Prof Rombes is a very clear and helpful professor - I would regularly go to office hours to get questions answered, and his explanations were normally very helpful. He's also really nice and approcahable. Homework was alright - it consisted of mastering physics problems and handwritten ones. I found these to be really challenging sometimes, but office hours always cleared them up. The worst part about this class, though, were the exams. They're pretty conceptual and aren't really based on any textbook problems, so it was super hard to study for them. We had 24 hours, and I would say I ended up spending a solid 10 hours on each midterm and the final. Because each exam is only weighted 20%, they're less stressful in that regard, but were still really hard. I ended up scraping an A because I did well in the first midterm and got extra credit, but the second midterm and final were really difficult for me. Overall, make sure you really understand the concepts the most, and go to office hours and really pick his brain about concepts you don't understand.

The previous reviews sum up Rombes' Physics 1B experience very well. Rombes really cares about his students' learning and is always willing to answer student questions during live lecture. His explanations are extremely clear- he cleared up many misconceptions regarding physics students had. He is helpful during office hours and it's clear he wants you to come!

His tests, while doable, were pretty challenging. Good thing we had 24 hours to complete the midterms and the final - I would definitely not have finished under a timed 1 hour setting (midterm 2 alone took me 8 hours). His exams are difficult because they in a way force you to really UNDERSTAND the material. They consist mostly of conceptual, short essay questions that ask you to explain the physics behind a certain scenario. You might know how to solve all of the textbook/Mastering Physics problems and the example problems in lecture, but if you cannot clearly explain in words the physics behind what you just solved, you will probably struggle come exam time. His tests are very different from the textbook problems and even the written Problem Sets he writes for homework.

His grading scheme is nice enough - 40 % of your grade comes from homework, and his written Problem Sets were graded for completion. The other 60 % are the exams. Exam averages were around 80 %. So overall, Rombes made physics manageable, but this class is still pretty hard nevertheless.

If you take Physics 1C with Rombes, be prepared for a challenge! While he is a clear lecturer, he goes really deep into theory during his lectures and expects you to be very confident in your math skills. Consequently, his tests are rather difficult - his problems aren't similar to homework. They require you to really UNDERSTAND important concepts he mentions in his lecture and apply those concepts to a problem you've never seen before. When Rombes says his exam questions can't be found on the internet, he really means it (because all of the questions are those Rombes himself writes).

That being said, his grading scheme is rather generous. Homework is weighted a total of 35 percent of your grade. Try to get full credit on the HW so you will feel less pressure come exam time. Weekly HW consists of ~ 20 Mastering Physics problems and a written Problem Set Rombes writes himself. The written Problem set is graded on completion, while you have infinitely many attempts to solve the Mastering Physics homework, so getting 100 % on HW isn't a struggle. Acing the exams, on the other hand, is more difficult.

I initially found it challenging to study for this professor's rather unpredictable exam questions. But as the course progressed, the lectures became more and more essential. Rather than doing all the textbook problems, I spent more time making sure I felt confident about all the lecture material, going to Rombes' office hours to ask questions. Being able to understand physics from Rombes' perspective (which is different than the textbook) was super helpful for exams.

If you want an easy professor, you might want to choose someone other than Rombes. Otherwise, I highly recommend Prof. Rombes if you are willing to invest effort in understanding (not memorizing) theoretical physics and are ready for a challenge.

The professor was willing to answer questions during lecture and was approachable in office hours. The exams and homework were fair. Mastering physics assignments were particularly helpful for my learning. I think he rushed content at the end of the term and went too slow at the beginning of the class. My biggest critique of this class has nothing to do with teaching , organization , or the work, but with the fact that the professor was unavailable to lecture synchronously on several occasions. The lectures were engaging and definitely worth attending live.

I took both 1B and 1C with Rombes and had a good experience overall, so this is more like a review for both classes, since they are similar in structure and difficulty. The lectures are clear and helpful, and Rombes does his best to make sure that we have our questions answered. The class campuswire is always active, so it is definitely helpful to check that whenever questions come up. It is very likely that someone else has already asked about the same thing and has received answers for that either from the professor or classmates.

The reason that the campuswire is active, however, is that that neither this class nor the 1B class is easy. The weekly assignments and discussion worksheets will take some, but it is completion-based and you will get full points as long as you complete all questions. The tests, however, are very hard. They are open notes, open book, open internet, and have a 24-hr period to work on, but you will not find direct answers from anywhere. I spent incredibly long hours in tests for both his 1B and 1C classes. You will have to conceptually understand the materials to answer his test questions. They are ultimately doable, but only if you work hard to follow with the materials.

Overall, I left the class maybe not with all the formulas in my memory, but definitely with a better understanding of how to do physics. Not the easiest class, but would recommend to anyone who needs the 1-series

this was a completely online course. Lectures were solid and he seemed to take past students' advice and make the exams shorter. that being said, I personally found the material pretty difficult conceptually and definitely struggled more in the second half of the class, especially since nico uploaded 3 extra lectures to watch during week 9 -- it just felt like a lot of information to take in. A strength of this course was my discussion section: my LA jessica was super knowledgable and helpful with our questions.

My advice for this class is to study the discussion worksheets and problem sets the most since he makes them himself, and go to office hours!

I gotta say, there are taking Rombe's Physics 1B class was one hell of a ride. He is one of the nicest and most helpful professor's I've know. His lectures are very clear and understandable, and his course content is understandable and pretty interesting. Homework he assigned was pretty helpful, and his grading was pretty fair: if you tried on the HW, even if your answers are wrong he'll give full credit. Grading scale was pretty forgiving, with 40% of your grade determined by HW participation, and opportunities for extra credit are available (up to 0.75% give or take). He was brilliant and very understanding in office hours, which were held twice a week.

But man, the tests. This might not reflect the current situation with Rombes' Physics 1C, but since I took it online, he made the tests extensively hard and long. I do appreciate and understand the reason he does this; since exams were online, there's nothing stopping students from using online notes and answer keys, which leaves him little choice but to design his own, comprehensively difficult exams with allotted time of 24 hours to take and submit them. His exam's aren't impossible though, and the class average for them tends to be pretty decent since he's a pretty fair grader, but just prepared to sink enormous amounts of time into exams; my first midterm took me 9 hours, second midterm took 14 hours, and final exam took over 20 hours. Getting great exam grades is not hard to come by in Rombes' Physics 1B class, but just be prepared to sink as much time as your willing to get out of it.

Dr. Rombes is very approachable, and I felt comfortable asking questions in his class. His lectures were clear, and I was able to understand the concepts even having never taken a physics class in my life. The mastering physics was challenging at times, but I felt that the problems definitely helped me learn the material better, and high activity from the class on campuswire allowed me to get help on problems I was stuck on. The midterms and final were also pretty challenging, but the lectures prepare you well for them. This is a good class to take if you're like me and have never taken physics before.

Theres a bunch of mastering physics problems for homework every week which is so tedious. other than that its and alright class

I really appreciate Rombes. He has a much greater understanding of what excites students. I hated physics before his class, during, and after. But I sure enjoyed doing the problems he assigned us during. He has a great intuition for interesting (but not overly challenging) problems and his class was certainly the most welcoming of all the physics classes - this despite being of the hardest material.