James Rohlf - Boston University

Professor: James Rohlf

Department: TBD

College: Boston University

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: PY105
• Grade Received: C+
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

This is my first physics class in my academic career. Rohlf should not be a collegiate professor. His lecture style is confusing, his energy is nonexistent, and you're wasting your time going to office hours because he'll just confuse you even more or just be rude. He is my least favorite professor of all time.

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: PY106
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

This is a disrespectful, rude, and nonsense professor. Who understanding of providing support for the class and explanation of what happened in class is an indicator that you do not pay attention in class. So now you know that maybe if you go to his office hours and ask for support will tell him that you do not pay attention.

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: PY212
• Grade Received: A+
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

One of the most boring and convoluted lecturers at BU. Even though I was registered for his class, I ended up going to other lectures or having someone else click in for me because the lecture only confused me more. He's sympathetic, but he assumes you already know the basic concepts he's trying to teach.

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: PY211
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Very difficult to understand. This semester he was definitely the worst professor for this course. Luckily you are allowed to attend other lectures within the physics department and get attendance in their lecture.

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: PY212
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

He leaves out the hard concepts and explain the easy ones. He also doesn't seem to put any effort in specifying the topics covered. So, his lectures usually get really messy and ambiguous.

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: PY211
• 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:

Professor Katz is in charge of the organization of the class and writing the tests-I attended his lectures instead when I could. Rohlf knows what he's talking about, but isn't very good at lecturing or answering questions. I found the book more helpful. Tests are fine if you do the practice tests. Weekly homework gets annoying, but is helpful.

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: PY211
• 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:

Horrible professor. He doesn't care about teaching or about his students at all. He is just the worst ever. The TA's taught the entire class.

Rating # 8

Overview:

• Course: PY211
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.5
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

A previous poster summed it up nice when they said he is too smart for freshman physics. He doesn't seem real interested in teaching this class. Homework was good, tests were hard (averages in the 50s). I absolutely hated the text that was used (Serway) and that is where you learn everything from, not lecture. He is a cool guy though and very fair.

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: PY251
• 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:

An absolutely awful professor -- awful at explaining concepts, incredibly boring, gives ridiculously difficult tests and homework that have nothing to do with lecture. Unfortunately, lecture is mandatory, but it's completely useless. He mostly tries to derive formulas and do proofs, but fails miserably for th eentire class.

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: PY251
• 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:

too smart for freshman physics

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: PY251
• 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:

Rohlf seems like he never wanted to teach Freshman, and is trying to prove how hard physics can be. The class started out easy, but quickly spiraled out of control. On the last exam, most people scored around 25/100. He definitely knows what he's doing, but is not so great at explaining it to others.

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: PY212
• 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:

Helpful guy if you can actually find him. Willing to sit down and sort problems out with you. Sadly, the lectures werent terrible good. But clearly knew his stuff - led to overfocusing on his field.

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: PY212
• 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:

Very unhelpful and hard to get in contact with because he was always out of the country. Class was mostly unrelated to the homework and tests.

Rating # 14

Overview:

• Course: PY212
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Rohlf is obviously a brilliant man but is only an OK professor. His lectures are mostly derivations and thus aren't too helpful, and the quizzes in discussion were tough without first doing the homework. The homework was relevant though, and it was a good indicator of what tests would be like, and the tests were good, fair indications of knowledge.

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: PY212
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Rohlf is very helpful and reasonable if you see him in office hours. He is a cool guy and takes an interest in students. Best of the PY212 profs for sure. Even though PY212 isn't much fun.

Rating # 16

Overview:

• Course: PY212
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Physics Dept for non-physics majors SUCKS ---!!! Quizes in disc are on material that hasnt been covered yet in lecture and the majority of the HW problems are on material not covered in lecture until the very last day or even after they are due. Lecture is worthless. Read the book, which also sucks, if this class had a heart, I would stab it.

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: PY212
• 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 lectures were mostly all proofs, therefore going to them isn't very helpful. Also, of the three review lectures we had, he only came to two of them.

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: PY212
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

not helpful, just derives formulas, writes really small and is extremely boring, better than some but not good by any means.

Rating # 19

Overview:

• Course: PY212
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Guy's terrible at getting the topics across. Don't bother going to lecture.

Rating # 20

Overview:

• Course: PY212
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Rohlf is an ok guy, but his lectures are super boring. No one went to lectures because it was so hard to stay awake. PY212 in general is a tough class with hard tests, but get Ludwig if you can.