PHYS 2415

Professor Pesin is a good professor; he is good-natured, humorous, and cares about his students. I would recommend taking this course with him. His lectures are fairly good, but honestly, there is just no way that all the material can be covered in lectures. So, you need to read the textbook if you want to do well. Not just a cursory skim, but a fairly in-depth read. The textbook for this course is extremely well written; it is concise, yet thorough. When I studied for tests, I barely looked at my lecture notes or homework; I pretty much just re-read the textbook. The tests were 14 questions and multiple choice, and pretty high-stakes, so test weeks were very stressful. Professor Pesin provided us with practice exams that were, for the most part, quite similar to the actual exams. We had weekly Mastering Physics homework, which could be annoying at times but was much better than written homework because you get instant feedback. Overall, this was my most stressful class, but also my most rewarding class. The material was complex at times, but it was also interesting and enlightening.

Dima was by far the most thorough, clear and helpful professor I had this semester. The reason I put difficulty as high is because I feel the material is objectively hard no matter who your professor is, but Dima truly is great. Lectures are well spent, pre-recorded lectures go more in depth if you need the extra help (found I could skip them in my better units), homework and exams are very fair... best physics professor I've ever had coming from someone who has never been a great physics student.