Andris Skuja

This professor has taught: HLTH672, PHYS103, PHYS106, PHYS107, PHYS161, PHYS260, PHYS261, PHYS271, PHYS276, PHYS375, PHYS758E

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Andris Skuja PHYS103 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/27/2023	Pretty easy lab overall if you have a nice TA that will assist you. Not much preparation other than answering ExpertTA questions before the lab.
Andris Skuja PHYS261 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/06/2023	Never met him, but the lab isn't too bad. You got in for two hours and just fill out an Excel sheet, as long as you have an okay TA you'll do fine on the labs. There's not even an actual lab report or anything, the only thing you have to do outside of lab is the pre-lab questions which are super easy and just from the lab manual. The final was kinda rough, he said it'd be similar to the study guide from the lab manual but it really wasn't.
Andris Skuja PHYS261 Anonymous 10/21/2023	Neutral review: You won't really get to meet him so I can't give a one or 5 star review. My TA was pretty awesome though!
Andris Skuja PHYS260 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/11/2023	He makes easier exams than other PHYS260 professors and he curves the average for all of the exams to an 81 as well as dropping the 2 lowest quizzes and the lowest exams. The only drawback is that he teaches off slides but if you have the discipline to stay on course then you can get a good grade in the class. The averages for all 3 exams were 72-75 so I am happy I took him rather than other professors. Other things to note are that he gives quizzes and class participation in class so it's kind of mandatory. He also accommodates students if they can't come for quizzes and have to make it up. He does have his shortcomings in terms of teaching but if you can get around that his grading policies can get you a good grade in the class
Andris Skuja PHYS260 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 02/01/2023	I have to learn by myself. His lectures are boring and unorganized.
Andris Skuja PHYS103 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/23/2022	In preparation for each of the labs, there were questions to answer on ExpertTA. I found that there was not enough background knowledge or context to be able to answer them, so I made sure to start them early and ask for the TAs help when needed. The labs themselves ranged from easy to more difficult. I think we only had 10 labs, so we finished a few weeks before the semester ended. During every lab, there is the need to complete a worksheet, which can be tricky, so I found it helpful to ask the GA for clarification on questions. If one asked, I found the GA provided guidance on how to do experiments and answer questions.
Andris Skuja PHYS260 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/30/2022	He does not care about the students and will not explain concepts well. He reads off slides, and class is very unorganized.
Andris Skuja Anonymous 08/31/2022	The thing I can't bear is that he puts deduction when using hints and feedbacks in ExpertTA. But the ExpertTA sometimes requires us to use hints!
Andris Skuja PHYS260 Anonymous 05/18/2022	By the end of the semester, in a class of 60 something, there was on average 6-7 people still going to his lectures. He's probably a nice guy, but good grief is he a terrible professor. He spends his time mumbling through lecture slides while never really engaging with the class. His "examples" Typed out Google Docs sheets that never explain how he got to those steps (some of them aren't even complete). He spends the same amount of time on a lecture slide about Maxwell Boltzmann the person as he does about applications to the Maxwell Boltzmann constant. Quizzes are hit or usually, miss. Class averages were usually around 4. Exams are based off textbook problems, just do those and you'll be okay. The worst thing about him however is his stance on Homework and Mock Exams. His mock exams are somewhat confusing, and not only is he the reason that solutions to these problems are never posted, but also the reason these solutions are never posted for any other PHYS260 professor, regardless of who you have. The ExpertTA questions are long and annoying, but there's even worse in that you only have 5 tries, and he has enabled it in that you lose points(as much as 25%) for each attempt. So far the worst professor I've had at UMD. Avoid at all costs.
Andris Skuja PHYS260 Expecting an A Anonymous 06/24/2021	Yup. Most of the reviews you're reading are 100% accurate. His lectures are done through PowerPoint and formatted horribly so you learn nothing. He talks super slow and becomes out of breath within 2 slides. There's literally no point going to lecture except for the quiz every Wednesday. Just read the textbook, watch Organic Chemistry tutors Physics playlist, and do all the end of chapter textbook questions. His quizzes are hit or miss, sometimes they're really easy, sometimes not so much. He drops 2 quizzes and 1 homework as well as an exam. His exams are usually based on the end-of-chapter textbook problem so if you do those problems you're probably going to get a 100 on his exam. (Yes he's that lazy, also he falls asleep while proctoring exams...) The homework is on expertTA also. The final exam wasn't too bad especially since it was standardized across the whole physics department therefore more competent professors were able to put questions on the final that made some sense. We got a 10% curve. Expect anywhere between 10-20%.
Andris Skuja PHYS260 Anonymous 09/05/2020	Avoid at all costs! Lectures were absolutely useless but you still had to go to them every week because he gave us two quizzes every single week. We had two lectures and one discussion per week and in two of those we had a quiz. We didn’t have time to learn anything new before being quizzed and getting the same things wrong again and again.
Andris Skuja PHYS103 Anonymous 12/01/2019	This is the lab class for PHYS102, but the lab and the lecture have little to nothing in common. The ExpertTA was decent but sometimes had typos in it that resulted in losing points on questions. For example: "Question 1: What's the lowest frequency the ear can hear?" Chose the correct answer. "Question 1: What's the lowest frequency the ear can hear?" Chose the same answer as before (because it was the same question) and eventually find after losing all possible points that Q2 was meant to ask about the highest frequency. The TA (not Skuja, was Clayton Ristow) was helpful during the class. Labs were sometimes too abstract and didn't have enough background available to make them make a lot of sense.
Andris Skuja PHYS161 Expecting a B cheesecake 08/05/2013	Horrible professor. He seems like a nice dude, but he is the worst lecturer I have ever seen. Has no idea how to teach properly. He just does problems and mumbles about while trying to solve them. He doesn't explain well at all. If you didn't take AP physics in high school, you'll be totally lost. Avoid this teacher at all costs!
Andris Skuja PHYS161 Expecting an A UMDStudent2 06/10/2013	Bad teacher. You will most likely not do well if you did not take AP Physics in high school. Even having taken AP Physics in high school, I had to put in a lot of work to pull off an A. His exam questions are basically taken directly out of the book. My strategy was that if I did most of the problems in the book, I would be prepared when I saw the same question on the exam. This strategy seemed to work, and I recommend it. Btw, the final exam is insanely difficult. You will feel like you failed, but there is some ridiculous 20 point curve because everyone fails it.
Andris Skuja PHYS161 Anonymous 05/17/2013	Pretty bad teacher. Not much homework. The materials not impossible to learn on ur own.You'll learn nothing in lecture.
Andris Skuja PHYS161 Expecting a C Anonymous 05/17/2013	THE WORST PROFESSOR EVER. You sit in lecture, and think "why the eff am I here?" The examples he gives in class are ridiculously easy and he spends too much time going over them. The exam problems, then, are NOTHING like ANYTHING he goes over in lecture. I stopped going to class because I wasn't getting anything out of them. I'm pretty sure I would have gotten a worse grade in the class if I had actually gone. Instead, during lecture times I self-studied or did the Mastering Physics. Seriously, skuja is a horrible teacher, do anything you can not to take his class. Honestly, he's probably a smart guy with a lot of knowledge, but he does not know how to teach at all. Avoid at all costs.
Andris Skuja PHYS161 Expecting a C- Anonymous 05/16/2013	Terrible Professor. He basically screwed up on the first exam because the average was a 90, and now he's going to compensate for it by normalizing the grades. Going to class is useless and exams (other than the first) are so obscure and ridiculous. AVOID AT ALL COSTS.
Andris Skuja PHYS161 Anonymous 05/10/2013	He is a nice guy but not very good at teaching. Out of 300 of people in the class maybe 50 go to class. You really need to teach yourself in order to do well in the class. He does not give much homework so it is up to you to study and get practice. He takes everything out of the book almost word for word and does not teach anything new.
Andris Skuja PHYS161 Expecting a C MuffinKnight 04/30/2013	The worst professor anyone could ever take in the span of their entire college career. He doesn't actually teach anything and likes to whip out obscure questions on exams. I would gladly take 8 am or even 8pm classes over this class.
Andris Skuja PHYS161 Expecting a C parade 03/31/2013	Awful teacher, he does not explain anything in class. If you have him, you basically have to self study. When I go to lecture, I come out thinking why did I go? Literally have not learned anything all semestre.