James Pinfold - University of Alberta

Professor: James Pinfold

Department: TBD

College: University of Alberta

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: PHYS208
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

I've had multiple classes with Pinfold and he is my least favourite physics professor thus far. He's very funny and smart, but he does not show any examples and just reads from his notes. I also hate making formula sheets, especially when his slides are filled with so many formulas to begin with so it's hard to find the important ones.

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: PHYS208
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

He reads directly from his powerpoints and does not add to them, so imo there is no point going to class. Just read the notes yourself. Would have appreciated more practice examples and less filler material in his notes. Smart guy, just not the greatest teacher.

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: PHYS208
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Professor Pinfold is the only teacher who used a laser pointer to teach physics. He follows his slides to a T, doesn't show you anything on the board just a laser pointer.

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: PHYS124
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Pinfold had relatively good notes if you genuinely try to follow the class and hear what he has to say. He doesn't do a lot of examples. I found him very easy to understand and funny! The problem with the class was that the other physics prof was making the all our homework, so it was catered to the other classes style more so.

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: PHYS124
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Although Dr. Pinfold is obviously very intelligent and kind, this class was made much harder than it needed to be. His lecture slides did not help at all, and were often filled with paragraphs and paragraphs of irrelevant and crowded information. If you struggle a bit with physics, try to steer clear of this professor.

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: PHYS124
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Idk how you can teach physics out of pre made ppt but he managed to. Terrible lectures - teaches the BASICS of a concept and then HW is ten levels above that. STUPIDLY hard and time consuming HW per week. Literally needed three group chats of over 100 people to solve each set. Tests have typos/number mistakes. Too little time for tests. DO NOT TAKE

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: PHYS364
• 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:

For once, I would have preferred that a class had a textbook because the lectures in this class were absolutely useless. The prof constantly tested us and had homework on material that was not covered in class . He also read directly off of his powerpoint slides, which were too cluttered.

Rating # 8

Overview:

• Course: PHYS364
• Grade Received: B+
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Great prof, felt like the final worth 50% was a bit too much but overall the class was interesting and fun. Would highly recommend!

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: PHYS208
• Grade Received: C
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Dr. Pinfold made me view physics in a whole new way. Super inspiring dude. Kind of a troll. Good stuff James you are awesome thank you so much

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: PHYS114
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

really a lot of things need to learn,more like physics history but not calculating

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: PHYS114
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 3.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

I found Pinfold to be a very good prof! Not excellent, but definitely not poor. He was always available for extra help during office hours and answered emails promptly. The only downfalls I found were that did miss a lot of classes, and the only marks in class came from worksheets (few) and exams (lots of marks).

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: PHYS130
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Spends the entire class reading off powerpoint slides and doing derivations. Course is so easy that you can literally ignore that and then just write down the results of each derivation. Multiple choice final with make-your-own formula sheet. He missed a lot of our lectures, maybe if he has higher priorities than teaching he shouldn't be a prof?

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: PHYS114
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

He is a very smart man, but he's quite difficult to get hold of outside of class, and his TA's (who did the marking of our assignments) marked some of my assignments very poorly. And of course, I couldn't get hold of him to have this changed. He missed about 10 classes over the course of the term.

Rating # 14

Overview:

• Course: PHYS114
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Fantastic prof. if I ever had a question or problem he was very helpful. Will basically give you the answers to all the homework problems in his office if you need help, and made this class very interesting and engaging. I was surprised at how many calculations are on exams - do the homework and understand it to do well on the exams

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: PHYS114
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Doesn't rub it in too much that he does all kinds of high-profile work, but you definitely will hear about it. Class is fine if you struggle with numbers (I certainly do), understanding the theory is important. Only used the textbook for assgnmnet questions- borrow someone else's.

Rating # 16

Overview:

• Course: PHYS114
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Guy's a beauty. It sucks when he goes to the LHC and leaves you with a dud. Great prof to get people interested in Physics. I'm in business and took this class out of interest. Never took physics in high school but the math involved in this class is pretty basic. All MC tests if your in to that. Overall Very interesting class and prof.

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: PHYS130
• 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:

Never came to class because of physics conferences, answer emails and never was available during office hours.

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: PHYS271
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

A very good physics prof. He is enthusiastic, energetic, and respectful of his students. His assignments were very challenging, but if you put an effort into them and follow his hints, you'll be fine. To be honest, I thought his exams were a bit too easy. You can print his Powerpoint slides beforehand, which is handy. Recommended professor.

Rating # 19

Overview:

• Course: PHYS130
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

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

Comment:

Ridiculously brilliant I felt honoured to be in his class. Assignments were very easy and his lectures were very interesting. sometimes missed lectures for research with the particle accelerator in Geneva but his replacement was also very good. Reccomend him to anyone.

Rating # 20

Overview:

• Course: PHYS130
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Very good, Helpful