2.5
Quality3.4
Difficulty29%
Would Retake97
Reviews29%
Would Retake
97
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
14
4
17
3
9
2
26
1
31
What Students Say
“There is a mountain of HW to do every week”
PHYS247 - 1.0 rating“Doesn't care to talk about math much”
PHYSICS247248 - 2.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
93%
Textbook Required
60%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.47 avg changeRatings by Course
PHYSICS 249
5.0
(1)PHY105
4.0
(1)PHSIC205
4.0
(1)PHYSICS201
3.3
(3)PHYSICS249
3.0
(3)Difficulty by Course
PHY103
4.5
PHYSC208
4.0
PHYSICS247248
4.0
PHYSICS247
4.0
PHYS247
4.0
Reviews (97)
A total joke. Cannot lecture whatsoever. Knows what he is talking about, but unable to convey it coherently. Skip lecture and rely on your TA...
Godawful lecturer. Explains topics incredibly poorly. The material covered was WAY over the head of the kind of students the class was intended for. The book is junk - the homework is extremely difficult and neither he nor the book is of any help
Good teacher, uses powerpoint, Has notes on web. Rather clear. has lots of graphical models to clear up physics.
Lectures were organized but the concepts were really hard. Teacher was smart but didn't convey the topics so that the students could understand. No point in going to lecture. Discussions(w/Halzen) were extremely helpful.
so annoying, but the TA is helpful. (halzen)
is really unclear and tries to be funny but is just really annoying.
easiest class that i've taken in college. tests are 20 multiple choice questions and take about ten minutes to do. he doesn't convey the concepts very well, but for material this easy, he shouldn't have to.
He did a good job with the class. One of the best books I've ever seen, easy multiple choice tests. The discussion was great. Plus he's adorable. He tells these jokes that are only funny if you devote your life to physics and they're never funny. He tries so hard to be funny and isn't, so it's really cute, like a little puppy or something.
This guy is entertaining, I love all his little nerdy jokes and actions. They keeps you entertained if you have an open mind. Awesome!!
Thought he was Newton himself. I went to the first 2 lectures. I tried to talk to him after a class as an interested student and he completely blew me off. I would not suggest attending any of his lectures.
A total waste of my time and money... mumbles constantly and is off the subject... very pompous and arrogant for a prof that doesn't seem to know what he is talking about. The TA far outshined him. Wonder why he teaches.
Physics sucks but if you got to take it I would go with him. He is pretty interesting in class as far as physics profs go but more importantly his tests are pretty much all plug and chug and when that fails, guessing works really well.
Grading was pretty bad for 208. He's a great Prof. for 241 though.
Duncan's lectures are pointless, but attendance is mandatory. Usually he spends most of the lecture telling us how "wacky" physics is. One day he told us that 2^10 is "like a million", and nobody was even surprised - don't expect much in the way of math or equations. Really easy tests, though: multiple choice with partial credit for wrong answers.
Pretty good professor. Could tell he was interested in students learning the material. Tests unreflective of homework, but homework and attendence were 60% of the grade. Overall, just okay, maybe above average.
Requires online homework due once per week plus "problems to be done in discussion" every week that take about 90 min. each to do. Lectures are pointless because never once do you do an example and that is what everything but the attendance grade is based on! Good news though, the final exam is so ridiculous everyone will fail so there is a curve!
I really like Prof Duncan. I thought his lectures were very easy to understand, and he gives lots of examples, which was helpful. He would sometimes get sidetracked and talk about particle physics, but that interests me, so I was ok with it. His exams are incredibly hard, but have huge curves. Definitely one of my better Physics professors.
I had the pleasure of learning from Duncan for three semesters, for the 247-249 sequence. Lectures were appropriate and entertaining (with demos!), workload was appropriate for the number of credits, and he was always available outside of class. Exams were TOUGH, but grading was fair and curved. I recommend this professor if you are a physics major
Duncan is an excellent teacher. He makes it really easy to like going to class. Class is challenging, but also very rewarding and interesting. He also likes to keep you up to date with new physics which is awesome coming from a scientist in the field. You can't go wrong with this class or Duncan!
I had professor Carlsmith for the entire introductory (247-249) series and thoroughly enjoyed it. It is clear that he is passionate about physics and especially in teaching it. The courses weren't easy, but they were organized and taught very well.
Interesting professor with tons of energy and enthusiasm for physics, but lectures are not representative of the exams. Spends more time on digressions than the actual subject you are learning. Averages grade in the class was about 50% but that ended up being an AB. Avoid this professor, his lectures only serve to confuse you further.
Great professor, very teaching oriented. Starts Garage Physics for undergrads to work on their own projects for free. shoots you tons of physics via email. teaching style resembles Feynman's. Exams are fair.
Carlsmith is a nice guy who is passionate about physics, but he doesn't care much about teaching. Less than half the class showed up to lectures because we had to teach ourselves everything anyways (the way he describes things in class is less efficient than simply reading the textbook). The class was a fairly easy A, but I didn't learn much.
just take other courses... don't waste your time here.
Carlsmith is the best professor I've had on campus. Go to lecture. Exam material is the material he mentions more than once in lecture. He also cares about his students and is always willing to help or just talk about careers in physics. Great professor.
Carlsmith is a great professor that cracks a lot of jokes and talks quite a bit about real world applications to the concepts learned. He is definitely the best professor to motivate students to pursue a career in physics. He is down to earth and completely destroys the nerdy socially awkward stereotype of physics professors.
Great professor, if not a bit long-winded. Lectures are sometimes a bit over our heads with calculations of quantum theory and not always covering the meat of the material, so reading and homework is paramount to success in this course. He's very involved, always wanting to chat, sending out long emails with encouragement/jobs/physics news/etc.
Good use of additional material: demonstrations, videos, brainstorming exercises, discussion posts - we even did an online lab using data from the LHC. Big focus on interaction, participation, and figuring things out. Lectures sometimes beyond the scope of the course - but the text helps. Homework is tougher than exams. Provides a lot of feedback.
This professor is really amusing in lectures, and he's very approachable outside of them. He has a lot of cool things to say, and it's worth it to listen.
A very interesting lecturer who can point out potential applications of concepts and make things seem to matter. Expects you to understand concepts through reading the textbooks however so lectures are not a great reflection of exams.
Lectures are pointless and far too pop sci-y for what is supposed to be an advanced introductory physics coursehe once spent a lecture talking about bombs, which had nothing to do with the scheduled unit. Doesn't care to talk about math much. Provides relatively little material for exam preparation. Labs are alright, but terribly time consuming.
He cares a lot about physics but tends to go off on tangents. There was a lot of homework and the lab reports take an extremely long time to write. Some of the programming parts of labs were difficult.
Slight improvement over 247. Tries to cram too many topics into the class, and I would have preferred a more intensive look at pure electromagnetism instead of circuits and quantum, which should be saved for 321 and 249, respectively. Nice guy, loves talking about physics, but the class should be more focused.
AVOID AT ALL COSTS. 5cr. class, feels like 10. There is a mountain of HW to do every week. Lec's r completely pointless and popsci for an hnrs/acc seq. Lec's r mandatory (TopHat att. and Qs). Matlab is used for labs--extr'ly diff. & time-consuming. Mumbles in lec. Not once has he gone through and done a complete example Q in lec. u willearn nothing
Very passionate, but lectures aren't useful. Learned more about the topics in discussions with a TA than I did in the lectures. Heavy focus on MATLAB, essentially has to be learned on your own- more time spent on making sure your codes are right than actually understanding material. Labs are brutal because of this this as well. Don't recommend.
If you aren't an expert in Matlab and TeX programming languages and higher level math/differential equations, don't take this class. You're doing HW 24/7. You will learn nothing in this class--lectures don't cover ANYTHING important. So disappointed in UW-Madison for having a prof like Duncan for an "advanced" physics sequence. Take 201/207 instead
You're better off reading the textbook and taking notes of the slides online (the lectures are pointless). He doesn't go over meaningful examples and fails to communicate how to solve problems. The labs are based on MATLAB, which is a struggle of it own to handle. Though the curve is the saving grace of his class, he doesn't update grades often.
Awful. Physics turned into a computer science and math class. The lectures taught nothing about the material, and the labs taught no physics (mostly trying to figure out how Matlab works). Learned everything from the TA. Take a different into physics course.
Please listen to the recent reviews. This class is an easy A, but I promise you will learn nothing. Lectures: barren of real teaching, maybe had 3 examples the entire semester. Labs: annoyingly impossible Matlab programming. Homework: ton of it, all useless. Exams: stupid and relatively easy. Discussion TA: saved our lives. Take another intro class
I was disappointed by this class. My piers and I spent hours on difficult labs that involved a lot of computer coding with little direction. His lectures are not useful at all but are mandatory. I did not learn very much actual physics and I heavily relied on my previous knowledge to get through homework and midterms.
Google: A Physics 247 Manifesto reddit. My friend wrote this while we were taking the class this semester. Very accurate and worth the read. If you know the physics your grade should be fine, just be prepared to learn how to code in Matlab. Duncan was very knowledgeable about the topics; there was just a lot of independent learning.
His lectures are absolutely terrible, its 50 minutes of him talking without you really getting any information. Youll have to teach yourself everything from the textbook or hope for a good TA. The labs are arbitrary and typically dont relate to whats happening in class, as well as require a ton of matlab coding.
MAJORITY of the lectures covered NONE of the content on the first exam (class average was 61.1% WITH EXTRA CREDIT ADDED BEFOREHAND). Good luck getting labs done in 3 hours if there's MATLAB in any of them. Participation and TOPHAT are mandatory for grades, but are worth jack since lectures cover nothing meaningful for exams or homework. Good luck..
Assignments due 7 days/week. Duncan's smart, but forgets he's teaching intro & can be arrogant. Lectures are useless, but demos are cool. "3 hr" labs are very tedious & confusing. Lots of Matlab. Exams are ok. Grade will be fine if you read & keep up w/ the constant deadlines. I dropped the physics major after 247/8. Also see: Physics 247 Manifesto
Best place to browse reddit and have a laugh, look at flat earth theories, convince your self that it is flat. Good 50 mins to get caught up on homework your two days behind - three times a week. Also one of the classes where you spend considerable time thinking about the miserable life choices you made, and drifiting away from reality
Duncan gives the clearest, most concise lectures ever. He only needs to say things once and you will absolutely have the concept nailed down. I've learned so much! Labs are wonderful and take no time at all to complete. The homework is amazing & worth doing. lol i'm just kidding, for sure avoid this guy
Try to avoid this course, the professor covers basically nothing in the lectures and expects you to understand everything he does not teach about. The homework will literally kill you.
great lecturer, really passionate, but obsessed with entrepreneurship and wants us all to make money off of building apps
Duncan's lectures teach you nothing though they might seem fancy. Everything is a test. Homeworks only have 3 attempts, and they are due 7 days a week. If you don't have any coding experience then its very confusing to do labs every week with Matlab. He probably forgets it is an intro course. Really wears down your passion to physics.
This class is ruining my passion for physics. The homework amount is completely unreasonable, the exams are set up in a way that is unfair, 60% of the work is Matlab, he expects us to grasp particle physics in an intro class, and lectures are basically useless at helping you learn the material. Don't let an adviser convince you, just take 207/8
He doesn't teach anything important during lecture, best used as time to do the monstrous amount of homework assigned. If for any reason you are going to take this class, please, please try and learn some MATLAB before you take the course. This is your only hope for any remote for of success
This class started much rougher than it finished. He really listens to and implements feedback. You get used to the homework load. The workload and Matlab is what turned me away from this class at first but he really does want you to do well and made changes based on what the students said. The TAs were a godsend. Very much a trial by fire class.
This class is a joke. Duncan doesnt teach us anything. Its very easy to hack the grading system to get an A, which I did despite hardly learning anything. Be warned: this class will not prepare you for future physics courses.
Duncan is a very good person, but sometimes the exam is really difficult. His lecture is only useful when u read the textbook already. I got a really low grade on the second exam I am not sure he will curve or not. I think because of this exam I might not be able to get A. I think my grade will be AB. Duncan is cool, but do not be lazy for real.
Dr Carlsmith is not a bad person and probably not a bad professor for higher level classes. The lectures were entertaining but hard to follow and I got extremely little from them. This class is entirely self taught. Physics is the entire test basis but you'll spend 15-20+ hours a week on matlab that will teach you nothing about it.
Prof Carlsmith is a nice person and his office hour is really helpful. He carefully reviewed all my submitted homework before the office hour and gave me some really helpful suggestions. However, the lab part is somewhat difficult. I highly recommend learning Matlab before having this course. You can get an A as long as your grade is more than 87.
He is awful. He spends 1/3 of class rambling about things unrelated to physics, 1/3 of class talking about parts of physics that have nothing to do with the class, and 1/3 actually teaching. He clearly has a passion for physics, but he lacks anything approaching the ability to teach students. Take his class if only if you're a masochist.
Take this class only if you really LOVE physics, otherwise you won't get why he gives his lectures in his way. "If you take anything away from this course, I hope it is a faith that there are explanations for, stories behind, everything you observe. It's all a marvelou puzzle."
This class is a lot of work and imo Carlsmith is a bad lecturer. The class is also quite disorganized. 248 gets slightly better than 247, but I'd still recommend just not taking this sequence with Carlsmith. The grade boundaries are super low; exams are super tough; labs are long but overall not as bad as 247. Extra credit exists.
Lectures usually dont follow the chapter readings for each week very well but are sometimes related, compared to the Matlab assignments which always feel so random and unconnected making progress especially difficult for someone new to the programming platform.
Duncan is possibly the worst professor at UW-Madison. You will learn nothing unless you read the textbook. Lectures are useless but mandatory. Tests are unfair and have nothing to do with any learning you're doing. 80% of class and all labs are coding MATLAB, which he teaches literally none of yet expects you to know everything. DO NOT TAKE!!!!!!!!
Unless you really, really love physics, don't take this class. More people have dropped the physics major because of 247/248 than I can count, and that falls on Carlsmith's awful teaching. Be prepared to learn Matlab fluently for an introductory class and entirely rely on the textbook and TAs (who are just as confused as you are).
Pretty good teacher
The worst part about him is he writes a novel of directions for everything you have to do and all the labs. The only way I have a good grade (which is currently a 104%) is because of the extra credit he gives. MATLAB is the bane of my existence. It's a comp. language he seemingly expects you to just "get." Look up on Reddit: Physics 247 manifesto.
The MATLAB assignments, lectures, labs, and hw are all awful and long and confusing and almost never related to each other. Prof seems very out of touch, doesnt teach, expects concepts and MATLAB to be easy for us bc it is for him. I haven't met anyone that has anything positive to say about this class. Save yourself and take a different sequence
This class is an easy A-- students can get up to 140% with extra credit! IMO this course isn't as terrible as everyone says. It is a better option than taking intro courses geared towards non-physics majors. Expect weekly MATLAB assignments, book readings, book problems, pre labs, labs (extremely difficult at times!), and extra credit.
Prof. Carlsmith is a fun lecturer. In class, he almost always does a demonstration of a physical phenomenon and derives the formulae discussed in class so you know where they come from. There also are a lot of weekly extra credit you can do to increase your grade. Homework questions can be a bit weird and wrong at times. All around, great Prof.
Lectures were focused on real world applications of the material rather than the actual material itself. Lots of MATLAB coding especially in lab, and some writing with LaTeX. Lots of extra credit (possible to earn up to 140% in the class). Exams were based on textbook content. This class is most useful if you are certain about the physics major
He clearly knows what he's talking about, and you can see he gets excited about physics. However, he's not the best teacher. He checks attendance at lectures, so you need to go to them, and while seeing cool demos, not much info is got from going to them. The textbook and TAs are what get you through the class.
Unless you are a Matlab GENIUS, do not take this class. Even our TA had no idea what the Matlab thing he gave to the students is for. ----From a student who is driven mad by the professor's sample code in 248
Dont recommend, especially to incoming freshmen. Expectations for students are absurd. Expects you to do complex Matlab code right away with no real guidance. TA was just as clueless as us. Workload is SUFFOCATING. Content itself is advanced but usually understandable, but the pure stress of his class was otherworldly. Generous gradescale though
I didn't find Duncan's class to be as difficult as some other people have said. There's kind of a lot of homework, but it's not necessarily hard. Exams are difficult but not worth much of grade. Labs can be easy or hard depending on the week, grade depends on how harsh the TA is. Overall pretty easy to get an A but you probably won't learn much.
pretty much the same as 247. labs are easier and have less matlab though
His lectures are a mixed bag. He focuses on real world applications instead of textbook content, which is both good and bad. He is clearly very passionate. Decently homework heavy(MATLab, HW Sets, Readings, Lab), but not as much as others would claim. E.C. make it an easy A. Only take if Physics/AMEP. Put in the work, and you'll get a lot out.
He's really passionate about the topics you touch on but can stray sometimes and go on wild 40-minutes tangents. Read the textbook and make sure to get all the equations and you'll get a good grade.
Professor Carlsmith cares a lot for his students and definitely has a passion for the topics that he teaches. Reading the textbook is essential as he sometimes does not finish lectures and therefore does not get to all of the necessary equations. His exams can be very tough but he is a fair grader and listens to feedback.
Duncan is a great professor that truly cares about modern physics. Although his lectures might be convoluted sometimes, if you read the textbook in tandem, you should be fine. His lectures are supplementary and should be just listened to instead of vigorously taking notes on everything he says.
For this class, focus on reading the textbook and creating a good formula sheet for the exams. Also, if one does the extra credit, you don't need to do perfect on the exams (which are multiple choice). Overall, a breeze if you can read the textbook.
All physics and calculus courses before this one...A's. Currently failing 241. He is a fun and quirky guy who knows A LOT about physics, but for me, he doesn't teach anything. ALL info is from reading the book. Lectures are on tangential, frivolous info, which with the density of info in this course is not a good thing. Does ZERO examples in class.
He is the most horrible professor I have ever seen. He never did anything that is related to the material but only what interests him
He does not teach at all. You are on yourself. Goodluck
Although I got a A, I was almost all on myself. He made fun material boring because he only talked about things he himself found interesting, and everything on the textbook or homework he was like "yeah I am gonna skip that." The textbook is math heavy, and he talks about how to solve PDE that he does not really know how to do.
You are entirely on your own. He is awful at lecturing so you are going to have to rely on your TA and/or textbook to learn anything. At least he was so incompetent that he accidentally gave all the answers to the first midterm, so at least I got a free 100% on that. Otherwise, completely awful, the material isn't even hard he just can't teach.
Carlsmith truly cares about the topics he is discussing and puts an important focus on the applications of the physics that he teaches. You can tell he truly cares about his students and wants to share his passion for physics.
His lectures are mandatory and not helpful at all. You can tell he is passionate about what he is teaching, he just can't teach. Luckily I had an amazing TA who helped me get an A.
I am not sure what others are complaining about. if you are an engineering majors. This class would feel like a cold breeze in summer. it's an easy A for the most part. He does struggle a little with lectures but reading topic before class definitely helps.
While Prof. Carlsmith is very knowledgeable about the field, the lectures were not helpful, and I got all my information from reading the textbook. However, it is easy to get an A because of the 10% extra credit research paper that most people get full credit on.
He is the professor right now for physics 103 and it is a disaster. He seems like a really sweet guy, but his lectures are boring and do not follow along with the slides well since we only get through 1/3 of them. He goes off on tangents and doesn't understand technology.
PHYS 103: Seems like a sweet guy outside of lecturing. He just knows nothing about technology. He has to have someone set everything up for him before every lecture and if something goes wrong he doesnt know how to fix it and ends lecture early. He never finishes his slides and his writing is imposible to read. He goes off on tangents every lecture
Terrible lecturer. The class is an easy A because of the research paper that adds 10% to your grade, but the course is terribly designed, and exams are terrible. The first exam had a multiple choice question with no correct answer, and questions are random and there is no good way to study. Just go to class and take notes on the textbook during.
Be prepared to learn everything by yourself and through discussions...You can learn nothing besides seeing some demonstrations in the lectures :(
Worst professor I ever had at UW-Madison. Went off tangent 70% of the time, could only finish ~1/3 of the slides at the end of each lecture, leaving most of his explanations in after-class "annotated slides" which nobody understands as his handwriting is also poor. Plus, he's horrible at technology. Highly recommend going to discussion instead.
Death by powerpoint. Mumbles the whole time. Online Cengage textbook. Attendance graded. Just sit in the back and take notes from the powerpoint on your laptop I wouldnt bother listening to the lecture. Fanboys about Feynman a lot. Pretty nice guy though, and the exams are fairly easy.
We never got through all the slides, he constantly mumbled, and had many issues with technology during each unit. Seemed very caring, but often went on rants that weren't course specific, wasting class time. Attendance was mandatory, but lectures were not helpful whatsoever. Handwriting was also unreadable, so you couldn't catch up. READ TEXTBOOK
Although Professor Carlsmith wanted to help his students, his lectures unfortunately left me more confused and frustrated. Attendance was mandatory, but he oftentimes struggled to get through all the material. He seems very nice, but I think he is just too advanced to teach this course.
Great professor who brings an intuitive understanding to modern physics. I recommend participating and asking questions--Carlsmith's understanding and enthusiasm is infectious
The class was conceptually hard, which wasn't helped by Carlsmith's mumble-filled lectures. However, the tests questions are pretty easy (for the most part), and all multiple choice. Your TA's teaching ability matters; I learned most of the content in discussion. There's a 2500 word paper that gives 10% extra credit, which greatly helped my grade.
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
93%
Textbook Required
60%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.47 avg changeRatings by Course
PHYSICS 249
5.0
(1)PHY105
4.0
(1)PHSIC205
4.0
(1)PHYSICS201
3.3
(3)PHYSICS249
3.0
(3)Difficulty by Course
PHY103
4.5
PHYSC208
4.0
PHYSICS247248
4.0
PHYSICS247
4.0
PHYS247
4.0