PHYS 1429

Absolutely awful class. Spend a good 1/3 of my total work hours outside of class on this one credit class. If you want an A, chances are you're going to have to write the entire lab report, as your group will probably be awful. You will have to make the decision: Have them help out with the lab report and write their sections and get a low grade, or do it all yourself for an A. I chose the latter; tough, probably not worth it to be honest. If you get a bad group, you'll have to weather the storm for 3 weeks and then maybe, just maybe, you'll get someone competent in your group. This class is a huge waste of time. The TA's are great though. TLDR; don't take this class if you don't need to, and if you do, be ready to spend 3+ hours cooking up a lab report every week.

This class is way too much work for just one credit. There's a report due each week that is graded super unfairly. On top of that, some of the post-lab quizzes can be incredibly challenging and won't test the material covered in lab. The TA's that ran the lab itself were very helpful, but the TA's grading the lab reports were very strict and didn't offer helpful feedback as to why they took off points. Don't take this class unless you have to.

It was nice that we knew what to expect each week of lab since it was the same. That's about all that was good about this course. First of all, this is way too much work for a 1 credit class. TA's vary for each section and you can get stuck with TA's who always run out of time and you never have sufficient data to do the lab report. I also think it is unfair since your TA's aren't even the ones who are grading the lab reports, so what your TAs tell you can be completely different from what the grader TAs are looking for. Prelabs are easy -- make sure you get 100% on those as it will give you a buffer for later. Postlab quizzes, some are bad some are easy. Definitely recommend getting a group together at the beginning of the semester to do them with (also just learn error propagation it will make your life so much easier). The final lab quiz was especially a killer and I think its ridiculous that it was assigned. Lab write ups are just a constant nagging assignment to do. It is supposed to be a group lab report so split it up in whatever way works best. It really depends if you get a good lab group or not. Luckily I had a good lab group and we didn't change all semester, but I know a lot of my friends struggled with people not pulling their weight. This lab is really just something that everybody has to do for a prereq and it sucks but you just have to get through it.

The lab kind of sucks, but I really liked my TA's and my lab group. The pre-lab quizzes are easy, the post-lab quizzes are hard but definitely doable with another person, and lab reports are entirely dependent on the graders. I knew people who had much better lab reports than my lab group had, but our grader still gave us better grades. If you put the time in, an A- isn't too difficult to get.

Physics lab isn't fun, and it's a lot of work for a one-credit course. There are three parts to each week of lab: a prelab, which is easy, untimed, low-stress, not too bad overall; a postlab quiz, which I can only assume is a manifestation of years of Maxim's suppressed anger that he projects onto his students by making them hate physics as much as he hates his job; and the lab report itself, which isn't bad as long as your group is competent. The labs are long and confusing, but the TAs are helpful so don't be afraid to ask them questions when you need help. The reports themselves are graded based on really weird and arbitrary criteria, so it's tough to do well on them regardless of how hard you work on it--honestly, my advice is to just be satisfied with an 80-85 on the labs and try to make up the points on other assignments.