Bei Lok Hu

This professor has taught: HLTH672, HLTH710, PHYS161, PHYS171, PHYS260, PHYS270, PHYS274, PHYS371, PHYS420, PHYS475, PHYS675

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Bei Lok Hu PHYS161 Expecting an A- Anonymous 01/05/2026	Very nice and kind professor. He is whole hearted and is willing to make sure everyone gets help. Professor Hu is very involved in proving why physics works. It is kind of difficult to understand if you don’t do a ton of examples on your own. Sometimes his explanations make no sense, and he commonly mistakes any questions directed towards an example with another example on the board. His tests are basically the examples done in class. It does not teach any students how to apply concepts learned in class to different scenarios. The tests don’t efficiently test knowledge. The final is difficult without proper preparation though, as another professor makes it (That was the case this year at least). Do not rely on just the notes for the final. Do the practice finals for the final exam. I would not recommend taking him if this is your first time taking physics though. Overall he is not a bad professor.
Bei Lok Hu PHYS161 Expecting a B- Anonymous 12/25/2025	This class was one of the root causes of my mental distress. I did not have much prior knowledge of physics 1 content, but the way this professor taught made it tremendously more difficult for no reason. This did not help in getting me to enjoy the class content. Dr. Hu clearly knew a great deal about this field, but did not know how to convey it effectively to students. He assumed everyone wanted him to go faster and that the content was “too easy.” He would start problems without finishing them or would jump to answers out of nowhere. He would only use variables (no numbers), which made deciphering his work even harder. I will also not forget that he did not provide practice tests or any in-class practice/review for midterms. Speaking of midterms, there were 2 of them, and they were each extremely conceptual and graded harshly. The averages were always low. The same applies to the final. The homework was graded for accuracy on the Expert TA site, which was super glitchy. Overall, I thought them to be tedious and difficult. I will also note that each question gave you 5 tries and a couple of hints. One homework was dropped at the end. In general, one could argue that you learned more through the textbook readings, which tells you something since I thought the textbook was awful. YouTube and online academic sites are what helped me the most for this course. My discussion section was quite unpleasant. I did not like how the TA would write a problem on the blackboard and then would give us time to think about it and solve it, and then would go over it at a rapid speed; this method just took up so much of our time, stripping us of the opportunity to try other types of problems. I felt like the TA could have also done more review of the class’s main themes for prep before quizzes and tests. There were bi-weekly quizzes that he wrote himself and were challenging. One was dropped at the end. The one redeeming aspect that I will forever praise for this class is that there was a huge curve at the end (at least 10%). I am greatly thankful for it, and for that reason, my rating is slightly higher than what I initially wanted to give and the rating for the rest of the course.
Bei Lok Hu PHYS161 Anonymous 12/20/2025	Very sweet guy; you can tell he likes physics and cares about his students but his exams were difficult and lectures were generally unhelpful. He barely uses numbers in exam questions (mostly conceptual based) which made them really confusing. Homeworks and quizzes were manageable (they had numbers in the questions & made more sense than midterms) but a lot of this course was me teaching myself the content. Lectures were all over the place and were not super engaging. Somewhat typical for a math-based class at UMD but I did expect better.
Bei Lok Hu PHYS161 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/18/2025	Professor Hu is a nice person, but his lectures felt impossible to follow. He would start problems without explaining what he was solving for, struggled to actually answer student questions, and if you didn't sit in the front it was hard to see what he was writing on the chalkboard. If you don't come into this class without some sort of physics background you will struggle. On the plus side, exams were difficult but fair. They were very similar to examples he did in lecture, so definitely go to lecture even if you don't know what's happening. I learned more about the actual concepts from my TA and the textbook, but I studied his examples to prepare for exams.
Bei Lok Hu PHYS270 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/26/2025	Professor Hu is a genuinely nice person who seems to have a good heart. His teaching style, however, was not for me. Barely any of the class would show up for lecture, and NO ONE would ever take notes, because with the way he lectures, you just don’t even know what to write down. He somehow manages to be FIVE lectures ahead of the syllabus and moves at a very fast pace. He had to redo the syllabus a month before the semester ends, and on the first day, he was already two lectures ahead of his new schedule. he did give some cool demonstrations in class that only helped and made sense a month later when I actaully learned the topic on my own. If you learn everything on your own with some YouTube videos and attend discussion, I would say the exams are very reasonable. If you like learning independently, I’d recommend taking him, especially since this class only has two exams. But he does not teach you anything, so if you are here to learn, I wouldn’t take him.
Bei Lok Hu PHYS161 Anonymous 01/24/2025	Expect to learn more from the textbook than you do him. He is not good at explaining topics and when he decides to give out examples he just uses variables and only does half a problem. The fact that he never had actual office hours, just made it seem like he had little care about his students having access to him as a valuable resource. He seemed like a lazy teacher in general, just trying to get in and out of class without care for how the students did. My advice is to go to any available tutoring sessions to help yourself out.
Bei Lok Hu PHYS161 Expecting a B- Anonymous 01/05/2025	Hu is a calm and kind but unhelpful and oblivious professor. He frequently assumed that his students wanted him to go faster or understood what he was saying which was hilarious. Pros: - Homework and quizzes are doable. The sps tutoring is helpful too. - Nice guy - Free participation credits at the end of the semester - We had a extra credit hw (15 pts) - A curve but only for the final grade - 1 hw per week that does help grasp the content better (5 attempts per question with hints) Cons: - slowww grading - entirely conceptual exams - Speaks fast and mumbles sometimes - Moves fast on chalkboard and does not post those problems (only posts textbook slides) Again, the exams are entirely conceptual so do EACH problem that Professor Hu suggests to do the lecture before the exam because for my class, around 1-2 that he mentioned showed up (I still failed them). Average for each of the 2 midterms we had was a 64%. My grade was a 76 without the curve and I ended up with a B-. Apparently 2/3 of the class ended up with an A or B.
Bei Lok Hu Anonymous 12/16/2024	Dr. Hu is passionate about physics but I think he goes over the material so fast that it confuses me every lecture. I thought skipping his lectures and studying on my own would be more helpful and efficient. However, on his exams, there would be questions straight up from his lecture so skipping lectures too much would not be a good idea ig. Luckily, I have a goated TA so thats why I pass.
Bei Lok Hu PHYS161 Expecting a B- Anonymous 12/11/2024	Disclaimer: I did not take AP Physics. This is my first college physics course. This is going to be a long review. Homework consists of five problems (most if not all of them have sub-questions) and we got 5 attempts to answer each question with no deductions. It might be 3 attempts for you. It's always due Wednesday. For discussion, there is a quiz on the material that you covered during your last discussion session. If your TA talked about linear momentum last week, your quiz will be on linear momentum this week. Rinse and repeat. There are TWO exams and one cumulative final. You are allowed a formula sheet for all of them, and you should get it back along with your exam assuming your TA doesn't lose it like mine did. Professor Hu is a nice person but he struggles to teach. His lectures are all done through the blackboard, and his writing can be hard to read (probably more so if you sit in the back). The amount of stuff he writes on each blackboard is also a lot, and it can be difficult to follow because he doesn't write in a left-right up-down direction - it's all over the place. I struggled hard with this course. He does NOT post his lecture notes online so don't miss class; he also has some demos during class that show up on exams too. On top of the professor's messy lecture structure, he focuses primarily on derivations rather than helping you understand the material that is being taught. Even WHILE he is deriving formulas, he skips a lot of algebra and just assumes you can get to the conclusion as fast as he does. (He has also mentioned partial derivatives and double/triple integrals which is peculiar because, while I did take Calculus 3 (MATH 241), it is NOT a prerequisite for this course.) Honestly I even read the textbook and it helped my confusion a little but not entirely, so you're better off using the Organic Chemistry Tutor or something. In terms of difficulty of the graded work in this class, it's easily discussion quizzes < homework < midterm exams. Upon my asking, Professor Hu does not give any practice problems because he says "the quizzes, homework, textbook, and lecture are enough." But the difference in difficulty between the questions on the quizzes and the questions on the midterms is too vast. You're better off taking someone else for physics.
Bei Lok Hu PHYS161 Expecting a B- Anonymous 12/06/2024	Very nice guy and passionate about the subject, but I do not recommend his class. I don't know how the other professors are for this class, but I struggled in his. I have taken 3 physics classes before and I came in already understanding most of the material but this class made it more confusing. Pros 1. Homework was flexible and you had multiple attempts. 2. Quizzes were very easy. Cons 1. His writings in lectures felt like they were all over the place and sometimes I felt like I was better off skipping and learning directly from the textbook. 2. His tests are very hard and it takes almost a month to get your score back. Midterm averages were near failing and I still have not heard of a curve. 3. The homework website, Expert TA is awful.
Bei Lok Hu PHYS161 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/03/2024	I took this class for an engineering requirement and here's what I've found Pros: - Super passionate and is a happy person -He seems like he cares about his students - His tests are all examples from the book or his lectures - Homeworks are flexible (5 attempts per question my semester) Cons: - Tests can be difficult - Grades return very slowly - He jumps through lectures talking about non-relevant topics sometimes - He is terrible at reading the room and breaking down/explaining his derivations Overall love the guy, find his teaching to be painful.
Bei Lok Hu PHYS371 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 01/11/2023	Dr. Hu is a very difficult professor. He cares deeply about his students and wants them to succeed, but his teaching skills make it difficult for most students to do that. He is very approachable and kind and was willing to give extensions/move things around if necessary. However, his lectures consist mostly of him projecting his notes onto the board and speeding through them. Many derivations are left incomplete and topics barely explained. To succeed in his class, most students had to either entirely teach themselves or have prior experience in the topics. I would highly advise avoiding him if possible.
Bei Lok Hu PHYS371 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/22/2022	Dr. Hu the GOAT! he is extremely passionate to teach physics. The exams and homework are very similar. Strongly recommend taking this course with him.
Bei Lok Hu PHYS274 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/31/2020	Prof. Hu was amazing! He taught this class so well that I can do some of the problems in my sleep, and was never boring. Great guy!
Bei Lok Hu PHYS274 Anonymous 04/20/2020	Very kind and cares about his students. Expect to work a lot but to get a lot out as well. Very approachable.
Bei Lok Hu PHYS122 Expecting an A Anonymous 07/08/2009	I don't recommend taking physics with Dr. Hu. For one thing, it's pretty difficult to understand what he says half the time because of his accent. Also, he never really explained concepts fully. He would derive equations, which sometimes had different symbols from those given in our textbook; PHYS122 is an introductory physics course- we are expected to know concepts and not derivation of equations, especially since this course is not calculus-based. He would go over problems using the derived equations but they were difficult to follow because he never really would explain WHAT the concepts were. Furthermore, his lectures were Powerpoint presentations often containing images and excerpts from our textbook. In a class such as physics where going over problems step by step helps in explaining concepts, powerpoint presentations were completely ineffective and useless. Using the blackboard would have been a much better approach to teaching this course. Dr. Hu also sometimes never completed problems that he started; thus, often my notes were incomplete. I feel that a majority of the class got by because most of the problems on the exams and quizzes were similar to (or the exact same) suggested review problems that he gave from the textbook as well as our homework problems (which were from the textbook as well). I suppose the predictability of the problems on the exams etc was one good side to Dr. Hu's teaching. This allowed me to get an A+ in the course, despite Dr. Hu's poor teaching skills. I believe Dr. Hu is very knowledgeable and also friendly and easy to approach; however, he does not seem to be the best professor.
Bei Lok Hu PHYS122 rbterp 05/03/2009	Dr. Hu was a very difficult professor to follow and I do not recommend him at all. He used notes and examples from a different textbook, and would jump into topics without explaining basic concepts such as what is a wave, or what is electricity. Even though our course was a non-calculus based course, he relied heavily on mathematical explanations instead of actually explaining concepts conceptually. He rarely worked through examples from the course textbook FULLY, from start to finish. His demonstrations were not effective as many students did not understand the scientific principles behind them. Very few students attended lecture as the course was not tailored to the abilities, background knowledge, and interests of non-physics major undergraduates. The only good thing is that the exams were fair (textbook problems - nothing like the weird examples from class) and I liked that we could use notecards for them. There were also weekly quizzes (no notecards) consisting of a textbook problem and weekly homework sets of ~8 hw problems.