| School: | California State University-Los Angeles |
| Department: | Physics |
| Location: | Los Angeles, CA |
| Helpfulness | |
| Clarity | |
| Easiness | |
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Cons: - Does not know how to teach at all (at least, not PHY121)
- Unorganized
- Goes off tangent a lot
- Teaches Calc-based physics in Trig-based physics
Even though this review is for PHY133L, I was actually in his PHY121 class. On the first day of class, the Dr. introduced himself as Dr. Charles Hays (he worked at JPL i believed). He said he JUST recently moved from Materials Science and Engineering Dept. to physics. He also said this is his FIRST time teaching PHY121 (He usually teaches 132/133 I believe). He seemed like a genuine nice guy who seemed to have a fair syllabus. The first week, he just taught us simple physics, such as what gravity is, what accerleration/velocity was, and conversions. He did taught us conversions for about 2 weeks, not even going on to chapter 2. Then on the 5th lecture, he says "Don't memorize conversion charts, I'll give you a sheet about it during midterms". This pissed me off. Why did you TEACH FOR 2 WEEKS about conversions and THEN say you'll give us a sheet for it during the midterm?
ALSO, this guy is NOT organized at ALL. He does a formula, thinks for about 2 minutes, goes "oh wait, this isn't the right one", erases it and then puts up a new formula. One time, he messed up writing the formula, did the whole problem which took 15 mins or so, and said "Wait I used the wrong one, let me fix it". He then proceeded to write down a new formula, did the problem again, and remembered it was NOT the right formula. He wasted another 15 mins doing the problem, and still yielding the wrong answer because he forgot to convert. This made me re-think about thinking PHY121, but add/drop was over (CPP is also dumb for giving you ~ 3 days to decide if the class is good or not...)
This professor is somewhat monotone and not funny/engaging. He also stops talking about physics and goes on about his career in JPL or whatever. Not only that, he was deriving calculus based formulas in our 121 class which is NOT appropriate since I'm pretty sure a trig-based PHY121 does not utilize calculus while a PHY131-133 should utilize calculus.
His first midterm was 15-16 questions, multiple choice and relates to his problems he does on the board. His 2nd midterm was 18? questions and multiple choice. For 1st in-class midterm, most people got 7 out of 10 points, but he did NOT curve which is fair. For 2nd in-class midterm, a lot of people got F's so he gave us a take-home midterm and considered dropping the 2nd in-class midterm. We had 5 days to turn in the take-home midterm and then said he would combine the 2nd take-home with the 2nd-in class midterm and make it worth 15 - 20 % of your grade. I had no idea on how to react to this and half the class was pretty angry.
Finally, the final was 20 questions I believe. Btw all exams are allowed to have 1 cheat sheet back and forth.
I went to his office hours three times. He wasn't there for 2 times. The 3rd time, he helped me for 1 problem and said he was hungry and left his office. (Went to carl's jr for a burger)
TL;DR - Doesn't know how to teach basic physics, only advanced physics. Uses calculus-based physics to solve trig-based physics. VERY unorganized with notes and goes off tangent a lot (expect to have ~ 35 % - ~ 45 % useless class days where he talks about his JPL career)
Basically a self-teach class.
Cons: - Does not know how to teach at all (at least, not PHY121)
- Unorganized
- Goes off tangent a lot
- Teaches Calc-based physics in Trig-based physics
Even though this review is for PHY133L, I was actually in his PHY121 class. On the first day of class, the Dr. introduced himself as Dr. Charles Hays (he worked at JPL i believed). He said he JUST recently moved from Materials Science and Engineering Dept. to physics. He also said this is his FIRST time teaching PHY121 (He usually teaches 132/133 I believe). He seemed like a genuine nice guy who seemed to have a fair syllabus. The first week, he just taught us simple physics, such as what gravity is, what accerleration/velocity was, and conversions. He did taught us conversions for about 2 weeks, not even going on to chapter 2. Then on the 5th lecture, he says "Don't memorize conversion charts, I'll give you a sheet about it during midterms". This pissed me off. Why did you TEACH FOR 2 WEEKS about conversions and THEN say you'll give us a sheet for it during the midterm?
ALSO, this guy is NOT organized at ALL. He does a formula, thinks for about 2 minutes, goes "oh wait, this isn't the right one", erases it and then puts up a new formula. One time, he messed up writing the formula, did the whole problem which took 15 mins or so, and said "Wait I used the wrong one, let me fix it". He then proceeded to write down a new formula, did the problem again, and remembered it was NOT the right formula. He wasted another 15 mins doing the problem, and still yielding the wrong answer because he forgot to convert. This made me re-think about thinking PHY121, but add/drop was over (CPP is also dumb for giving you ~ 3 days to decide if the class is good or not...)
This professor is somewhat monotone and not funny/engaging. He also stops talking about physics and goes on about his career in JPL or whatever. Not only that, he was deriving calculus based formulas in our 121 class which is NOT appropriate since I'm pretty sure a trig-based PHY121 does not utilize calculus while a PHY131-133 should utilize calculus.
His first midterm was 15-16 questions, multiple choice and relates to his problems he does on the board. His 2nd midterm was 18? questions and multiple choice. For 1st in-class midterm, most people got 7 out of 10 points, but he did NOT curve which is fair. For 2nd in-class midterm, a lot of people got F's so he gave us a take-home midterm and considered dropping the 2nd in-class midterm. We had 5 days to turn in the take-home midterm and then said he would combine the 2nd take-home with the 2nd-in class midterm and make it worth 15 - 20 % of your grade. I had no idea on how to react to this and half the class was pretty angry.
Finally, the final was 20 questions I believe. Btw all exams are allowed to have 1 cheat sheet back and forth.
I went to his office hours three times. He wasn't there for 2 times. The 3rd time, he helped me for 1 problem and said he was hungry and left his office. (Went to carl's jr for a burger)
TL;DR - Doesn't know how to teach basic physics, only advanced physics. Uses calculus-based physics to solve trig-based physics. VERY unorganized with notes and goes off tangent a lot (expect to have ~ 35 % - ~ 45 % useless class days where he talks about his JPL career)
Basically a self-teach class.
Cons: He goes off on tangents often but sometimes they help to reenforce another topic he has yet to go into.
Overall if you read through the book you'll do alright. If you read through the book and his lectures and HW you'll do good. If you talk with him, even if it's 10 min after class, he is much more willing to work with you
Cons: He goes off on tangents often but sometimes they help to reenforce another topic he has yet to go into.
Overall if you read through the book you'll do alright. If you read through the book and his lectures and HW you'll do good. If you talk with him, even if it's 10 min after class, he is much more willing to work with you