3.0
Quality2.7
Difficulty50%
Would Retake109
Reviews50%
Would Retake
109
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
109 total ratings5
28
4
22
3
18
2
17
1
24
What Students Say
“Best physics teacher I have seen in my life”
PHY120 - 5.0 rating“bad lectures, useless help (although it is available) and tons of homework”
PHYS140 - 2.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
92%
Textbook Required
78%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-1.47 avg changeRatings by Course
PHYS131
4.6
(8)PHYS233
4.5
(4)PHY100
4.3
(3)PHYQ100
4.0
(1)PHYS130
4.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
PHYSICS100
5.0
PHYS102
4.0
PHYS141
3.9
PHYS140
3.5
PHYQ100
3.0
Reviews (108)
No Comments
boring class Dont take .. only if you must
interesting and good prof (a real nerd) but cool anyway!
Wow, easiest lab prof! Gives great marks!
No Comments
Great in the Lab... too disorganized in the Lecture
Great little guy.
Easy Quizes, Funny class, but expect tough final
Could have more notes. Better text would be nice. Pretty awesome person.
lectures were really unclear but he's a nice guy overall, go in for extra help
crazy but very nice & funny guy
No Comments
Very good friendly, and funny guy. Great combover.
No Comments
Neil's coo... hes so funny... Lots of demos.
Very funny, hair is great, but notes are bad and lectures are boring. Easy class though
He is a very interesting instructor. I think he is the easiest, funniest, and coolest instructor I have ever seen.
No Comments
Excellent prof. Very clear in the lab preview. Care about his students' achievement.
Excellent teacher and very funny. Good class to take as long as you do your work!
great in the lab, helpless in lecture.
No Comments
his beeping hat and his bat mobile is worth a laugh.. he's great in the tutorial but i wish he shows less videos and more examples to calculate stuff in class
pretty funnny dude. I'll say that he tried to make physics fun
He shows too many videos~ should spend more time to show the class how to do different types of problems instead. A fair prof, if u study then u should get a decent mark. PS: He is very funny though
Less videos = understanding
Funny prof. Good lectures.
I like your mac lappy!
One word to descibe " AweSome!"
really nice guy in the lab courses. believes in giving good grades, unlike a lot of other profs in the department. would take a class again with him. a bit crazy and disorganised, but entertainingly so.
Hilarious guy, takes a dreadfully boring lab and makes it only somewhat dull :)
my favourite prof so far, he interacts with the students and has a ton of hilarious demos!
Dr. Alberding is so helpful and he is so funny. If you ask for help, he is more than happy to assist you but you might end up spending lots of time in his office b/c he is hilarious..
He's the funniest prof I've ever met. I took this course long ago and he still remembers me. He has offered to help me in many occations even though he isn't teaching that particular course!
Awesome! Funny and informative! Easy to learn from!
Best physics prof ...hilarious, and he doesn't give out midterms b/c unlike most profs he actually cares about our stress level!
He is just awesome~ hilarious-check mark, easy-check mark, informative-check mark~ u will love him
Brings in other forms of media to relate into the course
No Comments
Dr. Alberding is such a nice person. If you are polite and nice to him, he is always willing to help. Besides, if neone can make physics fun, that on its own is spectacular.
although he was nice enough, and helpful. i found his class to be useless. i acheived a B+ in this class and went on to receive a D in phys 101. i learned NOTHING
Lectures in class were way too simple. Hwk was out of the question. Not solveable. And Mastering Physics has got to be the worst online assignment hwk i have ever used. A typing error would deduct % from you.
He is cool. I like the way that he tries to be funny and intertain us...
He's a funny guy.easy class, easy HW, easy midterms, easey final, easy marks. He made everything easy. As long as you work on those question, you'll do good.
very entertaining prof and the grading scale will boost up your mark significantly... found it to be completely useless though
Awesome and dedicated prof. He brings in just to explain a lecture!!! how many profs would go out of their way to do that??? He prepares you really well for further physics courses but this course is overall really subject matter so the amount of time you put into this class will be MUCH less than what you should put into future phy classes!
Funny guy, he wouldn't let me borrow the powers of 10 video though! Entertainment value rises, sophisticated, suave and well.
He does have rather interesting/ funny demonstrations, but his use of extra materials (eg. roadrunner cartoons) eats up time we could be using to actually take notes and write down equations to help us with the homework. I don't feel that his teaching has prepared me for physics 101 at all nor a chance to get a good mark in the class.
Be prepared to learn 90 percent of the material on your own from a supplementary text book and/or a tutor, because lectures do not adequately cover problem solving, or necessary formulas. The material in this course isn't particularly difficult, but it is difficult to do well from lectures and course materials alone.
This teacher makes no sense, he uses Looney Toon cartoons as his explanations. I'm completely lost this year in physics, and I blame him!! Horrible teacher! Don't take him if you don't have to.
very easy class..make sure u go to the open lab, and understand all assignments, quizes, and sample exams...then, u'll get a good mark..
His lectures are amusing, but I didn't learn much from them. There are lots of interesting demos during class. His marking scheme was fair tho, no midterms, only 6 quizes, homework, and a final. But you might need some extra study guides to learn from, the "Motion Chronicals" is a piece of junk.
For the quiz & exam:95% of the lec is useless, 70% of the text book is useless, 80% of the lab is useless, 200%!! of the homework is important, 200%!! of the TUT is important!!
Lectures are really pointless to go to, you dont learn much from it or "the motion chronicles", understand the hw and go to tutorials, basically teach yourself and you'll survive the class.
Unless he starts testing you on loony toons, the classes are useless. Often times when doing an example, he will make a mistake and a student will have to point it out. He tries to correct it, screws up more. Then gives up and says "well its obvious you can figure it out yourself."
He's not a bad prof. He loves to entertain students. However, we are not in PNE, right? Midterms are not that hard, quite fair [at least one suprising question inside though]. Final is hard [since he asked a lot from the last chapters of the book] To sum up, he's good for grade/fun but not for learning physics that much...
Very helpful,approachable and nice :) totally recommend him
Highly Recommended. Students with previous interest in physics might want a more challenging teacher.
if you aren't naturally good at physics, then don't take him...cuz he won't teach you much
Well he's not a bad guy and I feel that he was honestly trying to help but it just wasn't working for me. I couldn't even do half of the homework assignments cuz they were so hard and would take hours. I just had to study hard for the midterms and pass the practical and formal report cuz the Activity guides were easy. AVOID THIS COURSE IF U CAN!!!
Very good teacher!
Not the greatest teacher. Relies on you teaching yourself. The entire course is labs, which you don't learn anything from. Goes way to slow on stuff you know already, then way too fast through complicated stuff.
He expects you to study and learn by yourself, his midterms are fair and final exams fairly marked.
Dr. Alberding may be a nice guy, but his lectures are horrible: expect to learn on your own as he is prone fall behind on material (goes slow on easy stuff and rushes through hard topics), provide poor explanations and assign HW on topics he has not covered in class yet. AVOID HIM IF YOU CAN and pray you don't have him for higher level physics.
Three words: HE DOESN'T TEACH. He tries to keep you entertained with live physics experiments in class, but they quickly get old as quizzes, assignments and the final begin to close in. Expect to learn on your own and don't expect much from his lectures.
He starts off slowly explaining the most basic high school physics concepts and then rushes through the rest, barely explaining anything. The assignments are about 2 weeks ahead of the material taught in lecture, so you are basically on your own, and MUST learn everything from the textbook. Lectures are useless, most people skip them.
Without a doubt the worst professor I have ever had. Does not deserve the privelege of being called a professor when he cant teach anything. Just does his silly experiments and makes mistakes on the most basic problems. You are completely on your own to survive in Phys 100 with him. Wait to take it with someone else, anyone else.
Absolutely horrendous teaching. Do not take Phys 100 with this prof you will absolutely regret it.
Worst. Prof. EVER. Will not teach you a thing, but will demonstrate friction by making you watch an asian guy pull a truck with his ear. Or watch Romeo and Juliet physics jokes. Did not learn a thing, except ears are strong
The assignments and labs are quite easy. Lectures are so so. Anyway, Neil is a good lecturer.
Sorry, but I have to disagree with the evaluation below - Dr. Jungic is a poor lecturer who doesn't teach and everything you learn is self-taught. Worst prof I ever had PERIOD.
Whoever gave this guy 100% is completely inaccurate (I won't be surprise if Alberding wrote that evaluation himself). Final exam average was 55% this semester! 55% for a 100-level course. Alberding is a horrible lecturer who doesn't teach. ENOUGH SAID.
Jungic? I think the guy below means Alberding. Anyways, everything else I completely agree: WORST PROFESSOR EVER!
Worst professor ever, avoid at all costs! You will not get your money's worth from this guy.
Terrible prof, we learnt almost nothing in class yet the assignments and final were so hard
Great prof and he is funny. Intersting class,and the content is not very hard. Eassy to follow. Exams are fair, but with too many quizs. or maybe a bit too much hw. I like the way he teachs
This professor is one of the worst instructors at SFU. I have a degree in Business and was coming back to school to complete med school pre-reqs and this guy is without a doubt the worst prof I've ever had. I ended up dropping the course. After seeing the comments from last semester, I'm really glad I did. Avoid him at all costs, he doesn't teach.
Horrible Prof, has no idea what's going on, wastes time, doesn't teach the slides, just tells you to read them at home, when asked a question, he generally doesn't know the answer, so he replies with some off-topic thing, or asks you a question.
One of the best profs at SFU!
if you plan on being a physics major, you might make it through this class. if you're taking it to fufill a lower division pre-req for a diff degree, DONT TAKE THIS WITH HIM. espec. if you're first year. exams ARE fair but you must keep up with homework (there's a lot!) lectures are horrible. hard to pay attention if you don't love physics.
PLEASE do not take physics with this prof, especially if you're first year. i was not a physics major and found this class *excruciating*. bad lectures, useless help (although it is available) and tons of homework. self-directed class. drop if you have him!
Horrible prof does not even bother teaching just sits there and looks at stuff on google plus leaves the entitre course to the students alongwith a ton of homework daily. Whatever you do NEVER take a class with him.
If you have him for studio physics, drop the course and take it elsewhere. The experiments were useless and the self directed learning did nothing but muddle everyone in the class. Help was available, but but not useful, and his exams were far harder than anything we encountered in class. Do not take his class.
You don't understand even a single word from his lectures.
I think a lot of people attribute the falters of the class's parameters to Neil (e.g. the suckyness of smartPhysics and quantity of homework). I found him to be quite average in teaching effectiveness. He had a hard time with explaining some things, but this was countered by his earnestness.
LOADS and LOAAADS of Homework/Assignment...etc etc.......Speaks for half hr..and then disappears leaving T.A behind. SmartPhysics is horrible......watch videos aint gonna help a percent.....for such a HARD HARD Course....I wrote stuff in exam.....just passed with C-....... So relieved...Smartphysics thing is over.
the online smartphysics prelecs are just bleh...and all he does in class is a couple of I clicker questions. His exams are waaaaayyy harder than what you'd expect from the smartphysics homework and he doesn't really do anything to prepare you for midterms -,- do NOT take PHYS with him.
One of the worst I've seen, trust me
all he does is basically reread the smart physics again. doesnt help on problems at all, if you dont get the smart physics lectures, youre pretty much dead..he'll scale you in the end, its just that youll probably end up with C+ or B-
Screw this guy, that was a terrible class. 10/10 do avoid at all costs
Baad just bad
Best physics teacher I have seen in my life!
Material is easy, Don't expect to learn anything from him in the lecture as all he does is rereading smartphysics again. Kinda forced to go to lecture for the iclicker marks when it is actually a completely waste of time
the worst prof I have ever met across my academic career. he does not know how to teach at all. Taking his class is just a waste of time, but that is mandatory because of the iclicker. and he is unfair on grade. Having a highest mark exceeds the theoretical full mark is just like having rain in Vancouver. Please do try your best to avoid this prof!
Good at explaining. If you stick around after everyone else leaves, or come before class, he is more than willing to help you with anything, including random questions about physics.
All you need to know is that you are gonna have a love and hate relationship with smartphysics
good prof. he explains the requirements for assignments and lab reports clearly and welcomes questions or suggestions. he opens opportunities to choose labs that you are interested in. this course is not hard if you prepared well before each lab and take time to write the report.
Overall lazy teacher. Simply rereads lectures slides but does help if asked.
Not very helpful in lectures, pretty much just reads off the slides that are prepared for him. Would recommend taking this class in Burnaby with another prof or just wait until spring semester to take the class with someone else
Avoid it at all costs. A good grade is achievable b/c activity guides are allowed in the exam but you're guaranteed to learn nothing at all. You have to buy smartphysics for both 140 and 141 and basically watch lectures and do tons of homework on your own time that make no sense, and then do boring uncoordinated, self-directed experiments in class.
If you wanna to pass the course, remember to attend the class while you just using iclicker to guess everything he said in the question in his lecture by doing nonsense flip it physics and also if u wanna pass the class get a c- well, gl my friend you have to borrow books from library doing tons of works to understand the things he saying.
Dr. Alberding spent no time preparing for lectures. He never does any example problems in class. We had to listen to the winded dude on flip it physics pre-lectures and sit though him going through textbook slides all to learn nothing. Then waste time doing activity guides, Physics 2 is a hard class to begin with and he makes it harder. Look Luck
Literally just an online class with flipitphysics, the lectures and activity guides he provides don't have anything to with the midterms or the final exam (its useless). You can still excel in this class, you just need to understand and learn everything from the online pre lectures, which is incredibly sad considering this should a physical class.
Although not the most hardworking prof (recycled lecture slides), he really cares about his students. He took all questions, and responded to feedback. He was gracious about marks and responded to emails quickly. He would be 5/5 if he taught more effectively.
he chill and doesn't care much about late and extension but that also mean that he doesn't really care about teaching .
Even though this lab course was only a 1 unit course, it felt like 3 units at times. Alberding seems like a really nice guy, but somewhat clueless when it came to his students and teaching. The instructions on the lab were very unclear, leading to a lot of extra time and effort deciphering what was required, with little clarification from him.
I strongly advise you to avoid Neil. He's checked out during class time and it's clear that he doesn't give a flying raccoon about learning. What makes this course easy is that he grades very forgivingly to compensate for his lack of teaching. He likes to explain things once and never go back to it. He also uses iClicker. You have been warned.
Best university prof I ever had. Everyone says he's a bad prof, but they never even bother to ask for help. He was very knowledgeable, you just had to ask for help. He was the first and last professor I had that threw a pizza party. Best prof ever
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
92%
Textbook Required
78%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-1.47 avg changeRatings by Course
PHYS131
4.6
(8)PHYS233
4.5
(4)PHY100
4.3
(3)PHYQ100
4.0
(1)PHYS130
4.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
PHYSICS100
5.0
PHYS102
4.0
PHYS141
3.9
PHYS140
3.5
PHYQ100
3.0