PHYS 2010

I found Professor Paschke to be extremely funny and extremely engaging during lectures. He did a lot of demonstrations for us to illustrate the physical phenomena which I believe truly helped me understand. He was a lot better than Professor Hung and I found myself switching sections to the 9:30 AM one just to be in a class with Paschke.

But, I suppose if you're on The Course Forum you are more interested in learning about the grading.

The course with Paschke is curved to a B+. Performing average (~64%) on the three midterms and final (which all get curved at the END of the course) will get you a B+. If you are more ambitious, he usually publishes the statistics of the grade distribution when revealing the averages and an A- generally corresponds to being one standard deviation above the average. Ultimately, this class was worthwhile and was not too difficult; just do a lot of practice problems on Mastering Physics and within the textbook in order to learn problem solving methodologies for the exams.

I really thought this course was overall fascinating, and the time that I spent was overall an enjoyable part of my semester. However, I thought it was difficult and rigorous, and I needed to put a similar amount of effort and time into it as I did for Orgo. I wish I had known this from the beginning; though of course, not everyone would find this. However, I didn’t think physics was as genuinely confusing and spatial as Orgo. Furthermore, the curve for physics was set to a B+ average, while Orgo was set to a B- average (at least the class I was in). One thing that I found especially interesting about physics was that it is applicable to things you can observe or experience in life. The idea that the problems in the book should be ignored is bizarre to me. The problems could be a great way to learn how to apply concepts, practice the math skills and test your understanding. The work was definitely sometimes frustrating and confusing. But this class was great in the sense that there were plenty of effective ways to get help. Professor Paschke seems amazing in that he is able to talk about physics like it is a first language. He is also welcoming of students asking questions during class, gets invested in answering questions and encourages discussion on Piazza and in office hours, and he carries this nice, contagious enthusiasm and interest for physics. Professor Paschke seems to be a little bit of a hard-ass and uses subtle humor during lectures, and isn’t afraid to have fun with his job. He is very smart, kind and thoughtful. It has stood out that he opens up the class to providing feedback, like he continually wants to become a better professor and/or improve the quality of the course. I thought the in-class demonstrations were very cool, and watching them and thinking about them was helpful. The lectures, the textbook, and Professor Paschke are all great resources to learn the material. I think it can be more natural to remember something someone says or does rather than what you read, and this made the lectures helpful to me. While the class sometimes seems fast, it’s sometimes exhilarating; and the class could be thought of as somewhat repetitive. Moreover, the slides are always posted on Collab after class. I think about all of the classes I’ve sat in throughout my time at UVa and it these kinds of lectures that I’ve found the most enjoyable, interesting, and stimulating.

As someone who had never taken a physics class before, Paschke was a pretty good teacher. He made lecture manageable, although most of it came straight from the textbook. The speed of this class was insane, we basically did a chapter a lecture, and the exams are very challenging. I would recommend brushing up on algebra and trig before this class and doing the reading before class so you can answer the clicker questions. The mastering physics homework is basically impossible and way harder than anything you ever saw on an exam. Honestly I don't know how people did the homework without Chegg, they involved a ton of real life applications that were extremely difficult. The curve is insane though, with an 81% at the end of the year being an A-

This class, while it's an intro level physics class for pre-meds, is not to be taken lightly. There is a curve, but the problem with the curve is that many of the kids will end up with a B- to a B+, but it's hard to be out of that range unless performance on tests are well above average (at least a half to three quarters of a standard deviation above average consistently to be in the A- range and at least a whole standard deviation to be in the A range). Lectures do not cover much material - 80% of the material you are responsible for are in the textbook as well as practice problems at the back of every single chapter. You need to set aside at least 10 hours a week to read the chapters and do the MasteringPhysics problems. There are three midterms and a final, and the final is worth a lot, almost half of your grade, so you need to set aside a lot of time for that. This being said, with the amount of preparation you need to put in for this class, taking this class with other hard courses such as Organic Chemistry or Upper-Level Biology Courses is generally not advised, because you need to be able to focus on doing well in this course along with others too. Be sure to attend class, ask Paschke questions, do the clickers, because those could only help your grade and your understanding of the subject.

I took AP physics in high school and I honestly think it was harder then because they tried to cram several concepts into each problem; the math-based test questions for this course were more simple but were mixed with several tricky concept questions. Mastering physics was terrible and completely undoable without Chegg; it tried to use real-world examples that are incomprehensible and WAY harder than anything you'd see on exams. Pashke also tends to do much harder math problems/conceptual problems in class than would ever appear on exams (never even had to use the quadratic formula).

So to achieve in this class: subscribe to Chegg and use that to answer mastering physics and ignore it after that (also useful for the PHYS 2030 post labs). Try to skim the chapter or at least do the pre-lecture assignments before lecture (which take about 5 minutes) because it will help you answer the clicker questions/ follow lecture. You will regret not doing it especially for the third test which covers 5 chapters. READ THE TEXTBOOK-you won't learn anything from lecture. Study the problems inside each chapter section because this is what test questions are most like. Ignore the end-of-chapter problems unless you're really struggling with a specific equation. If anything, google some of the provided practice exam questions and see if similar practice exam questions show up online. Also if there are any key exceptions/concepts (tangential force does no work, etc) really memorize these because they will 100% appear on the tests disguised as math problems and are easy to recognize if you know what they're trying to trick you with.

Pashke is an awesome professor considering the amount of material he has to get through. Lecture is more entertainment than learning due to the pace at which it progresses, but it makes the class more worthwhile!

I had never taken a physics course before this one, and it had been a while since I had taken trig. I would recommend reviewing basic trig rules if you have forgotten them. I found it best to read the book before class and do the worked examples (Paschke likes to use the examples from the book for iClickers, which are graded). Office hours were pretty much essential if you want to get 100 on the homework. There were usually one or two really hard problems that were almost impossible to do without help. Paschke gave us practice exams, which were helpful for studying for the tests. Overall, this class wasn't horrible. Just be prepared to work hard if you want to get a good grade. If you get the average on all the exams you'll probably get a B in the class, assuming you do well on the homework and clickers.

I took this class with no previous physics background what so ever. Pashke is a good professor and makes lectures bearable with his jokes and demonstrations. This class takes a lot of studying and hard work, but he curves the class at the end of the semester to be at a B/B+

Paschke is great with demos. I tries hard to make the material understandable.

A nerdy professor who knows a lot and tries to make you understand it. He is awesome at demos. Hung was not the most helpful TA though.

This class is just another pre-med weed out course. It's not super difficult, but it's not easy either. The midterms are what make it so hard - they only give you one class period to take them so you feel rushed the whole time.

Lectures are gruesome--Paschke mainly reads through his powerpoint slides and rushes through them so it's impossible to take notes at times. However, he does provide sample questions and clicker questions that test conceptual material. Most of the learning however, is received from sitting down with the book and working the practice problems. Three midterms, which weren't too bad (no more than 20 questions, multiple choice, pretty good curve); a cumulative final (about 40 question); weekly homework assignments; attendance measured through clicker questions; and weekly discussion sections with quizzes

Very hard course. Be ready to invest lots of time doing problems and going to office hours.

Paschke is great. He is very enthusiastic for the class. However, the class is challenging and moves through the material very fast. Stay on top of your readings and problems.

If you aren't great at calculus or physics, you DEFINITELY have to put in an extra effort with the class. It moves really fast and you need to stay on top of the chapters. I do not recommend taking this class with other challenging classes, such as genetics or organic chemistry.

physics y'all know is not easy class, you literally have to teach yourself working more examples. as for the lectures, if not for the graded clicker questions is practically worthless!!

The class picks up very quickly, so you need to stay on top of the HW and do plenty of practice problems. Discussion is very important! Don't be afraid to ask stupid questions

Physics is not fun. The lab blows, but the lecture is doable. The class average for the course is set to a B, so as long as you do better than that.. your pre-health GPA won't suffer too much. It's a little disappointing the Physics department here doesn't have better teachers, because Paschke is fine but Norum seriously is horrible. Do whatever you can not to get Norum.

Paschke is also accessible, though he only has office hours 1 hour a week (kind of lame). I only went once, because he clearly is more into his research than "wasting time" with undergraduates.

Anyways, sorry you have to take Physics here at UVA. But, if you do, take it with Paschke.

Overall a pretty frustrating class for people who haven't taken AP Physics before in high school. HW questions are a lot harder than the ones on the exam. Plus Paschke just talks to himself in class and teaches all the stuffs straight from the textbook. No point in going to the lecture except for the clicker questions.

Paschke is enthusiastic about physics, really cares about you learning the material and is a "dad" to the class (which reflects the young kids he has at home). He is very accessible and open to suggestions about the class!

Paschke is not a great professor, but he is nice. He tries to explain concepts, but brushes over or mumbles explanations often.. leaving most students utterly confused. Essentially, you can probably do well in this class by skimming over the reading before lecture (clicker questions), and doing lots of practice problems/going to TA OH.. exams are definitely difficult, but not impossible...practice/study hard enough and with the curve you can do fairly well in this class if you want.

Paschke is a good professor who seems really knowledgable about physics. In the end though, its impossible to learn physics from lecture so you have to do lots of problems outside class. The averages on the tests were really low, so the curve is generous