Honestly one of the coolest professors I've had. He is not only a great lecturer but always adds in jokes and real world applications. Even on zoom, he would make sure to show experiments pretty often to help solidify our understanding. Besides that, he also has amazing personal stories and even explains his research a little bit. Its also fairly easy to get an A in this class with the break down he has. I would highly recommend.

Loved Kusenko would absolutely take this class with him again. He was really good at answering questions in lectures and even though the class was online he did demonstrations for us. I feel like I really understood why physics works and not just the equations to use. Tests and homework were hard but not impossible and felt really reasonable for this course. Super fun guy, super helpful, definitely recommend.

Kusenko is pretty cool. Lectures are engaging, and the stories are fun to listen to. Homework was a bit tricky, but it's very doable. Exams are very fair, and very much reflect the course content and homework. In-class breakout rooms were a little bit useless most of the time, but hopefully spring 2021 is the last online quarter so it's irrelevant to the future. If you pay attention in class and do the homework, you should be a-ok. Enjoy!

Kusenko is one of the best professors I've ever had. He is super nice, and really cares about teaching. I would recommend going to office hours, as he helps walk you through homework problems you're struggling with, but makes sure that you're actually learning the material. I thought the final was harder than the midterms, but since homework and in-class quizzes (which you basically can get 100 on) counts for such a big part of your grade, I ended up being okay. So if you can, take this class with Kusenko, he's the best!

Kusenko is probably one of the best professors you could get in the Physics 1 series. He explains concepts well and is very accommodating. Physics is definitely not my strong spot, which made the class somewhat difficult for me, but the grading scale made it that I was still able to do relatively well. My grade was on the lower end of the distribution because I made some very silly mistakes on the final, but that was my fault. But, overall if you're willing to put in the work, you can definitely succeed in this class.

I came into this class with no prior physics knowledge— and it was tough, but not impossible. I often came out of lecture very confused, and I only attended for the in-class questions on Kudu (The online textbook/homework website). The bulk of my learning came from YouTube and the TA.
Kusenko is not the best at teaching IMO, but he does care for students. He gave us 5 attempts to check our answers for the first midterm! I would have not done well if it was not for that. Both midterms and final were 24 hours and very fair. There were no super hard problems like shark and mackerel on either midterms or final. All the problems on the test mirrored the homework. I personally found the second midterm to be easier than the first. Homework was 15-20 problems every week that ranged from simple to difficult.

Kusenko is the physics GOAT. That man has sooo much passion for physics that it rubbed off on me. He also makes his lectures engaging during class, trying his best to show experiments and explaining the physics behind them despite the class being online. The finals and midterms were really though since it's content that you go over with during class. The homeworks are harder than the finals imo, if you fully get the homework you should be able to get the midterms/projects. One advice I would give would be to take notes of the topic at hand on Kudu before the lecture as I got really lost the last two weeks because I got lazy and didn't do this.

I came into this class having taken AP Physics C in high school. The previous reviews are pretty accurate based on my experience, and prior physics experience DEFINITELY helps. This is because Kusenko isn't the best at explaining concepts and sometimes rushes through examples without explaining the reasoning behind WHY certain theorems/equations were used. It's clear he knows the subject matter so well, and when students ask him questions, his teaching becomes so much clearer.

That being said, Kusenko makes a pretty hard subject very manageable, gives exams that are not too difficult, and most importantly, clearly cares for his students. He uses Kudu for homework assignments, and made homework and in-class activities worth much more of our final grade because of the pandemic. He allowed multiple attempts on each question on the homework assignments. I feel having multiple attempts on homework is beneficial as it encourages students to persevere on tough problems even if they get them wrong the first time, rather than give up the first time they answer a problem incorrectly. Through trial and error, students firsthand see correct and incorrect approaches to solve a particular physics problem and hopefully figure out why common incorrect approaches may seem correct at first glance.

His exams are equally as fair, with 24 hours for both midterms and the final. The averages for the midterms were very high (90 and 95 percent), but the final was harder than both midterms with a 75 average. All three exams were reasonable in difficulty.

His grading is very fair, with the top 10 percent of the class guaranteed an A and the top 30 percent of the class guaranteed an A-. He also guarantees a certain grade based on your raw percentage in the class (94 percent is an A, 98 percent is an A+). This way, even if the entire class does well, students who demonstrate "A" quality work will receive an A no matter how well everyone else does. Kusenko doesn't believe in forced curves/downcurving (which I heard some professors do). His grading discourages unnecessary competition that results from a forced curve, and thus truly prioritizes student learning over curves.

He is a really sweet person and often tells stories about his past (won't spoil what they're about). He made Physics really enjoyable for me as a CS major. I will really miss him as I heard he will be leaving to Japan to do research for the next few years.

GOAT. Very helpful and cooperative. He does live experiments during lectures. His office hours are really helpful and fun to hear about all his stories about his friends (soviet astronomers!)
The class is made up of a grading scheme that I really liked:
30% participation in in-class activities: He posts 3-5 pre-lecture questions before each chapter and 3-5 "clicker" questions during class which has a 24-hour window.
30% Homework: 18-20 questions each week
10% midterms: Two midterms each carry 10%. If you pay attention during lecture and do the extra problems he provides from both Kudu and the books he recommends you are going to ace them
20% Final: The final was a little harder than the midterms but manageable.
The class average for:
1- Midterm 1: 94.3%
2- Midterm 2: 90%
3- Final: 75.1% (It was only 8 questions and no partial credit so each question carried 2.5% which lowed the average.

Professor Kusenko was a decent professor and an amazing human. He always came to class dressed nicely, and he would crack the occasional joke or go off on a tangent about his astronaut/physicist friends, which were always very interesting stories. It is clear that he is extremely knowledgeable in physics, however, for someone like me who had almost no foundation in physics, I had to do a lot of self-studying in this class. He is still very helpful, but I think that the material in this class is simply too easy for him, as when he goes over examples in class he explains them well, but it's hard to see how he knew to use certain equations, as he skips the algebra in between steps.
Overall, I'd recommend taking Kusenko. He's awesome. 60% of the grade are these in-class activities and homework that are a little difficult, but it's easy to get 100% on them when you collaborate with other classmates. There's 2 midterms, each worth 10%, and the final is worth 20%, which is an extremely fair grading scheme. The second midterm is a lot easier than the first, and the final was actually pretty difficult, but the exams never were at the level of the hardest homework problems, so don't stress about that (aka shark and mackerel). He also has a grading scheme where it's both curved and raw score, so if for example, your grade is in the top 30% of the class, you get an A-, but you also get an A- if your grade is above a 90. He gives you whatever grade is higher. He also found a way to even incorporate fun demonstrations during online class. Kusenko is an amazing man, and I wish I could have met him in person. Choose Kusenko!