THIS GUY HAS DEADLY EXAMS. AVOID. EVEN IF THE CURVE BALANCES IT OUT, HE MAKES YOU FEEL LIKE SHIT AND RECONSIDER ANY INTEREST YOU HAVE IN PHYSICS

I am from Rosenzweig's 1BH. I just got emotional and wanna relive the good old days from Gary's lecture. Miss him too much....

As a freshman who had never taken physics before, this class hit me like a brick (lol). I put in so much time and work to try to catch up and understand what was going on, but I felt crushed by the exams (the average for one of them was in the low 40s and let's just say I got below that). I felt that the problems Prof. Williams went over in class were always too rushed (he would assume we knew how to do in-between steps and just gloss over them, and although I'm sure some people were able to understand, I suspect many weren't able to). I thought that conservation of energy could have been covered more thoroughly, as well as the material towards the end of the quarter (such as gravitational motion and moment of inertia) since they were major topics on the final. Williams was helpful in his office hours, although I was rarely able to stay because of back-to-back classes. I definitely would recommend going if you have the chance. Overall, the lectures were a solid 2.5/5 and the tests were not good, but I think Prof. Williams is nice and isn't one of those professors that takes pride in having a high fail rate or anything like that.

TLDR: Gary looks like a nice old man but he will brutally assault your grade. In the end everybody gets fucked so the curve ends up ok lol.

Gary Williams looks like the sweetest man on the planet but this class is pretty brutal. That being said I don't think its as bad as everybody else says. Although the midterms are way too hard and the averages/distributions are god awful, the only thing that makes them tough is the time crunch which everybody feels so the curve in the end is pretty nice. As long as you do consistently do the homework assignments you actually do get a pretty good intuition and understanding of the concepts. The final was basically two midterms in the time of three midterms which seriously takes the pressure off and lets you do pretty well. He curves according to a normal distribution with the median placed around a B which I think is pretty fair honestly.

WARNING: DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS. Even if you think you know Physics very well before. You will 100% regret after taking his first midterm. His lectures are superficial, his homework may seem doable, but don't get fooled!!! He gives DEADLY exams that will destroy your confidence and make you feel like sh*t.

He gives 3 big problems on midterms, each worth 30-40 points, and expect you to write a whole page of formulas and calculations to find one single final answer without giving you any hints. Even if you know the concepts and formulas very well, that is completely USELESS. Because he does not split a big question into smaller parts and lead you to the final answer (like most other reasonable teachers), you will get ZERO points for that question if you fail to think of how to work out the problem in minutes.

Most likely what will happen to you on his exam is that you will get stuck on all problems, getting back and forth for several times, leaving your test paper almost blank because you don't have the slightest idea where to begin on any problem, and find out that time is up. The average of his midterms are around 50s.

I KNOW what I'm talking about. I took high level IB Physics in high school and get a 7 of 7 (A/A+), so I probably know more Physics than most of the ones who take this class, and still feel like I'm useless.

WARNING: DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS.

I did A Level Physics in high school, which covered most of the topics in this course but was "trigonometry-based," according to the physics department counselor, so I had to take it here which is "calculus-based." I also took it in my second year. I didn't show up to class much after the first midterm (8am 4 days a week, not exactly pleasant), wasn't diligent on watching the BruinCasts, so I had to cram either all the casted lectures or the entire textbook chapter the day before homework is due to manage to learn the right methods to try the homework questions. Contrary to what people have said, I think Gary teaches good methods to answer exam problems, which makes me wonder if that is all "physics" is at this level. Homework and exam problems are hard because they combine different, simpler scenarios in one setting, but I believe if I spent more time and was more patient, I would've understood how to attempt those problems much better. I also acknowledge that I studied the topics in high school before, so it might have been easier for me to pick it up, and I understand many people's struggles. If you have to take this class with Gary, make sure you're happy with the lecture timing, take time to read the textbook online (on the Pearson website whose access you purchase for 33 dollars) as it does walk you through the ideas, and pay specific attention to the example problems in the textbook as they resemble the questions you will have for homework. Good luck. And if you're scared you won't do well, know that you can try your best and there are things out of your control.

I would have to second the guy below me. this teacher gives the worst midterms ever. The second one was absolutely terrible and he is so condescending when people come to him to ask questions. He expects so much out of us in such a short amount of time. His lectures are so unengaging and boring. No point in even listening to them because he teaches middle school level ideas of physics in class but expects us to do a Ph.D. level dissertation on his midterms. Though homework and his office hours are helpful, they don't help you at all in the end. Like the guy below, I also know what I'm doing: I took AP Physics 1 and 2 in high school and got a 5 on both, I'm a physics major for Gene Block's sake. This class is, unfortunately, making me want to change my major. Fuck this class and I pray for all of you guys who are going to take it.

I came into college really delighted to learn about physics but now I just want to get as far away from physics as possible. Don't get me wrong, physics is interesting, but this class just doesn't spark that interest. I do not know if it is because of the online format due to the pandemic but I found the course to be really bad. Although I ended with an A in the class and am very grateful for the generous curve, I believe it wouldn't have needed to be this way if the tests were just more on par with the material. The concepts professor Williams covers in class do not align with the difficulty of the textbook which is where all the homework problems come from. I can see that the lectures are pretty similar to the sections in the textbook which I read for further clarity but the homework problems were just insane. The homework problems were nothing compared to the physics problems given in high school (this is coming from someone who scored 5's on all the AP physics exams). I had to find solutions to about 70% of the homework problems given (thankfully you can find the solution manual online). However, that experience is absolutely horrible as it completely diminished my sense of competence in this subject and destroyed my confidence for problem solving. He assigns 1 homework assignment a week with about 5-10 problems which seems very short but in reality takes a good amount of time to fully understand each problem. If it wasn't for the solution set I don't know how much time I would have needed to invest into the homework. What was really a curve ball was that the quizzes that were given each week were no where near as difficult as the homework problems. Those problems were more aligned with the questions given in high school. For the most part, this class focuses less on understanding topics conceptually but more on the algebraic aspects of solving problems. As long as you have a solid physics background this class should be an easy A but at the cost of your confidence in this field. As for raw scores, I received a 65% on both my midterm and my final and averaged to a 81% on the quizzes. For me, the most difficult part of this course were the harmonic oscillator chapter and the torque chapter. Also the lectures each week were not mandatory to attend so I just watched the recordings afterwards which I would usually have on 2x speed because I realized he talks and writes very very slow. It was at 1.5x speed that he seemed to talk at a normal pace. I honestly do not know what advice I can give because I was only barely able to grasp the course. If you only watch the lectures, attend discussion, and do the homework, expect around 8-10 hours a week on this class. If you decide to read the textbook (which I am not sure if it was beneficial or not but I did anyway), expect an additional 3 hours. Also, 80% of the lectures is just him going over proofs for equations and concepts but some of the proofs are very hard to grasp because he utilized calculus. The extent of calculus he used went up to 32B which involved the ideas of triple integral. For me, I never used calculus at all for the quizzes, midterm, and final but some homework questions it was necessary. Also, the TA was something else. Completely disorganized and super procrastination when it came to grading. Discussion sections were utterly useless because he would try to go over 1 problem and sometimes fail to understand the problem himself. But that is really just dependent on who you get as the TA so that shouldn't weigh your decision to take this class. One thing he was good at though was being lenient in grading. Overall, I do not recommend you take this course unless you are dead serious about majoring in physics. Otherwise, just stick with regular physics.

Grading:
The final grade depends on your ranks in homework grade(graded for completion), quizzes, midterm exam, and final exam. One can get A- if his grade is slightly higher than the average and B+ if slightly lower than the average. I presume one can get A+ if his grade is in the top 15%.

Quizzes:
One has 20 minutes to work on weekly quizzes and 20 minutes to submit them on the gradescope. I would say it's sufficient. The first quiz and the quiz on torque were a lot harder than others. The average for quizzes is 74%.

Exams:
Although the midterm exam and the final exam involved no calculus and limited vector, they are pretty hard. If you don't know how to solve a question, write any relevant stuff because responses are typically divided into correct, good attempt, attempt, and no attempt. The average for the midterm exam is 53% and 56% for the final exam.

Lectures:
The lectures were kind of boring and involved intense calculus and differential equation for some proof. There is no need to worry about damped oscillators and driven oscillators; they never appear in any quizzes or exams. The depth of the book's contents far exceeds that of lectures' contents, so the book is not really helpful.

I think if you have a 5 for AP Mechanics C, it won't be too hard to get an A-.

I don't want to be mean, but Gary's lectures were very boring. I know he can't help his voice, but it wasn't pleasant or engaging to listen to. Of course distance learning is in part to blame, but it was very difficult to pay attention and I found myself dozing off or being distracted for 90% of the lectures.
The homework was graded for completion and based on a textbook that most people found online for free -- along with a flawed solution manual. The exams were brutal. It's the type of physics exam where once you see the solutions, for most of it you think "well duh, of course," but then realize you missed half the points because of stupid mistakes or just not approaching the problem the same way. The class is kind of designed that way, though -- I got about 60% on both the midterm and the final, and got an A in the class, after all. But the thing with the curve is that it's only applied once the quarter is over, so while classes are still in session, it's hard to understand how screwed you are, except maybe by going around asking people how they scored.
Do as many practice problems as you can. Pester the TA (or Gary) when you want to clarify something. Do NOT just copy solutions for homework -- actually try to think through everything yourself, this is the only way to learn physics, though checking with the solutions to see if you're on the right track AFTER giving the problems an earnest effort definitely helps, especially if you're not too confident.
Even if you took physics -- even if it was AP Physics 1 and 2 -- in high school, you'll probably struggle.