Stefan Westerhoff

having come in with basically no highschool physics regarding E&M, along with not having taken calcIV, this class was almost near impossible. sure, westerhoff may have been a slightly better lecturer than first semester physics that i had with aprile, but definitely not worth switching teachers. aprile's class is infinitely more reasonable in terms of expectations for homework and exams. of course, i lacked the insight of getting a solutions manual because the homework problems are again, near impossible. just make sure to copy down the problems from previous exams on your cheat sheet, he's bound to re-use one almost exactly.

Coming from a mediocre teacher in HS and a 5 on the Physics C exam, Westerhoff seemed like an improvement. That said, I stopped going to class as I was incrediblely bored in class. The lectures arent bad if you arent very familiar with the material. If you know it, dont waste your time. The tests were okay. I had 78's when the average was 60-65. To get an A, you had to have above 83% for the course. My 78 got me an A-. Having an answer key made the hw infinately easier.

Professor Westerhoff is a really really nice guy. He seems to take joy in helping a student out in office hours which is a fantastic thing. His lectures however tend to fall flat. His voice is almost perfect for making your mind wander and his explanations are less than lucid. His demonstrations are a 50/50 shot. Half of them either don't work, or don't serve to further understanding, while the other half stick in your head. Overall, I would say he's a mediocre professor as a lecturer, but fantastic one on one. If you have a class with Professor Westerhoff, make sure you see him a lot in office hours. Not a bad choice.

Stefan loves his physics and moreover his astronomy. In fact, many of his final questions dealt with astronomy. All he does in his lectures is prove equations in the book. However, they are quite interesting, but it will not help you on tests. DO THE HOMEWORK. It's the only way to study for the midterms and finals. you are allowed one cheat sheet for the tests so use it wisely. He usually pulls one question from his practice test on his midterms. His final was ridiculous proof problems that you simply can't study for. You just gotta be good. Overall he curves to a B+ where the median grade is a 65. 65-75 is prob an B+. 76-84 is a A-. 85-92 is A. 92+ is A+.

Prof. Westerhoff is a competent lecturer and is always very well organized. No, he is not particularly animated and teaches with a no nonsense style. This, of course, is very much in tune with the material. Don't expect to be fascinated by the material in the way that you might expect from an introductory course. In other words, this is not a course you shop around for. If you're reading this review, then you are probably either a physics or applied physics major, in which case you won't have a choice in deciding whether or not to take this course. Thankfully, Westerhoff gets the job done as efficiently and as painlessly as the material permits. Note that he does not curve exams and grades on a scale that he himself deems fit. You have to more or less know your stuff to get an A, which isn't particularly easy since the material can get pretty involved. Also, the diffuculty of his exams can fluctuate significantly, so be wary.

I took Physics B and C in high school, so it is a really big help to have taken AP physics in high school. Westerhoff is a nice guy who makes the occasional joke. I started off the year taking 1601 with Amber Miller, so the class was definitely an upgrade. However, his lecture style is fairly fast-paced yet boring, and he tends to focus on unnecessary derivations and material not needed for the exam. I attended the first 4 or 5 lectures, but ended up not going at all during the rest of the semester because I didn't feel like the notes I took would help at all (and I would just do sudokus during class anyhow). The weekly homeworks are challenging (8-10 problems), but most everyone had the answer key and just copied them right before they were due. The TA's must know everyone copied because people had the same steps on their paper, but they didn't care at all. If you wanna ease through the midterms/final, do the homework. A lot of the diagrams on the tests I recognized from homework problems, but had to figure them out on my own because I had completely copied them the day they were due. I crammed for the midterms and final 2 days before each test, and got a 75% on every test. Grades are curved generously, 84-100% was an A+ (8 people), 75-83% was an A (20ish people), 65-74% was an A- (25ish people). I think only 1 person failed, and no one else got below a C. Definitely easier t…

This class is NOT EASY. I definately worked my butt off this semester... most likely because I didn't consistently go to class. Go to all the classes, and review a little bit before each class, and you'll have a much easier time of it than I did. And for all that stress and difficulty I still got a decent grade, so that says something about the great curve. Westerhoff is REALLY REALLY tall. He does interesting demonstrations and cracks amusing jokes. I found him quite dull but that might've been because staying up really late + pages of physics notes = not good. He lets us take a note sheet into every midterm and the exam. This is a good class. Just be prepared to be an organized and diligent student.

Westerhoff is a very kind and caring man, and is willing to put a lot of time and effort into helping students do well. Unfortunately, he finds the subject unbearably boring and this really shows in his lectures. He copies his lecture notes very neatly onto the board, but since he can copy a derivation faster than a person can follow it, it can be hard to keep up. In the end the result will get a box around it, and you can just use the final formulas to do all the homework even if you didn't understand how they came about, but the class never really sang to me. I think it's really discouraging when even the professor doesn't find what he's doing interesting.

I don't care what all the other reviews say- this class is HARD! If you are not engineering do not take this course-there is no reason to. Sure, at the end of the day you can walk out with a decent grade given the curve but surviving the rigorous weekly problem sets and walking out of each test certain that you bombed is not good for your confidence. PROS: Westerhoff may be the talest prof you will have at Columbia, cool accent (kept me awake for the first month), a predictable 36 blackboards of notes every class, tests are easier than the homeworks, cheat sheet, the curve. CONS: Prepare to be rocked- and not in a good way. Hard problem sets (the physics help room cannot do them either so save your time), hard tests (this was so far the only class in Columbia where I could not do what was in front of me), stress and frustration.

Westerhoff is certainly a nice guy - like most reviewers here say - but his lecturing skills are below average, in my opinion. He comes very well prepared to lectures yet his explanations are quite unsatisfactory at times and pace a bit quick. He tries to explain things - and sometimes does a decent job - but the overall quality of conveying the material is not that great. Homework, in that respect, is very helpful. I mainly learned from that. Overall though, he is not a bad teacher - there are certainly much worse ones. Take his class if you are willing to work a bit harder and put more effort into the (sometimes challenging) homework problem sets.