Janna Levin

Standard E&M class. Covers CH 21-33 of Halliday, Resnick, and Walker, Fundamental of Physics. I don't like Professor Levin's teaching style. She also misses lectures quite frequently to go on random talk shows and then tells us about it in class, which is a little funny and I respect the hustle but not necessarily something you want in a professor. I much more prefer the recitation sessions, highly recommend going to them even if you understand the material well.

Horrible professor. Does not give practice exams and her exams are different than what she assigns for homework.

Do not take this class unless you are super passionate about physics----she will actually grill you one why you are taking the class if you do not show that you are super interested in it. She is a great professor, and one that grades fairly. What ever she teaches will be on the midterm--no surprises what so ever. Although her words and tone can be really harsh most times(Do not speak to her one no one if you are sensitive--she will make you cry), she is a great teacher and has your best interest in mind.

Good class and great professor. If you want an in depth perspective of General Relativity and all its implications this is the course for you. That being said, if you are looking for an easy going class that takes a very general and qualitative approach to GR and black holes, this class may be a bit more than you would bargain for. The class is deceptively difficult. The course is very math intensive and relies heavily linear algebra, differential geometry and topology. If you are like me and don't have a strong background in any of these subjects, you might find the course to be a bit overwhelming at first... in fact, about a third of my the class didn't return after the second week. Still, if you are really interested in learning general relativity, I would encourage you stick with it because after a while you will realize that the course gets very repetitive and once you look back, everything will start to make sense. Despite the dense and often times inaccessible course work Janna Levin manages to make her class an enjoyable experience. She is very approachable and shows genuine interest in ensuring that her students learn the material. She does have the tendency to speed through the material but she was always more than happy to review obscure topics.

While Janna Levin is funny, interesting, and cool, she is also a very difficult teacher. There are long homeworks with seven questions (usually each question has four to six parts) that a merciless TA grades. There are long involved proofs in class and slightly shorter proofs that she expects you to know for tests. Her tests are also difficult (expect long involved problems with 4-8 parts) and she doesn't budget time very well. Basically she expects students to be dedicated physics lovers and always seems suprised that we can't immediately see the solution to a proof. If you are looking for a easy A do not take this class because there are a handful of physics majors that mess up the curve (there are only thirty-five or less in a class). If you are looking for a challenging proof driven course, then take this class.

course was very disorganized and exams were unlike questions we had seen before, so although I feel as if I grasp the course material I don't feel my grades reflect that which is frustrating. That being said, professor Levin is very nice and wants us all to succeed which is a great feeling in college where that usually isn't the case. She is a very busy person so that can be challenging at times. Overall, have mixed feelings about this course so do not know if I would recommend. Professor Levin is good at changing the course based on student feedback. most improvements that have been suggested to her have been implemented, as she is very good at adapting based on class needs.

Least favorite prof I had all four years. She's pretentious, arrogant, mean spirited, rude, talks down to her students...has a total stick up her butt/thinks she's the most brilliant person to ever bless this planet. Acts like she's the sun, everything revolves around her (ha, get it? solar system joke). She constantly (I mean constantly) talks about herself, it's actually unreal. She absolutely picks favorited and if you aren't willing to suck up hella hard then she will actively dislike you. Real bummer of a semester to be honest.

I took General Relativity, Black Holes, and Cosmology with her.. She is absolutely fantastic. While she may not always be able to help you with specific examples during class unless time is specifically set out for that (and it sometimes is), she will always help in office hours. and she is so nice! and has been on the Colbert report!! Overall, an incredible fantastic, inspiring, wonderful physics professor. Take a class with her if you do get a chance. it is soo worth it.

Very long weekly homeworks (around three hrs solo work and three hrs of group work=6hrs total). Of course there are some people who manage to do it in 2 hrs (usually physics majors). 3 quizzes (study like hell for them and know ALL the concepts). midterm + final (hard and very conceptual, get ready to do proofs with differential equations). She does however curve--somehow a 50 average was computed to a B, but the class average was pretty low. . . . well except for the 5 or so physic majors that had 90 averages.

This likely is not the fault of Dr. Levin directly, but way too much background in physics is assumed for the Intro Mechanics class. I took physics in high school, so I was able to keep up with the concepts, but I feel for the girls who thought they'd take a physics class to widen their horizons or challenge themselves, but just ended up feeling stupid. And it's not as if these girls aren't "cut out" for physics; it's that the material is taught in a way that does not sufficiently link each concept to others. If we, as a women's college, want more women in subjects like physics, it cannot be taught in this way. No one wants to study something that makes them feel stupid. This is where the part about Dr. Levin comes in. She is funny, commanding, and obviously very intelligent, but she is not a very inviting teacher. Sometimes she makes condescending comments or answers questions in a way that implies the question was stupid or unnecessary. Granted, there are always those few people in every class that have to let everyone know how much they understand the material, and so do make unnecessary comments, but Dr. Levin's contempt is not always contained to these people who arguably deserve it. All in all, don't depend solely on the instruction of Dr. Levin, take advantage of TAs, lab instructors, tutors, help rooms, GOOGLE, etc etc as much as you can.