Chris O'Donovan - University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON

Professor: Chris O'Donovan

Department: Physics

College: University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: PHYS363
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

He literally taught us nothing. His only notes were so disorganized that it couldn't even help either. Learnt more by Googling course material.

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: PHYS442
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Does not know much physics. Should only be teaching SCI courses. Nice guy though.

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: PHYS363
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

His lectures are disorganized. He often spend a lot of time on correcting his mistakes during lecture, and sometimes he states an example without doing it, forcing you to look it up yourself. In fact his lectures contain very little content. He likes to tell jokes which I think is good, but some people don't like it. Homework and exams are long.

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: PHYS363
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Shouldn't be teaching imo. Doesn't go through examples, doesn't give solutions to in-class examples. All round avoid like the plague

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: PHYS363
• Grade Received: Not sure yet
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Literally doesn't teach. Every example he does contains an opening statement, then a "...", and finally the answer. Best learning experience I've ever had.

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: PHYS442
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Well for starters, I don't know what I have really learned in this class. The prof spends a lot of time talking about random stuff. For the midterm he said specifically what was on there and then didn't put it on there. Next he didn't teach half the material for it (ie/ polarization through media). If it wasn't for the textbook I would have failed.

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: PHYS442
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Very polarizing figure in the undergraduate physics community. I am with the Dislike crowd and frankly don't understand how others think he is okay, but to each their own. He is literally banned from teaching certain courses as a result of student-organized petitions. Nice enough guy but unfortunately overshadowed by his inability to teach well.

Rating # 8

Overview:

• Course: PHYS442
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

I heard so many rumors that he was awful but O'Donovan is easily one of the best profs I've ever had. He's very energetic and funny in class. His office door was quite literally always open and ready to help. He follows the textbook extremely closely and provides handouts to supplement it. His tests were very fair, no surprises, a bit long though.

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: PHYS442
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

Very interesting and humorous prof. His has passion teaching his class. The teaching pace is fast but it follows Griffiths and appear to be very clear. Has bonus essay worth 5% for final and can lift up the final grades a lot.

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: PHYS442
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

By far one of the worst teachers in physics. His tests are not similar to his assignments or his lectures, he does not explain things well in class, he does not answer questions clearly, his notes are complicating things introduced in the textbook, and he will basically give you the answer to a question in office hours instead of helping you learn.

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: PHYS236
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

You can't tech a course worse than O'Donovan. Its like trying to cool something below absolute zero.

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: PHYS236
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

This guy is one of the worst professors in the University of Waterloo. You will not learn anything related to the course. His exams are stupid and if you ask him how to code something or how a function works he'll just tell you to google it. Avoid him like the plague.

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: PHYS441A
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

The Griffiths book is excellent, and this course followed it pretty closely. Something about his lecturing style is exhausting and hard to learn from. Not a fan of the puns...

Rating # 14

Overview:

• Course: PHYS441A
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

On the surface, it's hard to tell what's wrong with this professor, but something is. The best that I can say about this class is that the textbook was excellent, but my knowledge and understanding of electrodynamics has decreased from exposure to O'Donovan.

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: PHYS236
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Unreasonable and useless

Rating # 16

Overview:

• Course: PHYS263
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Assignments were half-decent. Midterm was decent but it was belled, so hooray! Final was one of the worst I've ever written, so I'm waiting for the bell. Goes too fast during lectures. Attempted to teach us unnecessary material. He tries really hard but he just doesn't explain things well for our level of knowledge. Interesting guy, though.

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: PHYS363
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

In theory this should have been a very easy course. Why there was an essay for a phys course is beyond me. The assignments are ridiculous. Doesn't teach any of the material properly and expects you to get it from the textbook, which is the worst I've ever used. Ludicrous how many marks are docked on assignments for trivial mistakes.

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: PHYS363
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

He makes a lot of puns. We cover a few chapters of Marion-Thorton. I don't like the idea of writing an essay for a phys course. He has a lot of energy for an 8:30 class. Kinda like what I imagine Robin Williams would be like if he were a physicist.

Rating # 19

Overview:

• Course: PHYS122
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Lots of mixed opinions about this professor but I really like his teaching style and course organization.

Rating # 20

Overview:

• Course: PHYS236
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Very poor prof. I wouldn't mind his jokes if he knew how to teach but the doesn't. He expects everybody in the class to already know how to program. The median for the first test was 50 and that includes some 100's from people who already knew how to program so it was actually ~ 45. He is also very rude to people who ask questions.