APPH E3200

Moderate to Heavy. 6 Problem Sets. Typical Grading Scheme: 35% Homework 15% Midterm 1 15% Midterm 2 35% Final I am unsure exactly what our grading scheme was since we never had Midterm 1 (conference schedule changes really messed up his schedule). I'm fairly certain he redistributed the 15% onto homework (or maybe whatever exam hurt you the least).

Final (cumulative, in class) 30% Quizzes (2, 1 was take-home) 20% Midterm (cumulative, in class) 20% Class participation (tutorials) 10% Homework 20% Homeworks were long but they're from the textbook so you can check answers. Quizzes are smaller versions of midterms.

Despite what the other review says, I actually really enjoyed Cole's Mechanics. He is by far the most knowledgeable professor I've ever had and seems to genuinely care about students understanding material. I think that, as he actually addressed in the first lecture, the other review comes from a misunderstanding of what he expects of you and what he is trying to accomplish. First of all, yes he does go at a blistering pace that is impossible to keep up with. This is because he expects students to review their notes diligently until it makes sense. Mechanics is a pretty large subject and he wants to get through as much material as possible. There would occasionally be make up (he would have conferences of conflicts occasionally) lectures that would somewhat turn into catch up lectures where we would cover a massive amount of material at a very high pace. He just expects you to spend at least 30 minutes each night looking over your notes and rewriting them (there were actually two assignments that involved rewriting your notes). The best thing you can do is to continually ask clarifying questions during lecture. He moves so fast that sometimes notation / convention changes mid-lecture. So if something seems out of the ordinary just ask. He knows everything. The other review clearly hated the problem sets. Although they are certainly hard and time consuming, there really aren't…

Great professor, Prof. Paul goes into the theory a lot with many derivations in class, but they kind of stand alone since homework/tests are about how you use the equations. But she covers many examples as well, so it is useful. The class is structured very well, where there are "tutorials" per unit where you spend a class solving a problem in a group. This helps you collaborate with peers and interact with the Prof. which was awesome.

Heavy Long problem sets due almost every week One midterm and a final Grading might be fair if any of the material were taught properly

I'm aware that almost everyone who takes this course is required to do so, but if you have any choice at all, stay far away. Take the course in another department if you can. Plan your four years at Columbia so that you never have to take this course. This was hands down one of the worst courses I've ever taken at Columbia, which is sad because the subject matter is important for anyone interested in physics or engineering. Cole goes through each lecture at such a ridiculous pace that it is actually impossible to follow what he's saying in class. Most professors, when covering difficult material, make it a point to repeat important points more than once or tie the end of their argument back to the beginning, but Cole doesn't do any of this. To emphasise this contrast, another professor once substituted for Cole and the material during that lecture was perfectly comprehensible. The only option you have left is to copy down what Cole writes on the board and try to decipher it later, which is extremely difficult if not impossible for most people to do. This brings me to the other sources of frustration in this class, homeworks and exams. Problem sets often take days to finish in groups. They are almost impossible to do alone. Worst of all, the problem sets do not actually test your understanding of the material and instead seem to be an assessment of whether you can find which te…