PHYS373 | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Shahriar Keshvari PHYS373 Expecting an A- Anonymous 11/15/2024	The absolute worst TA i have ever had, some people had entire sections of their test left uncorrected and he was extremely ungenerous with how much time he would offer for regrade requests, only allocating a single 2 hour timeslot for our second midterm where he would go through regrades. woat
Alexander Philippov PHYS373 Expecting an A- Anonymous 11/15/2024	Extremely knowledgeable guy but this course is just terrible, take the math equivalent (2 sem sequence 246 - 462/463) you will actually learn things. Gives extra credits on HW which saved my grade but straight up lied about a curve. TLDR dont take it with this guy its easy as he tells you what will be on the exams but you will learn absolutely nothing
Alexander Philippov PHYS373 Expecting a B- Anonymous 05/11/2024	This class can be a mixed bag. Professor Phillipov is a very kind, understanding guy who does seem to care about his students. That being said, he is not the best at teaching. I often times found myself very confused about content covered in lecture. Things that were explained very simply in the textbook were often met with a lot of head scratching and confused looks in class. Exams can also be a mixed bag- he very explicitly tells you what concepts the questions on the exam will be based on (which is very nice). Sometimes it felt like there was not enough time to reasonably complete midterms. I think an excessive amount of content (Diff Eq., PDE’s, and complex analysis) are covered in this class (but that isn’t the professors fault)
Kaustubh Agashe PHYS373 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/12/2023	Professor Agashe is super nice and cares about his students learning. I was scared going into this class because the material is hard and 85% of the grade is the two exams and the final, but Agashe makes sure students learn the material. He hosts review sessions before exams which are very comprehensive and students know exactly what they will be tested on going into exams. His homework is a reasonable length and grades are posted in a timely manner. His lectures can be boring/overwhelming and I honestly found it more helpful to just study the textbook, but recommend taking 373 with him.
Kaustubh Agashe PHYS373 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/29/2023	I had a good overall experience taking 373 with Agashe. I appreciated how he really seemed to care about students' learning. He posted course updates/announcements frequently, which were often super detailed with answers to just about every question you could have about the course. Above all, I loved how he would hold review sessions before the exams. He would go over exactly the types of problems he would expect you to know, which was helpful with condensing a TON of content down to just several key topics to study. The exams themselves were also completely fair, at least in my opinion. I have just a couple critiques: -Most of the homeworks in this class were LONG and DIFFICULT. The homework problems came from the textbook (which is super outdated and doesn't have many good concrete examples), but some of them were so challenging that I can say for a fact that I never would have been able to figure them out without help. -He wrote on the board a lot, which might sound like a good thing. However, he wrote SO much on the board (you would show up to class on time and all four blackboards would be completely filled with chalk), that it was oversaturation of information. Taking notes was a struggle for me. As a whole, I think Agashe is your best option for 373. I've heard that the course is being done away with anyway, though, so enjoy learning this content in electrostatics!
Kaustubh Agashe PHYS373 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/22/2022	Had a good time taking PHYS373 with Prof. Agashe. He is very lenient with the homework deadlines and lets you submit up to a few days late without notice. He holds a review session before each exam, this really helped people. The exams themselves were not too difficult. Whatever be the case, you need to put in the effort to get a good grade in math methods ii.
Evan Berkowitz PHYS373 Anonymous 04/29/2021	He's a great teacher who will really go out of his way to make sure you understand everything. Probably the most understanding professor I've ever had (gave us multiple hw extensions when we had exams in 371). The only complaint I might have is that his problem sets are fairly time consuming and require some programming knowledge.
Zackaria Chacko PHYS373 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/21/2021	Dr. Chacko gets a bad rap, but he's a pretty good professor. He was a bit rough but was extremely open to changing styles when requested by the students, and jumped through hoops to make this class easier on us. The TA we had was honestly much less helpful than he was. The exams are hard sometimes but the curve made up for them with no problem.
Zackaria Chacko PHYS373 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 01/13/2021	Definitely avoid taking him if you can. I know that teaching math online is a pain for the teacher, but his class was extremely unhelpful. I don't think the fault is his completely, as I believe that math classes should be taught by math professors, not physics ones. His tests were super hard, but at least he made them open everything during the pandemic. Brace yourself for 40% averages, but a huge curve at the end of the semester. And pray that you get a better TA than we did.
Zackaria Chacko PHYS373 Anonymous 01/09/2021	Dr. Chacko is a good professor and a decent teacher, but he expects a lot from his students. I felt that his exams were fair but definitely difficult. He was open to class criticisms and advice and actually improved based on what we said which was nice. The lectures were at times a bit dry and sometimes he could come off as a bit impatient or even rude, but I dont think he means to be. I just think he holds his students to a high standard, and really cares that we reach it
Zackaria Chacko PHYS373 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 01/30/2020	Dr Chacko a rude and unhelpful professor. He expected us to know much of the material before taking the course. He would often ask the class a question that nobody new the answer to, then spend the next 10 minutes of class time waiting for somebody to guess the right answer rather than teaching. Additionally, when nobody knew the answer to the question, he would tell us its "pathetic" that we don't know, and remind us that we "weren't trained properly". In terms of teaching ability, he was average at best; he got the material across, but could do better. He did little more than write out examples from the book. Do not take a class with Chacko if you can avoid it. He will insult your intelligence every chance he gets, and other professors can teach the material just as well if not better.

Shahriar Keshvari
PHYS373

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
11/15/2024

The absolute worst TA i have ever had, some people had entire sections of their test left uncorrected and he was extremely ungenerous with how much time he would offer for regrade requests, only allocating a single 2 hour timeslot for our second midterm where he would go through regrades. woat

Alexander Philippov
PHYS373

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
11/15/2024

Extremely knowledgeable guy but this course is just terrible, take the math equivalent (2 sem sequence 246 - 462/463) you will actually learn things. Gives extra credits on HW which saved my grade but straight up lied about a curve. TLDR dont take it with this guy its easy as he tells you what will be on the exams but you will learn absolutely nothing

Alexander Philippov
PHYS373

Expecting a B-
Anonymous
05/11/2024

This class can be a mixed bag. Professor Phillipov is a very kind, understanding guy who does seem to care about his students. That being said, he is not the best at teaching. I often times found myself very confused about content covered in lecture. Things that were explained very simply in the textbook were often met with a lot of head scratching and confused looks in class. Exams can also be a mixed bag- he very explicitly tells you what concepts the questions on the exam will be based on (which is very nice). Sometimes it felt like there was not enough time to reasonably complete midterms. I think an excessive amount of content (Diff Eq., PDE’s, and complex analysis) are covered in this class (but that isn’t the professors fault)

Kaustubh Agashe
PHYS373

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/12/2023

Professor Agashe is super nice and cares about his students learning. I was scared going into this class because the material is hard and 85% of the grade is the two exams and the final, but Agashe makes sure students learn the material. He hosts review sessions before exams which are very comprehensive and students know exactly what they will be tested on going into exams. His homework is a reasonable length and grades are posted in a timely manner. His lectures can be boring/overwhelming and I honestly found it more helpful to just study the textbook, but recommend taking 373 with him.

Kaustubh Agashe
PHYS373

Expecting an A
Anonymous
11/29/2023

I had a good overall experience taking 373 with Agashe. I appreciated how he really seemed to care about students' learning. He posted course updates/announcements frequently, which were often super detailed with answers to just about every question you could have about the course. Above all, I loved how he would hold review sessions before the exams. He would go over exactly the types of problems he would expect you to know, which was helpful with condensing a TON of content down to just several key topics to study. The exams themselves were also completely fair, at least in my opinion. I have just a couple critiques: -Most of the homeworks in this class were LONG and DIFFICULT. The homework problems came from the textbook (which is super outdated and doesn't have many good concrete examples), but some of them were so challenging that I can say for a fact that I never would have been able to figure them out without help. -He wrote on the board a lot, which might sound like a good thing. However, he wrote SO much on the board (you would show up to class on time and all four blackboards would be completely filled with chalk), that it was oversaturation of information. Taking notes was a struggle for me. As a whole, I think Agashe is your best option for 373. I've heard that the course is being done away with anyway, though, so enjoy learning this content in electrostatics!

Kaustubh Agashe
PHYS373

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/22/2022

Had a good time taking PHYS373 with Prof. Agashe. He is very lenient with the homework deadlines and lets you submit up to a few days late without notice. He holds a review session before each exam, this really helped people. The exams themselves were not too difficult. Whatever be the case, you need to put in the effort to get a good grade in math methods ii.

Evan Berkowitz
PHYS373

Anonymous
04/29/2021

He's a great teacher who will really go out of his way to make sure you understand everything. Probably the most understanding professor I've ever had (gave us multiple hw extensions when we had exams in 371). The only complaint I might have is that his problem sets are fairly time consuming and require some programming knowledge.

Zackaria Chacko
PHYS373

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/21/2021

Dr. Chacko gets a bad rap, but he's a pretty good professor. He was a bit rough but was extremely open to changing styles when requested by the students, and jumped through hoops to make this class easier on us. The TA we had was honestly much less helpful than he was. The exams are hard sometimes but the curve made up for them with no problem.

Zackaria Chacko
PHYS373

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
01/13/2021

Definitely avoid taking him if you can. I know that teaching math online is a pain for the teacher, but his class was extremely unhelpful. I don't think the fault is his completely, as I believe that math classes should be taught by math professors, not physics ones. His tests were super hard, but at least he made them open everything during the pandemic. Brace yourself for 40% averages, but a huge curve at the end of the semester. And pray that you get a better TA than we did.

Zackaria Chacko
PHYS373

Anonymous
01/09/2021

Dr. Chacko is a good professor and a decent teacher, but he expects a lot from his students. I felt that his exams were fair but definitely difficult. He was open to class criticisms and advice and actually improved based on what we said which was nice. The lectures were at times a bit dry and sometimes he could come off as a bit impatient or even rude, but I dont think he means to be. I just think he holds his students to a high standard, and really cares that we reach it

Zackaria Chacko
PHYS373

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
01/30/2020

Dr Chacko a rude and unhelpful professor. He expected us to know much of the material before taking the course. He would often ask the class a question that nobody new the answer to, then spend the next 10 minutes of class time waiting for somebody to guess the right answer rather than teaching. Additionally, when nobody knew the answer to the question, he would tell us its "pathetic" that we don't know, and remind us that we "weren't trained properly". In terms of teaching ability, he was average at best; he got the material across, but could do better. He did little more than write out examples from the book. Do not take a class with Chacko if you can avoid it. He will insult your intelligence every chance he gets, and other professors can teach the material just as well if not better.

Reviews for PHYS373