Professor
Karoly Holczer
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Most Helpful Review
Holczer is a very nice and likable guy, but a poor teacher. I stopped going to his lectures and went to Corbin's instead or just read the book. The class was extremely easy with me just taking college prep physics in high school. Holczer has an accent which is very hard to understand (though kinda awesome) and his handwriting isn't good. We graded homework in class which was definitely a plus, none of that online hw stuff. His tests were extremely easy. They are just questions from the book. In fact one of the questions on the final was a question I had done the night before while studying. Pretty much everyone gets A's which really helped my GPA since its a 5 unit class. I'd take his class again so that I'd get all the easy tests but just go to a different teacher's lectures.
Holczer is a very nice and likable guy, but a poor teacher. I stopped going to his lectures and went to Corbin's instead or just read the book. The class was extremely easy with me just taking college prep physics in high school. Holczer has an accent which is very hard to understand (though kinda awesome) and his handwriting isn't good. We graded homework in class which was definitely a plus, none of that online hw stuff. His tests were extremely easy. They are just questions from the book. In fact one of the questions on the final was a question I had done the night before while studying. Pretty much everyone gets A's which really helped my GPA since its a 5 unit class. I'd take his class again so that I'd get all the easy tests but just go to a different teacher's lectures.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2020 - I really liked Professor Holczer. He's very friendly and understanding and it's obvious he cares a lot about his students. However, he admittedly isn't a great lecturer. He's very disorganized during lecture and his handwriting can be hard to read at times. He does have an accent but I could understand him perfectly fine. The first 6 homeworks for this class were pretty hard because some of the questions were written by our TA. Homeworks 7-9 were much much easier, however, since by this point Holczer had just been uploading the homework himself which consisted only of pictures of problems from the textbook. The midterms and final were all very easy. From what it sounds like, a large portion of people in this class will be getting an A/A+. I'm fairly certain that I'm in the minority of students when I say I would recommend taking Holczer if you have the chance. Despite his lectures, he is a very fun person to talk to outside of class and is very willing to answer your questions if you have any (I've also found that his explanations in office hours are A LOT better than they are in lectures).
Winter 2020 - I really liked Professor Holczer. He's very friendly and understanding and it's obvious he cares a lot about his students. However, he admittedly isn't a great lecturer. He's very disorganized during lecture and his handwriting can be hard to read at times. He does have an accent but I could understand him perfectly fine. The first 6 homeworks for this class were pretty hard because some of the questions were written by our TA. Homeworks 7-9 were much much easier, however, since by this point Holczer had just been uploading the homework himself which consisted only of pictures of problems from the textbook. The midterms and final were all very easy. From what it sounds like, a large portion of people in this class will be getting an A/A+. I'm fairly certain that I'm in the minority of students when I say I would recommend taking Holczer if you have the chance. Despite his lectures, he is a very fun person to talk to outside of class and is very willing to answer your questions if you have any (I've also found that his explanations in office hours are A LOT better than they are in lectures).
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2021 - Holczer is a very kind professor who genuinely wants his students to succeed. However, he's not the best lecturer. After the first lecture, I never watched another one, even the recordings. His teaching style is vague and his handwriting is difficult to read. Honestly, just read the textbook and you'll be fine. It does a great job explaining concepts and also gives plenty of example problems. The homework for this class is typical for a physics 5 class. There's a weekly problem set and weekly mastering physics questions, but they shouldn't take more than 2-3 hours to complete. In my opinion, the exams (2 midterms, 1 final) were pretty easy, considering that I only watched one lecture throughout the entire quarter. Going through the example problems in the textbook and the problem sets will definitely help you prepare for the exams. So if you want an easy A, which most people do, take Holczer. However, if you want a more engaging lecturer, maybe try a different professor.
Winter 2021 - Holczer is a very kind professor who genuinely wants his students to succeed. However, he's not the best lecturer. After the first lecture, I never watched another one, even the recordings. His teaching style is vague and his handwriting is difficult to read. Honestly, just read the textbook and you'll be fine. It does a great job explaining concepts and also gives plenty of example problems. The homework for this class is typical for a physics 5 class. There's a weekly problem set and weekly mastering physics questions, but they shouldn't take more than 2-3 hours to complete. In my opinion, the exams (2 midterms, 1 final) were pretty easy, considering that I only watched one lecture throughout the entire quarter. Going through the example problems in the textbook and the problem sets will definitely help you prepare for the exams. So if you want an easy A, which most people do, take Holczer. However, if you want a more engaging lecturer, maybe try a different professor.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2017 - Some of the reviews on here are really unfair. Dr. Holczer is probably one of the nicest professors I have ever had at UCLA. He really does care about whether or not you do well in his class. I really didn't know what I was getting myself into when I first went to class because his writing can be illegible and I felt like dropping the class, but I stuck with it and it paid off. I went to his office hours frequently and he was really helpful. He also stuck around for like15 minutes after class one time to answer my questions. He really did help me see the value of physics and for that I am appreciative. Not all professors are perfect and Holczer is by no means a perfect professor, but he is kind and completely fair to the class. His tests are just like the Mastering Physics and recommended problems. I never missed a lecture, I would bring my book with me to lecture and open it up to the same lesson he was going over in class and take notes as he was talking so I could better understand the lecture. I haven't been in a single physics class that didn't require me to read the book, so note, that this is what comes along with any physics class. Just do the homework and you will be set, it could be a lot sometimes but it is a great review. Also go to office hours and ask him your questions, he is more than willing to help. Good Luck!! And don't listen to everything on bruinwalk they probably never went to class and therefore struggled. It isn't all that bad, I survived and it was by far the easiest physics class I have taken at UCLA.
Spring 2017 - Some of the reviews on here are really unfair. Dr. Holczer is probably one of the nicest professors I have ever had at UCLA. He really does care about whether or not you do well in his class. I really didn't know what I was getting myself into when I first went to class because his writing can be illegible and I felt like dropping the class, but I stuck with it and it paid off. I went to his office hours frequently and he was really helpful. He also stuck around for like15 minutes after class one time to answer my questions. He really did help me see the value of physics and for that I am appreciative. Not all professors are perfect and Holczer is by no means a perfect professor, but he is kind and completely fair to the class. His tests are just like the Mastering Physics and recommended problems. I never missed a lecture, I would bring my book with me to lecture and open it up to the same lesson he was going over in class and take notes as he was talking so I could better understand the lecture. I haven't been in a single physics class that didn't require me to read the book, so note, that this is what comes along with any physics class. Just do the homework and you will be set, it could be a lot sometimes but it is a great review. Also go to office hours and ask him your questions, he is more than willing to help. Good Luck!! And don't listen to everything on bruinwalk they probably never went to class and therefore struggled. It isn't all that bad, I survived and it was by far the easiest physics class I have taken at UCLA.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2019 - Although some of the reviews may advise you to deter from enrolling in this class...Don't listen to them. Professor Holczer can be difficult to understand due to his accent, but he ALWAYS encourages his students to ask questions and let him know what he can do to clarify his instruction. He has even gone out of his way after class to personally ask me if he was being clear during lecture or if the pace was too fast. He begins the course covering the basics of physics, and from there he pretty much assumes you know what's happening and are keeping up. The textbook is expensive, don't buy it - it's online. The two midterms and finals are worth 80% of your grade and are based on material from the textbook. You are allowed a cheat sheet on the exams which is VITAL to do well on the exams so take it seriously. Studying isn't even necessary with the cheat sheet. The exams are tough but with the cheat sheet, you will succeed in the class. The weekly homework is worth 20% of your grade and is usually easy and straightforward. Honestly, I stopped attending lecture after week 5 because I knew I could handle the class without going and I had minimal physics background prior to taking this class...The grading isn't harsh and it is relatively easy to achieve an A in this class. I recommend!!!!!!!
Spring 2019 - Although some of the reviews may advise you to deter from enrolling in this class...Don't listen to them. Professor Holczer can be difficult to understand due to his accent, but he ALWAYS encourages his students to ask questions and let him know what he can do to clarify his instruction. He has even gone out of his way after class to personally ask me if he was being clear during lecture or if the pace was too fast. He begins the course covering the basics of physics, and from there he pretty much assumes you know what's happening and are keeping up. The textbook is expensive, don't buy it - it's online. The two midterms and finals are worth 80% of your grade and are based on material from the textbook. You are allowed a cheat sheet on the exams which is VITAL to do well on the exams so take it seriously. Studying isn't even necessary with the cheat sheet. The exams are tough but with the cheat sheet, you will succeed in the class. The weekly homework is worth 20% of your grade and is usually easy and straightforward. Honestly, I stopped attending lecture after week 5 because I knew I could handle the class without going and I had minimal physics background prior to taking this class...The grading isn't harsh and it is relatively easy to achieve an A in this class. I recommend!!!!!!!
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Most Helpful Review
Taking Holczer was a pretty bad idea. To be fair, we mostly all got A's, and 131 seems like a hard class to teach due to the awful textbook. I didn't learn anything, and that's probably going to come back to haunt me in later physics classes. His lectures were terrible because I couldn't understand his accent or handwriting and he wrote all over the board with no discernible order. Our TAs taught us everything. If you just want an A, by all means take him, but if you are a physics major or like physics take anyone else.
Taking Holczer was a pretty bad idea. To be fair, we mostly all got A's, and 131 seems like a hard class to teach due to the awful textbook. I didn't learn anything, and that's probably going to come back to haunt me in later physics classes. His lectures were terrible because I couldn't understand his accent or handwriting and he wrote all over the board with no discernible order. Our TAs taught us everything. If you just want an A, by all means take him, but if you are a physics major or like physics take anyone else.
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