Professor
Michael Jura
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Most Helpful Review
The class is difficult. Professor Jura is very approachable and likes to explain a variety of material to his students. His class can be difficult because he does not really teach out of the textbook and tends to teach astronomical applications. The homework really requires some thinking and can be quite tricky as well as time consuming. He will never directly answer your questions in office hours but rather urge you to think. The time rush on the midterm exams can cause some difficulty. One important point is to memorize the equations and formulas he presents or know very well how to derive them. I would try to take some time to memorize them over the quarter. Mostly his homework and exam questions involve leaving the answer in variables but that did not bother me. If you are really into physics and astronomy then I highly recommend that you take his class. However, his style can be a little bothersome but if you will invest a good amount of effort in his class then you can do well.
The class is difficult. Professor Jura is very approachable and likes to explain a variety of material to his students. His class can be difficult because he does not really teach out of the textbook and tends to teach astronomical applications. The homework really requires some thinking and can be quite tricky as well as time consuming. He will never directly answer your questions in office hours but rather urge you to think. The time rush on the midterm exams can cause some difficulty. One important point is to memorize the equations and formulas he presents or know very well how to derive them. I would try to take some time to memorize them over the quarter. Mostly his homework and exam questions involve leaving the answer in variables but that did not bother me. If you are really into physics and astronomy then I highly recommend that you take his class. However, his style can be a little bothersome but if you will invest a good amount of effort in his class then you can do well.
Most Helpful Review
Very hard and not concerned at all. not helpful at office hours,he trys to keep your stay at his office hour as short as possible. his way of grading is not fair as he penalize you for the same mistake as many times as possible on the same test. He expect you to memorize all the formulas and all the units. But,he is very quik at grading and submitting the grades. WHICH HE DOES ALL BY HIMSELF, and His office is the most organized Than any office I've seen at UCLA.
Very hard and not concerned at all. not helpful at office hours,he trys to keep your stay at his office hour as short as possible. his way of grading is not fair as he penalize you for the same mistake as many times as possible on the same test. He expect you to memorize all the formulas and all the units. But,he is very quik at grading and submitting the grades. WHICH HE DOES ALL BY HIMSELF, and His office is the most organized Than any office I've seen at UCLA.
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Most Helpful Review
very hard to follow in lecture, tends to digress and mumble. organization of class is not great and it is sometimes hard to draw broad themes and concepts that make sense out of the class. BUT exams are based almost entirely on lecture, so its easy to miss something and then get screwed on the test. that said, he gives study guides and grading can work to your advantage if you do invest extra time to know the answers to each of the study questions. make sure you go and talk to your TA frequently and ask questions. interrupt prof jura in class if he is going too fast and you get lost.
very hard to follow in lecture, tends to digress and mumble. organization of class is not great and it is sometimes hard to draw broad themes and concepts that make sense out of the class. BUT exams are based almost entirely on lecture, so its easy to miss something and then get screwed on the test. that said, he gives study guides and grading can work to your advantage if you do invest extra time to know the answers to each of the study questions. make sure you go and talk to your TA frequently and ask questions. interrupt prof jura in class if he is going too fast and you get lost.
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Most Helpful Review
-This evaluation is for Astro 117- Professor Jura is a smart, nice guy, but he's a little scatter-brained. The first half of lecture he derives equations, and the second half he goes off on tangents talking about applications of the equations he just derived. Because of this, it's a little difficult to conceptually understand what's happening with all these equations. His homework was challenging. The problem was that many problems very vague, or he would make assumptions in his solutions that you didn't know you could make. However, the homework is great preparation for the midterms/final. Many times, his tests will reuse homework and old test questions, so make sure you know those problems inside and out. One drawback is that you aren't allowed a cheat sheet, so you have to memorize pages and pages of equations. Even still, I got 83 and 81 on the midterms, 88 on the final, and ended up with an A in the class. (He method of curving is that ~80+ is in the A-range, ~70-80 is a B, etc.) Also, don't buy the book. He gives you an online copy anyway, but I never found it helpful. His lecture notes are more than enough. tl;dr: Hard to follow as a professor, so you'll lose track of concepts, but if you do the homework, you should do well in the class.
-This evaluation is for Astro 117- Professor Jura is a smart, nice guy, but he's a little scatter-brained. The first half of lecture he derives equations, and the second half he goes off on tangents talking about applications of the equations he just derived. Because of this, it's a little difficult to conceptually understand what's happening with all these equations. His homework was challenging. The problem was that many problems very vague, or he would make assumptions in his solutions that you didn't know you could make. However, the homework is great preparation for the midterms/final. Many times, his tests will reuse homework and old test questions, so make sure you know those problems inside and out. One drawback is that you aren't allowed a cheat sheet, so you have to memorize pages and pages of equations. Even still, I got 83 and 81 on the midterms, 88 on the final, and ended up with an A in the class. (He method of curving is that ~80+ is in the A-range, ~70-80 is a B, etc.) Also, don't buy the book. He gives you an online copy anyway, but I never found it helpful. His lecture notes are more than enough. tl;dr: Hard to follow as a professor, so you'll lose track of concepts, but if you do the homework, you should do well in the class.
Most Helpful Review
I took Jura/Kahn for the Energy in the Modern Economy class. It was a great course and I thought professor Jura did a terrific job! He understood that not everyone in the course was an engineer so he really made the physics easier on the rest of us. He was always happy to help on homeworks during office hours. The only drawback is that he's a little dry during lectures so he may come off as boring. Honestly though, if you like physics, I suggest you take him.
I took Jura/Kahn for the Energy in the Modern Economy class. It was a great course and I thought professor Jura did a terrific job! He understood that not everyone in the course was an engineer so he really made the physics easier on the rest of us. He was always happy to help on homeworks during office hours. The only drawback is that he's a little dry during lectures so he may come off as boring. Honestly though, if you like physics, I suggest you take him.
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