Alberto Belloni

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