Jim Ramberg

Oy, this was the hardest 1 credit hour I've ever seen in my academic career. Unfortunately, it's paired up with PHYS 220, so you have to take it at SFSU if you take the other course.

Jim himself was an OK teacher, and that's why I haven't graded him specifically up above. In fact, if he reads this, I'm sorry he'll be associated with the overall "D" grade on the review.

To begin, the amount of detail required in this course was ridiculous. Everything, and I do mean everything, had to be explicitly stated in order to receive full credit on lab write-ups, a process which, on average, took about 8-10 hours each weekend to complete. Everything had to be diagrammed, and significant figures caused problems throughout the coursework, especially since no one explained them adequately. For people who are preparing for this course, less is more.

The tests were difficult and confusing in their verbage. I remember one problem in particular dealing with people riding in an elevator, wherein they asked you to detail the force they were subjected to. However, no mention was made of "which" force at "what" particular instance, so you had to do all of them to cover yourself. Also, the tests were supposed to be open book (it was said in the first class period), but they never actually were.

The labs themselves took a long time, mainly due to the equipment being used. The sheer frustration caused by inoperable equipment alone could set you back an hour, and then you have to turn a report where your data proves that what goes up keeps going up. The department needs to put some money down to replace the equipment in the labs, or they'll eventually have entire section turning in reasons why their data is bad, rather than the data itself.

I really didn't have a problem with Jim; I felt he was adhering to the guidelines laid down by the Physics department. I have a problem with a one credit hours class that requires more time outside the lab than any of the three credit courses I've had thus far. The hours you earn are vastly disproportionate to the amount of work the Physics department expects from you.