PHYS 1425

Honestly I think he was a nice funny guy during demos and cracked some jokes during lecture that were funny and corny, but when you get those first quizzes/exam it feels like you just got slapped. The content is nothing like what is gone over in lecture, and all he does is talk about how to derive the equations but not how to actually use anything like he asks on the quizzes or exams. And yes the exams are horrible and traumatizing and it feels like no studying can help you. I considered myself good at IB Physics HL in high school, and my HS teacher would agree but this class takes all the confidence away.

So, I don't normally review teachers, but I found out Professor Yoshida reads these reviews, and I thought I'd give him an honest one after seeing all of the harsh ones. Truth be told, the class is difficult, but that's the nature of physics. Ask anyone with any other professor, they too are struggling. The issue with Yoshida's class isn't necessarily the way he teaches, it's just the lack of difficulty provided in homework problems that makes everything seem harder. For example, the group quizzes are hard (so hard he had to make them easier), but after talking it out with a TA or the professor, most people I know are were able to do those problems and similar problems again. If we had more of these harder examples, the exams wouldn't have seemed so extreme, and the average probably would have been higher than an F. The homework on the other hand, is ridiculously easy and led many people, including myself, to underestimate the exam. Also, the exams - while being difficult - are multiple choice. In my opinion, this makes a better tradeoff for the difficulty of the exam, as you have a chance to guess if you have no clue what to do. However, some free response would have been nice for more partial credit (he said this was hard to do due to the nature of grading). Finally, my biggest gripe with the class is the question at the end of the exam that asks you to guess what score you got, and answers outside the margin of error will deduct four percent from your grade. I think the idea of making students think about the effort they put into the test is a fair idea but docking points like that on a test - especially a multiple choice one where people guess - is unfair. Maybe just add extra points or something. As for the final grade, there is a massive curve (I went from a C to an A-) which helps, as Yoshida often talks about it being more important that we learn from our mistakes instead of making easier tests. The professor himself is also a wonderful person, which is why I felt the need to write something a little more positive. He is often prompt when responding to emails and was always respectful to me. He is also very active with the class and has great demos. All in all, the class is a massive headache, but Yoshida is a good guy to go through that headache with.

Professor Yoshida was a very nice and kind man. He did demonstrations in class that were engaging and funny. Although everyone complained very much about the low test grades and how terrible the tests were, which is true, Professor Yoshida was very generous with the final curve and I had no issue with the grades. For reference, I scored 35% and 40% on both of my midterms and a 40% on my final, and I still ended with an A- as my final grade. And I came from zero physics experience and do not consider myself to be good at physics in any form, and yet I still ended with an A. As long as you go to TA office hours, I felt as though this class ended up being very manageable and I really appreciated how kind Professor Yoshida was. He remembers all of his students and does care about them, and he would say hi to me when I see him around grounds, even when I had never directly engaged with him before.

Ignore all the hate comments, i got 50s and 60s on every exam and ended with an A its really not that deep ngl