Homework covers a lot of concepts that do not appear in class. Teaching is hard to understand since she tries to get people participating, but nobody wants to do it. Thus just waits untill someone goes and takes up a long time.

Professor Sealfon tries to make class more enjoyable by having students go to the front to act out different notions of the class, but these demonstrations end up being confusing and are not helpful. She spends a lot of time on the easy stuff and accelerates for the harder things. I had to learn most of the material on my own.

Many formulas she doesn't even mention in lecture is called "fair game" for midterm material, and even new variables are introduced in the homework problems. Felt like I was learning 90% of the material by myself and don't really get the point of lectures if this is the way it is. Demonstrations aren't really helpful and should do more examples.

Very enthusiastic, yet cannot teach. Not capable of teaching. Does not explain things well.

I think she tries to spend lecture time (demonstrations) in a way that will help us remember this stuff for a longer time but I found that the prof actually lecturing and going over different examples like in PHY131 helps much more. I still remember most of the things from last term but I already forgot stuff from term test 1 in this course.

Tip of the day: If this professor is teaching a course you want to take DO NOT take it until they have someone else teaching it.

Lectures are not helpful at all, people only come for learning catalytics. We never actually go over content, it's literally just demonstrations that are in the text book that never reach conclusions. She treats us like elementary students, rants about chatting when we are university students. Coughs in the mike. Asks for feedback, but does nothing

lectures and practicals are a waste of time

She means well but comes off as very condescending in her tone. Her explanations are mediocre at best and her lectures are horrible.

Avoid her AT ALL COSTS!!!!

Nice person and willing to help. But lectures can be horrible and do not coney the learning goals, rather it is expected to teach oneself using textbook

Professor Sealfon is nice and has her heart in the right place. However, lectures are borderline useless if you took high school physics (which is how the course is taught). The midterms give students partial marks for correct answers with work due to missing a useless bar graph. If you're good at math, take PHY151/2. Those profs are much better.

Lectures are pretty useless and don't really teach you much. Homework is somehow spread out on 3 different platforms and you have to pay for 2 of them. The course is all over the place and it's unnecessarily complicated. The slides are pretty useless and I ended up learning the course off khan academy.

This professor is ridiculous, tons of homework across 3 different platforms. Paid a lot to get in. She is disrespectful to students.

The lectures are useless and there's just so so so much homework. She doesn't know how to teach very well and I found myself using the internet more than class materials.

She is absolutely horrible at teaching + very poor organizational skills

Honestly one of the most unorganized and unprepared professors I have met (and that's saying something). She doesn't teach physics in any sort of logical manner, but spends 15 minutes dancing in class and asking us to observe a bunch of phenomenon and doesn't even cover Snell's law in the light module. Her tests are unreasonable qualitative too.

Sealfon is really not good at teaching. Her slides are very unclear and unorganized, which I do recommend that don't choose her courses absolutely. Also, her tests are truly not accessing what you supposed to know, even we understand physics very well, the way she writes the question truly confuses you and you don't get a good mark usually.

I get that she is making all the classwork "optional" to help but honestly students feel compelled to do it bc we feel like we don't want a six-question quiz to comprise 10% of our mark. Also she should realize that burnout can result if you require students to keep tabs on 100 things. A less detailed course could've got the job done too tbh!

I put so much effort into her homework and assignment, but none of them are related to her quiz.

Here's the thing... A lot of people are saying that she's a nice person despite her terrible teaching. Sure, she's nice, but dropping a quiz without going through one single, proper lecture is a pretty inconsiderate thing to do. She needs to redefine what constructive learning is according to the students, not just by her own 'philosophy'.

None of the homework in this class is related to tests. Tests are ambiguous and poorly thought out. Material on tests isn't crazy hard, but what we learn in lectures/homework has ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with it. Lectures include content on meritocracies and the nature vs. nurture upbringing. This is a PHY 100 class, not a PHIL 100 class.

90 mins of homework per class, 3 classes a week, plus 2 hours of practical, plus about 10 tests. On top of that, none of the homework or classwork prepares you for those tests. PHY131 was very far from a perfect course but compared to PHY132..... Stop trying to reinvent the wheel while the bus is moving. Our grades are not experiments.

Very disorganized. The quizzes/term tests were based on one concept that we barely discussed in class and ate up a lot of time with figuring out what she wanted to say and technical difficulties. I taught almost all the material to myself and learned absolutely nothing in lectures. Very disappointed in how this course was run

She's a terrible professor. I'm not even a reading week and I I'm so fed up with her

When you make SMT look good in comparison, you know your course is absolutely terrible. The tests are essentially going through an I Spy book in 25 minutes. The only difference is that you are looking for physics phenomenon of google stock images that don't explain anything. My understanding of physics has radically decreased when taking PHY132.

200% would take this class again if I wanted to learn about meritocracy! Which will never happen.

Lectures are unclear, unorganized, and confusing as the quizzes. She's a nice person but she's not nice when it comes to teaching. She doesn't lay the foundation of physics in an organized way before she does demonstrations or practice questions. You'll have to rely on textbook or prior knowledge.

Please for the love of god, take algebra-based physics at UTM or UTSC, because this course is not a physics course, it's a platform for her to talk about meritocracy and inequality in Canada. Each test counts for 12% of your grade, and there are 6 questions, so each question (which is multiple choice, so no partial credit) is worth 2% of your grade

This course is absolutely ridiculous. Carolyn is a horrible professor; the homework does not correlate to her assessments at all. Vague images are provided before the test as a 'context' which just overly confuses students. Those who do well psychoanalyze images for hours. I received an A+ in PHY131, I'm getting a D in this course as of now.

Terrible experience doing an online course with Prof Sealfon. Lectures were inconsistent and useless, while the "tests" were even worse. All we did was look at pictures of physics phenomena and answer multiple choice questions about it that's not physics.

It's my last semester of university. I've been here for 4 years. This is the worst course I've ever taken. Sealfon is disorganized, gives unfair testing, and unwilling to change her awful "teaching" methods. Our tests consist of 6 questions with "select all that apply" MCQs with 8 options? Come on now.

Hands down one of the worst profs at the University. She assigns a ton of homework that does not help with the 12% quizzes she gives biweekly. She cannot teach and is condescending towards the class. I will never forget how I asked her to go back one slide after class to copy things down and she refused to. Avoid this professor at all costs!

Worst Prof ever. Apparently traditional Physics tests are unfair, but having people spend 90mins a day reading out of a textbook struggling to somehow translate that into skills that would allow them to interpret abstract images to answer 6 quiz questions (on quizzes that will total 80% of your grade) is totally fine! Beware!

It's like, she reads about and maybe researches pedagogy but there are tens of students saying she's hurting their learning experience (real-life evidence!!!) and she just does not care. She's probably thinking "NO! you don't know what's best for you, I KNOW!" I didn't like her condescending tone. Wasted learning opportunity, truly.

PHY132 is a mess. PHY131 was a masterclass in how to conduct a course during an unpredictable online semester: lots of feedback, clear tests, meaningful practice problems, etc. PHY132 on the other hand is trying to perform some teaching revolution in an already stressful semester and much like the students taking it, it is failing.

Sealfon claims her testing method better tests physics skills. The average of around 50% seems to say otherwise. It's also very peculiar that she thinks traditional tests need replacing but doesn't seem to have a problem with 90 minutes of textbook reading per class, an outdated teaching method if there ever was one.

RUN FOR YOUR LIFE! She assumes you have already known the material quite well, so she only give little explanation in class. Her tests make up 68-80% of term grade, and test questions require "analyze" photos. It is like asking you to apply the knowledge to a complicated real world problem without actually teaching you the basic fundamental.

Seriously the worst choice I've ever made is to take her class in first year. Be aware that her quizzes are extremely difficult to understand, with confusing pics and questions. Lose one point is one mark down on your final report. Good luck.

Hands down the worst lecturer here. There are other Profs who make mistakes in the structuring of their courses, but I'm sure no other Professor would simply refuse to make necessary changes or help their students. My mental health has plummeted this semester entirely due to this course. I go into tests having no idea if I'll get a 0 or a 100.

Her decision to switch to a new assessment style - for ONLINE school during a PANDEMIC- that is composed of 6 questions all based on interrogating an image provided has been the worst experiment I have ever seen. Students are beyond stressed, discouraged, and angry that this has been allowed. The average for the last midterm was a 58% (3.5/6)

living proof that just because you're insanely smart in your field doesn't mean you are equipped to teach other people

This class has about 2 hrs of hw per class, 1 hour of lecture three times a week, 2 hours of practical per week, and biweekly quizzes, and yet I can confidently say that I have not properly learned a single thing in this joke of a course.

One of the worst. She doesn't have any quantitative analysis for her course nor a proper course organization and the method of homework credits in perusal is the worst ever. Please take this course if you are ready for it beforehand because the classes are also not worth the shot and nor are the tests at all!

The physics in PHY132 is negligible. PHY stood for PHilosophY.

Probably the worst prof I've had at UofT. PHY132 was a complete joke this year and she did little to recognize the struggles of her students or try and better the course using the constructive criticism given by students. She should not be teaching beginner-level physics if the department wants to attract students for upper-level studies.

Her lectures are structured poorly and the tests are not a good reflection of student learning. Although I understand she's trying her best, she's not really taking suggestions given by students. The class started out with 600+ students, and last time I checked, it is in the 300s

Annoying and unfocused

Bad teaching style, Unfair grading and testing method. Too much homework. Clunky online platforms used. Unplanned course structure. Doesn't explain materials clearly. Sets students up for failure and used the covid batch- the unlucky batch of 2020-as guinea pigs for pedagogical nonsense.

this is hands down THE worst course i've taken in my 4 years of uoft. overall the material is at a gr12 level, but the problem is we can't even demonstrate that we can understand the material because of her 6 question tests that are based on a random image. her homework credit system is also poorly thought out, and labs are literally useless.

I have never seen someone so uncaring and unprofessional in my entire life before. Throws tantrums when things don't go her way. Her delivery of content in this course is a joke. Midterms are terribly structured - 6 questions based on a random image which doesn't allow us to demonstrate our understanding of physics at all. AVOID AT ALL COSTS.

Lectures aren't helpful. I had to rely entirely on outside sources to learn the material. Would not recommend this professor for PHY132.

This course made an already hard year even harder, especially with the 'creative' testing scheme. She always blames our bad grades on us, when her testing format and material also play a part in the issue. Reading the textbook, doing Perusall, doing ALL the work she assigned, was still NOT enough to study for the tests and far from a pleasure to do

Lectures were useless. Spent so much time on social justice while claiming it was important to our understanding of electrostatics and magnetism. Not recommended, we took the bullet so you don't have to. Go next.

Worst prof in U of T

NO. Half the class just failed the final. Avoid at all costs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't really know what else to say, PHY132 Winter 2021 was an experiment where us students were the lab rats, and all I can say is at least I survived. If you want to learn physics, I recommend taking courses at UTM or UTSC instead, or even taking PHY152 maybe (granted I heard that course is pretty hard to).

The content of the course is not too bad if you took High School physics. But this is not about the course, it is about the Prof. She doesn't teach during lecture as she assigns the textbook to read and annotate before class. The tests/midterms are unfairly difficult as the questions do not cover lecture content. Not a good first year experience.

Worst class I've ever taken. I would've dropped if I didn't need it for a program. Lectures are awful and the homework does not help you prepare for the quizzes at all. The quizzes are straight up brutal and also the weirdest structure I've ever seen. She has no mercy. Curved down students on a final that a lot of people failed.

jesus never again the material isn't so bad... it's the test Like u can't really study for it. sure you can watch few khan academy videos to grasp the concept, but practicing the "old fashioned" physics questions won't prepare you for the stupid 6 question online brutal format quiz. the lecture was so confusing.... please avoid at all cost.

Don't know if I can say anything new. The main problem here is not that people have a problem specifically with the quizzes. It's that she poses these ambiguous and confusing Q's with image analysis in midterms, but we only learn from the textbook which has nothing to do with the quiz. She knows this as well but says there's nothing we can do now.

I feel so bad writing this bc she's such a sweet person and she genuinely seems like she cares about her students and wants them to learn physics in a meaningful way. But her lectures were disorganized, tests were confusing, and the amount of work for this class was too overwhelming for me. Maybe it's because the class switched to online this year.

The lowest grade in my academic history

For someone who has problems interacting with other people, this course would be absolute torture. This professor basically forces you to work as a group for everything (you dont get to choose). Even during lectures they keep sending you into break-out rooms to chitchat with others over nothing. The most ridiculous course Ive ever taken.

To an extent, in Dr. Sealfon's own mind, the way she teaches is beneficial, so she deserves some mercy. However, the unrelated image for tests that we did not have enough time for, was unfair. The difficulty in class/slides was nothing compared to the tests and she knew and did nothing about it. She practically made the class impossible.

Professor Sealfon is disorganised, patronising, often condescending and has developed a horrible course structure for PHY131H1S. While the course is designed as an introduction to Physics, and the content is really not very difficult at all, Professor Sealfon is genuinely a horrible teacher. Never take any of her courses.

I used to really enjoy physics before I took her class. Poor management, and terrible lectures have made me dread going into lectures and reviewing for this course. She is also running a study on the effect of participation on grades during her course, and did not inform us of that fact at all. I used to really enjoy physics, now I hate it.

The exams have legit nothing to do with what we do in class. The class before our midterm had a ppt with a total of 3 (three) slides one was the intro and one was the "see you next week". Worst professor I've ever had in my academic career.

WORST PROFESSOR ON EARTH DONT EVER TAKE ANY CLASS WITH HER SHE SHOULDNT EVEN BE A PROFESSOR.LECTURES ARE TERRIBLE SHE JUST POSTS ONE OR TWO QUESTIONS IN HER SLIDES AND EXPECTS US TO SOLVE IT AND TEACH THE REST OF THE CLASS. SHE THINKS THE TEXTBOOK IS ENOUGH TO TEACH OURSELVES. HER TESTS ARE SO BAD AND SHES SO DISORGANIZED ALWAYS CHANING HER MIND.

The course is organized in a very bad manner, the professor is very bad at explaining the course material and her lectures make you feel like you are in elementary school with all the random clapping moments throughout the class.

She does not know how to teach. She can barely explain anything in class. She teaches based on the textbook but moves so slowly and gets carried away with other topics that she ends up not teaching anything. You are better off finding videos online than going to her lectures. Pick a different prof and not her if you can.

I did not learn a single thing from the course. Basically, physics knowledge for this course would come from high school courses from Grade 11/12 or AP Physics courses. The marking scheme was also unbalanced. Overall, going to her lectures was pretty meaningless. Understanding her lectures was more difficult than understanding the content itself.

just bad