PHYS402 | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Victor Galitski PHYS402 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/22/2024	Interesting and considerate guy, seems to enjoy teaching. Responds to questions in a kind of odd way, maybe a cultural thing. Very good about making sure students are prepared for the exams (doing review sessions and whatnot).
Victor Galitski PHYS402 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/19/2024	Professor Galitski is a okay professor, but I don’t think I could recommend him. The course structure as a whole was very well laid out. There were three lectures a week as well as a discussion section. Quizzes were given out during discussions every other week, and the alternating weeks had a worksheet that the TA would go over. The course also had two TAs. There was a healthy balance between grade weighting for exams, homework, and quizzes. The final was also made optional. This allowed for me to do quite well in the class despite struggling with understanding a few topics. The main problem with the course was lectures themselves. The professor would go through countless derivations in class without really getting into the reasoning for doing so. These derivations were also free-handed so we often had to make corrections to our notes when he made mistakes. His lectures would have immensely benefited from him reading from his notes more often instead of trying to do everything off the top of his head. This made understanding some topics or their relevance difficult. Despite lecture difficulties, the professor did do his best to make the class manageable outside of it. We didn’t have too many homeworks, and they all were manageable. Additionally, for quizzes and exams, a list of the relevant topics was provided. I personally had difficulties with the professor in terms of scheduling a make-up midterm where contact over email was a struggle, but I’m not sure if that was just a onetime event. Students with a good grasp of quantum topics will do well in his class given its structure. People who struggle more with quantum may want to invest in tutoring or visiting office hours to ensure the content taught in lecture is explained in more detail.
Theodore Jacobson PHYS402 Expecting an A Anonymous 02/22/2024	Professor Jacobson has a very good approach to PHYS402. In my personal experience, the course was well taught at a perfect level of difficulty. The material we were taught was very relevant to modern research. The only thing that I was not a fan of was he skipped certain important topics like Bloch's theorem and scattering theory.
Ian Appelbaum PHYS402 HyperFine 11/20/2014	One of the best physics lecturers I had: 1)extremely thorough and clear presentation of QM, with lecture notes posted; 2)put effort into designing the course, supplementing Griffiths' textbook with his own derivations which are often more insightful; 3)challenging but well-written homework problems focusing on physics concepts. That being said, he held (perhaps righteously) high standards for his students therefore gave difficult exams. But, even when the problem seemed really hard, you could manage to solve it if you followed and understood all his lecture notes (which I should have done but didn't). I definitely learned a lot in his class and did not regret taking him. It's not an easy ride, but neither is QM.
Ian Appelbaum PHYS402 Expecting a B Anonymous 11/20/2014	Probably the worst professor I've ever had. He had unrealistic expectations of the students, a monotonous classroom experience, and did not provide nearly enough support to his students. His exams were purposeful attempts to fool students, a fact of his teaching strategy that he shared with us. Moreover, he made me really dislike QM, something I would have thought impossible. Avoid at all costs.
Steven Rolston PHYS402 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/27/2010	Definitely the best undergrad physics teacher I have had yet. Tests were hard, yes, but they were either open book or take home. hes also the director of the JQI (joint quantum institute), meaning he really knows his stuff.
Victor Yakovenko PHYS402 Anonymous 05/30/2010	Yakovenko is one of the better professors in the physics department, probably the second best physics prof. I have had after Hall. He lectures directly from the book, but I think his lectures are informative and helpful even though many people decided to skip them. His grading scheme is also very unique: 50% homework and 50% tests, and there are two tests, each counting 25%. He does assign a lot of homework though, and it is difficult, although the problems are not his own but are from the book. He sometimes makes up additional parts to questions which are pretty straightforward. Tests were impossible, however. I think the averages were below 50%. The curve at the end of the semester was something like above 70% weighted homework and tests was an A. I would recommend taking a class with Yakovenko, because he is one of the better lecturers in the department and the grading scheme really rewards those who work hard on their homework. You end up learning a lot in the class.
Victor Yakovenko PHYS402 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 04/29/2010	Yakovenko is a instantly likeable professor. He's funny, smart, and he's definitely effective at communicating the material. He has a habit of dropping constants in equations, which is okay, but you will need to include them in the homework or lose points. Of course, the first couple of times he does it, he re-introduces them at the end, so you kind of learn to do it yourself. He adapted the course structure to the students' incoming knowledge very well, he answered any questions directly (though he sometimes missed the point of a question), and he rapidly responded to any questions you might email him. I personally had an incident where I was sick and emailed him asking if I could scan my homework and email to him. He said I could and said he would give it to the TA. The next week, it turned out that the TA never got my homework, and Yakovenko said that he was not a conduit to the TA and that he hadn't agreed to give the TA my homework, that I would have to go directly to the TA. I double checked the email, and I wasn't making up our conversation, so I was a little peeved. I gave the homework to the TA and it didn't get marked down for lateness though, so from a practical standpoint there wasn't really a problem. In the end, I am looking forward to having Yakovenko as a professor again in PHYS404, which I guess says more than the rest of this review.
Steven Anlage PHYS402 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/27/2008	I'd heard a lot of really bad things about Anlage before taking the class, and was really nervous. However, he's actually a great physics professor. His weekly homeworks force you to learn the material, and learn it well, and his tests were a good level of challenge without being incomprehensible. He offered extra office hours to those who needed them, which I heard were very helpful. He can go fast and sometimes explanations aren't the best, but the text fills in any blanks quite nicely.

Victor Galitski
PHYS402

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/22/2024

Interesting and considerate guy, seems to enjoy teaching. Responds to questions in a kind of odd way, maybe a cultural thing. Very good about making sure students are prepared for the exams (doing review sessions and whatnot).

Victor Galitski
PHYS402

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/19/2024

Professor Galitski is a okay professor, but I don’t think I could recommend him. The course structure as a whole was very well laid out. There were three lectures a week as well as a discussion section. Quizzes were given out during discussions every other week, and the alternating weeks had a worksheet that the TA would go over. The course also had two TAs. There was a healthy balance between grade weighting for exams, homework, and quizzes. The final was also made optional. This allowed for me to do quite well in the class despite struggling with understanding a few topics. The main problem with the course was lectures themselves. The professor would go through countless derivations in class without really getting into the reasoning for doing so. These derivations were also free-handed so we often had to make corrections to our notes when he made mistakes. His lectures would have immensely benefited from him reading from his notes more often instead of trying to do everything off the top of his head. This made understanding some topics or their relevance difficult. Despite lecture difficulties, the professor did do his best to make the class manageable outside of it. We didn’t have too many homeworks, and they all were manageable. Additionally, for quizzes and exams, a list of the relevant topics was provided. I personally had difficulties with the professor in terms of scheduling a make-up midterm where contact over email was a struggle, but I’m not sure if that was just a onetime event. Students with a good grasp of quantum topics will do well in his class given its structure. People who struggle more with quantum may want to invest in tutoring or visiting office hours to ensure the content taught in lecture is explained in more detail.

Theodore Jacobson
PHYS402

Expecting an A
Anonymous
02/22/2024

Professor Jacobson has a very good approach to PHYS402. In my personal experience, the course was well taught at a perfect level of difficulty. The material we were taught was very relevant to modern research. The only thing that I was not a fan of was he skipped certain important topics like Bloch's theorem and scattering theory.

Ian Appelbaum
PHYS402

HyperFine
11/20/2014

One of the best physics lecturers I had: 1)extremely thorough and clear presentation of QM, with lecture notes posted; 2)put effort into designing the course, supplementing Griffiths' textbook with his own derivations which are often more insightful; 3)challenging but well-written homework problems focusing on physics concepts. That being said, he held (perhaps righteously) high standards for his students therefore gave difficult exams. But, even when the problem seemed really hard, you could manage to solve it if you followed and understood all his lecture notes (which I should have done but didn't). I definitely learned a lot in his class and did not regret taking him. It's not an easy ride, but neither is QM.

Ian Appelbaum
PHYS402

Expecting a B
Anonymous
11/20/2014

Probably the worst professor I've ever had. He had unrealistic expectations of the students, a monotonous classroom experience, and did not provide nearly enough support to his students. His exams were purposeful attempts to fool students, a fact of his teaching strategy that he shared with us. Moreover, he made me really dislike QM, something I would have thought impossible. Avoid at all costs.

Steven Rolston
PHYS402

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
12/27/2010

Definitely the best undergrad physics teacher I have had yet. Tests were hard, yes, but they were either open book or take home. hes also the director of the JQI (joint quantum institute), meaning he really knows his stuff.

Victor Yakovenko
PHYS402

Anonymous
05/30/2010

Yakovenko is one of the better professors in the physics department, probably the second best physics prof. I have had after Hall. He lectures directly from the book, but I think his lectures are informative and helpful even though many people decided to skip them. His grading scheme is also very unique: 50% homework and 50% tests, and there are two tests, each counting 25%. He does assign a lot of homework though, and it is difficult, although the problems are not his own but are from the book. He sometimes makes up additional parts to questions which are pretty straightforward. Tests were impossible, however. I think the averages were below 50%. The curve at the end of the semester was something like above 70% weighted homework and tests was an A. I would recommend taking a class with Yakovenko, because he is one of the better lecturers in the department and the grading scheme really rewards those who work hard on their homework. You end up learning a lot in the class.

Victor Yakovenko
PHYS402

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
04/29/2010

Yakovenko is a instantly likeable professor. He's funny, smart, and he's definitely effective at communicating the material. He has a habit of dropping constants in equations, which is okay, but you will need to include them in the homework or lose points. Of course, the first couple of times he does it, he re-introduces them at the end, so you kind of learn to do it yourself. He adapted the course structure to the students' incoming knowledge very well, he answered any questions directly (though he sometimes missed the point of a question), and he rapidly responded to any questions you might email him. I personally had an incident where I was sick and emailed him asking if I could scan my homework and email to him. He said I could and said he would give it to the TA. The next week, it turned out that the TA never got my homework, and Yakovenko said that he was not a conduit to the TA and that he hadn't agreed to give the TA my homework, that I would have to go directly to the TA. I double checked the email, and I wasn't making up our conversation, so I was a little peeved. I gave the homework to the TA and it didn't get marked down for lateness though, so from a practical standpoint there wasn't really a problem. In the end, I am looking forward to having Yakovenko as a professor again in PHYS404, which I guess says more than the rest of this review.

Steven Anlage
PHYS402

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/27/2008

I'd heard a lot of really bad things about Anlage before taking the class, and was really nervous. However, he's actually a great physics professor. His weekly homeworks force you to learn the material, and learn it well, and his tests were a good level of challenge without being incomprehensible. He offered extra office hours to those who needed them, which I heard were very helpful. He can go fast and sometimes explanations aren't the best, but the text fills in any blanks quite nicely.

Reviews for PHYS402