| Information | Review |
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Victor Yakovenko
Anonymous 10/27/2012 |
a instantly likeable professor |
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Victor Yakovenko
PHYS404 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 12/22/2010 |
Well, his grading scheme is very fair and emphasizes homework above all: 50% homework and 50% exams (only one midterm and one final). He is indeed a brilliant and energetic lecturer; many people choose to skip lectures, but I feel they definitely enhanced the readings in the textbook. His choice of textbook was excellent (Thermal Physics, by Schroeder). This book was a joy to read, and I learned alot from it as well as from Yakovenko. I really thought I would fail this course, as my grades were poor. I still passed, mainly with my high homework average. Be wary on the exams; while the homeworks emphasize deriving abstract results for strange thermodynamic systems, the exams were seemed much more plug-n-chug oriented. Sometimes his lectures may get convoluted and messy, and he'll drop constants all the time. Nontheless, Yakovenko drives the point home well. The homeworks can be painful, however, and they virtually killed my weekends this semester. They really require you to think hard, but the instructions give many hints they help serve as a guide to the problems. Overall, great professor, despite my lower grade. |
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Victor Yakovenko
PHYS404 Anonymous 11/09/2010 |
He's a likable guy and classes were interesting. The one complaint I have is he doesn't write his notes in an organized fashion, which made it really hard for me to look back at my notes and know what was going on. |
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Victor Yakovenko
PHYS402 Anonymous 05/30/2010 |
Yakovenko is one of the better professors in the physics department, probably the second best physics prof. I have had after Hall. He lectures directly from the book, but I think his lectures are informative and helpful even though many people decided to skip them. His grading scheme is also very unique: 50% homework and 50% tests, and there are two tests, each counting 25%. He does assign a lot of homework though, and it is difficult, although the problems are not his own but are from the book. He sometimes makes up additional parts to questions which are pretty straightforward. Tests were impossible, however. I think the averages were below 50%. The curve at the end of the semester was something like above 70% weighted homework and tests was an A. I would recommend taking a class with Yakovenko, because he is one of the better lecturers in the department and the grading scheme really rewards those who work hard on their homework. You end up learning a lot in the class. |
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Victor Yakovenko
PHYS402 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 04/29/2010 |
Yakovenko is a instantly likeable professor. He's funny, smart, and he's definitely effective at communicating the material. He has a habit of dropping constants in equations, which is okay, but you will need to include them in the homework or lose points. Of course, the first couple of times he does it, he re-introduces them at the end, so you kind of learn to do it yourself. He adapted the course structure to the students' incoming knowledge very well, he answered any questions directly (though he sometimes missed the point of a question), and he rapidly responded to any questions you might email him. I personally had an incident where I was sick and emailed him asking if I could scan my homework and email to him. He said I could and said he would give it to the TA. The next week, it turned out that the TA never got my homework, and Yakovenko said that he was not a conduit to the TA and that he hadn't agreed to give the TA my homework, that I would have to go directly to the TA. I double checked the email, and I wasn't making up our conversation, so I was a little peeved. I gave the homework to the TA and it didn't get marked down for lateness though, so from a practical standpoint there wasn't really a problem. In the end, I am looking forward to having Yakovenko as a professor again in PHYS404, which I guess says more than the rest of this review. |