Murphy is a great professor, is really passionate about the material and makes it easy to learn. easy problem sets due weekly. good gpa booster and really interesting material. great class if youre into physics/space/science

Murphy was the worst professor. He wasted about the first 30 minutes of every class talking about what was happening around us in the astronomy field. In addition to this, he didn't go over what was on his quizzes/tests. I studied the textbook, his powerpoints, and his homework yet rarely did questions from these sources show up like he said. He presents the material in a very boring manner. If you are looking for an easy way to get your math/science requirement out of the way, this is not the class. This has been my least favorite class at UVA

To do well on the quizzes (except for just the first quiz) and the final, go to the "Study Area" on masteringastronomy and just practice problems directly from there (Reading Quiz, Concept Quiz, etc.). The majority of the seemingly tricky problems that he puts on his examinations come from there! I got a C+ and then a C- on the first two quizzes, before turning it around and getting As on the last quiz and the final. Definitely use masteringastronomy as a resource to study for tests!

GREAT CLASS! loved murphy! he made me want to major in astronomy. his lectures are incredibly interesting, and the material is not difficult. fairly basic concepts. three quizzes, a final, and two labs. the labs are basically a completion grade, but they have to be done early. weekly homeworks are easy and tested on concepts from the book. you are graded on attendance based off of whether you answer a certain number of clicker questions, but after that you are not required to come. quizzes are fairly self explanatory, but you do have to study to do well. highly recommend this class, especially with murphy.

Murphy is a pretty solid professor. The material in the class is very interesting and the textbook wasn't bad at all. The tests always have a couple tricky questions, so if you don't want a B you're going to definitely have to study a decent amount. Murphy makes the lectures pretty interesting and he's the type of guy who can be funny without even trying, which is always good. I liked this course.

If you do not have initial interest in astronomy - DO NOT TAKE this class. I foolishly took this class thinking it was an easy A/GPA booster... The readings/lectures are straight forward and at first it seems easy and simple, however on the quizzes, it is much harder. The questions are difficult and tricky - you'll have to rigorously study for the quiz in order to get a A/B... Although Prof. Murphy was entertaining at times, the class was boring and dry. He does however put his powerpoint on collab and those attending can answer clicker like questions for class participation. Your grade is based on a 1000 point system, so there is a lot of work that goes into the course.

Very passionate professor who made astronomy interesting, though tests weren't the easiest. Take advantage of his office hours!

pretty good intro

Murphy is great! Lecture is sooooo interesting. Iclicker questions do help me understand the lectures.

Murphy was a really nice guy, but the class was pretty boring. It's not as easy of an A as a lot of people say -- you actually have to study a lot to do well. The material spans from stuff you started learning about astronomy in elementary school to absolutely irrelevant information about lunar geology.