PHYS 2030

I took this in Fall 2020, but for some reason, the website isn't recognizing him as an instructor for this past semester.

This class is just a pain in the ass. Way too much work for one credit, and it was unnecessarily challenging; ie. the concepts weren't that terrible to understand, but the way that they were presented in the class was super randomly and unneccessarily complicated. Just try to think in very basic terms and concepts, (eg. think "what is the professor trying and failing to make me understand here") and you'll start to get the hang of the labs. Make sure that you have a friend (or friendS) in the class with whom you can collaborate because the assignments that you can work together on are often, again, unnecessarily complicated, and very challenging. Most people end up with an A or A-, but you will feel like you did the work for a 3 credit lab. I took CHEM 2811 (accelerated organic chemistry lab) at the same time and literally did more work for this "BASIC PRINCIPLES of physics" lab. Emphasis on "basic" and "principles." Also, make sure you go to grader office hours, and argue for points back. Literally, don't be afraid to be aggressive, because you can and will get the points back if you have even a thread of an argument. One TA grader literally admitted that he sometimes takes off extra points just so students would have to come to office hours. For some reason, Professor Bychkov seems to think that office hours should be a mandatory part of the class, when in fact, they are designed for students who need supplementary help. Shouldn't feel necessary. Also note, the grader TAs and the in-lab TAs will often give you different information; just listen to whoever is grading you/holding the rubric in their hands. This class is very formulaic and once you understand exactly what the graders are looking for, you'll get a hand on how they grade and start to do better.

Overall, super annoying and dumb class, especially considering literally nobody in the class is a physics major, they just need it for pre-med or another STEM major requirement (I'm biochem). Pray that you have good lab partners, collaborate as much as humanly possible, go to all the office hours, and you'll be okay. You might literally break 5 hours a week for this 1-fucking-credit class, but you'll get an A.

You will spend most of your time working for this 1 credit class. This class will take up more time than a lot of your 3 credit classes. Keep this in mind.

Way too much work for a one credit class. Post lab quizzes are nearly impossible unless you go to office hours. Lab reports are not too difficult, but are graded strictly.

This class is unnecessarily demanding for a 1 credit lab. I actually had Max as the teacher in my class, and it was very intimidating having him there as he would randomly call you out to answer a question. This course does do a good job of paralleling what was discussed in lecture (PHYS 2010) and, in some cases, the lab did help me understand the lecture concepts better. Every week there is a trade-off between doing a lab report or post-lab quiz; the lab report is group work and would recommend that you and your group members each write one section and then meet to review and edit the report. With regards to the post-lab go to the TAs office hours--they are super helpful. The lab report grading is the absolute worst--there is no script rubric and everyone grades differently, thus, there is no way to predict what mood the grader is in, how they will grade the lab report, and what they will take points off for. Overall, just try to work together with other members in your class and ask the TAs for help. I would not recommend this course unless you are on the pre-med track (then you have to take it, no ifs, ands, or buts) or if you really love physics.

This class was the most frustrating I have taken at UVA. Grading is trash and you'll need a 90 for a B+, so have fun because getting good grades in this class is like trying to paint a room in the dark. The ideas make sense, and at times you may even enjoy yourself, but you will never satisfy your client and you will be heavily underpaid, but your client will also never tell you exactly what you did wrong, just generally say "here are some common mistakes people made." Post-labs are fair, pre-labs are quick and rarely all that helpful, but the in-labs are like breaking the Enigma Code. There was no correlation between how much I knew in lab and the grade I received. Throw EVERYTHING you can think of on the in-labs to try and hit their key phrases, show your work, and reference error propagation whenever possible. Error propagation made sense, but it's like the professor's "buy my mixtape" deal, you can't escape it so just bother him until you figure it out because its gonna significantly impact your lab grade. Maxim is jacked and very smart, he gets flustered if you ask him how much he deadlifts. Best of luck, because you're a premed and you have no choice.

This class was an extreme grade crunch and really embodies the competitive pre-medical environment. All of the grades are contingent upon thresholds that Bychkov publishes in the middle of the semester which are contingent upon averages amongst all the other students taking the course. The labs are terrible and are graded harshly by TAs that I have never even met. They basically work like this: key term and phenomena included in explanation +10, phenomena explained without key term +5, anything else +0. The grades start at 60% and the TAs randomly grade four questions by the aforementioned criteria in order to get final grades. Post-labs are the only way to differentiate students from each other. I recommend taking them in a group because Bychkov made them group assignments this semester. Take the class only if necessary, collaborate on the post-lab quizzes as allowed, and take the lab reports as is. Too much work and stress for only one credit.

This is by far the best lab class that I have ever taken. The labs were *cool* and not only directly related to the lecture content, but also just about in sync with when the material was presented in lecture. I thought that overall all of the work was challenging but could help us to think about physics concepts and practice working problems. I thought the class was a great supplement to the lecture class, in that we were able to engage with the material and see things visually. My TA was overall helpful and was frequently busy answering people's questions; he seemed knowledgeable about physics and would help lead us to the right answer without directly giving it to us. Though, it was hard to trust him throughout the semester because he would sometimes contradict himself or seem unsure of what he was saying. Maxim Bychkov is a very smart physics enthusiast, though I think sometimes he can come across as snide; I'd say he has a strong personality. He's frequently helping students, answering questions and going in and out of the labs again answering questions to students in the lab. He makes us think and has a deep understanding of physics. I thought the lab did require a lot of critical thinking and application of physics concepts; I walked away from every lab feeling like I gained a better understanding of something, and tired of thinking. However, it seemed most people started the post-lab quizzes directly after lab or during the same day, even though the deadline is about a full day after the lab ends. I thought these quizzes had mostly hard questions, and a dumb mistake or small error in a calculation could easily lead to an incorrect answer. So, it would be best to do these while alert, with other student(s), and with easy access to your notes (all of which is allowed). This is another reason why this lab is great; you can use anyone taking the lab and virtually any resource to work on the assignments and quizzes. The lab groups rotate irregularly (work with some people twice, work with some people no times) every three weeks so you get to meet and talk to lots of people. The syllabus and the Appendix C also have a lot of important information. I wish I had read those carefully at the beginning of the semester. Everything is explicitly written and the information you need is there or in the physics textbook. While I thought the lab was hard, I couldn’t bring myself to care a lot about my grade, because it was only worth 1 credit; but looking back I wish I had put more effort into the class.

This is by far the worst lab class I have ever taken. The TAs will determine if you'll get the chance to get an A or A-, most people get B+/B. When Bychkov assigns the grades, he does it by every section, not individual section. In the email that he sent out to us, he said that we were going to be satisfied with the grade that we'll receive, but that will never be the case unless you have 95 or above, which is the A range. 91.5~95 was A- iirc.
The prelabs aren't bad, the post labs are a bit effy, relatively doable, so all it comes down to determining your grade is your in-lab portion. The in-lab portion is always graded like shit. The grading TA will always try to mark you down for some arbitrary reason and you can't even win your point back if you go see a TA in an office hour even though when your in-lab TA tells you that your answer was correct .
The in-lab has many many questions and only 4 of them are graded, of course the hardest questions are graded. The questions are worded in a way that is very unclear and you'll have to ask the TA for clarification. My TA was one of the worst since he took like 10 minutes to explain a single question, which the answer might be very simple, and he was never direct with answering questions, unlike other TAs.
My section had only 3 people above the 90s range, the highest being at the lower end of 93. I was one of the three, but I ended up with a B+ since Bychkov grades everyone with the same standard despite what he says in his emails (somewhere along the lines of "I'm setting the grades fairly blah blah blah" don't trust his words).

To start off, this is the worst class I have ever taken at uva. The material is often not related to the lecture material or is completely out of sync. DO NOT take this class if you dont have to. If you do have to, I would recommend taking it later in the week so that you can get an idea of what youre in for from friends. You have a pre-lab assignment and a post-lab quiz for every lab, and both are frustrating, time consuming, and horrible. This class is way too much work for 1 credit. The in-lab procedures seem easy, but then you get to the in-lab questions and realize that they are often poorly written and unclear. Additionally, only the 2-3 toughest questions will be graded on any given in-lab assignment. Only 1-2 A's are given out in each section of 20-25 students. The TA you get will significantly influence your perception of the class, as Maxim is always tucked away in his office and unwilling to help when asked. Become real familiar with Appendix C, because arbitrary and useless error propagation will become an everyday thing in this lab. The best thing I could possibly recommend is to invest in Chegg, it will save you a lot of time and trouble, I only wish I had realized this sooner.

The funny thing about this class is that the material isn't difficult at all. However, this is honestly one of the worst classes I have taken at UVA. The class grade is arbitrarily scaled down so that most people get a B or B+. Maxim states that you need to be 1 standard deviation above the mean for an A- and 2 standard deviations above the mean to get an A. Anyone who knows basic statistics could tell you that means only the TOP 2.5 PERCENT will get an A. Do you best to score perfect on the pre and post labs because the actual labs will be marked down for asinine reasons. Oh, and pray that everyone else in the class is incompetent. Avoid this class if you can.

I found it helpful for lecture physics. It's a good amount of work, but overall I found it generally helpful.

This class is too much work for one credit. Make sure you know someone you can work with that can help you on the pre-labs. You have the pre-labs which are usually easy As, the in-lab document which the grade varies (the grading TA will only grade 4 out of the many questions that you have to answer) , and the post-labs which pretty much everyone does poorly on. Some of the post-labs you can get a 100 on but some are downright hard. Most people end up getting in the B range because Maxim is stingy about giving people As. If you're pre-health and need to take this lab, just do your best and be prepared to take in whatever grade you get.

Don't take this class unless you have to, because it just sucks a lot of time away that can be better spent doing something else. Not too hard of a workload, but make sure that you collaborate on the homework assignments with other people to make sure you understand how to do the problems. Labs themselves felt really rushed, so if you're the writer for that week, try to get as much done before lab as possible.

This class fucking sucks. Make sure you have a friend in the class that you can work on the pre-labs with! You want do to well on the pre-labs because they will save your grade. They only make up 20% of your grade though. The other 80% is made up of lab worksheets and post-labs. You do the lab worksheet in lab with your group, but the questions are usually pretty hard. The labs themselves always feel really rushed--there were times when my group members and I had to stay after to complete the worksheet. The grading for the worksheet is so arbitrary--it has like 20 questions on it, but the TAs just end up grading like 4 of them. Honestly, I think they probably just look for the 4 questions that were most commonly missed and grade those , just so they can dock points from you. You usually end up getting an 85% on the labs. And then there are the post-labs. These you take 24 hours after completing the lab. They are usually only like 5 or 6 questions, except they're usually not at all related to anything you did in lab! Needless to say, they're super hard. Maxim technically drops your 2 lowest post-lab grades, but he makes you take a pre-diagnostic test at the beginning of the semester that counts as a quiz that can be dropped. Everyone obviously does poorly on that one, so everyone drops that one. So really, you are only allowed to drop one actual post-lab quiz. This class just frustrated me so much, and it was so much stress for one credit. It made me miss Orgo Lab honestly.

This class is just plain awful. The concepts of physics are easy but the lab questions that go with the lab somehow twisted the concepts so that they end up being harder than they should be. Pre-labs are doable, so they should be a grade booster. Labs are graded by some unknown TA that is arbitrary and just love to take off random points and you will have no idea why. Post-labs are difficult, but if you know the concepts very well or pay close attention to labs then they shouldn't be that bad. Overall, people do horribly on the post-labs, but if you manage to get hundreds here and there and 80's range on post lab, then you should get a decent grade. But do avoid this class no matter what.

Ugh, what a pain. This class was way too much work for only 1 credit. Every lab period was so rushed because they seemed to be designed to be way longer than necessary, and they all ended in each lab group just scribbling down some sort of answer to be able to turn something in. I can't say I learned much from this technique. Luckily you can work with people on prelabs, but the TIMED postlabs were too difficult in my opinion. Don't take it if you don't have to...

This class really sucks, and it should totally be worth more than 1 credit. Prelab (20%), postlab (40%), and reports (40%) make up the grade. Labs are done in groups and only one report per group is turned in/graded, and then only 3 or 4 questions are actually graded. If the class grades are too high, they will be curved down. There's no way around taking this class if you're premed, but if you don't absolutely need this class then don't take it because it's the worst. Read the labs beforehand, understand the pre-labs as well as you can, and try to get a TA that speaks english.

Prelab, lab, postlab (drop lowest two, but that's because you have to do a "diagnostic" in the beginning WHICH COUNTS even though I've never had physics ever and basically got a 17% on it........)
I don't know how people get As in this class. I don't know what TAs are looking for. My TA (Luo) also didn't speak English/know what he was talking about so that was fun.
Answer questions super in depth. Invest in chegg.
Your prelabs will probably be 100%, post labs are impossible, labs will probably be ~85%.
Hate this 1 credit class.

I had the best TA (Kapila), which made this class semi-enjoyable. I just felt like it was too much work for just 1 credit. I also got top 3 in my class but still got an A-. Get every possible point you can on the prelabs and answer all of the TAs questions.

The key to this class is getting good TA's. You hardly ever see the professor, and your TA's grade everything. If you've never taken physics before, this class is TOUGH. There is a ton of work every week for this one-credit class, and post-labs are not for the faint of heart. They are timed and exceedingly difficult for the simple topics covered in lab. In addition, there is a weekly pre-lab, not to mention the points scored in lab itself as you fill out your lab manual. In order to score points in lab, ask a lot of questions, and read ahead so you are prepared to answer coherently to earn your grade. The experiments are fine, just be prepared to do way more than 1 credit's worth of work in this class for very little payoff.

This class was changed from last year apparently, and now we are graded on our participation, preparedness for the lab, and ability to answer questions as determined by the TAs. It is very subjective, and depending on the TA, can be good or bad. The labs are usually easy, and if you finish up faster, I think you get a better score. The Prelabs are open for groupwork, and are easy (Should be 100% for all). The lab grades were generally between 8-10, depending on what I said about, and were 40% of your grade. Lastly, postlabs are worth 40% of your grade, and vary in difficulty greatly each week (Got a few 100s, also got a few <60). I don't think the grades were curved down this year, as the postlab avgs were not too high and the TAs were stingy with giving 10s in lab. The highest grade in my section was in the lower 90's. Definitely not a fun class, and not very easy. Should honestly be worth 2 credits.

Also, Song was an awesome TA! Very helpful.