Survey -- February 12, 2001

Thank you for taking the time to fill out the survey, I especially appreciate the comments many of you wrote. Most of you seem happy with the class, overall. Here are some of my thoughts.

1. Grading. Most people indicated the exam was fair and not too unlike what had been taught. If you feel the grading is unfair, you are welcome to come discuss specific cases with me. For the people who felt the test was not related to what was taught in class, I am not sure what I can say about that as I feel the exam was similar to the homework and the concept questions were similar to those discussed in class. One person commented that I hadn't made it clear Gauss's Law as relates to flux could be on the exam, which I apologize for not making clearer.
2. Lectures: Most people feel the speed of the lectures is just right, with about 1/8th of the class feeling they are too fast and 1/8th feeling they are too slow. If you're feeling it's too fast, please try to catch me during an office hour to go over whatever is confusing. About a third of you feel the focus of lectures is too skewed towards concepts; I will definitely take this into consideration, but I do feel the discussion section / office hours are more appropriate places to spend time going over problems.
3. Homework: Most people indicated that the homework was too much. My motivation for assigning the homework is of course because I think it's helpful for you to learn the material. However, I am willing to cut back on the quantity. Also, while I still plan to assign homework the week of the test, I will try harder to make sure it's not long and not getting in the way of studying for the test. In particular HW #3 was harder than I had planned.
4. Concept questions: The class is split evenly between those who are neutral, those who love them, and those who hate them. For those of you planning to take the MCATs, I think understanding the concepts is crucial to doing well on the MCATs, even more so than being able to work complicated math problems. For those of you who won't be taking the MCATs, or in fact for the whole class, I think these types of questions are the ones I most hope you can answer long after the class is over. I hope years from now you can look at a lightning bolt and realize in some ways it's similar to sparks, and that in both cases the air is temporarily becoming a conductor. So, love 'em or hate 'em, the concept questions are here to stay. If you are finding them confusing, please, do let me know. I am happy to spend office hour time going over concept questions.

• Length of exam -- Conceptual problems require more thinking and it sometimes takes a while to understand the problem
  -- This is a good point, I will try to make subsequent exams shorter
• Are there tutors available?
  -- Donna Wong, 7-6754, dmwong@emory.edu organizes some sort of tutoring which includes Physics 142. She is located at Woodruff Dorm 348. If this does not work, please let me know.
• Too much to study for before the test (homework, suggested problems, class notes, etc)
  -- I will try to cut back on the suggested problems so as to have a more manageable set
• I really enjoy the discussion questions on the overhead
  -- I like those too, I will continue to use them whenever I can find good ones
• Suggested change: more demonstrations to talk about concepts
  -- I do plan to try to do more demonstrations, several people said on the survey that they enjoy them
• I feel that you're doing your best, it's up to us now to learn the material! Some of us have learned that physics just will not come easy, no matter how hard we try.
  -- The material we're covering the first half of this course is very difficult, it is not related to every-day experiences and some of it is rather abstract. I feel you are all working very hard and I appreciate the effort.

Please let me know if you have additional comments or questions.