie is may not have the best handwriting for online lectures, but the honors series is just great. I appreciated the opportunity to actually learn interesting physics instead of just learning how to apply formulas to questions. His homework assignments are impossible and his tests make you questions your life, but go to the TA office hours for homework help and trust the way this class is curved. Everyone in my section got some kind of A's.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I remember anxiously searching through bruinwalk during my freshman orientation so I thought I'd drop some hints for those considering to take this class :)
---
1. if you didn't feel comfortable with AP Calculus BC and AP Physics C material, you might want to reconsider the physics honors series.

---
2. if you have some time in your hands and nothing better to do in quarantine, do consider taking a multivariable calculus class at a community college.
familiarity with multivariable calculus is a must for this class; you'll either come in with some experience or try your best to learn as you go.

---
3. if you don't find the lectures helpful, find other ways to learn the material.
no one is forcing you to go to lectures. if you learn better by reading the textbook or watching lectures from other people, you should do what works for you.

---
4. DON'T PANIC.
even when the you don't know what the homework questions are asking. even when you look at the test and feel like you should drop the class. even when they just through a shit ton of math on you as if you should know this already. just breathe and go find Trevor.

---
5. Trevor. he's your TA (hopefully). go find him. use him. get to know him.

---
6. make/join the class groupchat.
physics honors series is relatively small and most people stay together through the entire year. get to know some of your classmates in groupchats because you WILL need emotional support after those tests. and your classmates are actually really smart.

---
7. no matter what they tell you, you choose which classes you take.
they're not letting you take 3 stem courses in fall? well if you'd be happier taking a stem course than a GE, do what you gotta do. it's week 4 and an unnecessary class is giving you hell? DROP that shit and take it later/find other options. they're scaring you into repeating a class you already have credit for? judge for yourself and decide for yourself.

---
8. you can drop classes. you won't die or not graduate on time because you drop one class and find other ways to fulfill the requirement. just make sure you do your research and decide before it's too late to go back.

---
9. try to enjoy feeling dumb
most of us never found any of our high school classes too challenging and probably never got below an A on a test in stem courses, without even trying so hard. some of us continue to do so in college, but that's probably not a good sign because in college you're supposed to challenge your mind. and in freshman year you're supposed to get a taste of what the next 4 yrs are going to be like and decide if you really want to do what you chose to do. so if you're feeling lost and/or feeling like a dumb piece of shit, just trust that you're doing it right. if it helps you, always remember curves do exist. if you found the test difficult, your classmates did too. don't worry.

---
10. ignore all above and just do what you gotta do to be happy. take care of yourself. this class only lasts 10 weeks but you are stuck with yourself for your entire life. so if you ever have to choose between being good for the class/grade or being nice to yourself, choose the latter.

---
+ talk to upperclassmen.
if you don't know any, just find random people in clubs. most of them will be more than happy to share their tips and resources. they've been through this already and therefore already have all you need to get through this class (probably). the resources they have collected are just sitting in their google drive. befriend them. swipe them. join their clubs.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
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