Clifford Surko - University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA

Professor: Clifford Surko

Department: Physics

College: University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: PHYS130A
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

His lectures are basically deriving the formulas and concepts, which are important to physics majors. If you are not majors, you might find his requirements trivial, but those things are very important in real physics. You need to understand every detail of the equations, as well as the graphs. Nice man, very helpful.

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: PHYS2C
• 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:

You have to WORK to get an A with Surko. No two ways around it. Understand his derivations, but study the book for the quizzes. TA discussions are crucial to your success in this class. Go to them. Finally, understand the hw. Do this and you will get an A.

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: PHYS2B
• 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:

Nice man, knows his stuff but don't rely on his lectures at all, he will absolutely confuse you. I ended up reading the chapter and doing each hw assignment 3 times just to make sure I understood material enough to do okay on weekly quizzes... Now Phys 2b is not easy at all, but be ready to spend the extra time on this class...

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: PHYS2B
• 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:

An extremely poor professor. Spends lectures deriving complicated equations that are close to useless on quizzes. TA and book are the only ways to comprehend the material, and quizzes are still difficult. Clickers/attendance required for a grade. Avoid him!

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: PHYS2B
• 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:

Lectures are horrible. He isn't good at explaining the concepts that are crucial to understanding the material. He laughs when the class gets questions wrong. I learned everything from the book.

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: PHYS2A
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

He's an adorable and helpful man. His experiments are silly and fun to watch, interesting too. You do have to try hard as his proofs are tricky, but you'll need to know them for quizes. The thing is that the grades are based completely on quizes, which makes it a lot harder.

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: PHYS4A
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Surko is a brilliant physicist and an extremely nice, approachable person. However, he is a terrible, terrible teacher. Classes are spent doing extremely vague, ill explained examples which require a thorough understanding of the concepts, an understanding which he does not provide. Curve is generous, but be prepared to learn from the book.

Rating # 8

Overview:

• Course: PHYS100A
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

He uses the text right along with his lectures. You can follow his notes but he goes quickly and doesn't always explain in between his steps. Homework is reasonable, especially if you read the textbook. Quizzes are similar to homework problems and in class examples and he grades/curves fairly. If you every have a problem go talk to him.

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: PHYS4B
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

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

Comment:

Pretty much useless professor. I took physics because I thought it might be interesting, but after a couple of weeks I just stopped wasting my time with the class at all. Tests aren't really hard, but sometimes questions are based on poorly done/labeled drawing which can cause you to lose points (like 20% of the test). Final opinion: not worth it

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: PHYS4B
• 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:

Worst professor ever. Has no clue what he's solving for and doesn't explain any steps. Also does no examples in class.

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: PHYS100B
• 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:

Teacher expects you to know stuff that is not in the required text. Teacher does not go into full detail of problems in class. Teacher consistently makes mistakes in class on board.Teacher does not make it clear what you need to know to pass his class. 100A and 100B is better to take with Shpyrko.

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: PHYS100A
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

He is extremely organized. His lectures can be hard to follow sometimes, so make sure you're on your toes or read the book very carefully.

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: PHYS4A
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

I had great difficulty following his lecture (I didn't know what he was solving for sometimes), and he expects you to know more than the course catalog says (i.e., you should be in MATH20C) to understand his lectures. And he is generally boring. He has some interesting demos though. His tests are pretty hard. Asked questions I had never seen before

Rating # 14

Overview:

• Course: PHYS2C
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

cute little old man who really likes physics. quizzes are difficult, relatively speaking, however they are fair. actually requires you to understand the material, unlike the previous quarters where all that was needed was remembering answers/formulas. probably good prep for upper division engineering courses

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: PHYS2C
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Maybe I'm weird, but I thoroughly enjoyed this class... I thought the professor, although a bit tipsy at times, was incredibly helpful... I doubt that most the people who gave him bad reviews ever really sought out help... Anyways, the class was a little difficult (thermodynamics doesn't sound like a piece of cake) but I'd recommend this professor.

Rating # 16

Overview:

• Course: PHYS2C
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Dr. Surko is a fairly good professor. His quizes were harder then my other physics professors' have been but by no means were they unfair. He asks a lot of conceptual questions on his quizzes but personally I liked that since they forced you to think about the material and not just memorize equations. His class grading scheme was very generous.

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: PHYSICS2C
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Handwriting almost impossible to read. Hard to follow his work on the board. Quizzes are unfair/long and it seems as if he purposely words questions for you to miss it (especially the conceptual ones). He makes physics more frustrating and painful than it is already..

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: PHYS2C
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

His quizzes are written so poorly!!!!! Did not enjoy his class at all!

Rating # 19

Overview:

• Course: PHYS4A
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.5
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

The bi-weekly quizzes are somewhat difficult but he curves immensely. His lecture problems are even harder than the quizzes but you shouldn't be intimidated because he curves immensely at the end. He is extremely enthusiastic to help if you actually make a genuine effort to learn.

Rating # 20

Overview:

• Course: 4A4B
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

all I can say is.....STAY AWAY FROM HIM!!!