Tsai is a terrrible professor but huge curves
homework was difficult. Practice exam was almost exactly the same as real exams. Hardest of the 40 series imo
I had Boerge as my professor and would honestly recommend him to anyone. He posts his lectures online and is very passionate about Physics + wants everyone to succeed. Make sure to go to his office hours in order to get any clarifications sorted out. If you also have Boerge, he basically covers 99% of the material from the textbook so you do not really have to read (although he will quiz you some concepts from the textbook during clickers). In terms of the class, if you suffered through 40A, you will definitely suffer through 40B. The midterm was fairly simple, as it only covered about three chapters, but the final will definitely kill everyone's grade (however, it is not cumulative). Discussions are mandatory and there was a quiz every class -- something not mentioned in the syllabus. According to my TA, 50% of one's discussion grade is based off attendance and the other 50% is based off the quiz grades. Clickers were not based off participation -- something that is different from 40A. Make sure you attend every class as those points will matter.
The individual concepts and homework aren't too bad, the main difficultly in the class comes from the fact that all 3 professors write 1/3rd of the final and how Mills combines different concepts from the entire course into one question. For example this quarter(winter 2018) he somehow combined pistons, ideal gases, heat of vaporization, and thermodynamics into a single fucking question. Even if you understand the physics behind all these concepts perfectly, his questions feel like a puzzle. As far as I can tell, the other two professors make extremely "easy" straightforward questions and the curve is usually pretty nice. In the past, you would want to avoid Mills because he makes the hardest questions and he doesn't teach that well but now that all the professors are making the final, it might actually be beneficial to have him as a professor because you could get used to his madness before the final.
The class is pretty reasonable and doable and the midterm isn't that bad. The final was nothing like any of the practice or homework. It was extremely difficult and ridiculous
Content is relatively straight forward and homework reflects what is taught in class. Quizzes are ripped straight from the homework, so do the HW before discussion. Midterm and final are difficult, but practice exams should prepare you for them. Fat curve at the end of the class.
Most people will have a harder time with this than 40A, so it's important to read the book and make sure you're keeping up with the material. It mainly focuses on waves, but there is some heat transfer involved. I had Igor Barsukov. His tests are pretty hard but the curves are huge, I got a 45% on the midterm, which curved to a B.
Tsai is unbelievably boring. The lectures are legitimately a waste of everyones time, too bad there are clicker questions for points. The lab is shitty, but easy. Online homework is on chegg. Pretty sure I got an A despite missing most lectures. Definitely a self-study class.
Professor Long was so nice but he expects a lot of outside reading and work especially if you wanna do well on the exams. Hardest class in the phys040 series
I had Pryadko, and it's very hard to follow lecture. The textbook was a lifesaver. I would rate this class higher (I ended up rating it a 6), but Pryadko's curve makes it so a 55% is a C-. Without that curve, this class would be a 9 at minimum.
Labs were quite time consuming as the manuals weren't very well written. Not too bad of a class though, just know how to use the formulas and you should be good
Do not take with Long. He makes the tests unnecessarily hard.
About the same difficulty as Phys40A. Took it with Tanedo Winter 2021. If able, take this with Tanedo, he will make your life and physics so much easier.
Took PHYS040B with Tanedo. With Tanedo, this class was super easy. No quizzes, no tests, no midterm, no final. We have to make these weekly videos explaining how to do certain problems from the textbook every week and grade our peers on their videos. i think it's an effective learning format. Tanedo is genuinely such a nice guy and an amazing prof. Highly recommend taking 040B with him if you can. The labs are kinda painful imo, but they aren't too terrible.
try to take with Tanedo. he's the absolute best. no examinations, and he genuinely cares about how you are doing in the class and wants you to learn. grade based on you making explainer videos to show how to solve 2 physics problem given by him every week. made physics easy and entertaining, really is one of the best professors
Take this class with Phillip Tanedo if you can. It was literally a free class and the easiest A+ out of any class. About two videos a week and that's pretty much it. You'd have to try pretty hard not to get an A with Tanedo.
currently week 5 for me and mills is horrible. just reads off pre written google doc, does irrelevant demonstrations and practice problems. for the midterm practice exam he didn't even want to give us the solutions. When we convinced him to give them he said "here you go I dont even know if there right." We have video proof of everything
(Taken w/ Comron Nouri) This course was the most unorganized class I've taken at UCR. The MasteringPhysics signup code wasn't posted until Wednesday of Week 2, and after it was posted, it got changed twice until it was finally the correct one. The syllabus originally had a 10% grading category for Poll Everywhere (clicker questions), but it got removed and the 10% was added to the midterms instead, which ended up making the midterms worth more than the final exam. Our TA said that the class average on the 2nd midterm was about a 55%, but Dr. Nouri never confirmed that the midterm grades would be curved or scaled. Personally, I scored well above the class average on that midterm, although it was in no part due to Dr. Nouri's instruction. I believe that I only did well because I put effort into the assignments, went to every discussion, and attended SI sessions. Also, starting from halfway into the quarter, I began attending Dr. Wei's (the other professor for PHYS040B) lectures instead, and as a result I understood the content much better. Compared to Dr. Nouri's slides, Dr. Wei's were much better at helping me learn the material, and my notes were much more detailed after switching. Most importantly, Dr. Wei's slides were adequately annotated, whereas Dr. Nouri wouldn't even provide solutions to the example problems in his slides. On multiple occasions, I was confused on an assignment, and after finding Dr. Nouri to be unhelpful, I got a better answer from a TA. Overall, I definitely wouldn't recommend Dr. Nouri for anyone planning to take PHYS040B, and I strongly urge the Physics department to reconsider having him in a teaching position.
Horrible experience with Nouri. Content is hard and feels all over the place. Good luck.
Took with Beyermann. Definitely harder than 40A, but not unreasonable. The concepts are much more involved and less intuitive, and there is a lot of material crammed in. But if you make sure to understand the equations and how to apply them you're good.
Took in Spring 24 with Peng Wei. Much more lenient than other physics professors. Shows the answers during pollev and iirc no points off for incorrect homework attemps. Class grade was curved in the end as usual but I mostly only passed due to help from class discord.