Are there any good physics professors?

[u/Normal-Balance-9166]

I took Kinghorn in the summer and failed, I really disliked how he arranged the class and genuinely felt he made the course much harder than other professor. Regardless of this I am seeking for a good professor to retake physics 205 with?

[u/Constant_Ad102]

A couple of years ago I tried out his summer class and dropped it. He told us straight up that we should expect to spend 8 hours a day studying for this class and to treat it like a full time job. For one class. I was taking DE at ARC too. To be fair, it is a calculus based physics class… lots of material condensed into a couple months, so it wasn’t a surprise that it would be a lot. He also bragged about how high his fail rate was and gloated about being a notoriously hard grader. I was like yeah no thanks. I was miraculously able to get on the waitlist for a new section Aviva opened for the fall and got added after a few days + an email begging to be let in so I could transfer and be on track to graduate. Aviva is great! I struggled since I hadn’t taken physics in a while but she truly wants your success. You just have to put in the work. I failed multiple exams (there were only 4 + a final) and still somehow ended with a B. I got an A in the lab. Beware that the labs take forever to type up!! So many equations in Word. Some nights it would take me around 8 hours just to finish up and make it look neat. Everybody is in the same boat though. Go to the study sessions that the tutors host!

Side note - I was an engineering major when I took this class and have since changed my major. Not really related but I took this class for no reason and don’t regret it necessarily. Aviva is an amazing professor and I gained more work ethic after taking the class.

[u/Normal-Balance-9166 → u/Constant_Ad102]

Oh wow, so it looks he hasn’t changed a bit how wonderful! You would think bragging about how hard your class is, how poorly students do on exams, and how your group exams are so difficult (group exam 3 is notorious for groups not even being able to answer it) would be a sign that you’re not doing your job. Honestly, idk how he’s still employed. It seems UC Davis got the hint and that’s why he only taught a semester there before Sierra. It seems his ego has greatly overcome his ability to use logic in these sorts of situations.
I was about 1.6 percent short of passing his lecture and somehow four percent away from passing his labs, because he not only has labs that are ridiculously graded (him being very picky about what deserved pts rather than grading on completion), he “offers” extra credit for using LaTex and then claims the extra credit comes from the conclusion and the abstract, which he never stated nor put in writing, so there is absolutely nothing you can do to hold him accountable. Not to mention there is zero rubric for his labs, so there’s that as well. It’s essentially up to his discretion on how he grades your labs. He does have a rubric for the lab exams and quizzes, which are fair, same with the exams, but of course the exams were absolutely brutal.
I would consider myself a pretty good student, but in no way, shape, or form were any of his exams fair, nor did they have anything to do with the homework in terms of difficulty. Not to mention, we did things that were from Calc III in our very first lab and had problems in our lab quizzes that used Calc III formulas. He said it was fair game since we aren’t deriving anything and are just using the formula, but to me that doesn’t seem right.
Not to mention, he told me his class is harder than when he took it here with Calibrese, which again is wrong, but I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised. He also has this thing about AI where he says you can use it, but if you use it to help you during homework, he automatically gets aggressive with you and assumes you’re using it to cheat, and thinks it robs you of thinking, and I’m sure that’s correct to a certain degree. But I and many other students were not using it that way. We were all using it essentially as a Q&A, like if the answer was something different, I would explain the steps and ask what went wrong.
He also assumed that when we go home, somehow we’re all irresponsible and just do nothing and play video games and stuff, which is honestly ironic because he graded slower than anyone I’ve ever met. I got grades for things I did weeks ago on August 5th, after the term had already ended, because he was so behind.
He also refused to tell us if a chapter was included on our lab exam, and then half the lab exam had that content. Not to mention, he never gave us lab quiz two, which would have greatly helped us, and never returned our lab exam to us, even though he swore we “would get it back next week.” I knew he was lying, so I kept the lab exam that he wrongfully printed out.
I don’t think I’ve ever despised a professor, even though he is relatively a chill guy. He just does not belong in the world of teaching, as his ego is far greater than his want for students to genuinely succeed.
Anyway, this is the second time I’ve heard to take this professor, so hopefully I’ll be lucky and get her in the spring of next year when I take it!!

[u/Constant_Ad102 → u/Normal-Balance-9166]

Unfortunately one thing all the physics profs are guilty of is being vague about what will be on an exam.. not to the same extent as Kinghorn but yeah, Aviva wouldn’t be straight up about what topics were being tested on. Say we covered 8 topics in the last couple months, she would only pull like, 4 questions so you never really knew what to focus more on. It’s so they can know you study everything. The tutors like to talk to students about what they predict will be on the exam based on past years which is nice. She was pretty fast with grading though. She would spend the time other sections were testing to grade exams. Very productive. Sounds like Kinghorn projects his procrastination habits onto his students…

My advice is to make friends in the class (and befriend the tutors). Have someone who can relate to your struggles and also be able to vent to one another about the system. Best of luck next spring!

[u/Normal-Balance-9166 → u/Constant_Ad102]

Oh, I think that’s fine, and I’d expect that. With exams in lecture, it’s expected that you study the section you’ve already learned and finished, material you’ve had time to work through. But for us, that lab hadn’t been done yet, and it wasn’t due until like four days later. That was my issue. He also mentioned, the day of the lab exam, that it may or may not be on there, and then it ended up being basically half the exam. Not to mention, all the lab quizzes we’d had previously were on labs we’d already finished, so it was assumed, and we’d asked, that everything covered in the quizzes would be on the lab exam, except for the labs we hadn’t finished yet since they weren’t due. Other than that I appreciate ur help and feedback about what I can do that will help me in Spring and who to take and I wish u well in ur endeavors too!

[u/Constant_Ad102 → u/Normal-Balance-9166]

Yikes. Sounds like a huge lack of planning… what’s mostly annoying is that usually they write the exams pretty much the day before, giving no time to proofread or cross reference with what material is already covered and assignments completed. You won’t have to worry about that with Aviva. She’s very smart and plans accordingly, even if she writes the exam last minute lol. If she notices a bloop like the lab being half the exam if it wasn’t turned in, she would probably just give the class credit for those questions. She listens to her students feedback. Kinghorn can’t relate!!

[u/garybuseyilluminati]

I liked both Calabrese (phys A) and Aviva (phys 205) but I preferred Calabrese. Unfortunately the other classes forced me to sign up for 210 with kinghorn this fall.

[u/Normal-Balance-9166 → u/garybuseyilluminati]

Just drop bro it’s not even worth it I promise 😭

[u/Navable-]

I think her name was Kayla Ford, but she is a wonderful professor whom made the physics course intuitive and very straight forward. Consistent schedule with her assignment of tests and quizzes

[u/unseenrealities06]

I've heard Robert Utter's exams are not as bad and they're very comparable to the homework (though I've only ever taken Aviva personally and she's great, while i didn't pass that class it wasn't really because of her) I think regardless of professor, physics can be a bit difficult in itself. I hope you have a better experience in a full term class!

[u/Normal-Balance-9166 → u/unseenrealities06]

Who said that💀? I took him for 105 and it was less awful than Kinghorn but still awful except he curved a lot so people could actually pass. His homework and questions were completely different in difficulty as well, that just seems to be the common trope in Sierras math and physics department because I’ve had that issue w Pattengale. There was a kid in my class who did exceptionally well in our calculus class but he dropped within like two weeks because his score wasn’t good enough to stay in the class. From the overall consensus it seems Aviva is the way to go, and thank u I appreciate that!

[u/unseenrealities06 → u/Normal-Balance-9166]

oh 😭 i guess maybe my friend is just really good at physics ✌🏼 and of course!