Alberto Belloni

This professor has taught: PHYS161, PHYS273, PHYS273H, PHYS275, PHYS276, PHYS371, PHYS402, PHYS405, PHYS420, PHYS758E

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Alberto Belloni Expecting a B+ Anonymous 01/06/2025	Amazing soul tragic teaching. Professor is genuinely a kind person who wants to teach but issue is largely format intro to physics is a class that covers a lot of material so its already difficult but lecture seemed a bit all over the place i believe because of the textbook we used the openstax free online physics 1 but like the class didn't really seem to go in depth or give a adequate standing. Thankfully I knew physics from AP classes but those who didn't suffered averages were 58,48,58 for midterms which eventually got curved in the end but something to note. Overall lecture is all over the place Professor is nice and test were abysmal for most.
Alberto Belloni PHYS161 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 01/02/2025	Prof. Belloni is that guy who's understanding of the topic is almost too far for his own good. He explains many topics as if you already knew them and will speed through problems. He's funny and someone who really gets you engaged. I wouldn't recommend him if you do not do well in fast paced environments or base notes off of the ones provided. Exams were also extremely difficult. Class average across the midterms was approx. a 52%.
Alberto Belloni PHYS161 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/24/2024	Prof. Belloni is a very nice person and is undeniably passionate about physics. However, as a professor, he is not very good. This is not due to a lack of knowledge—he is extremely intelligent and well-versed in physics—but because his lectures mostly consist of reading from mediocre slides, occasionally deriving equations, and solving one or two practice problems that usually do not accurately represent exam questions. The derivations might be valuable for general knowledge, but they were never necessary for exams or homework, making them a less-than-optimal use of time. Additionally, the homework was largely unhelpful. While most problems were of easy-to-medium difficulty, there was often at least one multi-part question that seemed unnecessarily difficult for the sake of being challenging. He administers four midterms, with average scores typically ranging between 45 and 55. To his credit, he does drop the lowest midterm score. However, he gave no clear indication of whether or how a curve would be applied, and ultimately, he only curved letter grades when finalizing the course grades with no announcement. If you end up in his class, your best strategy is to focus on the more difficult practice problems from the textbook—don't waste time on easy questions, as he tends to create challenging exams.
Alberto Belloni PHYS161 Expecting a C- Anonymous 12/21/2024	I want to start out by saying that Professor Belloni is a very nice man. He obviously wants us to do well and be interested in the subject. However, he doesn't actually do anything to make this possible. He shared no practice exams throughout the semester which made it very difficult to study because the homework, textbook, and lecture practice problems were nothing like the exam problems. I will say that the homework and quizzes have a strong weight in the class so do not slack off on them. For the final, he gave us some practice exams which really helped and I wish he did that for the midterms. The way he curved the class was extremely vague and he never discussed the results of the class. I technically should have ended with a D+ but he curved the class at the very end so I ended with a B. I guess I shouldn't complain but this class brought upon so much stress purely due to the constant lack of information.
Alberto Belloni PHYS161 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/21/2024	Overview: Nice and passionate professor however not the best teacher. Seemed to possibly be newer at teaching PHYS161? Reason for it being a 3 and not a 2 is due to PHYS161(in my opinion for physics) being a difficult subject. Grades: Dropped lowest of the exams and seemed to have done a final grade curve (which at least according to the syllabus may factor in attendance for me is was one letter grade up) exam medians tended to be around 60% with one exam being around 50% Attendance policy: Attendance is not required (discussion attendance for my section quickly dropped to only three to two people attending) however is highly encouraged (and may be factored into grade if you are on the border line) Lecture: Slides which was heavily based on the textbook which primary focused on concepts. Professor did go through problems on the slides (which sometimes helped) and tended to be quick to respond to questions (especially if you were in the front). Energetic and friendly but may lose you during concept explanation Discussions: Nothing seemed to be prepared by the professor for discussion with the exception of the answer key to the exams. The TA (at least in my experience) got better with time and would help with any questions that people who attended had (otherwise it is simply just a place to do homework) Assignments: Approximately weekly homework (varied in difficulty and type) and quizzes (multiple choice or fill in the blank conceptual questions) Exams: Tended to be difficult, mostly made up of multiple questions with multiple parts. Quizzes and homework rarely helped for the exam. You are allowed one sheet regular sized sheet of paper for a formula sheet for the exam. The lowest exam was dropped. For the final exam other professors PHYS161 final exams were given however multiple questions were far different from the types of final exam questions given for the other professors. Office hours: Email to schedule, I went once and he was helpful (willing to repeat concepts until I got it, rather friendly) Tips: Practice problems from the textbook, don't procrastinate on getting the quizzes and homework, go to discussions if you have questions (or just to have a good environment to study with other students), if you are confused about something go to office hours (he is kind even if the question you ask is for something simple)
Alberto Belloni PHYS161 Expecting a B- Anonymous 12/21/2024	he's very passionate about teaching, it should be fine if you do well learning the contents by yourself. exams are DIFFICULT but good curves!
Alberto Belloni PHYS161 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/19/2024	He seems nice and passionate ab the subject. Posts all his slides to elms but it is mostly just screenshots of text from the textbook to help you understand concepts. He didn't release any practice tests and none of his lecture problems were really like the exams so it was hard to study for it but idk if I can rlly blame him for it since I stopped going to lecture. He drops the lowest exam and also decided to curve final grades due to consistently low exam averages but the curve is still unclear and he is vague ab it. There's weekly quizzes whch are mostly conceptual and hw every other day which ranges from rlly easy to hard but is still nothing like the exams so it doesn't rlly help prepare you.
Alberto Belloni PHYS161 Expecting a B- Anonymous 12/12/2024	this dude is a nightmare to learn from. he is confusing to follow in class and messes up his own example problems in class. i genuinely dont think he and the TA communicated at all, as the ta’s were kinda clueless in general. i would like to mention that as a person he is very sweet and kind. he does not make any exceptions for missing work, and often times his homework had little to nothing to do with the examples he presents in class. he makes learning a difficult chore, and honestly most of us were better off missing class to read the textbook. our test averages were 10-20% lower than the other physics classes. i wish professor belloni the best but he needs to better his teaching style
Alberto Belloni PHYS161 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 12/12/2024	I will start off by saying that Alberto Belloni is a really nice guy. He is very helpful and approachable when you attend his office hours. However, his teaching style did not suit me. The lectures were disorganized and rushed at times, and I felt as though he did not cover the important material as much. I would not recommend Professor Belloni to anyone who wants to actually learn physics because I learned very little in this class. The homework assignments are nowhere near the caliber of the midterms he gives and I always felt like there was not enough time to complete these midterms. The weekly quizzes also felt like a waste of time because we would never get a good grasp on the materials learned. The textbook he gave us as a resource (from which he gets his lecture slides) is not even the one he uses to create the midterms (this is what he told me) so find another textbook to learn from if you can. If you a good at self-learning and/or have a strong foundation in physics and calc already, you will be fine. If not, I highly suggest you do what you need to do to get a better prof.
Alberto Belloni PHYS161 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/11/2024	a pretty decent lecturer, was always good at explaining topics and was an easy class to be in—but he tended to go quickly through important ideas. 3 midterms (30% of total grade) and dropped the lowest one. decided toward the end of the semester that he would also curve each exam individually due to the low averages on each exam (as well as the final) not sure what hes setting the avg at, but hoping for a pretty substantial curve
Alberto Belloni PHYS161 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 12/10/2024	I would strongly recommend against taking this course with Dr. Belloni. Lectures were disorganized and unhelpful, the weekly quizzes were difficult, the exams were unrealistically hard. There are no practice sets given from the textbook, no practice exams, and no significantly useful information to pull from the slides. There is little to no communication from the professor regarding grade cut offs or how to improve the grade. The averages for the exams were all in the 40-50 range and it was never properly acknowledged, the most he did was to slightly change the formatting of the last midterm we took. I would wait until another semester to take PHYS161 with another professor.
Alberto Belloni PHYS161 Expecting a B- Anonymous 12/03/2024	Alberto is a really great guy, very enthusiastic about what he's teaching. He's very approachable during office hours, but as a lot of the other reviews state, his lecturing style isn't very effective. Honestly, you're better off just reading the textbook. If you're into self-teaching, he's great. Lectures and discussion are both optional. However, the exams were really difficult for the time that we were given. The problems followed what we did in class, but time management was an issue. I believe this is the first semester he's teaching this course so perhaps in future semesters he'll be better. I say this because so far the format of every exam has been different. So, if you're a very independent learner and have a solid background in physics and calc, Alberto is fine. If you haven't taken any prior coursework in calc or physics, definitely consider a different professor.
Alberto Belloni PHYS161 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/03/2024	I want to start off by saying he is a nice person, and he is also very intelligent. Unfortunately, I did not find his lectures helpful in the slightest and the exams were ridiculously difficult with extremely low averages. The exam material I felt was not adequately reflective of practice problems, although he did not provide any targeted practice problems other than vaguely saying that you should just complete the textbook problems. The homework was fine, but not very helpful. There are weekly quizzes on ELMS that were very difficult to do well on, since they were usually out of 10 points, and if you got a question wrong it was already an 8/10. That being said, I do think that you can pass in his class, it just will take a whole lot of extra and unnecessary effort that could be avoided by taking another professor.
Alberto Belloni PHYS161 Expecting a B- Anonymous 12/02/2024	For starters, Alberto is a great human being, kind and willing to help if you ask, but his course overall has plenty of flaws. For starters, his lectures are simply put not good enough. They are often rushed, with mostly theoretical content, so when the exams come, you don't know how to do a majority of the things on there. The class is split with HW-20% Online Quizzes-20% Midterm Exams-30% Final-30% so having 40% of the class be open note is helpful. The exams are hard for a variety of reasons sadly. One, 50 mins is not enough time for 4-5 word problems with 2-4 parts and multiple choice. Two, he doesn't leave a drop of practice problems or mock exams(The HW is not really helpful). Three, he doesn't curve any of the exams greatly the most I've seen is 5%. You do get one of the three midterm exams dropped(my avg. is a 72% on my best two midterms if not it would be like a 60). I have well above the class median and average for exams and I'm still deeply worried that with the hard final and that he possibly won't give a total curve on the class, I won't get a B- which is what you need to transfer into Clark. Overall, don't take even with prior exp. from HS or CC, just not worth it. Wait for another semester or find a better professor.
Alberto Belloni PHYS161 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 11/29/2024	objectively a bad professor. scratches maybe 15% of the content thru class, lacks meaningful practice (and practice exams) and exams are disproportionately hard compared to what’s covered (most of the class doesn’t finish). notes are horrendously incoherent and disorganized. nice and knowledgeable prof but that doesn’t compensate for the bad class management and confusing teaching style. would absolutely reccomend against taking dr. belloni
Alberto Belloni PHYS161 Expecting an A- Anonymous 11/26/2024	really enthusiastic lecturer, so lectures aren’t boring at all. tests are pretty hard but they follow material covered in class. it may be difficult if you’ve never taken mechanics before. i just like his lecture style.
Alberto Belloni PHYS161 Expecting a B Anonymous 11/26/2024	On everything DO NOT TAKE THIS GUY. Exams are impossible, lectures are disorganized, and averages are abysmally low. The only saving grace is HW and weekly online quizzes, and even those are purposefully difficult.
Alberto Belloni PHYS161 Expecting a B Anonymous 11/17/2024	horrible experience. the guy doesn't explain anything in lecture (nothing more than reading the slides), gives out exams you humanly cannot finish in 50 mins, and doesn't give us anything with regards to curve, in spite the exam averages being 58 and 48. do NOT take him. you're better off taking this at ur local CC
Alberto Belloni PHYS161 Expecting a B- Anonymous 11/11/2024	Terrible instructor. Raced through content, had very tough exams, some with averages below 50%, much lower than other sections. Can’t see your old exams either.
Alberto Belloni PHYS161 Anonymous 10/19/2024	this is absolutely not the professor to take if you've never taken physics 1 before. the class is incredibly disorganized and very poorly taught. the department generally makes it unnecessarily complex, gives you meaningless practice on expert ta, and no practice exams. belloni seems to be basing the class of the OpenStax PDF and textbook, which straight up suck. I've taken physics 1 before, which is the only reason i'm surviving this class. if you're taking this 1) i'm sorry for you 2) use other resources (organic chem tutor, njctl ap physics c notes) to study. lecture is rather useless.
Alberto Belloni PHYS161 Anonymous 09/06/2024	Very good guy, Its hard to understand him at all times, makes lectures harder than they should be.
Alberto Belloni PHYS161 Anonymous 09/06/2024	nice guy, HEAVY Italian accent, lecture style is all over the place, don't feel like i learn a lot in lecture
Alberto Belloni PHYS371 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/04/2022	Great professor!
Alberto Belloni PHYS371 Expecting an A- Anonymous 03/13/2022	I took PHYS371 in Fall 2021 w/ Alberto and I would say this was a great idea! His lectures are comprehensive and dives into the course material with an appropriate level of detail. This is especially important for the non-intuitive concepts introduced in Modern Physics like Special Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. If you still have lingering questions after lectures, he's also eager to meet up with you in office hours to answer those questions! Usually after lectures his slides would be available on his ELMS page. With that in mind, PHYS371 certainly isn't a simple class. The topics discussed in modern physics can be hard to grasp and may not align with what you would expect given the knowledge from classical physics. For people taking this class, I suggest you take a good amount of time to study and truly understand the concepts you're learning.