Professor
Wesley Campbell
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2016 - I loved having Prof. Campbell for mechanical physics. He is a young guy that interacts very well with students. I thought he gave some good lectures, but you can expect to fall asleep a couple times in his class. Some people love that he gives massively curved tests (the average on the first midterm was a 37%) and others don't. He is generous with the curve though to make sure that people succeed and learn something in his class. Would definitely recommend him to anyone.
Winter 2016 - I loved having Prof. Campbell for mechanical physics. He is a young guy that interacts very well with students. I thought he gave some good lectures, but you can expect to fall asleep a couple times in his class. Some people love that he gives massively curved tests (the average on the first midterm was a 37%) and others don't. He is generous with the curve though to make sure that people succeed and learn something in his class. Would definitely recommend him to anyone.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2024 - This class was probably the best class I could've taken as a freshman. The first lecture completely blew me out of the water, but quickly, Campbell's teaching style became more comfortable. The homework is hard and time consuming, but this class was very memorable, and I met some wonderful people in it. If you want to take this class because of the challenge, then I would say to do it as long as you are aware that it is a CHALLENGE. Campbell was a great, engaging lecturer, and moved at a quick pace to avoid distractions. I would say this though, read the book before, take notes and what it has to say, then add what Prof says afterward. Copying lecture notes may lead you astray, as he mainly just draws the scenarios and writes some of the math. He leaves out a lot of the theory/concepts. Attendance was not mandatory. A note though, if you have not taken multivariable calculus, definitely do some self-teaching, as this will make a lot of your concepts easier to follow. Campbell can overcomplicate things in his lectures, so as long as you can follow along with the concepts and try to replicate his math, then you should be fine. Overall, this class was very generous in terms of content, support, and curving. If you do not want to dedicate your life to this class, then good luck. But if you are determined to learn on a rigorous level, then this is the course for you.
Fall 2024 - This class was probably the best class I could've taken as a freshman. The first lecture completely blew me out of the water, but quickly, Campbell's teaching style became more comfortable. The homework is hard and time consuming, but this class was very memorable, and I met some wonderful people in it. If you want to take this class because of the challenge, then I would say to do it as long as you are aware that it is a CHALLENGE. Campbell was a great, engaging lecturer, and moved at a quick pace to avoid distractions. I would say this though, read the book before, take notes and what it has to say, then add what Prof says afterward. Copying lecture notes may lead you astray, as he mainly just draws the scenarios and writes some of the math. He leaves out a lot of the theory/concepts. Attendance was not mandatory. A note though, if you have not taken multivariable calculus, definitely do some self-teaching, as this will make a lot of your concepts easier to follow. Campbell can overcomplicate things in his lectures, so as long as you can follow along with the concepts and try to replicate his math, then you should be fine. Overall, this class was very generous in terms of content, support, and curving. If you do not want to dedicate your life to this class, then good luck. But if you are determined to learn on a rigorous level, then this is the course for you.
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Most Helpful Review
This class has been the bane of my existence and it's only two units!! There is a lab report due every week and they take HOURS. Worse than that, this is the only class I've ever had where the curve will actually hurt you: if everyone in the class gets above a 90 and you get 90, you're screwed. Luckily, the professor only gives out As, Bs, and Cs. The professor insists this is the best way to run the course, but I call bullshit.
This class has been the bane of my existence and it's only two units!! There is a lab report due every week and they take HOURS. Worse than that, this is the only class I've ever had where the curve will actually hurt you: if everyone in the class gets above a 90 and you get 90, you're screwed. Luckily, the professor only gives out As, Bs, and Cs. The professor insists this is the best way to run the course, but I call bullshit.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2024 - Wes is an awesome professor! He is a great lecturer and truly cares about student learning. He also makes class interactive with demos and Q&As. In regards to exams, there was one midterm (30%) and the final (40%). The exams were difficult but do-able. He generously curved them as well. If you're taking physics 17, I highly recommend taking it with Campbell.
Winter 2024 - Wes is an awesome professor! He is a great lecturer and truly cares about student learning. He also makes class interactive with demos and Q&As. In regards to exams, there was one midterm (30%) and the final (40%). The exams were difficult but do-able. He generously curved them as well. If you're taking physics 17, I highly recommend taking it with Campbell.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2021 - This professor curves down for labs. I shouldn't even need to elaborate but I will. The labs weren't particularly hard but due to the course being online in Fall 2021 (for whatever silly reason they kept a lab class online when every other one was in person at this point) the labs were notoriously difficult to set up properly to get data by the end of the course. At one point the TAs, who were really the only way to get help due to the class structure, didn't even know what to do/how to answer students questions about the labs. I went to just about every office hours trying to learn Python for this course since I had never used it before (Python should be a prereq for this course). Going to all office hours and meeting with TAs outside of their normal hours to complete my assignments to their liking I was still somehow losing points on the labs. Regardless I ended the course with ~93%. In any other course this would be an A or at least an A-. In Wesley's class this is a B+. Despite having shown significant effort to accomplish the tasks assigned to both TAs and the professor and confirming that my assignments met the requirements they were looking for before submission every time, he refused to remove the down curve because that was "representative of the work I did." The work I did didn't raise any alarms when I showed it to you before submission, make it make sense.
Fall 2021 - This professor curves down for labs. I shouldn't even need to elaborate but I will. The labs weren't particularly hard but due to the course being online in Fall 2021 (for whatever silly reason they kept a lab class online when every other one was in person at this point) the labs were notoriously difficult to set up properly to get data by the end of the course. At one point the TAs, who were really the only way to get help due to the class structure, didn't even know what to do/how to answer students questions about the labs. I went to just about every office hours trying to learn Python for this course since I had never used it before (Python should be a prereq for this course). Going to all office hours and meeting with TAs outside of their normal hours to complete my assignments to their liking I was still somehow losing points on the labs. Regardless I ended the course with ~93%. In any other course this would be an A or at least an A-. In Wesley's class this is a B+. Despite having shown significant effort to accomplish the tasks assigned to both TAs and the professor and confirming that my assignments met the requirements they were looking for before submission every time, he refused to remove the down curve because that was "representative of the work I did." The work I did didn't raise any alarms when I showed it to you before submission, make it make sense.
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