Information | Review |
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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. |