I did well in this class because I had previously taken calculus based physics in high school. It was more of a review class for me. However, if it was my first time learning mechanics, I would have no clue what would be going on, as it was hard to understand her lectures and I feel like she struggled to get her points across clearly. The first few weeks leading up to the midterm we went at a ridiculously slow pace on the easiest topics, then it felt like Prof. kamaha was rushing to get through the topics at the end of the class. It is VERY IMPORTANT to take the optional practice midterms/final. Some of the questions are repeated on the actual test.

The exams were pretty fair; the homework, not so much. There were often questions that tested knowledge or skills that weren't even mentioned in class, and that you basically wouldn't be able to do unless you went to office hours.
During this quarter, the professor also introduced in-class worksheets. These were frustrating for several reasons. First, they often had questions we were not at the time equipped to answer. For example, when we just started talking about Feynman diagrams, we had a worksheet asking us to draw a bunch of them, and some could only be done with the strong force -- which isn't covered until several more weeks into the quarter. Second, a lot of class time was devoted to going over these worksheets, which is honestly more suited towards discussion section. (To be fair, ours was at 8 am so maybe nobody showed up and the professor still wanted us to get practice -- but then, the discussion section worksheets were uploaded so we still could have chosen to look at them in our own time.) Third, the professor expected us to hand the worksheets in to her by hand at the end of lecture, but almost always her lectures would go at least five minutes overtime, which was a problem for anyone with a class or other commitment immediately after the class. I emailed her with my concern, and she said she'd try to do better, but never did. So, I had a friend turn in my worksheet (which I completed myself) for me so that I could leave on time, and she emailed me accusing me of cheating (even though I've emailed her about my situation and she's the one who refuses to accommodate it). She was overall really unfriendly there, which made me hesitant to reach out to her about other class related issues. Lectures were recorded, but only the audio (which is a way to appreciate that the professor incorporated visuals a lot, wrote on the board, etc, although slides were also used and uploaded). The homework was graded pretty harshly, but that depends on the grader (I've gotten points docked for answers that were very similar to what students got full marks for in previous quarters). There is also considerable class time and homework devoted to Feynman calculus, which is considered a graduate level topic and should not appear on any exams.

If Kamaha has a million fans, I'm one of them. If Kamaha has one fan, it's me. If Kamaha has no fans, I am no longer alive.

I actually do love Professor Kamaha. I didn't have much of a background in physics, just physics honors in high school (some people in the class took AP Physics C and scored well and still took this class - so keep that in mind in terms of grade distributions), so the first midterm was rough. Office hours are really really helpful -- go every week if you can, and ask clarifying questions on the lectures and homework as well as discussion worksheets. Kamaha takes the time to understand where you are confused and she walks you through it really well, so take advantage of all her office hours slots. She's also pretty funny in office hours, and it feels more personalized than the lecture hall.

She does record her lectures, so you can always go back and rewatch/ not attend in person. For midterms and the final, make sure you go over her discussion worksheets and practice exams, as those are the most helpful. The homework is a time sink (roughly 4 hours per week) but I guess it does help you learn the concepts -- don't bother looking over it for exams though.

Have fun with 1A, 1B is so much worse - sincerely, a 1b student.

This class is definitely a good physics introduction course (although I took AP Physics in high school, and I know it was harder for people with no prior physics experience). I admire Professor Kamaha and any uncertainties during lectures can be answered during her office hours, which are very collaborative and helpful. She records lectures, so you can go to lecture or not.

As someone who took AP Physics C in high school, the course felt fine, but without prior knowledge, I can see the course being difficult. During lectures, the professor assumes certain prior knowledge of things, so it can be tough to follow her lectures without asking her to clarify what she means. The professor is always willing to help, though. The homework is not bad at all, but the exams are not that much like the homework. However, pay attention to the discussion worksheet because most of the exams are from the worksheets. The professor does give a slight curve on the exams if the class doesn't do well, but the type of curve she uses is confusing. One time, she gave us a 5% increase on an exam, but another time, she gave us 5 free points for the exam but made the exam out of 105 (originally 100), so it didn't help that much while claiming its the same thing. Her grading scheme is kinda weird too; a B has a range of 2 percent while a B- has a range of 10 percent; I've never seen that before. Overall, Kamaha is a good and helpful person and kind of funny in her own way and accomplished too. Her tests can be easy if you study all of the discussion problems thoroughly, but she sometimes gives weird questions that come out of nowhere. She did make the final pretty manageable though.

Professor Kamaha is not the greatest lecturer I have ever had, but she is a really cool person who cares about teaching and her students' understanding. If you are confused go to office hours and she will help. I didn't take AP physics in high school and did fine, but I am a math major and did take regular physics so that definitely helped. Just do a lot of practice and look at the past midterms she gives.

This professor is a joke. Her grading practices are completely unprofessional and border on incompetence. The rubrics appear to be thrown together without thought - you get random points for irrelevant details while core concepts are overlooked. She adjusts curves randomly - adding 10 points after one bad midterm but nothing after another.

The "everything must be fair" talk rings hollow when the actual grading seems arbitrary - she either doesn't understand or doesn't care about proper evaluation methods. This kind of chaotic grading should have no place in higher education. She's a nice person, but this is the furthest thing from a nice course. Demonic.

I truly despised this class and how hard she made it to get good scores. My gripe is solely about grading. I wonder how many future physicists Kamaha killed in just 10 weeks in the interest of being someone like Eggert. Is this really the point of an intro to physics class?

go to her office hour and get to know her. sometimes she might drop a little subtle hint about what will be on the test. Overall, I found lectures not very useful even though I went to lecture everyday. I didn't like her teaching methods (she talked in a low tone and that definitely didn't help.) She takes in feedback from midquarter survey and that definitely helped a lot. The discussion worksheets and past exams were really useful for the tests. She assigns homework every week and it takes around 2-3 hours to get done but it really helps understanding the material. Near the end of the quarter, I started reading the textbook before lectures and it helped with my understanding. I would recommend reading textbook on the topic before she covers it in class. This class wasn't an easy class but you don't need to avoid it. The class mean on both midterm 1 and 2 were 60. She boosted 10% for everyone who submitted a correction for midterm1. She added 5% to everyone for midterm 2 and promised that the final will be easier. The final was indeed easier. I like her as a person but she could improve her teaching imo.