Zack Schlesinger - University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA

Professor: Zack Schlesinger

Department: Physics

College: University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: PHYS6A
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Zach is a great! Lectures start slow to set up foundation; if you pay attention it's really easy to not get lost. Many students don't show up/pay attention, their loss. Final is harder than 2 midterms (they are easy IF you study) but FAIR + allows formulas & notecard. HW is worth 18% (nice grade booster) and helps prepare you if you don't BS it.

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: PHYS6A
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Zach is a really nice guy & will always email you back within a hours. However the class is terrible. His lectures are a mess and frankly you can skip them and just study the online notes he posts. The first two tests are so similar to the study guide but he told us he was gonna make the final super hard because we were "doing too well" on tests

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: PHYS6A
• Grade Received: A+
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Zack is very nice and really cares about his students. He always answers questions in class, emails, and is available (and helpful) during office hours. He also frequently asks us (the students) what we think about his teaching style and what works best for us.

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: PHYS6A
• Grade Received: Not sure yet
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

The first two exams were fair game, but because the averages were so high, he decided to give us a WILD final that was NOT like the practices. This class literally went from 0 to 100 the moment I walked into the final. He gives you a formula sheet but be prepared to fail regardless because he does not even teach you the material on the final.

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: PHYSICS6A
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Great guy. Caring and fair about everything.

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: PHYS6A
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

As someone who enjoys the subject, I was completely disappointed. I am happy that I already had knowledge of the subject, otherwise I would have completely been screwed. I have heard from other students his class screws you for 6C, and with how little I learned, I definitely am afraid to take it in the fall.

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: PHYS6A
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Worst prof at UCSC. Totally unaccommodating if you are a DRC student. Nice dude, but you won't learn what you need to from him if you plan to take more physics classes. Had to teach myself everything, might as well have taken $1000 out of the bank and set it on fire. Total waste of time.

Rating # 8

Overview:

• Course: PHYS6A
• Grade Received: B
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Zack is by far the worst Professor that I have ever had at. His lectures are useless, so you'll either have to learn from MSI or some other platform. I received A's on both midterms and on the homework, but ended up with a B in the class. His final was not like any of the course material, resulting in a drop of an entire letter grade for students.

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: PHYS6A
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

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

Comment:

His tests are really easy, but hes going to severely under prepare you for phys6C. The things you are expected to know going into phys6C he said were too hard for phys6A. He's either then not confident in his teaching ability, or he's not confident in his students to learn. In all, he needed to better prepare us for the rest of the physics series.

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: PHYS6A
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.5
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Zack's lectures may come off as very lengthy and boring, but I promise you that if you muster the courage to pay attention during class, you will understand most of what he is doing, and be able to catch his sense of humor as well :) Physics in general is a really tough class, but take advantage of office hours; he's definitely a worthwhile teacher

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: PHYS6A
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Zack is a good professor. His lectures can get a little boring, but he spends more time on problem-solving than on theory. Tests are very straightforward, and he doesn't throw any curveballs or trick problems at you. He's organized and usually posts lectures on his blog, explaining how to do homework problems. He posts practice tests too.

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: PHYS6A
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Single midterm and a final. Homework is now online, passing the cost of grading from the school to the students (thanks, regents!). The class has like a bajillion people in it, so it's hard to pay attentions. He does examples all day long. If you did AP Physics and did well, you don't really need to go to/stay awake in lecture.

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: PHYS156
• Grade Received: Not sure yet
• Overall Rating: 3.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Zack was really great for this 20-something student class. No textbook, so lecture is very important to go to, and he can seem a little scattered at times, with no hard schedule for the class, but Zack is very good at figuring out and matching the flow of the students, noticing where people are struggling and excelling on a day to day basis.

Rating # 14

Overview:

• Course: PHYS6A
• Grade Received: C
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

The average physics class. He made the first and only midterm super easy and thee average was around 85. To compensate for this he seemingly made the final much harder because I somehow dropped from a low A to a C as my final grade. He needs to allocate credit more efficiently but other than that he's alright, don't underestimate his tests though.

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: PHYS6A
• Grade Received: Not sure yet
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Honestly I have never been so frustrated with a professor. He seems unable or unwilling to help on problems with the online homework and often does not fully lecture on the topic before the assignment is due. I really like physics and it's sad to think others had him for an introduction. Sure he gives practice problems, but what prof. doesn't?

Rating # 16

Overview:

• Course: PHYS101B
• Grade Received: B+
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Very fair professor. You need to attend lecture to pass his class.

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: PHYSICS101B
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

He is very laid back. He didn't have a syllabus, he didn't seem to have a plan and we only used the textbook for integral tables. I really liked the class, as he seemed to be learning as much as we were and got very excited over things. He really engages with students and gives good explanations. The midterm and final were harder than I expected.

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: PHYS101B
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

This class felt much more like a seminar than anything else. Schlesinger certainly did the lecturing, but all the same there was a lot of back and forth between him and us. Seems much more interested in physics than satisfying any prejudice that only a few people are capable of doing what he does. Compared it to music during office hours.

Rating # 19

Overview:

• Course: 101B
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.5
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

There was no plan for the class, no textbook. Most of the material in the first half of the class involved tediously calculating expectation values and graphing wavefunctions. The 2nd half was hand-waving explanations of topics that were too advanced to cover in a mathematically precise way. I didn't enjoy either of these. Very smart guy though.

Rating # 20

Overview:

• Course: PHYSC6C
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.5
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

If you attend class and go to his office hours it is hard to not get an A because he tells you what problems to expect on the midterm and the problems are fair. Overall a nice and funny guy. I would recommend taking him.