PHYS410 | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Maissam Barkeshli PHYS410 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/22/2024	Teaches straight from the book, hardly ever deviates. Homeworks are a bit long but just textbook problems. Exams are generally fair but hard and sometimes tricky. Not the most approachable or warm personality but generally receptive if you do ask or talk about things. Teaching is very obviously a chore for him but he doesn't resent students
Maissam Barkeshli PHYS410 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 05/19/2024	Professor Barkeshli is an incredibly difficult professor who I would not recommend to others. For PHYS410, his lectures were taken directly from the textbook with little inspiration or difference. His examples and lessons were taken straight from the book, often to an annoying level of reading off direct quotes. Many students often didn’t attend lecture since the content was better taught from the textbook. The homeworks did not align with content taught in class, often forcing students to spend hours self teaching themselves in order to understand how to approach them. A similar case was true for exams. It seemed as if the exams and homeworks were from previous years with no updating or checking to see with how they matched the current year. As a person, he is relatively personable and made some jokes in class. However, I’ve heard from others that they had immense difficulty with scheduling exams around holidays and absences, so that is something to keep in mind.
Peter Shawhan PHYS410 Expecting an A Anonymous 06/15/2023	One of the best professors the physics dept has. If you can take him for a course, don't think twice. He is very accommodative, the exams are perfect level of difficulty and he tries to cover all the relevant topics in the right order. He also has a very good distribution of grades.
Peter Shawhan PHYS410 Anonymous 05/12/2023	Truly, one of the best professors I have had for a course. No complaints, no regrets, makes the class fun with all the demos and also really cares about the students learning. Take him for at any cost.
Peter Shawhan PHYS410 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/01/2022	I've had Shawhan for 273 and now 410; he is the nicest and most understanding physics professor I've met, and he made my life a lot less stressful. No lie, both of these classes were difficult and took a bit of time, but I'm pretty sure that'd be true regardless of professor. The great thing about Shawhan is that he will work with you and around your schedule to make things work. I was out sick for a week around midterms, when I came back he was really the only professor that was flexible about makeup times, letting me take the midterm 1.5 weeks later and turn in the homework a week late. I'd email him about missing class or something and he'd be actually concerned and wanting to help out; he genuinely cares about his students and wants to see them achieve. He's very organized, records lectures and posts notes, and 410 followed pretty closely with the textbook which made it easier to learn and study outside of class. Homeworks are fair, a lot of practice so sometimes it's a bit tedious just having to do it. He does take attendance ~every other day, but it makes up only 4% of your grade I think. There isn't a lot to say about lectures, if you've made it this far you'll probably get the material (and 410 isn't as bad as other courses like 402); he's an average lecturer but goes through examples in class which is helpful. If it's an intro physics course I can understand the complaints about material going over the head. Overall good professor and love the guy, helped me a ton this semester and I won't forget it
Theodore Jacobson PHYS410 Expecting a B- Anonymous 07/09/2022	I didn't do well because I am. Professor Jacobson is one of the best professors I had. He answers students' questions through piazza almost 7/24, and his lecture is unique and clear. He also gives you notes written by him, basically a textbook. Probably you find it is hard to read, by it is very concise and include everything you need for this subject(just need a full insight to read). is class is very challenging, don't take the class with him if you just want an easy A. But if want to learn some real physics, definitely choose him.
Theodore Jacobson PHYS410 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 06/10/2021	Jacobson gives way too much homework (expect to spend over 7 hours a week if you want to get above a 90), but I honestly thought he did a very good job of explaining the first 2/3rds of the content. Especially when we started going into Hamiltonian Mechanics, I struggled to follow what was going on in the homework and his supplied notes didn't help much. I did very poorly on the final even though I had the 3rd highest grade on the first exam. PHYS410 has a lot of great content by itself, and Jacobson tries to teach all of it and more, never skimping on homework along the way.
Adil Hassam PHYS410 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/24/2020	I took PHYS410 with Hassam during the online fiasco that was Fall 2020. I really enjoyed his class though - his online teaching style is not my favorite (reading from prewritten notes) but his explanations of concepts are very good and his tests are remarkably fair and educational. I found that with his open note tests this semester that I was actively learning new things through his problems while still being able to get good grades. PHYS410 with Hassam is a very stress-free way to take PHYS410 while still walking away from the class with a much better understanding of the subject.
Carter Hall PHYS410 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/11/2014	Dr. Hall is a fantastic teacher. Everything is clear, concise, and on point with what you need to know. He keeps all his lectures and notes in a logical order and there's hardly confusion when reviewing over them again. Homeworks are from the textbook and are generally not too terribly difficult. Exams (take-home this semester) were tough, but doable. He's a bit of an android in terms of emotions or humor, but it's hilarious when he does joke. This is my second semester with him (previously PHYS 273) and I'd, without a doubt, take another class with him.
Steven Anlage PHYS410 Expecting an A Anonymous 08/14/2013	In the interest of full disclosure I am now working for Professor Anlage. That said I took his class before I started working for him and I really liked the class, which is odd for a 400 level physics class. Unlike many (or most) physics teachers, Professor Anlage actually gave a reasonable amount of work. I was pretty much always able to finish the entire homework assignments within a few hours of when I started. Also, he gave one extra credit problem per homework and they were often not difficult. In addition, all of his tests seemed to have a reasonable degree of difficulty. I think all the test problems were fairly interesting and not overly difficult. I think the averages were like 80, 72, and 70 for the 2 midterms and final respectively (my previous physics class had been with Professor Gates and the first test had the cutoff for a B as a 30%). I don't know how much he ended up curving the class but upon checking the grade distribution, I saw that only 2 people in the class got below a C and about 2/3 of the class got A's and B's which seems like a good distribution. That said I didn't think the lectures were overly interesting. One thing I have noticed is that as you get further along in Physics, the Physics becomes more and more abstract. So you really didn't come out of lectures feeling as though you learned anything real. I generally felt that I could solve a problem easily enough, but that problem would probably not have a strong basis in reality. However, one of the best things about Professor Anlage is that he always stayed after class for however long people were there to ask questions. There were several times where I stayed to ask something for over half an hour and he never seemed like he was rushed (unless another class started entering). Tl; dr: Take 410 with him because you will almost definitely pass and you will have a thorough understanding of the material although you may feel as though the material is irrelevant.
Peter Shawhan PHYS410 Anonymous 05/01/2012	I've had Prof. Shawhan for two different courses, PHYS171 and PHYS410, and I can say that he is one my most favorite professor I've had here at Maryland. Contrary to what others have said, his exams reflect the lectures/homework really well. I've never been surprised by one of his exams, but that doesn't mean they aren't difficult. He truly does challenge you to think, and not just mechanically produce an answer. He posts all the notes, which are extremely good by the way, online. Always has tests reviews, weights heavily on homework (which is nice), and truly wants you to understand the material. I feel the people who criticize Prof. Shawhan is because they're bitter about receiving a bad grade in which they probably deserve.
Peter Shawhan PHYS410 Anonymous 04/20/2012	Professor Shawhan is pretty good at explaining concepts, has great lecture slides that he writes into a pdf program as he projects it during class, and is quite genuinely EXTREMELY nice. I almost gave a rating of a 4 simply because his lecturing style could still use a bit of work--entertaining student questions is usually good, but occasionally he lets a student go on too long or spends too much time on a small detail. Also, since what he writes into the program he later posts, he tries to be careful about his spelling/etc., which probably takes a minute or two cumulative out of every 50 minute lecture, but not exactly a big deal, so I decided it didn't merit a lower rating.
Zackaria Chacko PHYS410 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/02/2010	Chacko's grading scheme is pretty fair. If you attain maximum points on the homework (14 assignments worth 2 points each, maximum points to earn is 20), get the one homework question completely correct on the midterm, and both homework questions completely correct on the final, then you get a C. He makes it clear from the get-go that getting an A is not an easy task. That said, if you work hard on the homework, it'll probably carry over the midterm. I felt like I did terribly on the midterm, maybe getting a C but bracing for worse, but I ended up getting an A. He engages the students in questioning during lecture to keep them active in coming up with physical reasoning or making observations about physical systems that lead to the course content he wants to deliver. His examples, while right out of the book, were still very helpful and usually presented with much more clarity than in the text. I think I learned more in this class than any other physics class I've had up to this point (and there are still things I should go back to review!). (And don't get me wrong - while I worked hard and think I should go back and study even more, I'm not an exemplary student. When Chacko said we should be working extra problems from the text, even should be reading the text, and said we should be reading extra textbooks, I was mildly terrified that that was what was expected of me if I was to ever succeed in physics. I mean, when do I get the time to do all this stuff? I think if you have good attention to the physics of classical systems, and good intuition about how systems should behave, then you'll do fine.)
Peter Shawhan PHYS410 Anonymous 05/19/2010	Shawhan is a professor that I would recommend avoiding, especially if you are hoping to get an A in the class. While he does curve, it is not the most generous curve. He assigns a LOT of homework, and it is rather difficult to do it since he doesn't do a very good job presenting the material. He is a really nice guy though, and he will often give extensions on assignments if you simply ask for it. This does not make up for the fact that he is awful at presenting material, assigns a lot of homework, and writes very difficult exams because he does not do a good job of assessing the difficulty of his assignments.
Zackaria Chacko PHYS410 Expecting a B Anonymous 11/17/2009	Thinking about taking 410 with Dr. Chacko? Here's what will probably happen to you if you're like most people in the class right now: -You'll spend a lot of time working some tough homework problems -As a result, you'll have gained a lot of knowledge which may be personally gratifying -Then you'll take his exam -After the exam you'll feel like an incompetent idiot who has not learned anything Dr. Chacko is very likeable, and more than anything I respect the man because he's undoubtedly a genius. His lectures mainly follow the book, but he also adds in tidbits here and there that I think will be very useful. And you can tell that he really cares about preparing students for graduate-level classes. What I didn't like is that there are only two exams (a midterm and a final) which together make up 90% of the grade. And the exams are hard! Knowing all the material extremely well will get you about half the points on an exam. Don't bother telling him his tests are hard either, because he'll just chuckle and say, "I thought it was easy." I expect there will be a curve, though. Overall, the class has been great, and who cares about the grade you get as long as you learn something, right?

Maissam Barkeshli
PHYS410

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/22/2024

Teaches straight from the book, hardly ever deviates. Homeworks are a bit long but just textbook problems. Exams are generally fair but hard and sometimes tricky. Not the most approachable or warm personality but generally receptive if you do ask or talk about things. Teaching is very obviously a chore for him but he doesn't resent students

Maissam Barkeshli
PHYS410

Expecting a C+
Anonymous
05/19/2024

Professor Barkeshli is an incredibly difficult professor who I would not recommend to others. For PHYS410, his lectures were taken directly from the textbook with little inspiration or difference. His examples and lessons were taken straight from the book, often to an annoying level of reading off direct quotes. Many students often didn’t attend lecture since the content was better taught from the textbook. The homeworks did not align with content taught in class, often forcing students to spend hours self teaching themselves in order to understand how to approach them. A similar case was true for exams. It seemed as if the exams and homeworks were from previous years with no updating or checking to see with how they matched the current year. As a person, he is relatively personable and made some jokes in class. However, I’ve heard from others that they had immense difficulty with scheduling exams around holidays and absences, so that is something to keep in mind.

Peter Shawhan
PHYS410

Expecting an A
Anonymous
06/15/2023

One of the best professors the physics dept has. If you can take him for a course, don't think twice. He is very accommodative, the exams are perfect level of difficulty and he tries to cover all the relevant topics in the right order. He also has a very good distribution of grades.

Peter Shawhan
PHYS410

Anonymous
05/12/2023

Truly, one of the best professors I have had for a course. No complaints, no regrets, makes the class fun with all the demos and also really cares about the students learning. Take him for at any cost.

Peter Shawhan
PHYS410

Expecting an A
Anonymous
11/01/2022

I've had Shawhan for 273 and now 410; he is the nicest and most understanding physics professor I've met, and he made my life a lot less stressful. No lie, both of these classes were difficult and took a bit of time, but I'm pretty sure that'd be true regardless of professor. The great thing about Shawhan is that he will work with you and around your schedule to make things work. I was out sick for a week around midterms, when I came back he was really the only professor that was flexible about makeup times, letting me take the midterm 1.5 weeks later and turn in the homework a week late. I'd email him about missing class or something and he'd be actually concerned and wanting to help out; he genuinely cares about his students and wants to see them achieve. He's very organized, records lectures and posts notes, and 410 followed pretty closely with the textbook which made it easier to learn and study outside of class. Homeworks are fair, a lot of practice so sometimes it's a bit tedious just having to do it. He does take attendance ~every other day, but it makes up only 4% of your grade I think. There isn't a lot to say about lectures, if you've made it this far you'll probably get the material (and 410 isn't as bad as other courses like 402); he's an average lecturer but goes through examples in class which is helpful. If it's an intro physics course I can understand the complaints about material going over the head. Overall good professor and love the guy, helped me a ton this semester and I won't forget it

Theodore Jacobson
PHYS410

Expecting a B-
Anonymous
07/09/2022

I didn't do well because I am. Professor Jacobson is one of the best professors I had. He answers students' questions through piazza almost 7/24, and his lecture is unique and clear. He also gives you notes written by him, basically a textbook. Probably you find it is hard to read, by it is very concise and include everything you need for this subject(just need a full insight to read). is class is very challenging, don't take the class with him if you just want an easy A. But if want to learn some real physics, definitely choose him.

Theodore Jacobson
PHYS410

Expecting a C+
Anonymous
06/10/2021

Jacobson gives way too much homework (expect to spend over 7 hours a week if you want to get above a 90), but I honestly thought he did a very good job of explaining the first 2/3rds of the content. Especially when we started going into Hamiltonian Mechanics, I struggled to follow what was going on in the homework and his supplied notes didn't help much. I did very poorly on the final even though I had the 3rd highest grade on the first exam. PHYS410 has a lot of great content by itself, and Jacobson tries to teach all of it and more, never skimping on homework along the way.

Adil Hassam
PHYS410

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/24/2020

I took PHYS410 with Hassam during the online fiasco that was Fall 2020. I really enjoyed his class though - his online teaching style is not my favorite (reading from prewritten notes) but his explanations of concepts are very good and his tests are remarkably fair and educational. I found that with his open note tests this semester that I was actively learning new things through his problems while still being able to get good grades. PHYS410 with Hassam is a very stress-free way to take PHYS410 while still walking away from the class with a much better understanding of the subject.

Carter Hall
PHYS410

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/11/2014

Dr. Hall is a fantastic teacher. Everything is clear, concise, and on point with what you need to know. He keeps all his lectures and notes in a logical order and there's hardly confusion when reviewing over them again. Homeworks are from the textbook and are generally not too terribly difficult. Exams (take-home this semester) were tough, but doable. He's a bit of an android in terms of emotions or humor, but it's hilarious when he does joke. This is my second semester with him (previously PHYS 273) and I'd, without a doubt, take another class with him.

Steven Anlage
PHYS410

Expecting an A
Anonymous
08/14/2013

In the interest of full disclosure I am now working for Professor Anlage. That said I took his class before I started working for him and I really liked the class, which is odd for a 400 level physics class. Unlike many (or most) physics teachers, Professor Anlage actually gave a reasonable amount of work. I was pretty much always able to finish the entire homework assignments within a few hours of when I started. Also, he gave one extra credit problem per homework and they were often not difficult. In addition, all of his tests seemed to have a reasonable degree of difficulty. I think all the test problems were fairly interesting and not overly difficult. I think the averages were like 80, 72, and 70 for the 2 midterms and final respectively (my previous physics class had been with Professor Gates and the first test had the cutoff for a B as a 30%). I don't know how much he ended up curving the class but upon checking the grade distribution, I saw that only 2 people in the class got below a C and about 2/3 of the class got A's and B's which seems like a good distribution. That said I didn't think the lectures were overly interesting. One thing I have noticed is that as you get further along in Physics, the Physics becomes more and more abstract. So you really didn't come out of lectures feeling as though you learned anything real. I generally felt that I could solve a problem easily enough, but that problem would probably not have a strong basis in reality. However, one of the best things about Professor Anlage is that he always stayed after class for however long people were there to ask questions. There were several times where I stayed to ask something for over half an hour and he never seemed like he was rushed (unless another class started entering). Tl; dr: Take 410 with him because you will almost definitely pass and you will have a thorough understanding of the material although you may feel as though the material is irrelevant.

Peter Shawhan
PHYS410

Anonymous
05/01/2012

I've had Prof. Shawhan for two different courses, PHYS171 and PHYS410, and I can say that he is one my most favorite professor I've had here at Maryland. Contrary to what others have said, his exams reflect the lectures/homework really well. I've never been surprised by one of his exams, but that doesn't mean they aren't difficult. He truly does challenge you to think, and not just mechanically produce an answer. He posts all the notes, which are extremely good by the way, online. Always has tests reviews, weights heavily on homework (which is nice), and truly wants you to understand the material. I feel the people who criticize Prof. Shawhan is because they're bitter about receiving a bad grade in which they probably deserve.

Peter Shawhan
PHYS410

Anonymous
04/20/2012

Professor Shawhan is pretty good at explaining concepts, has great lecture slides that he writes into a pdf program as he projects it during class, and is quite genuinely EXTREMELY nice. I almost gave a rating of a 4 simply because his lecturing style could still use a bit of work--entertaining student questions is usually good, but occasionally he lets a student go on too long or spends too much time on a small detail. Also, since what he writes into the program he later posts, he tries to be careful about his spelling/etc., which probably takes a minute or two cumulative out of every 50 minute lecture, but not exactly a big deal, so I decided it didn't merit a lower rating.

Zackaria Chacko
PHYS410

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/02/2010

Chacko's grading scheme is pretty fair. If you attain maximum points on the homework (14 assignments worth 2 points each, maximum points to earn is 20), get the one homework question completely correct on the midterm, and both homework questions completely correct on the final, then you get a C. He makes it clear from the get-go that getting an A is not an easy task. That said, if you work hard on the homework, it'll probably carry over the midterm. I felt like I did terribly on the midterm, maybe getting a C but bracing for worse, but I ended up getting an A. He engages the students in questioning during lecture to keep them active in coming up with physical reasoning or making observations about physical systems that lead to the course content he wants to deliver. His examples, while right out of the book, were still very helpful and usually presented with much more clarity than in the text. I think I learned more in this class than any other physics class I've had up to this point (and there are still things I should go back to review!). (And don't get me wrong - while I worked hard and think I should go back and study even more, I'm not an exemplary student. When Chacko said we should be working extra problems from the text, even should be reading the text, and said we should be reading extra textbooks, I was mildly terrified that that was what was expected of me if I was to ever succeed in physics. I mean, when do I get the time to do all this stuff? I think if you have good attention to the physics of classical systems, and good intuition about how systems should behave, then you'll do fine.)

Peter Shawhan
PHYS410

Anonymous
05/19/2010

Shawhan is a professor that I would recommend avoiding, especially if you are hoping to get an A in the class. While he does curve, it is not the most generous curve. He assigns a LOT of homework, and it is rather difficult to do it since he doesn't do a very good job presenting the material. He is a really nice guy though, and he will often give extensions on assignments if you simply ask for it. This does not make up for the fact that he is awful at presenting material, assigns a lot of homework, and writes very difficult exams because he does not do a good job of assessing the difficulty of his assignments.

Zackaria Chacko
PHYS410

Expecting a B
Anonymous
11/17/2009

Thinking about taking 410 with Dr. Chacko? Here's what will probably happen to you if you're like most people in the class right now: -You'll spend a lot of time working some tough homework problems -As a result, you'll have gained a lot of knowledge which may be personally gratifying -Then you'll take his exam -After the exam you'll feel like an incompetent idiot who has not learned anything Dr. Chacko is very likeable, and more than anything I respect the man because he's undoubtedly a genius. His lectures mainly follow the book, but he also adds in tidbits here and there that I think will be very useful. And you can tell that he really cares about preparing students for graduate-level classes. What I didn't like is that there are only two exams (a midterm and a final) which together make up 90% of the grade. And the exams are hard! Knowing all the material extremely well will get you about half the points on an exam. Don't bother telling him his tests are hard either, because he'll just chuckle and say, "I thought it was easy." I expect there will be a curve, though. Overall, the class has been great, and who cares about the grade you get as long as you learn something, right?

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