Much more difficult than 40B.
About the same as 40B, but no practice exams provided means I didn't do as well on the midterms/finals.
The class, itself, is really difficult and I struggled through it the entire quarter. Professor Sales, however, was a wonderful professor and explained the material thoroughly. I honestly recommend having her for your physics professor, even if it isn't for PHYS040C. Side note, you really need to know the right hand rule for this class or you're going to suffer second half of the quarter.
Requires a bit of studying, but is ultimately not too difficult. Just pay attention in lecture and watch youtube videos to fill in gaps. Just don't take Monday labs as you will have to go over concepts that are taught in lecture later during the week.
Laura Sales was my professor. Very good teaching style, explains things well and does examples in class. Midterm is free response and multiple choice, while final was all multiple choice. I personally found 40C and 40B easier than 40A.
Took with Becker. I found this class a lot more difficult than 40A and 40B since I wasn't used to a lot of the concepts (I also fell behind so lol dont do that). The curves are gonna sharper since there was no helpful practice midterm or a practice final. But, if you score higher on your final than the midterm, the final replaces your midterm which is great!
Topics are tough so put in extra time to learn the concepts. Try understanding the concepts instead of memorizing as Becker tests more on understanding and applying. Much harder than 40B and 40A.
Took it with Yanou Cui. It was her first time teaching it, so she did not offer any practice exams. I personally wouldn’t take it again with her as I don’t like how she explained things. It seemed like all she did was read off lecture slides from the textbook. Her exam questions were also mostly theoretical instead of working with solid numbers.
Laura Sales was very easygoing during Fall 2020. She offered a modest amount of extra credit too. She really cares about the students learning, and overall, she was definitely one of my favorite professors at UCR so far. 4 exams total, each 5 multiple choice questions, and she drops the lowest score. If you're taking EE001A at the same time, you'll see a lot of nice overlap.
Professor Sales. SHE IS THE BEST PROFESSOR IN THE DEPARTMENT. Take this class if you are a non-physics major and would just like a class on physics taught in a casual, chill way. You will definitely learn from her class, and she is a great teacher. But she is also a practical person, and understands that not every one of her students wants to dedicate their entire lives around learning physics.
This class was made unnecessarily hard online, only 1 lecture a week (fall 2020), a bunch of useless videos and a garbage textbook, if you have prior physics knowledge it is not that hard
dont do it with becker, he spends all of lecture rambling and not even half the class understands what hes saying. also he worries way more abt catching cheaters than making sure students understand material.
Took the class with Jonathan Richardson and the only reason I learned anything in this class is because of the TA. The homework and tests had no correlation. If you take it with Richardson, good luck.
Prof George Becker - Spring 2022. The class itself was not easy, but if you pay attention during lecture, Becker explains everything pretty well. If you do better on the final, it replaces the weight for your midterm. Example, if the midterm was worth 25% and final 35%, and you do better on the final, then the final would be worth 60% and midterm 0%. Shouldn't be too bad, as long as you pay attention in lecture.
Taken with Michael Anderson Spring 2021 (ONLINE), who assigned MasteringPhysics as a form of HW. The exam questions were slightly harder than the HW, but it was manageable due to a lack of proctoring. The lectures were mandatory, as you will be assigned into random groups to complete problems and the professor would come to every group to ask if there are any questions and the problems/worksheet needs to be completed at the end of class.
The material is hard the course did not seem that hard. Becker was amazing especially after Nouri. Becker was a breath of fresh air, the lectures and demonstrations were interesting, the labs are easier than A and B imo. Midterm was pretty easy and scores were high. Final felt easy but scores were not as high. I got an A overall.
I like physics and have always been interested in it since Highschool. I coded a kinematics physics simulator program and got a 5 on the AP Physics C exam. Took it with Leonid Pryadko. Incredibly smart dude, but will absolutely destroy your grade. Homeworks and textbook materials are completely different from his exams. His exams are completely different from all the other physics professors. Studying for his exams is almost peaceful, because it doesn't matter how much you study. You will simply not be prepared for it.
Professor Jonathon Richardson is an excellent professor for teaching this class. He is always prepared for empathetic teaching, he is ready to answer any questions, even those unrelated to physics, and he is consistently available during office hours and over email to answer any questions you have. His teaching of PHYS40C made this my favorite class of the quarter.
Took it Fall 2024 with Jonathan Richardson. He is a very good professor and seems to understand the material very well and is passionate. To be honest I felt that I understood and performed better in 40C compared to 40A and 40B maybe because I actually started taking notes and trying to read the textbook. However, I got a little burnt out and stopped trying after the first midterm but still managed to pass with a B. 2 midterms but lowest is dropped. As always doing the homework, labs, and attending discussion (and try to not fail the exams) will more than likely be enough to pass the class.
I had Y. Cui for PHYS040C. Homework is managable, the midterm and final are pretty brutal but the curve she gives is incredibly high (a low 70s in the class turned into an A-).