PHYS 2020

This class was pretty much like every other physics II class you'd take. Not too enjoyable because of what it is, and not necessarily because of the professor.

It was hard to take this class during COVID. I can't say all that much about Prof. Shivaram because I don't think I paid attention for at least half of the course. I literally taught myself at least half the course because I could not pay attention at all during lecture. He went over information really quickly during lecture, which was fine for some of the beginning chapters of the course which are really basic and require you to be able to plug values into equations. But once you get to some of the more complex things that involve more than a basic understanding, it gets difficult to follow. There were a few times when he would be muted or not share his screen, which could make learning difficult. Felt kind of bad because only 13 out of >100 people would show up to class and he would occasionally shout "hello?" into the void to see if we understood things, but we never did :( Tests seemed kind of fair. I got one wrong between both of the midterms after teaching myself the material, so if you can teach yourself then you're good to go in this class. The curve is still TBD (even though we're almost a week past the final), but I've heard it's supposed to be fairly generous.

Exams had errors in them, which was a pain in the neck. But that was not always Shivaram's fault, since both professors (PQ and Shivaram) made them. Overall, if this class had not been online, if the material was not taught way too fast, and if I actually liked physics, this class could have been good. But I think that's how physics classes are in general, unless you're blessed with a really great teacher who cares a lot about teaching and student engagement.

TL,DR: If you're good at teaching yourself, take this class, because that's really the best way to learn from this course.

#tCFspring2021
Would not recommend. I took this class online (during covid) and it was awful. While the lectures can sometimes be helpful (as the book is often wrong), they are very vague and do not explain much. He tried to make it easier to follow this semester. His exams are impossible; there are so many mistakes in Webassign and the other section gets more time which he does not allow. You also will not have an idea of what your grade is until the end because he says he curves based on the rest of the class. You have to read the textbook (which is wrong towards the end) and self-study a lot.

This was one of the worst classes I have taken at UVa. Prof. Shivaram, although a nice enough guy, was just a completely ineffective teacher - his lectures often reviewed pointless material, the Clicker questions were just a guessing game, and he constantly glossed over information that the class obviously did not understand. It should be noted that you need to make your own equation sheets for the exams, which really sucks when the Professor doesn't teach many of the equations that end up showing up on the tests. After the first exam, I began to completely ignore Shivaram's powerpoints, and a friend sent me the slides from Lindgren's class. All of the sections of the course take the same test, so Lindgren's sections were always better prepared due to his slides addressing all of the information that would show up on the exams. The only reason anyone actually went to class was for the useless Clicker questions; I managed to squeak out an A (after bombing the first test) by switching over to Lindgren's slides and self-studying, which I would recommend to anyone forced to take Shivaram's section.

First off, be prepared for a lot of self study. The professor was not that much of a help and the lectures were really of no use. Still attend the lectures though because Shivaram actually has clicker questions most of the time. Overall, though, I found myself doing a lot more work on my own outside of class in which I had to teach myself nearly all of the material. Only take this class if you are pre-med or pre-dental, otherwise, there is no need for you to suffer through this class. There are four exams (of which the last one is the final) and the first 3 exams make up 45% of your grade and the final is 35% (and cumulative). Make sure to do well on the final, and it may help to review the practice exams they give you before each exam as well as the previous exams that you had earlier in the semester. If you really want to do well in the class make sure you practice the problems in the textbook and make sure you know how to do each and everyone of the exam questions that the professors have given in the practice and actual exams.

Lectures were kind of pointless although Professor Shivaram showed us cool stuff. Clickers was basically all guessing. The exams were really tough and we always did 10 points worse on average than the other sections. Final exam was also bad but the class is curved to a B/B-. Just try to do mediocre on the first few exams and then try to ace the final because it is worth 35% of your grade (first 3 sum to 45% of your grade).