Professor
Pietro Musumeci
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2024 - REVIEW FOR PHYSICS 1B (no listing for 1B in registrar database): Professor Musumeci is a wonderful teacher who is greatly accomplished in his field but retains the ability to connect with a far less educated audience. He does not rely on slides to teach and instead draws on a digital whiteboard and derives formulas live. Exams are very fair, and even more fairly graded. There are 2 midterms and one final. Homework consists of 8 questions per week of moderate to high difficulty. Overall, I highly recommend choosing Professor Musumeci as your instructor for this course!
Spring 2024 - REVIEW FOR PHYSICS 1B (no listing for 1B in registrar database): Professor Musumeci is a wonderful teacher who is greatly accomplished in his field but retains the ability to connect with a far less educated audience. He does not rely on slides to teach and instead draws on a digital whiteboard and derives formulas live. Exams are very fair, and even more fairly graded. There are 2 midterms and one final. Homework consists of 8 questions per week of moderate to high difficulty. Overall, I highly recommend choosing Professor Musumeci as your instructor for this course!
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Most Helpful Review
Hands down, one of my favorite upper-div professors. The material is difficult (105A and B), but he explains it pretty well and assigns very good homework problems. I like how he doesn't bother with really bullshit topics. He'll ask fair questions on the midterm that are homework-difficulty, so if you can do the harder homework problems without the solutions manual, then you'll do well. Take him if you can; I wish he taught all the upper-div physics classes. He's also hilarious and nice and seems to enjoy the class as well as his students.
Hands down, one of my favorite upper-div professors. The material is difficult (105A and B), but he explains it pretty well and assigns very good homework problems. I like how he doesn't bother with really bullshit topics. He'll ask fair questions on the midterm that are homework-difficulty, so if you can do the harder homework problems without the solutions manual, then you'll do well. Take him if you can; I wish he taught all the upper-div physics classes. He's also hilarious and nice and seems to enjoy the class as well as his students.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2018 - Honestly, this was the hardest class I took in the physics department here at UCLA, and I didn't learn much--way harder than 110B, 112, 18L, and the rest. Musumeci is a convoluted lecturer (probably because he treats us as though we already know the material), and the exams are unfair (derive the shape of a spinning planet, Euler angles of a satellite, etc). Suggestion: avoid.
Fall 2018 - Honestly, this was the hardest class I took in the physics department here at UCLA, and I didn't learn much--way harder than 110B, 112, 18L, and the rest. Musumeci is a convoluted lecturer (probably because he treats us as though we already know the material), and the exams are unfair (derive the shape of a spinning planet, Euler angles of a satellite, etc). Suggestion: avoid.
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Most Helpful Review
Pietro is a wonderful guy. I took two upper div classes with him and worked in his lab, and I can say that he is both an excellent teacher and a mentor. His class is very entertaining and he took one of the hardest subjects in physics (E&M) and actually made it doable. He spent the most time focusing on the useful aspects of the material and ignored the unimportant stuff. It was refreshing to have a young and energetic professor for what are typically thought of as the hardest upper div physics classes. Working for him has been great as well. PBPL (Particle Beam Physics Lab) is a fun lab with a bunch of great people. To any physics students out there looking for a good research opportunity, there seems to be funding, and PBPL is a great place to work.
Pietro is a wonderful guy. I took two upper div classes with him and worked in his lab, and I can say that he is both an excellent teacher and a mentor. His class is very entertaining and he took one of the hardest subjects in physics (E&M) and actually made it doable. He spent the most time focusing on the useful aspects of the material and ignored the unimportant stuff. It was refreshing to have a young and energetic professor for what are typically thought of as the hardest upper div physics classes. Working for him has been great as well. PBPL (Particle Beam Physics Lab) is a fun lab with a bunch of great people. To any physics students out there looking for a good research opportunity, there seems to be funding, and PBPL is a great place to work.
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