I took El-Alaoui for 6A Summer 10 and 6C Spring 11. He is a pretty good professor. Sometimes his lectures are not very clear, but he's really nice about answering questions in class. His exams are similar to homework and he has review sessions before each exam which helps a lot to summarize the material and to ask more questions. He doesn't post old exams, but he does post hmwk solutions as well as practice problems (w. solns) for each chapter. Study these and you'll be fine.

He's a nice guy, so it's hard to hate him, but as a teacher, he is highly ineffective. Before taking this class, I listened to all the other people who said "Oh, he's great! Take him!" They're all wrong, and most of the past reviews are inaccurate. If you think he's good, then you have low expectations. i barely got anything out of mechanics since he wrote exactly what was on his slides on the board. A lack of demonstrations didn't help either. Take Corbin or anyone else. Even if you think you don't want to learn physics, trust me, you WILL if you decide to take El Alaoui. I learned more in 1B with Ni (even though she wasn't the best, although she definitely improved) than in 1A with this guy.

Unlike other reviews, I thought El Alaoui was at best an average professor. He wasn't too bad, but wasn't that good either.

His lectures were literally reading off his powerpoint slides which he posted online. It was extremely boring. If you're good at self-study you might as well not go to lecture. He has a lot of examples in his powerpoints, which could be good or bad.

His grading scheme was 10% homework, 20% each midterm (there were 2), and a 50% final. Homework was fine, it was 8 problems taken from the book with the numbers switched around, but he lets you have like 6 attempts which is a lot nicer than other professors, so if you have the solutions manual it should be a piece of cake. Like other reviews said, he usually does not curve the class considering the average is usually pretty high for his exams.

El Alaoui's exams were alright, compared to what I heard about other professors. He has absolutely no derivations or conceptual problems, so if you enjoy purely computational problems his tests should be right up your alley. However, his exams were not just plug-and-chug. Sometimes you had to derive formulas using given information, etc etc. Basically it's just tricky computational problems, so if you've taken AP Physics in high school, you should have a general understanding of what his tests will be like.

The first midterm was easy, the average was an 85%, and the second midterm was a bit harder as the average was like a 67%. Unlike what other reviews said, his problems weren't taken straight from review sessions/homework, but seeing as there's nothing else to go on, it won't hurt to do them as practice. He also uploads a previous midterm with solutions as practice.

Now the final was a pain. It was 200 points with 8 questions, 25 points each. He tested us on pretty much every topic we covered in some way. Again, it was all computational but still pretty hard. Most, if not all, of the class took the entire 3 hours. The problems were tricky, and if you got an answer too easily, it was probably wrong. He will turn simple concepts into complex problems. He gave us a bitch of a linear motion problem for the first question.

Overall, I recommend El Alaoui to people who don't really want to learn physics, so I guess non-physics majors. If you absolutely want to learn the concepts, you'd be better off taking Corbin or someone else. If you're confident in your computational problem-solving abilities, take El Alaoui, you'll probably get an A in the class. The review below mine was also a pretty decent review of El Alaoui.

Also, one other thing that is different about El Alaoui is that he did not allow an equations sheet for the first 2 midterms, which was kind of a pain for the second midterm, but he does provide one on the final. Note that I said he provides one, so you should check it out online to see which equations he puts on it so you know what you need to memorize.

Dr. El Alaoui is a decent lecturer, but I would not call him really good or great. Like a previous review states, I felt that he did not truly teach me the concepts in physics. He lectures off of slides, and I felt that at times, he cared or emphasized more on going through his slides than actually explaining the concepts well and tying those to his examples.

Ah, yes, and in terms of his examples, there IS such a thing as too many examples. At some points in the class, he was just like "This is how you do the problem, etc. etc., and when you plug in the numbers, you get this." If you took AP Physics in high school unlike me, you most likely understand the concepts, and thus are comfortable with El Alaoui's style. Not me. He needed to emphasize the concepts more. Also, what kind of bugged me was that what he wrote on the board was almost exactly the same as his slides. If that's the case, then maybe he shouldn't have the slides in my opinion. He goes fast through the chapters to go through review sessions for both midterms and the finals, but again, you have a lot of more examples to trudge through.

A suggestion for his class would be for him to list **suggested** problems on his syllabus and then give the solutions to those sometime later. Doing this, I believe will make him go through examples in a more effective manner.

That said, El Alaoui is a really nice guy. He is also a relatively generous grader on exams, and you have 6 tries on the online homework, which is also quite beneficial.

He is also a decent public speaker, and the thing that I hated the most about his class was the time slot (not his fault). I am a morning person, and having a 4 PM class four days a week in the depressing gray walls of Kinsey Pavilion is definitely not my cup of tea.

The first midterm was easy but I made a stupid mistake (average was an 85 and you got what you got; no curve); the second midterm was tougher, and again, I made stupid mistakes and could have done a lot better (Class average was a 67, but I think if El Alaoui focused more on the concepts and tying all that to the examples, the class average would have been higher). The final, though, was HARD, and go over your homework if he tells you to do so. Honestly though, with his multiplicity of slides and homework problems, sometimes I felt that I didn't know what to study for his class.

All in all, if you took AP physics C Mechanics, El Alaoui's your guy. However, if you did not and you really want to learn the concepts and how to tie those to the examples, I would definitely look elsewhere.

If you do take him, and base him off the previous reviews that highly recommend him and label him as an excellent professor, some of you will disagree with me, but others of you will be underwhelmed based on those more positive reviews, I'm warning you now.

I highly recommend this professor. His lectures are highly effective. He introduces the material then spends the rest of class doing examples - yes actual examples. If you got a 5 on the AP Physics C Mechanics exam, this class should be a breeze. The first midterm was very easy. (1/3 of the class got 100%) The second midterm was a more difficult but still manageable. Take this class!

Well- organized professor. Do homework and take lecture seriously. Do take him!!

He is an average professor. I felt that he did not teach me physics. Indeed, physics has a huge problem solving component so he does offer a lot of problems for you to do.
Tests were mainly comprised of problems either from the homework or from review sessions and then also some problems you have never seen before.

Test grading goes like this: unless if the average is probably 60% or 50%, he will not curve the test.
Also, I felt that the competition in his class was too stiff. It was basically that you HAVE to get AT LEAST 85% or above on the tests or you would be below the average. There were a lot of international students (primarily Asians) so averages were always really high.
In other words, if you got a 5 on AP Physics B or C (I can't speak for C - mechanics as I never took it), it DOES NOT mean you will breeze through this class. You will have to work your butt off in order to compete in this class.

That being said, there is nothing wrong with this professor. He talks, he gives you homework, and you do them. If that is your type, definitely do take him!

Well-organized lecture, relatively less homework, good professor. The grading policy of homework is quite generous so most students would get it all right. Mid 1 was easy but mid 2 was a little bit harder. Overall the Final is the hardest one among those three, but it was relatively easier compared to the extra problems he gave. So don't be afraid of the difficulty of the extra problems. He provides long review sessions before each test, which is really helpful. He would upload any pdf files online including those of review sessions but some explanation would be omitted. So attending his lectures does help a lot unless you are good at self-study. His pace is just about right, and he teaches everything according to his pdfs. Basically there's no need to buy the book. Do the extra problems, go to his lectures, and you'll be comfortable taking the tests.

What we have....

Cool professor, very nice guy. His lectures are well organized and the pace of the class was just right. He has review sessions before all of the tests (2 midterms and a final) in which he really tries to stress the concepts that will be on the test. I definitely recommend this professor!