Terrible teacher! He (with his wife's help) is responsible for the poorly written lab manuals for Phys 1301 & 1302. He explains concepts poorly, doesn't test what he teaches, and writes incredibly unrealistic problems.

This guy is all over the place and is more interested in making you feel inadequate. Will not admit mistakes even behind a closed door. Also his test questions are real off base. Avoid his class. I got a good grade but had too work way to hard for it!

Seems mostly annoyed with students. Horrible tests, take someone else.

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Lectures were very boring and unhelpful. In class problems took the entire hour to solve, and were done in such a confusing manner that they were not helpful to the majority of students.

Heller is the worst teacher I have ever had. His lectures are a waste of time. His labs are stupid. He talks down to his students too much. His problem-solving method is a big joke. I could say other things but I'm running out of room.

He might be smart, but he sure is an ass

Worst teacher on the planet. Doesn't actually teach - he rambles about nothing. The Heller Method is the ONLY method, so you're destined to fail. I hate this man.

Stay away! Stay far away from this professor. His teaching method that has won him many awards sucks. The people giving out the awards don't know that what might look good on paper doesn't always work in the classroom. Again, STAY AWAY!!!

Crap class. Find a different professor. It is more likely your TA can teach the material better! Drop right away!

It is true, real gnomes do teach physics at this university... Helen Keller could have taught this class better blindfolded with her hands tied behind her back. His poor teaching ability is only surpassed by the distance his head is crammed up his rear.

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This man is a disgrace to teaching. He not only doesn't realize he is horrible but is not willing to change to help the 400 students in his class. He doesn't take averages of the exams. Possibly because he doesnt want to know how bad of a prof he reallyis

He sucks, nuf said.

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This man does not have any concept of time. His questions are objective, open to interpretation, and his exams are impossible to finish in the time alotted. He curves based on the two highest scores in the class which means everyone suffers.

This by far the worst class i have taken at the U of M. I love the U but this class just doesn't reflect the great people we have working here. However, i think Heller is SUPER HOT!!!!

Heller is a worthless teacher. He does know physics. His problem is teaching it. He should just stick to upper level physics and research. Whoever thinks he is "super keen" is a complete idiot and should look for pychiatric help.

the worst prof I have had in my 4 years at UMN

Doesn't teach. period.

horrible. made me hate physics. didn't teach, just showed power point slide shows all class period.

No teaching ability whatsoever. Does not show support or care for his students. Was rude and unwilling to lend help even in attending office hours.

It takes a special person to teach physics to college students and succeed; Heller was not one of them. He was consumed with the "high" he got by insulting undergrads. He made my first semester in college a living nightmare.

The pitts. He's short and has an ego problem because of it.

Cannot explain classwork. Cannot answer questions. My grades got better when I started sleeping durring his class halfway through the semester. Due to Heller I dropped my physics major.

this guy is a total doushe

If you are planning on the MCAT, don't take his class. The MCAT is a timed test where knowing how to use formulas is essential. He does not care to teach any of this, but does curve scores low to make up for his lack of teaching.

Weed-out course??? What is that person thinking?? Well, if 1201 is a weed out course, then Heller isnt a weed-killer. He's more like nuclear waste that will destroy everything living, and when he's finished he will talk about neutrinos

Professor Heller has the ability to take something I previously understood completely and turn it into a bewildering mess. Horrible teacher.

That comment on 3/10/05 about a "velluptious" body is the most ridiculous thing i have ever heard. And I worked for the Ventura administration.

Bad...just bad.

He sucks.

ahhhgh

I don't have him, but he is the director for the undergrad 1200 series physics courses and has his hand in everything. He wrote the horrid lab manual. He writes problems for your section's test, even though he doesn't teach your class(and we didn't cover it). It is unreal how frustrating and difficult he makes the class when it doesn't have to be.

Made my hate physics and I used to really enjoy the subject.

Before comming to the UofM I was went to Nuclear Eng. School for the Navy which is run by MIT.In 98 I barely got a B and that was with alot of studying.To top it off when I confronted him on a mistake and showed him his error,told me I was wrong even with the book as proof.

If i was going to LEARN physics i would be able to use every source to my discression to have a complete and clear understanding of the subject. In his class i LEARNED how to regurgitate what he wanted to hear instead of grassping the concepts. He won't let you use the book only his incomplete notes. i bet the positive feed back is from himself

Has a ridiculous teaching style that is not conducive for learning at all. His tests are hard and are not really representative of problems he does in class or the assigned problems in the book.

It seems like he's just going through the motions, flip the powerpoint slide, next one, "here's a problem that I work out each year, all done," and here's an exam. Worthless for learning the material and relatively unpleasant to spend money on such a class.

Worst teacher ever. So unhelpful in every way, and I wouldn't recommend him to anyone even though I amazingly got an A.

Awful. Simply awful.

Worst Professor at the U by far. He doesn't actually teach rather he scans through power point slides. Book was useless. He didn't know what he was talking about if you asked him about something not in his notes. Guessed my way through his tests and always managed to be a few points off highest grade and ended with an A, but didn't learn anything.

Terrible professor!! Has no idea how to teach to students of an intro course. Physics is like another language for many students and he just assumes everybody is on the same page as him. Does not explain things well. Worst textbook to be picked for this course. Do not take him. I regret it everyday. Exams are not hard if some how you understand it.

Just don't.

To quote the great Kenneth Heller: "it is not my job to make things more clear. It is my job to make things more fuzzy." Although he is a decent lecturer, his tests are very unclear. For someone with a strong physics background the test questions may not be very difficult; for a student who is new to physics the tests are very difficult.

One of the worst professors I have ever had. Arrogant, stubborn, and difficult. Physics is hard, he makes it harder. Tends to ramble about things not even remotely relevant. Do yourself a huge favor and avoid taking his class.

horrible..the style of teaching just doesn't work..I spent hours and hours trying to understand it, I used the book but it did nothing to prepare me for his questions.. I just had to drop it.

He is seriously the worst professor at the university. Don't take him.

I came into this class optimistic, I think hard work is effective in most cases... This professor is losing his marbles. His class structure drives the TA's crazy, his lectures are both a waste of time, too fast(if he rushes), or way too slow as he usually does just ONE problem per lecture. The thing you will learn? How to spell "Guess"

You take a diagnostic test at the beginning of the year. I received a 75% on it, at the end of the year, I took the same test and received a 39%. Not Amaze. What physics? Not Wow. Such Worst. Many Clicker. No points. What grading

Terrible. More helpful to avoid class and teach myself his posted lectures. Constantly gets asked questions he can't answer correctly. He once responded "because I said so" to a question he couldn't think through.

He is a very confusing lecturer and only uses slides. Learn to solve the problems his way and his way only to pass the class with the best grade you can. Not sure how much physics I actually learned.

If you have to have him as a professor, prepare yourself to be frustrated. Expect to be confused all the time. However, the grades are distributed pretty evenly between lab work, quizzes and the final, taking the pressure off of one individual assessment.

You'll have to do a lot of outside work to do well in his class. He explains concepts in a very confusing (although the basis of his examples could be useful). Everything is up on slides so he goes much quicker than you can write. If you can, pick a different instructor.

This professor likes to ask trick questions and his lectures are not helpful. He has pre-lecture questions he asks everyday before lecture, pre-lab quizzes, pre-labs, and clicker questions that are only awarded credit if answered correctly. He is a tough grader and not clear and concise at all. He has this weird format that he wants you to follow

This professor has a weird way of teaching and his explanations are hard to comprehend. He like to do clicker questions, has pre lecture questions and quizzes, and has group and individual quizzes that are hard to complete in the time given. Be prepared to go to your TA to relearn everything that he taught in lecture. Read book & to Khan Academy.

Heller's grading setup is 15% for each of 4 quizzes and 15% for the final. If you bomb the quizzes, the final can be 75% of the grade and because they are ridiculously hard, be prepared to have this happen. He is unhelpful, arrogant, and very stubborn even when presented with reasonable objections. Avoid at all costs!!!!!!!!!!!!

His lecture is just him reading off slides. Fine, some people like that, but my main gripe is his refusal to let us use integrals even through the class is physics WITH CALCULUS. According to him, we "guess" the anti derivative and check by deriving it, and this needs to be shown on every test. Guess 'n check is for 1st grade, not college.

Ken Heller spends a lot of time in lectures talking about things that are tangential to the subject at best. He doesn't usually bother to even try to explain the principles behind the problems but instead jumps straight in to problem solving. In each lecture, we're lucky if we get through one practice problem. USELESS PROFESSOR.

The biggest problem is that he can't write clear test questions.. You will always be guessing on what he's trying to communicate. Also, he takes the test questions about 5 steps forward from anything that he shows in lecture or that you can find in the book.. plus he purposely makes the time very tight on the tests.

The exams are more difficult than others. He makes you derive each and every formula on the exams compared to other professors that give you a formula sheet. He also doesn't make good use of the textbook so you come into class and leave clueless. RUN NOW and take ANOTHER PROFESSOR!

Do not take physics with him. Drop the class if you do. The tests are based on how well you can derive formulas and not the big concepts. Think of it more as a calculus course. This is VERY important to consider if you plan on taking the MCAT because it is almost only the application of concepts. READ: Run

It's easy to tell that that Heller enjoys what he's doing but he's just not very good at it. He will expect you to do all the problems his way even if there is a clear and obvious easier way. He will spend 50+ minutes working on a single problem but then expects you to solve the same kind of problem in 20 minutes on the exams.

Worst prof I've ever had. Did not have helpful lectures- went on many long tangents about random stuff. Exams and the final were so much harder than the examples he gave. Barely passed.

Writes ambiguous, poorly phrased test questions. Covers material so slowly in class that you get few practice problems. The book covers different subjects than the class. Curves based on the highest scoring person in the class (0-10% curve). Holds some stupid views, e.g. "Nobody ever learned anything by having it explained clearly to them".

Heller spent the entire 50 minute lecture going over one problem that we would be expected to do in 20 minutes or less on an exam. The exams were extremely difficult and much more complicated than the examples gone over in class.

Heller wants his problems solved his way. I'm sure he's very nice outside of class but he's not very respectful of his students time and frequently starts before class which means the students arriving on time miss his introduction of the day. His quizzes have too much material for too little time. I would recommend avoiding him if possible

Ready to go to class and still don't know anything in the exam. The lectures are "required" with i-clicker questions but are totally useless. Prepare for a lot of self-studying and adjust to his weird test style. Avoid him at all cost if you are not a genius in physics but looking for an A/B.

This was by far the hardest class I have ever taken in my 7 semesters of college. Heller truly seems like a nice guy and can be somewhat helpful if you see him outside of class, however his tests were extremely difficult to pass. Problems that were done in class were much easier compared to "quiz" problems. Take a different professor if possible.

I would advise everyone against this professor for these reasons: -Heller's lectures are off-topic and lack organization, nobody knows what he is ever talking about. -tests are unrealistically hard and grading system on the tests are unfair (and much different from other 1302 sections) -doesn't respect student's time -get ready to teach yourself

Professor Ken Heller seems like a genuinely nice man, but in a way he's too smart to be teaching. He gets caught up in tangents that don't pertain to the course material, and can't be fully comprehended in the context of what's learned in the course. Overall, a poor lecturer. Prepare to teach yourself from the textbook and your TA.

The only thing Ken knows how to do is point at a projector screen and read off it. Ken is the absolute worst professor I have ever had. I beg of you do not take his class you will suffer.

Has not written a single thing on the board for the whole semester. Reads off of a powerpoint every lecture. He also gets visibly happy when everyone gets an in-class clicker question wrong. Avoid this professor at all costs.

Convinced he became a professor just to stroke his ego and feel smarter than the people around him for once in his life. Never gives an answer to any question asked, and

Too old. Doesn't teach just reads off a slide show. Worthless.

His lectures were useless. All he would do was read off the slides and go on tangents. His quiz problems were completely unrelated to the textbook and practice problems we were given. He accused students of cheating without proof. Avoid him at all costs, even if it means taking this class at a community college instead.

Very difficult in many aspects. Very hard to gather all the data.

Avoid Ken Heller at all costs. Taking physics with him has seriously been the most draining and frustrating experience in my entire life. Both him and the TA were atrocious, and when I approached Heller about the TA he mansplained his problems away and brushed off my concerns. He never taught kinematics and focused on only conservation laws. AWFUL!

I did not learn anything. He tells you the wrong way to do things for 45 min and then proceeds to mention the right way for the last 5 min of the lecture. He says the class is "about making decisions". He doesn't allow the TAs to help you in the lab (they cannot write on the whiteboards and cannot directly tell you how to go about the problem.

I did not learn anything. He would teach us the wrong ways of solving problems, and never finish one problem in a lecture. Did not allow TAs to help us in discussion/lab. Somehow I passed though because grading is weird.

He does not explain physics well enough for students.

Awful professor all around. Considering it was introductory physics, I didn't learn anything. His methods of teaching are old school and don't help beginners in any way. I started not going to lecture, and I did better on the exams lol. His exams are curved so weirdly and don't help, so don't bank on the curve saving your grade :(

One of the worst professors I've had to deal with. Very unhelpful and explains the solutions to each problem in such a convoluted way you'd be better off self teaching via the textbook and YouTube videos. That hardly helps though because the quiz problems are also convoluted. Only good thing about the class was the TAs trying their hardest to help.

Avoid if you can. For lectures, it's reading off of PowerPoint slides with a laser pointer; generally unhelpful advice. For tests, while grading criteria is clear, questions are often worded unclearly and are limited in usable formulas. Additionally, all tests are curved w/the difference between the highest score and 100, which can be bad

Heller is a terrible professor. I recommend not taking this course if he's the professor. Literally anyone else but him.

I recommend that you stay away from this professor. He cannot teach to save his life. He is a nice guy don't get me wrong. He can't even catch his breath during his lectures, it's time for him to retire. He really isn't helping anyone by continuing to teach PHYSICS 1.

If you take class with this professor, you are so screwed. He genuinely doesn't care how bad his students do, he just reads slides without explanation and expects you to just know it. He is way too old to be teaching. He needs to retire or be fired.

Didn't learn in lectures so I skipped (went back a few times it didn't get better). He spreads practice problems over more than 1 lecture; doesn't give hw, except for textbook problems, which aren't as hard as the quiz problems he writes. The quizzes (rly our midterms) are 2 problems and 5 mc, and the 2 problems are often worded very confusingly.

If you watching a professor point a laser pointer at the most boring and stale slides you have ever seen, this class is for you! Professor Heller chooses a unique teaching style of letting his TA's have full responsibility for teaching the course, (he doesn't teach you how to solve his overly worded problems that have little relation to physics.

If you are required to take this class for your major make sure it is not with Ken. Slides are crammed, and skipping and learning the concepts by yourself is definitely the way to go. Asking TA's questions in discussion and lab are the best way to learn in this class, and even they are confused by his questions sometimes. Great guy though.

PLZ RETIRE. ACTS LIKE HE DOES SHROOMS

Words seriously cannot describe the absolute buffoonery of how class is taught. He skips key concepts that would make the material far easier to grasp, seems like he intentionally sabotages us for no reason, and he clearly doesn't think he's the problem (he is). No chance this is the best the university could find.

I cannot say this enough. STAY AWAY! He is the worst professor ever. He sabotaged everyone, the exams made no sense. When I went to office hours to voice my concerns, he completely blew me off and didn't care. He literally just has a huge tenure protecting him.

Undoubtedly, the worst class I have ever taken. Going into this, I saw his poor ratings, but I didn't think it could be as bad as people said. But it was. My TA was amazing, which saved me and my classmates. Ken teaches the class like he is working with 4th-year physics students. I'd recommend you don't take this to save yourself from frustration.

Horrible professor, other ratings tell the truth. His lectures are completely pointless and he doesnt teach his concepts well at all. Only thing keeping students from failing is the TAs who are amazing

Ken Heller does not care about how you do in this class. The homework is assigned on material he hasn't even taught yet. His lectures are a mess and he expects high level skills despite this be an introduction level class. When the average test score was an F he said, "I don't know who taught you guys this, but it's wrong."

vro ts pmo, dont take him

If you're considering taking Ken Heller for physics, I strongly advise you don't. Ken Heller is the worst teacher I've had. His slides are unreadable, his explanations make 0 sense, and he doesn't answer questions. He uses a laser pointer on his block-of-text slides as he lectures. If you're already stuck with him: Youtube + textbook problems. gl !

Genuinely the most adorable human alive but the WORST teacher Ive ever met. He loves phys sm that he overexplains which leads to students never learning what they are supposed to. I have taken this class before but he butchered my understanding of it so bad that idk anything anymore. Sweet little bald man but DO NOT TAKE HIM!!!

Genuinely a very nice person but what the other ratings are saying is true. I stopped going to his lectures because there was genuinely no point when he doesn't believe in explanations and it was at 8am. My TA saved me. STAY AWAY FROM HIM