PHYS 1425

Not a bad course, especially with this professor. Joyce explains the material well and is pretty laid back. He frequently does little demos to illustrate concepts to the class which can be fun and make the material more interesting/intuitive. Homework problems are all online and aren't pledged. Working with a classmate can make them a lot easier.

The tests can be really difficult with class averages tending to be in the 68-72 range, but he curves them all to around an 80 average. I think they tend to be a bit harder than what some of the other classes have. I heard that in another class there was no curve but the averages tended to be in the 80-90 range to begin with.

Something worth noting is that he has the class vote after each test on the curve that he will apply before giving us our grades. The first option is to have a flat horizontal shift (i.e. add 10-15% to everyone's grade). The second option is to have that same shift, but in addition a reduction to the standard deviation (i.e. adding more to grades on the lower end and subtracting from grades on the higher end). For every test the latter option won.