PHYS 2030

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

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.

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.

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).

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 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 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 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.

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.

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.