Professor
Adrienne Lavine
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2019 - I would consider this course as one of the most enjoyable upper-division classes I have taken, primarily due to Professor Lavine's engaging teaching style. She brings a passion for thermodynamics and an impeccable understanding of its underlying principles, as well as a commitment to fully educate her students throughout the course. Virtually every principle used in the class was painstakingly derived mathematically, which in my opinion is the only suitable way to convey this information. Professor Lavine did not hesitate to answer any questions posed by her students on any portion of the subject matter, even clarifying her explanations post-lecture via email/CCLE; this was a major part of my appreciation for this course. Lavine is brilliant but cynical, with a very specific sense of humor; however, she is kind and caring to her students, addressing concerns or inquiries almost immediately as they are posed. I would definitely take courses taught by her in the future, and would highly recommend this course (Introductory Thermodynamics) under her tutelage.
Spring 2019 - I would consider this course as one of the most enjoyable upper-division classes I have taken, primarily due to Professor Lavine's engaging teaching style. She brings a passion for thermodynamics and an impeccable understanding of its underlying principles, as well as a commitment to fully educate her students throughout the course. Virtually every principle used in the class was painstakingly derived mathematically, which in my opinion is the only suitable way to convey this information. Professor Lavine did not hesitate to answer any questions posed by her students on any portion of the subject matter, even clarifying her explanations post-lecture via email/CCLE; this was a major part of my appreciation for this course. Lavine is brilliant but cynical, with a very specific sense of humor; however, she is kind and caring to her students, addressing concerns or inquiries almost immediately as they are posed. I would definitely take courses taught by her in the future, and would highly recommend this course (Introductory Thermodynamics) under her tutelage.
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2022 - Lavine is probably one of the best professors at UCLA. Spring 2022 was the first quarter was the first one where she taught in person again, and while I had some complaints about how the class was structured, I would highly recommend it. The grade distribution was as follows: 55% weekly quizzes, 35% final, 5% homework, and 5% "extra". The homework started off easy but got progressively more difficult and time-consuming as the quarter continued. Regardless, you learn a lot from doing the homework and they're great preparation for exams, so despite being such a small percentage of the overall grade, I highly recommend you do them. Quizzes were straightforward, but difficult. They're open everything except collaboration with others. Do the homework and you will be fine. The final exam was slightly easier than the quizzes in my opinion. Her lectures are very clear and succinct, albeit they don't give you everything you need to know to do the homework, just the major concepts. You would need to read some of the examples in the textbook to do them confidently. Discussions were basically useless because the TAs go over problems that they release the solutions for; I used these discussion worksheets as practice for the weekly quizzes and found that to be a much better use of my time. In addition, Lavine structured her class as a "flipped classroom", where lectures were posted online but we would have to show up on Mondays for an in-class activity and Wednesdays for a weekly quiz. Personally, I despise this style of teaching because you spend so much more time in "class" than with just a traditional classroom. It may work for some people, just not for me. Part of class is allocated for office hours. Every time I was there, Lavine was extremely friendly and very eager to help me understand. She told me enough to help me work out a roadmap for the homework problems without telling me exactly how to do it, which I appreciated. Overall, you won't go wrong with Lavine, and when she decides to do live lectures again, I think that she'll be the best 105D you could have.
Spring 2022 - Lavine is probably one of the best professors at UCLA. Spring 2022 was the first quarter was the first one where she taught in person again, and while I had some complaints about how the class was structured, I would highly recommend it. The grade distribution was as follows: 55% weekly quizzes, 35% final, 5% homework, and 5% "extra". The homework started off easy but got progressively more difficult and time-consuming as the quarter continued. Regardless, you learn a lot from doing the homework and they're great preparation for exams, so despite being such a small percentage of the overall grade, I highly recommend you do them. Quizzes were straightforward, but difficult. They're open everything except collaboration with others. Do the homework and you will be fine. The final exam was slightly easier than the quizzes in my opinion. Her lectures are very clear and succinct, albeit they don't give you everything you need to know to do the homework, just the major concepts. You would need to read some of the examples in the textbook to do them confidently. Discussions were basically useless because the TAs go over problems that they release the solutions for; I used these discussion worksheets as practice for the weekly quizzes and found that to be a much better use of my time. In addition, Lavine structured her class as a "flipped classroom", where lectures were posted online but we would have to show up on Mondays for an in-class activity and Wednesdays for a weekly quiz. Personally, I despise this style of teaching because you spend so much more time in "class" than with just a traditional classroom. It may work for some people, just not for me. Part of class is allocated for office hours. Every time I was there, Lavine was extremely friendly and very eager to help me understand. She told me enough to help me work out a roadmap for the homework problems without telling me exactly how to do it, which I appreciated. Overall, you won't go wrong with Lavine, and when she decides to do live lectures again, I think that she'll be the best 105D you could have.
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