Physics in general is very difficult. He makes it even more difficult. He will go on pointless stories, read directly out of the book, and will make you feel like an idiot if you ask a simple question. He's very hard to understand because of his accent. Nice but just too smart so he doesn't really know how to teach the material anymore.

Horrible teacher. Avoid him at all costs.

TERRIBLE TEACHER DONT TAKE HIM UNLESS U FEEL LIKE FAILING. IF U ASK A QUESTION THE DUDE GIVES U A TOTALLY DIFFERENT ANSWER.DOESNT UNDERSTAND ENGLISH VERY WELL. OVERALL BAD!!!!

He's Japanese so unless you speak that you're not going to understand him. He never ever does example problems, he only shows formulas. If you ask a question he tries to answer but most of the time he doesn't understand you. Homework is hard, test consists of multiple choice and conceptual questions. He is happy all the time and never yells.

Bad professor avoid him at all cost. RUN! He needs to get fired

do not take him because he is not good at all. Smart guy who works at Nasa but does not know how to teach.

Watanabe only teaches formulas. Some people do not pick up with Math that fast. He DOESN'T GIVE MUCH EXAMPLES ENOUGH TO MAKE IT UNDERSTANDABLE.

Still the same professor. Never improved his teaching skills

This professor does not teach at all. He will refuse to help you. He does not give any guidance. If you go to office hours, he will not help you. He makes the class harder that it is. He takes attendance all the time to make sure you are there. This is so ridiculous. 5 years and department of Physics. Why???? But I manage to pass by studying hard.

Smart guy but cannot teach. When getting help, he will refuse to help you.

This professor knows 100% of the materials but he can't teach. Not good at all.

We need to try and convince FGCU to hire more physics professors. It is unfair to the engineering majors who need a good background in physics to have such poor instructors for those courses.

FGCU needs to hire more physics professors. That is terrible to have him be the only professor teaching this course especially Engineers.

Not good at all. Never improved his teaching style. He rufused to help me and my friends in the class. FGCU needs to hire more Physics professors.

Never cares about people. Not good at all. Smart guy obviously but not a good professor.

Awful professor. All he does is go over where an equation came from. 45 kids started the class, 9 PASSED, 2 got A's, and 1 of those A's was from a 14 year old genius. Hard to focus. His tests were 60 points multiple choice, 15 points a long response and 25 points short response. And on the responses he graded very strictly. The lab was strict to.

He is an awful professor. He grades to hard on the lab. Only one 14 year old student got an A in his class for some reason. All he teaches is formulas not the main concept. Going to his lectures is a waste of time ,but he makes you got to class for a participation grade. He will never help you.

He is not good at all. When he grades lab reports. He takes points off for no good reason. He goes ya ya ya to a student when he ask questions. He is rude.

This professor makes class mandatory for 3% of your grade. He is really not a good professor. Everyone does not like him. So, do not take Physics if he is the only one teaching the course.

Avoid this professor at all costs. Although he is incredibly brilliant, he is a terrible professor. He cannot reiterate what he is thinking, does not understand your questions, and just has very confusing, unorganized lectures. The material is understandably difficult, do yourself a favor and take a professor that will actually teach you something.

Watanabe is such a terrible professor. Avoid him at all costs if you can. He is not clear and he doesn't answer any questions. He treats you like your incompetent. I am an all A student and barely got a B in this class. Take physics with a different teacher.

Let me tell you a little story. I was once a young and naive college student and signed up Wannabes general physics class. The class started with 90 students and ended with around 20. I was a survivor. This class only required calculus I but should really require calculus III. If you are not going for a degree in astrophysics you will be misery.

This guy is a joke of a professor. I don't know how he has kept his job as long as he has. He might be good at research for the university or something, because he sure as heck can't teach. Avoid at all costs. His class is a scam. You pay his salary for him to laugh at you for not knowing how to do physics, and he refuses to answer questions.

If you're looking to understand physics, keep looking. Dr. Watanabe is a terrible professor. He takes the entire lecture time explaining how to derive the equations but never puts them to practical use. Though he curves his exams heavily, you still leave feeling like a failure. If you really need to grasp the concepts, this is not your class.

Proof that a brilliant NASA physicist may not make a passable prof. All exams are randomly generated from a common pool of several thousand introphysics questions, most of which aren't mildly touched upon in lecture or HW. He curved each test a minimum of 18 PERCENTAGE points; I ended with a 117% overall without getting above a C before any curve.

This is a class to be laughed at by the professor just because you do not understand the material. The tuition is meant to be payed for him to laugh at students and humiliate them. I ended up with an A with curve but C in all exams.

Terrible professor. All he does is derives equation and never shows how to use it. He laughs ay students if they don't understand the material. He is rude, unprofessional, and mean to students by refusing to help them. He also grades labs unfairly. The only way to pass is read the book and understand the homework. I ended up with an A.

Here is my advice for passing this class if Watanabe is your only option: Go to SI, tutoring, redo homework until you understand it, complain to Dr. Reily,and do group study. He refuses to help students and just simply laughs at them. Luckily I ended up with a 95 in the class.

Terrible terrible professor! All he does is show how theequations is derived. He is rude and mean to students by simply laughing at everyone because they do not understand it. All I can do is go to tutoring, SI, group study, and redo homework. He refuses to help students and just focuses on research. Luckily I ended up with an A.

He is a brilliant guy, but a terrible teacher. His lectures are pointless, I learned the material on my own, but he makes you go to class for 3% of your grade. All test are curved, so if you study and do hw you will pass. In the end I got a B, but feel like I don't know the material. I'm scared for PHY 2. Labs are unclear and difficult.

For sure the worst professor at FGCU. It's a shame they only offer him to tech college physics. You will spend two hours every lecture not having a clue what he is talking about. He will laugh at you if you ask questions and maybe give a mean response back. Do yourself and your gpa a favor, and run from this teacher! Not worth your time

one of the worst experiences I've had in a class in my 3 years of school. The professor is unclear, unorganized, rude, and doesn't know how to teach. Not one bit of the course of original l, everything is straight from the book and if you learn math and sciences by practical application, this is NOT the professor you want. 36 was our avg midterm.

Be prepared to work on your own. Make sure you understand and review your honework, read textbook and understand carefully, and write detailed lab reports especially with Dr. Panek. He laughs if you can't understand the material.

He has no teaching ability. He had to make attendance severely effect your grade or no one would show up to class. In class he is not worried about whether you understand the concept, he just writes out a proof and it almost seems like he takes joy in our confusion.

He really does not have any teaching or caring for students. Attendance is really a waste of time. Do yourself a favor and do you homework there and understand it well. Use your book and tutoring. They will be your best friend. Refuses to help in office hours and even Dr. Panek in lab is terrible and confusing. Grade harshly.

Don't take if you want to learn something

Absolutely the worst professor I Have ever taken at FGCU, does not answer questions when asked. Only reads of his powerpoints and expects students to know how to solve questions that were not discussed in lecture, HW is a joke, and does not help. Only 2 exams that are 60% of final grade. Take College Physics with someone else..

Doesn't actually teach, expects you to understand everything. shows one word problem per class, which doesn't help explain anything. be prepared to teach yourself everything!

not good at teaching. he doesnt teach, rather throws a problem at you and expects you to know how to solve it. basically teahcing yourself physics. the only reason i passed with a 70.8 was because of religiously going to tutoring and having the tutors help me solve the homework. he curved the final exam 40 points. so that says alot...

Took physics 1&2 with him. Transferred to UCF Fall 2017 and can honestly say it's been a shock having a professor who is good at teaching physics after taking Watanabe. All he really did was derive equations and his explanations sucked. Finally, I have a professor that actually cares that I understand the physical concepts.

AVOID at all costs. I had to drop the class after failing 2 tests and failing 3/4 labs. He is difficult to understand and if you want to ask questions, good luck because he doesnt answer any of them. My group and I asked for help in lab multiple times and never received it and therefore failed multiple labs.

Crazy teacher who doesn't know how to teach physics. I had to take this class because I originally took physics I w/ lab but it didn't go over thermodynamics. In that class that I took at another college I got a B but taking this class I had to withdraw. This is because his test aren't from the book and the book is basically guide.

This professor Is difficult to understand, only derives ONE equation per class. Doesn't teach anything. Only reason I passed was because he curves by 30+ points because everyone fails the exams.

Professor Watanabe, was VERY difficult. His lectures and tests did NOT correlate! The homework assigned wasn't to bad if you did an example. Otherwise than that I struggled in the class.. I think the only reason I ended up passing was scoring high on labs and showing up, not missing class, and passing on the final. He curved EVERY test!!

Just no, don't take him he always had to curve our exams by at least 30 points. All he does is derive one equation during the class and he goes through it so fast so no one has a clue what they're doing.

I had him for Physics II because he was the only professor available. I absolutely did not enjoy his lectures. He would read the textbook chapters then send us to do problems in our breakout rooms on Zoom. I did great on the exams only cause he curves them by 30-50 points. I did not attend because I wasn't learning and he lowered my final grade..

This prof is horrible. He acts cocky when you ask questions or kinda makes fun, and doesn't even answer them well. He is horrible at explaining, the format of the classes is terrible, hard to understand, and also a tough grader. I also honestly believes he enjoys see students confused

The worst professor I've had at FGCU. Repeatedly makes rude comments towards students & laughs when questions are answered incorrectly. Only two exams worth a ridiculous amount of points & too many homework assignments that do not resemble the exams. His "lectures" are just him reading aloud from the textbook far too quickly. Avoid at all costs.

bruh i dont think ive hated a prof let alone person more in my life. literally the most condescending, rude, and unhelpful person ever. his lectures are just him reading the textbook - he skips over example problems which would be useful and says "do them later." only a midterm and final which he curves so hard bc everyone fails..and a lot of hw

It feels like very little was done to make sure students actually understood the content... There are no quizzes, there are "conceptual questions" that I guess helped somewhat but felt more like fun facts IMO. He answers all questions by saying "It's common sense" or "It's in the textbook" and is not very good at explaining things. Def self study.

Genuinely awful professor. Surprised he has been teaching for so long. His lectures consist of reading off of the textbook PDF and giving conceptual practices in class that have little to do with the midterm/final. Speaking of, he has to curve his tests so hard because most people bomb it. Avoid taking General Physics with him at all costs.

Very hard professor

His lectures were just reading the textbook, and only graded homework, midterm, and final. Went to his office hours for help and he told me to just read the textbook and do the homework. Also the class asked for a study guide and he said" Why? You have the textbook." Overall, very unhelpful and lowkey rude.

do NOT take him, his rating is proportionally lower for phy 1&2. Bad reviews have NOTHING to do with the material itself. He is simply insufferable. He laughs at questions. He is constantly demeaning, he will refuse to explain anything, even if the entire class is confused. I encourage anyone to report him to FGCUs ombud/dean with personal stories.

The worst professor I have ever taken. No power points, no notes, no practice exams/questions, No help at all! He just reads off the textbook. You have to teach yourself and he doesn't even go over what will be on the exam. He basically sets you up for failure. He had to add 25 points to an exam because everyone failed it. Do not take him.

He's just insufferable, barely explains anything just reads the book, asks questions and then gets upset when you can't answer them. Had him for a 7AM, unfortunately, and he has entirely way too much energy. His lecture was so useless I would only show up to do homework in class. He has 3 grades, a midterm, final, and your homework average.

One of the worst professors I have ever had. Do not take this class if you want to learn physics take anyone but Watanabe especially if you need to take Physics 2. This professor gives little to no examples of problems and expects you to know everything by yourself. Gives 2 exams that make up 70 percent of your grade. Everyone fails with him.

One of the worst professors here for anything physics 1 & 2. Two exams that are sixty percent your grade. Homework and Class exercises are not similar to exam questions. Prof reads from the text book for entire class. Homework is long. Although curves are (30-50%) flat curve.

I have never written a review on a professor until now. Do not take this class. He just scrolls through the textbook online and does not explain anything and comes off as rude when you ask questions. He docks a whole percentage from your grade for every class missed. Midterm and final averages are about 30-40%. Save your time and GPA

Awful professor. The lectures are mandatory and all he does is scroll the textbook. He does have some conceptual questions he covers over class time but he never covers any actual math problems. There are only 2 exams and the homework grades. You have to teach yourself all the information to pass. The only upside is the exams are heavily curved.

Please avoid this professor. I usually get good grades even when professors are tough, but he was not helpful at all and really didn't give other resources to help with the midterm or final which are 60% of your grade. You have to read 20+ chapters and learn it all yourself his's example differ from the long homework's he assigns.

taking a percentage off per missed day is insane work especially when the class is early in the morning and you can't even teach. if you haven't gotten the point now- DO NOT TAKE

Ken Watanabe was the worst Professor I have ever experienced at UMGC. If you read this Do Not Take His Class! He has no sympathy for military students whatsoever. I live in Japan with a different time zone and his final exam was closed on the final day. I couldn't take the exam. Projected A, failed. I honestly hope he gets fired. Do

Dr. Watanabe is the worst professor I've had at FGCU. His lectures are just reading from the textbook. HW problems and in-class problems are not like the exam. The exam is also impossible to finish within the time frame. Almost denied/forgot about my accommodations for exams. Please avoid him if you want to understand physics.