ASTR 1559

First things first, this class is the Black Holes class (since ASTR 1559 is the mnemonic for new classes or classes that are irregularly taught).

Prof. Davis is honestly the best professor I have had at UVA. He was able to explain complex topics with ease and made this course very exciting. He was clearly passionate about what he was teaching, which made the class even better. There is almost zero work in this class. There are weekly blogging sets and 14-question multiple-choice homework questions that come straight from the lecture slides he posts immediately after each lecture. I'd be surprised if both took you more than an hour to complete. Reading is entirely optional; it's just a matter of how in-depth you want to go with this course. All the exam material is in his posted lecture slides, but he's such a great professor that you wouldn't want to miss class. He even posts exam reviews and a final review with all the topics on the exam/final and practice questions that usually closely resembled the ones on the real exams/final. This class is awesome, the professor is great; what more could you ask for?

I really enjoyed Professor Davis. However, I was not so interested in black holes which sucked. I really enjoyed his helpfulness and care about the topic, which is by far the best quality in an instructor is their passion. There was plenty of opportunity to boost your grade if tests weren't your best quality (me especially). I'm not sure if this will continue as a class, but many people did so well in the class that if you can understand bits and pieces of math and do the work (blog posts, online questions; both once a week; and in class questions that you can do at home if you skip class) then you should get a good grade in the class (anywhere from a B to an A)

This class was super interesting. Professor Davis does a really good job at making black holes and relativity, topics that thought of as very difficult and dense, very accessible and easy to understand. He also warns at the beginning of the course that there is a significant amount of math, but the math is so easy that it shouldn't be a problem for anyone who is decent at algebra. The course consists of a weekly blog, homework, lab, in-class questions, 3 quizzes, and a final. The blog, lab, and in-class questions are extremely easy to get full credit on and the quiz questions often come straight off the homeworks (which can be kind of confusing, but do help you learn and understand the material). Overall, this is a great class and I would recommend it to anyone interested in science or outer space.