Szabolcs Marka

Took this Fall 2020 - Szabolcs is one of the nicest professors I've had, but the class wasn't that organized. He barely follows the textbook and the lectures/slides aren't that clear. However, the homeworks do closely follow the textbook, which is largely unrelated to the material taught in class. The exams don't cover the homework material but do cover the lecture material. A lot of the material didn't make sense until we were given actual practice problems before the exam. We didn't have a TA for the first month or so, but once we did the class improved significantly. (Andrew Sullivan is the GOAT). His review sessions and recitations clarified so much of the material. If you ask questions in OH and try to understand the practice exams, the class becomes much more doable. The actual exams mirrored the practice exams super closely, and the final was around 50% questions from the midterms and practice exams. This class is supposed to cover a lot of material, but we probably got through only two-thirds of it. If the TA is good and you're comfortable with learning from review sessions and practice problems, then the class is definitely manageable.

Physics for Poets was a wild ride. I took the class during Covid-19, so I am not certain how much my experience reflects what it would be like in person. The professor is excited about the material and loves physics, and shares that excitement with his students. My major issue with the course was the separation between the lectures and the homework -- the homework required lots of outside (seemingly random) research and was incredibly time-consuming, and the lecture notes only helped marginally. While I did find the course material interesting, because of the amount of work required, I'm not sure I would recommend this class. With that said, it is definitely appropriate for someone who is not a science major.

Where to begin. Before registering for this class, I was confused by Culpa reviews that seemed pretty positive until a few years ago, then a dramatic change to horrific reviews. Let me tell you- heed the latter's warning. This class was the ultimate shit show. The workload is absolutely obscene- be expected to get hammered with time consuming homework requiring extensive outside research on things intentionally not covered in class and something like 1000 pages of reading a week if you were to attempt to complete it. Do NOT believe the description, the entire first month of the class is pure straight physics at a break-neck pace. The majority of us are non science majors (aka as the fucking class says its supposed to be friendly to) and were drowning in rapid fire quantum physics, thermodynamics, etc. Marka is. a really likable guy but his sense of humor veils the fact that he doesn't really care about this class. The man was part of the LIGO discovery of gravitational waves and is clearly given massive amounts of research $ here and forced to teach this class. He hardly uploads lectures, sometimes just before the exam and has a general ambivalence that anyone is taking any other class besides his, as reflected by the workload. Our TA (1 TA for over 100 people and wasn't appointed until a month into the class) spoke to us like we are all complete morons, basically barring anyo…

Easiest class I've taken in both my college and high school careers. No work necessary. Okay, maybe a few psets and a term paper about nothing and a presentation at one point. No midterm. Take home final. If you're a humanities person like me with absolutely no sense of science needing to fill the patriarchal requirement of the CC science requirement, take this class. Oh and also if you're lazy, take this class. There were 130 people registered for the class and I'd say that about 20 would show up to lecture on a good day. You're fucking welcome.

Dear Professor Marka, Hi, remember me? I was in your 3008 Class. Yes, I was wondering where my grades were. You see, I spent a lot of time studying for your class, and you seemed to like teaching it, heck, you even took us up and let us watch you cut things with your laser cutter! But why, oh why Professor Marka, hasn't my grade been posted yet? Your lecture notes were a disorganized, your accent made you a little difficult to understand, but I grinned, and I bared it, Professor Marka! You see, I tried! I tried very hard to enjoy your class, professor! You explained to us the most interesting of modern physics experiments, you always explained how the concepts were relevant to everyday life; this could have even been a good CULPA review! It could have been! But no, Professor. After delivering our final exam grades just hours after the test was over, you have yet to post our semester grades. It has been four weeks, Professor. I have already begun learning newer physics; the applications of what you taught me! Just the way you wanted-- But still, not a grade in sight! Sincerely, A student

Marka is the most inept professor/teacher I have had in my life, and this is a view shared by EVERY person I knew or worked with in the class >15 people. Sure I got a good grade, but this class was worthless. The course material is obviously engaging and the foundation of so much physics. Upon further investigation.. I found out that Marka has trouble keeping graduate students to work with him in research. Here's a few reasons to describe what makes Marka so bad: -Poor (useless) lecture style: does not explain derivations, explains topic as if it is a review, starts talking about things that are barely examples of the phenomena -Poor class organization: Syllabus gets filled in on courseworks as a one word topic a few weeks after each class, spaced 2 out of 3 midterms with 2 classes in between, homeworks get handed back months later or not at all -Long and difficult homeworks of which the lectures are of no help, draws on concepts and ideas that you may have never been exposed to -"-has no concept of how little the class understands the material, not helpful during office hours because he Doesnt Understand Questions how unfortunate that a class he teaches is a requirement for so many physics majors. to get a good grade- share homeworks, copy down the questions from the practice midterm on to your formula sheet- he uses the exact same questions and answers year after year from t…

I thought Marka was a good professor. It was a huge class, so it wasn't at all personal, but I think he did as much as he could to ensure that most of the class was not left behind. Attending class really didn't contribute very much to your understanding and he often covered different material than what we were tested on, but I often liked going to class because he was so entertaining (especially when he did experiments) and earnestly enthused about physics in a way that was contagious. He posts everything he does on Courseworks, and his slide shows are helpful if you've already read the book. The homeworks are graded fair to easy, and the midterms and final are reasonable. The course covers a whole lot of material, so it is often fast paced, but I thought Marka made it as close as possible to fun.

I think the most awful thing about his class is powerpoint presentation. Even though he might be good physicists, his teaching abilities are not that satisfactory. For those who will be majoring in Physics, it should be taken into serious consideration that the materials presented in the course are very important. Thus a good professor is required to make the materials clear and more interesting. Marka fails to draw the attention of his students in this reagrd. The class had no sense to me when it reached its third week. I cannot judge his intellectual abilities in physics, but i am sure that he does not communicate with his students well in the class. About the workload and finals, previous reviews are enough to give everybody a good impression.

This class is a joke. Quite literally from start to finish, an actual joke. The lectures are incoherent, the problem sets are taken from one book while the lectures follow another, and the exams are just random. The grading feels like Marka threw a dart at the wall and gave you the grade it landed on. In this class, you will learn no physics. You will learn, in fact, absolutely nothing. You will get to hear Marka semi-coherently whisper about oscillators and bridges, and you will get some good inside jokes out of it. I can't believe this class is required for my major, and I can't believe I go to an Ivy League institution.

Reviewer has not received the grades but likely to receive an A. Professor Marka is clearly a first class astrophysicist but felt that lectures were not delivered in the most coherent manner. Some questions on the finals and homeworks were not explicitly discussed in class which left some students confused. My recommendation is to go to class to see experiments in class and review the slides at home. One homework had 20 pages so be warned that this class may not be as easy as before.