I heard that Hughes is a good lecturer, but her midterms/exams are comparatively difficult. Is physics 1B03 harder when it's just Hughes teaching in term 1 compared to more profs (Rheinstadter, Nejat and Hughes) in term 2?

Obligatory answer: you can do well if you put in effort regardless of when you take it.

Helpful answer: yes, it will be harder with Hughes alone. I recall the average in my year for a midterm being < 40%. I still know people who were able to obtain 12s, but still.

Originally Posted by Alchemist11

Obligatory answer: you can do well if you put in effort regardless of when you take it.

Helpful answer: yes, it will be harder with Hughes alone. I recall the average in my year for a midterm being < 40%. I still know people who were able to obtain 12s, but still.

So what exactly makes it harder, her teaching or her tests? Because I currently have it with Nejat second term. I've had him before and am not a fan of his teaching style so I'm debating taking it with Hughes instead.

I had hughes, and I still can't pinpoint exactly what about her that made the course hard. She taught conceptually, so it was usually easy to follow along in class, but it was hard to take notes because she didn't really write anything of ...substance on the board, you know? Like, she would just draw diagrams and use arbitrary values. Coming from highschool, I was used to doing practice problems in class and in the text, and then seeing variations of those questions appear on the tests. Here, you would learn the overall concept and have to think outside of the box on the tests.

The being said, some of the questions on tests were giveaways because they were similar to CAPA questions, but our class average was in the 50s (maybe lower) and generally people found the midterms and exam pretty hard.

I can't say that I found the class miserable or anything, I enjoyed it more than highschool physics because she tries to make sure that everyone is following along, and she's always available to help you in office hours. She also extends due dates on CAPAs and assignments if enough people ask.

Did anyone have Nejat for 1B03? I wish I could be in another profs core but the school stupidly put all the physics cores second term in bio time slots... Is it worth taking it first term with chem 20A3 to have hughes? Or will it be too much to handle with orgo/is it not worth switching for for her?

I personally found her lectures to be the most interesting during my first term, so in that sense, I would recommend her. However her teaching style isn't for everyone, as she has admitted to herself.
What makes her midterms challenging is the fact that it's 15 multiple choice questions, and you can't blindly guess the answer. You have to know every step, because she'll think of every possible mistake or forgotten detail and make it one of the answers to pick from. To be honest though, they're not that hard when you look back at them, and there are some freebies... all in all, it's definitely 12-able, but it will take some effort.

Originally Posted by peanuts

I personally found her lectures to be the most interesting during my first term, so in that sense, I would recommend her. However her teaching style isn't for everyone, as she has admitted to herself.
What makes her midterms challenging is the fact that it's 15 multiple choice questions, and you can't blindly guess the answer. You have to know every step, because she'll think of every possible mistake or forgotten detail and make it one of the answers to pick from. To be honest though, they're not that hard when you look back at them, and there are some freebies... all in all, it's definitely 12-able, but it will take some effort.

This exactly.

Basically what ends up happening is
When Hughes teaches it alone - she writes the tests, and her questions are difficult.
When Hughes teaches it with other professors - they use the same tests, and generally the other profs make Hughes tone down the difficulty so all the tests are a bit easier.

In terms of teaching - Nejat isn't really the most effective instructor, and Hughes isn't for everyone. But if you do your work, read the corresponding sections, do CAPA by yourself, do textbook problems you should be fine regardless of when you take it or who you take it with.

Originally Posted by Alchemist11

Basically what ends up happening is
When Hughes teaches it alone - she writes the tests, and her questions are difficult.
When Hughes teaches it with other professors - they use the same tests, and generally the other profs make Hughes tone down the difficulty so all the tests are a bit easier.

In terms of teaching - Nejat isn't really the most effective instructor, and Hughes isn't for everyone. But if you do your work, read the corresponding sections, do CAPA by yourself, do textbook problems you should be fine regardless of when you take it or who you take it with.

This a thousand times over.

If you do CAPA in a group, don't fool yourself into thinking you know how to solve all the problems. You need to get to the point where you can look at a question, and simply *know* how to do it. Honestly, if you can achieve that, then you will do well in the course. I was caught off guard by the second midterm, and just barely passed it (53%). For the exam, I went through every CAPA by myself. If you get caught up on solving kinematics problems, you need to practice these until you can do them in your sleep, because there are harder problems on the exam involving wave interference, work & energy etc. In the end I got an 11 with Hughes.

So I guess the sum of my concern is...should I switch from second term to first (Nejat to Hughes) to improve professors or is it worth taking the course with Nejat and having a lower difficulty?

1st term isn't just hughes alone one of the lectures is taught by wilson
I never heard of wilson so i dont know but it's probably better than hughes teaching alone

Nejat subbed in for Hughes a few times during the semester and personally I couldn't understand a word he was saying, so... I'd go with Hughes :p

Anyone have any experience with Wilson?

Originally Posted by mike4

So I guess the sum of my concern is...should I switch from second term to first (Nejat to Hughes) to improve professors or is it worth taking the course with Nejat and having a lower difficulty?

Im in the same situation, i dont know whether i should switch from Nejat to Hughes... Ive heard mixed reviews about both...

Also i have it second semester when Rheinstader, Nejat, and Hughes are teaching, when you says "Multiple Profs are teaching" do you guys mean in the same term or for the same course? To be more specific, what does it mean for tests and such when more then one prof is teaching the same course in a semester

Originally Posted by philkolb31

Im in the same situation, i dont know whether i should switch from Nejat to Hughes... Ive heard mixed reviews about both...

Also i have it second semester when Rheinstader, Nejat, and Hughes are teaching, when you says "Multiple Profs are teaching" do you guys mean in the same term or for the same course? To be more specific, what does it mean for tests and such when more then one prof is teaching the same course in a semester

Yeah, and looking at my timetable I'm actually better off in Wilson's class...yet can't find any info on her!