They've added this 205M thing since I've left state and come back, and now it's time to pick one or the other. I'm an engineer, a programmer. Anyone have any experience that might lead me in the best direction?

Would you advise against taking 205M and then 208N if it's to get better professors?

12/12/2007 1:12:11 PM

205m with daniels, hardest class i've ever taken. If you haven't taken physics in high school then be sure to get a good teacher.

12/12/2007 2:07:20 PM

I took Physics in 2002 in high school. I also haven't taken calculus in 3 years.

12/12/2007 2:12:11 PM

If I could go back and do it again i would have just looked for whatever best prof was available to instruct the course. Daniels is so horrible, she is great at what she does, but she shouldn't be allowed to teach. Her lack of communication skills and constantly teaching material that didn't invovle the homeworks or tests got very old. Only prof that I ever had that was worse was Silverstein for MA 141, avoid him at all costs. I managed to pull a C in PY 205, but all of my other grades suffered because I dedicated ALL of my time to passing that class. Labs for PY 205 are so awful too, i learned more coding than actual physics because of that bullshit V-python program.

12/12/2007 4:00:52 PM

I think I'm going to sign up for the STEP-UP version of PY205M. I've heard good things about it. Gaffney is teaching it this semester.

ps.. I <3 python

[Edited on December 12, 2007 at 4:09 PM. Reason : ++]

12/12/2007 4:08:49 PM

you say that now...

12/12/2007 4:22:32 PM

i've taken 205N and 208N both with patty and it's the easiest shit ever. easier than physics was in high school.

12/12/2007 6:50:22 PM

if you're stupid, STEP-UP SCALE-UP is great because it forces you to do the work more than you would otherwise, but I thought PY208M scale up was absolutely horrible

Webassign tests are the worst idea ever concieved

stick with the lecture if you're a self respecting engineer, plus 205 is all easy ass algebra and building off simple formulas. I had it with Mclaughlin a few years back and I was either finishing crosswords or sleeping through most lectures and still had no problems at all.

EDIT: oh and try searching, I swear this thread gets made every year since the inception of the n/m types and i've probably commented every year

[Edited on December 12, 2007 at 8:00 PM. Reason : ]

12/12/2007 7:51:51 PM

N

all the way

12/12/2007 7:55:25 PM

i took 208 scale-up with risley in the fall of 2003

i hated the class and i hated him

[Edited on December 12, 2007 at 7:55 PM. Reason : ]

12/12/2007 7:55:33 PM

Ernie, was it just the professor that made the class suck? or why did you hate it?
It's got to suck more than an 8am MWF 205M class, because that's the only alternative I have right now. Having 8am classes just seems to make things harder.

ps... WolfAce, I did search. But because TWW will only search topics, I couldn't find any threads that had anything to do with this. I did a search for scale-up and found one, but I didn't even know about scale-up when I found

12/13/2007 8:55:32 AM

my friend took scale up for 205m, she constantly bitched about the webassign tests because you got NO partial credit and if you just made a stupid error when submitting an answer on your first choice, i.e. a negative instead of a positive, then it was counted wrong and you got less points on the next submission for such a small error.

I personally hate webassign, and will avoid it like the fucking plague.

12/13/2007 9:16:23 AM

^^yeah the search function on tww is a huge piece of shit

sometimes I've typed in exact thread titles and it wouldn't find them

Quote :

"she constantly bitched about the webassign tests because you got NO partial credit and if you just made a stupid error when submitting an answer on your first choice, i.e. a negative instead of a positive, then it was counted wrong and you got less points on the next submission for such a small error."

Yes that is why webassign tests in 208M scale up are the worst idea ever, and probably the reason I didn't get an A+ in 208. The smallest error which on a written test might be -1 point, is automatically almost half off on your first submission. Sometimes it is absolutely terrifying hitting that submit button, especially because you can see how you're doing on the test as you go, so with every mistake you know that each successive problem gets that more important

a few little mistakes on those webassign tests can shatter your confidence and make you second guess everything after you start getting a few wrong that you thought you did right

any math-based class absolutely should let you show your work and give partial credit, nilbus see if you can find out whether they're giving webassign tests in 205M scale-up before you do it

[Edited on December 13, 2007 at 10:41 AM. Reason : ]

12/13/2007 10:35:45 AM

when i took the scale-up 205 class in Spring '05, they were written exams, not webassign

12/13/2007 11:41:14 AM

Yeah I only took scale-up for 208, I know 205 did not use webassign tests at one point but that may have changed

12/13/2007 11:47:56 AM

yikes, the class I'm enrolled in is being taught by a TA/grad student.

12/13/2007 11:51:39 AM

hey sometimes that's better than a professor, I've had some stellar TA's where I learn everything in office hours rather than lecture

but sometimes it's terrible too

12/13/2007 11:54:37 AM

This TA Jon Gaffney worked under Dr. Beichner before. His tests are on paper, not on webassign. I've heard nothing but good things about Dr. Beichner, so if his TA learned anything from him, he should be pretty good.

12/13/2007 12:12:21 PM

Jon is a good guy, he was the TA when I took 208 with Beichner. He's pretty fair and if I recall, the days he taught his teaching was about on par with Beichner. Maybe not as quirky and excited about things, but that got on my nerves anyways. I liked Jon's dry sarcastic sense of humor. I was very vocal to him about how I felt about webassign tests, and he agreed with me on a lot of my complaints, so I think webassign tests might have died over the next few years. So you'll probably do fine.

[Edited on December 13, 2007 at 12:28 PM. Reason : ]

12/13/2007 12:26:59 PM

dont take PY205N or PY208N with Mowat - hes tough, but if you try hard enough you can ace it

12/13/2007 1:16:34 PM

Take PY205M with Chabay... Pretty much BAWLINNNN

12/13/2007 11:06:59 PM