Drew Baden | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Drew Baden PHYS270 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/16/2025	Absolutely amazing lecturer. Most of the classes felt like history lectures.
Drew Baden PHYS270 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/16/2025	Best professor ever classes is curved. Final exam is really easy lectures are engaging 10 / 10 would recommend.
Drew Baden PHYS270 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/15/2025	His lectures are okay and the few homework assignments he gives are really long. He drops a midterm and his final wasn’t incredibly easy so he gets 5 stars for that
Drew Baden PHYS270 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/10/2025	Very good lecturer and made the class very interesting. His exams are long but are basically the same questions as the homework so its not too hard. He seemed to actually care if we understood the actual physics and really seemed to want us to succeed.
Drew Baden PHYS270 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/10/2025	Debated whether to give four or five stars; he's good but not stellar so I'll do four. The main thing I enjoyed about taking Baden was that he seemed more concerned with teaching us the actual physics than he was with teaching us to take the exams. The majority of lecture time is him explaining the physical phenomena behind what we're learning about, rather than just the equations we need to solve the homework, which I really enjoyed. I also didn't mind the multiple choice exams, it was a breath of fresh air compared to Hailu's three question exams where getting one thing wrong tanked your grade.
Drew Baden PHYS270 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/05/2025	Drew Baden is one of the professors of all time. He completely changed the format of midterms from previous semesters by making them all multiple choice. You think that would be easier but no, he just added more questions and still expects you to show all work. Speaking of exams, they are incredibly long for no reason. Unless you know exactly what to do on every single problem, you will probably not sufficiently answer every question. His lectures don't cover what is on the homework. Your supposed to apply what you learned in lecture on the homework except with Baden. You will basically be learning what he covered in lecture on your own and will just have to figure it out on the homework. His lectures are fine but he goes off on tangents sometimes and spends too much time talking about the history of what you're learning instead of doing example problems. In fact, he doesn't even do example problems in lecture. If you want example problems you'll have to go to discussion so pray you get a good TA. That being said, he is significantly better than Skuja but slightly worse than Anson Hook. I would take him again but I'd probably choose Anson Hook over Baden if I had the choice. Baden's saving grace is that only 2/3 midterms will count towards your final grade.
Drew Baden PHYS270 Expecting an A bermudarhombus 12/16/2023	Excellent lecturer, and a really nice guy. His exams are fair and surprisingly easy. I always had fun going to lecture since he made every concept super interesting.
Drew Baden PHYS270 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 11/29/2023	Baden made phys270 a great and enjoyable class to be in, the concepts were never too hard and the exams were very easy but he made sure that we knew the underlying concepts with more depth than was required for the class so we could actually learn them. As a physicist, he emphasized learning these concepts not just to apply them but also to influence how we think (he himself admitted that relativity and quantum mechanics was not something most of us would use anyway, but that it was still important to learn them). His lectures are engaging and interesting, and he could always answer student questions immediately and with great clarity that brought insight to the topics. The only complaint I ever had from his class was that he would consistently go 2-3 minutes over time at the end of class to finish explaining his topic, which is certainly a lot less of a complaint than most professors at UMD. It goes to show how good Baden is that lectures always had very good attendance even though he never really made lecture attendance graded.
Drew Baden PHYS270 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/16/2023	A breath of fresh air in the UMD physics department. His exams are well worded, direct and do a good job of fairly assessing whether or not you fully understand the material. He shows a great deal of passion towards engineering and physics concepts, which make the otherwise semi-dull content easier to pay attention to and understand. He makes good jokes, constantly asks students if they have any questions, and is overall a professor who has compassion and an understanding of his students. This course isn't necessarily easy, but with Baden it has been a much smoother ride than in my past Physics courses. My one slight on him is that he rarely, if ever, updates canvas, but he hands back exam grades in class so you will always have a rough estimate of your grade at all times. Overall great guy, great professor and great for his students sanity.
Drew Baden PHYS270 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/16/2023	The only truly great physics professor at UMD in my (limited) experience. His exams aren't necessarily easy, but they're direct and worded well so that if you understand the proper concepts you will succeed. Helpful guy overall with a keen sense of humor and the passion to make otherwise lackluster content seem interesting enough to learn. Only slight on him is that he doesn't update canvas nearly as much as he should, but otherwise is the best bet by far if you want a good experience in Physics 3.
Drew Baden PHYS270 Expecting a B Anonymous 01/25/2022	Professor Baden is definitely one of my better experiences in the Physics department. He's notably passionate on showing how physics relates to modern applications, and he's a pretty nice guy. His lectures are not the most beneficial, most of them consisting of him deriving expression, but he at least works through stuff instead of reading off of a PowerPoint. My main plus about his course is that his exams were very straightforward (similar format to HW problems), and he and the TA's were fair about partial credit. He also implemented a curve (a bit confusing but I can't really complain) and dropped the lowest exam (3 exams total). Homework was about the same level of difficulty as the other physics pre-reqs, and I used the formulas from it for my exams, which proved to be very helpful. My TA was also very helpful, offering practice problems that covered topics on the homework and exams. Overall, I would recommend this professor, since you will probably have a better experience than many of the other options for this course.
Drew Baden PHYS270 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/23/2021	Dr. Baden kept the lectures informative and catered to engineers as opposed to physicists, which made the class, in general, a bit easier. It was his first time teaching the class, and while he did a wonderful job, there were a few confusing aspects. Firstly, he never posted student exams to grades, and just showed a grade distribution which made it harder to ascertain my final grade. This said, the exams were all straightforward with generous partial credit. They got more challenging as there became more concepts to cover in the exam, but a well-studied student could manage this without difficulty. I would highly recommend Dr. Baden if you have the option.

Drew Baden
PHYS270

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/16/2025

Absolutely amazing lecturer. Most of the classes felt like history lectures.

Drew Baden
PHYS270

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
05/16/2025

Best professor ever classes is curved. Final exam is really easy lectures are engaging 10 / 10 would recommend.

Drew Baden
PHYS270

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/15/2025

His lectures are okay and the few homework assignments he gives are really long. He drops a midterm and his final wasn’t incredibly easy so he gets 5 stars for that

Drew Baden
PHYS270

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/10/2025

Very good lecturer and made the class very interesting. His exams are long but are basically the same questions as the homework so its not too hard. He seemed to actually care if we understood the actual physics and really seemed to want us to succeed.

Drew Baden
PHYS270

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/10/2025

Debated whether to give four or five stars; he's good but not stellar so I'll do four. The main thing I enjoyed about taking Baden was that he seemed more concerned with teaching us the actual physics than he was with teaching us to take the exams. The majority of lecture time is him explaining the physical phenomena behind what we're learning about, rather than just the equations we need to solve the homework, which I really enjoyed. I also didn't mind the multiple choice exams, it was a breath of fresh air compared to Hailu's three question exams where getting one thing wrong tanked your grade.

Drew Baden
PHYS270

Expecting a B
Anonymous
05/05/2025

Drew Baden is one of the professors of all time. He completely changed the format of midterms from previous semesters by making them all multiple choice. You think that would be easier but no, he just added more questions and still expects you to show all work. Speaking of exams, they are incredibly long for no reason. Unless you know exactly what to do on every single problem, you will probably not sufficiently answer every question. His lectures don't cover what is on the homework. Your supposed to apply what you learned in lecture on the homework except with Baden. You will basically be learning what he covered in lecture on your own and will just have to figure it out on the homework. His lectures are fine but he goes off on tangents sometimes and spends too much time talking about the history of what you're learning instead of doing example problems. In fact, he doesn't even do example problems in lecture. If you want example problems you'll have to go to discussion so pray you get a good TA. That being said, he is significantly better than Skuja but slightly worse than Anson Hook. I would take him again but I'd probably choose Anson Hook over Baden if I had the choice. Baden's saving grace is that only 2/3 midterms will count towards your final grade.

Drew Baden
PHYS270

Expecting an A
bermudarhombus
12/16/2023

Excellent lecturer, and a really nice guy. His exams are fair and surprisingly easy. I always had fun going to lecture since he made every concept super interesting.

Drew Baden
PHYS270

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
11/29/2023

Baden made phys270 a great and enjoyable class to be in, the concepts were never too hard and the exams were very easy but he made sure that we knew the underlying concepts with more depth than was required for the class so we could actually learn them. As a physicist, he emphasized learning these concepts not just to apply them but also to influence how we think (he himself admitted that relativity and quantum mechanics was not something most of us would use anyway, but that it was still important to learn them). His lectures are engaging and interesting, and he could always answer student questions immediately and with great clarity that brought insight to the topics. The only complaint I ever had from his class was that he would consistently go 2-3 minutes over time at the end of class to finish explaining his topic, which is certainly a lot less of a complaint than most professors at UMD. It goes to show how good Baden is that lectures always had very good attendance even though he never really made lecture attendance graded.

Drew Baden
PHYS270

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/16/2023

A breath of fresh air in the UMD physics department. His exams are well worded, direct and do a good job of fairly assessing whether or not you fully understand the material. He shows a great deal of passion towards engineering and physics concepts, which make the otherwise semi-dull content easier to pay attention to and understand. He makes good jokes, constantly asks students if they have any questions, and is overall a professor who has compassion and an understanding of his students. This course isn't necessarily easy, but with Baden it has been a much smoother ride than in my past Physics courses. My one slight on him is that he rarely, if ever, updates canvas, but he hands back exam grades in class so you will always have a rough estimate of your grade at all times. Overall great guy, great professor and great for his students sanity.

Drew Baden
PHYS270

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/16/2023

The only truly great physics professor at UMD in my (limited) experience. His exams aren't necessarily easy, but they're direct and worded well so that if you understand the proper concepts you will succeed. Helpful guy overall with a keen sense of humor and the passion to make otherwise lackluster content seem interesting enough to learn. Only slight on him is that he doesn't update canvas nearly as much as he should, but otherwise is the best bet by far if you want a good experience in Physics 3.

Drew Baden
PHYS270

Expecting a B
Anonymous
01/25/2022

Professor Baden is definitely one of my better experiences in the Physics department. He's notably passionate on showing how physics relates to modern applications, and he's a pretty nice guy. His lectures are not the most beneficial, most of them consisting of him deriving expression, but he at least works through stuff instead of reading off of a PowerPoint. My main plus about his course is that his exams were very straightforward (similar format to HW problems), and he and the TA's were fair about partial credit. He also implemented a curve (a bit confusing but I can't really complain) and dropped the lowest exam (3 exams total). Homework was about the same level of difficulty as the other physics pre-reqs, and I used the formulas from it for my exams, which proved to be very helpful. My TA was also very helpful, offering practice problems that covered topics on the homework and exams. Overall, I would recommend this professor, since you will probably have a better experience than many of the other options for this course.

Drew Baden
PHYS270

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
12/23/2021

Dr. Baden kept the lectures informative and catered to engineers as opposed to physicists, which made the class, in general, a bit easier. It was his first time teaching the class, and while he did a wonderful job, there were a few confusing aspects. Firstly, he never posted student exams to grades, and just showed a grade distribution which made it harder to ascertain my final grade. This said, the exams were all straightforward with generous partial credit. They got more challenging as there became more concepts to cover in the exam, but a well-studied student could manage this without difficulty. I would highly recommend Dr. Baden if you have the option.