You won't actually see Maksim, the class will be taught by TAs who are usually nice but not always helpful. This class is a lot of work for 1 credit and not a class you take for fun. Timed quizzes every week or two were the bane of my existence. Lab reports also depend on your grading TA and my group would seemingly get 18/20 or 14/20 for the similar efforts put forth and points were taken off for very minor things. This semester, an A was > 93.5 and an A- > 89.5. I barely got an A- but will be taking CR. Don't leave writing lab reports until the day they are due. Also DO NOT take the Wednesday 6:00 pm lab if you are taking PHYS 1425 because you will have a 2-hour lab then a test right after, which while doable, is not idea in the least. This class is very stressful for no good reason.
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4This 1-credit lab runs entirely on student groups and TA guidance, with the professor remaining completely absent from day-to-day instruction. While earlier semesters were notorious for exhausting lab reports and unpredictable, nitpicky grading, recent restructuring has streamlined the workload into straightforward weekly prelabs and postlabs. Your success heavily depends on landing a cooperative group that efficiently divides responsibilities and taking full advantage of TA office hours to clarify ambiguous prompts or assignment platforms. Treat it as a mandatory, slightly tedious requirement, lock in your group roles early, and you will clear the class without it consuming your schedule.
33 Reviews
This class is extremely difficult for the one credit it is worth. There are so many different assignments to keep track of, including prelabs, inlabs, and postlabs. The lab reports are very difficult to do well on, and your grades are entirely dependent on the ta you get. Just hope you get a good group to work with and have a routine of who does which part of the lab report.
I've only seen Prof Bychkov a handful of times, but the TAs who ran the lab were both really nice and always helpful (shoutouts to omar and katie). The lab is very structured and you do all your work in a group, so the people in that group basically make or break your semester. I've heard they made the class more manageable for my year, and I gotta agree, but I still think it's way too much work for just 1 credit.