Professor
Patricia Phelps
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2019 - I am coming back from just finishing PhySci 111B... and I am very very happy I stayed a PhySci major despite all the negative things Ive heard. YES, it is hard. YES, I did question my abilities like crazy. But I and many other people did this! You can too. Dont let anyone tell you what you should or shouldnt do. If you want to be PhySci, BE PHYSCI!!! 107 was the best class Ive taken so far and I would do the series all over again if that meant choosing phy sci again. Good luck incoming juniors!
Fall 2019 - I am coming back from just finishing PhySci 111B... and I am very very happy I stayed a PhySci major despite all the negative things Ive heard. YES, it is hard. YES, I did question my abilities like crazy. But I and many other people did this! You can too. Dont let anyone tell you what you should or shouldnt do. If you want to be PhySci, BE PHYSCI!!! 107 was the best class Ive taken so far and I would do the series all over again if that meant choosing phy sci again. Good luck incoming juniors!
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2022 - I think there is a lot of fear around taking this class because students have heard that the course is pretty difficult in comparison to other PHYSCI electives that one could take. However, from my point of view, this class was great. One of the big drawbacks for students to sign up for the class is the daunting "50 minute research presentation". In reality, you yourself are only talking for about 15-20 minutes because you have at least one other partner to present with you. Also, you get an entire week+ to prepare and talk to your TA, who can explain any part of the paper you do not understand. Moreover, you are just presenting to a small discussion group, not the whole lecture. In terms of exams, they are VERY fair based off of what she teaches in the class. Like the previous review said, Professor Phelps teaches through experiments and their most significant findings, so as long as you know what happened in a certain experiment, you will do great. There is not a lot of "take this experiment and apply it to some abstract concept". It's more like "what happened in this experiment or paper". Lastly, the critiques are the same length as the PHYSCI 111 series critiques, but they are much better in my opinion because they ask for you to connect the paper to lecture material, which is more beneficial for learning content. Overall, this class was very overhyped in terms of difficulty (I know you're going to see that I got an A+, but trust me, this is only like my second A+ ever) and the professor was very kind and accommodating. As long as you take notes during lecture, you will do well!
Spring 2022 - I think there is a lot of fear around taking this class because students have heard that the course is pretty difficult in comparison to other PHYSCI electives that one could take. However, from my point of view, this class was great. One of the big drawbacks for students to sign up for the class is the daunting "50 minute research presentation". In reality, you yourself are only talking for about 15-20 minutes because you have at least one other partner to present with you. Also, you get an entire week+ to prepare and talk to your TA, who can explain any part of the paper you do not understand. Moreover, you are just presenting to a small discussion group, not the whole lecture. In terms of exams, they are VERY fair based off of what she teaches in the class. Like the previous review said, Professor Phelps teaches through experiments and their most significant findings, so as long as you know what happened in a certain experiment, you will do great. There is not a lot of "take this experiment and apply it to some abstract concept". It's more like "what happened in this experiment or paper". Lastly, the critiques are the same length as the PHYSCI 111 series critiques, but they are much better in my opinion because they ask for you to connect the paper to lecture material, which is more beneficial for learning content. Overall, this class was very overhyped in terms of difficulty (I know you're going to see that I got an A+, but trust me, this is only like my second A+ ever) and the professor was very kind and accommodating. As long as you take notes during lecture, you will do well!
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