Stephen Cohen

DO THE WEBWORKS. He does not put them in practice problems, but trust, the webworks look way more like the tests than the practice problems. Also, do the exam prep stuff in the practice problems, they are pertinent. Make sure to understand the fundamentals and listen to his lab explanations. They can be in the tests.

Had him for first semester Mechanics, second semester Waves, Optics, and Modern Physics. Personality-wise, he's very kind and approachable, and is always willing to help and answer questions. He's very calm and soft-spoken, so it's better to sit in the front if you have hearing problems or if you tend to get easily distracted. Generally, two tests are given throughout the semester; there will be a quiz every couple of weeks or so which may or may not count towards your grade (in mechanics, some counted, but in waves, all were self-check quizzes, which means they were done on your own time & were meant for you to be able to evaluate how well you understood the concept). If the quizzes do count, they don't count for very much (5% cumulatively) and he discards the lowest one. His approach to explaining concepts is as follows: he explains the concept arbitrarily, gives an abstract example to help you visualize what he's talking about, and then will almost always derive the equation which you will most often use in problem-solving related to the concept. Then he goes more in-depth and gives more details, and he will give two to three problems that he will solve in class related to the concepts. The problems increase in difficulty and there are generally many parts to each problem: he will present the question, and then there will be several "sub-questions" related to the main question. To practice these concepts, there are practice problems (made by other teachers) which present solutions written in a different format than what you are taught in class, which can be extremely confusing to interpret. Don't worry - if you ask, he will direct you to the questions most pertinent to the material you are studying. There are also a set of WebWorks problems for each topic that you can practice on your own time (NOT GRADED, and open all throughout the semester). Before each test, a test from previous years with similar material will be posted as a sample exam. Overall, he's an engineer-turned-teacher who loves his job, and is very open-minded and fun.

Very helpful teacher. The classes and labs were enjoyable and helped us connect with what we were learning in class. Labs were very hands-on and he would often do live demonstrations in class and get us students involved.

Basically gives free marks everywhere, an easy class he makes it fun with simulators and readings. Pay attention, do his problems and practice tests and you'll be more than flying. Only thing is that he speaks very low so try to sit in the front

There aren't many assignments which influence your grade, so you have o pay attention and put in effort on the ones that do. The quizes are for you and don't have weightage which i loved but can also lead to procastination. Easy class, not overburdening