2.7
Quality3.4
Difficulty43%
Would Retake90
Reviews43%
Would Retake
90
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
22
4
11
3
12
2
16
1
29
What Students Say
“His notes are very messy, so they are not helpful at all”
PHYS170 - 2.0 rating“he doesn't really explain anything”
PHYS170 - 2.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
22%
Textbook Required
67%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Stable
+0.04 avg changeRatings by Course
PHYS309LAB
5.0
(1)PHYS210
4.5
(2)PHYS309
3.5
(4)PHYS153
2.9
(8)PHYS170
2.8
(51)Difficulty by Course
153
5.0
PHYS401
4.5
PHYS170
3.5
PHYS158
3.5
170
3.2
Reviews (90)
not very helpful, acts like he's all that, isn't equal friendly to all students
No Comments
gives you marks for entertainment value! I think that he is a good prof... very patient!
Very nice and clear; lectures are useful since he explains labs well. Gave two extensions this term since ppl needed it. First time I've enjoyed a lab course.
"Mr. Janis" is terrible. Not only is the material hard, he's hard.
The most boring lecturer I have ever had. Although he is very nice and helpful he WILL put you to sleep every lecture. Be sure to comment on his pink shirts for bonus marks!
The Material for this class is somewhat dry, but it is all very helpful. Dr. Mattison does a good job of explaining all of the fundamentals in the lab. Very helpful in the lab, a great lab teacher. I was not looking forward to this lab, but it has turned out to be my best lab class yet! Thanks!!
he makes everything so complex to undrestand his exams are ****ing hard ,only 20 ppl out of 150 come to his lecture hahaha
Not a good proff for a lecture environment because he's kinda boring. His notes are somewhat overwhelming too. He's very helpful outside of class and on a one on one basis. Is quite willing to help students outside of class. Exams are different style from traditional ones but not exactly hard.
It's true that only 20 to 30 in a class of 200 people go to his lecture. His exams are some what different than the other section's, isn't exactly easy but he marks EXTREMELY EASY. Gave me 8/10 even for the answer was wrong because the answer was a constant. haha.
Boring lectures - awesome online notes - complex exams - easy marks on midterms
For a somewhat interesting class to start with, Mattison made it very very boring. Spends way too much time teaching stuff we don't really need to know. Very colourful shirts though. I was woken up a few times by the sight of a bright pink sleeve on the dock cam.
Too many slides per lecture (30+). He flashes calculations/derivations instead of doing them by hand in class. He doesn't simplify things (explaining them in a more understandable way)although he summarizes the textbook fairly well. Lack of synchronization with the main instructor (e.g. teaching EM waves while the other profs didn't).
He was ok at the beginning, but the lectures got boring. He tends to have way too many slides and mostly black and white. He also tends to cough into the mic which is rather loud. From personal experience, it is rather hard to get out of his bad side, even if you unintentionally did something or there was a misunderstanding. I stopped attending.
Among the 203 students in his section, roughly 30ish students attend his lectures. Prepares lecture notes last minute. His lectures are too fast and very unclear. He doesn't answer my questions in tutorials.
worst professor EVER,, had him for 2 terms... nobody attends,, HARD exams,, doesnt know how to teach,, looks like his mother, seriously..
I've heard he is known to be the worst for this class, but I had no choice. Infamously, he lives up to being super boring. It's true only 30 ppl show up for class. All powerpoint, so you can't digest the calculations on his slides. Not very nice in answering questions, rather condescending. Lucky for me this material interested me, so I did well :)
Prof is very enthusiastic about teaching. Suggests us to do some required reading before attending class. Uses alot of hand gestures to explain his slides. Goes over and provides hints for hw questions. A very dedicated prof. Very flexible office hours (He's in his office almost all the time, especially before exams).
He understands the material. For the most part his lectures are okay. It is clear though that he doesn't read over his slides before lecture. There are many mistakes and sometimes he will spend 10min trying to figure out what something means on his own slides. In general, he will answer questions, but his answers are not very helpful.
This Professor goes roughly over the class notes, but explains concepts in such an obtuse manner, its no wonder so many students often have puzzled looks on their faces. He may know the content, but he has questionable teaching ability.
He certainly promotes interest in physics through the problems in class, although the way he solves them is not always the clearest. That said, he is readily available for office hours if you don't understand the material. Very helpful prof.
He doesn't teach very well. You are going to have to teach yourself using the textbook.
Mr. Mattison has been gifted with a brilliant problem solving brain.If you like challenges, I would highly recommend Prof. Mattison. Lecture notes are bookish. Try solving lots of problems and ask him for help. Surely one can get good marks
His notes are very messy, so they are not helpful at all. He often gets lost in his examples and takes a long time to solve it when it according to him is an easy question. His exams are extremely hard compared to the questions done in class and to other profs exams. He can be kind of rude when you ask him questions.
He's the worst. He was unable to answer students' questions, his lecturing style is incomprehensible, and I'm really not convinced that he wasn't just making stuff up as he went along. Avoid like the plague.
Not helpful. he doesn't really explain anything. Basically all he does is reading off the slides.
Lectures consisted of him reading off the slides. Quite obviously a smart guy, but condescending when you approach him for help. Midtermsfinals are fair, but you're going to have to teach yourself.
Despite his extremely boring lectures and bookish notes, Thomas is gifted with effective problem strategies and strong mathematics basis. If you really get the hang of those strategies and do lots of exercise, you will get a decent grade. No one can pass any courses without any practice. BTW relatively easy midterms and finals.
Friendly and helpful, but didn't structure the overall curriculum well and final project deadlines felt rushed.
Terrible prof. He just reads from the lecture slides. He knows his stuff but then he can't teach. Lectures are incredibly boring and he doesn't always respond to emails.
I don't understand the comments about him being a very intelligent professor because anyone can read off slides and type up a few definitions and equations. If I didn't have to take this course I wouldn't and if you can avoid taking his class do it. Lectures are extremely boring and its a shame the course is taught so dry.
Trust me, all physics profs are nice.
If you are looking forward to learning how to problem solve, he is the right professor. He knows how to guide students to approach questions and obtain the solutions. His ways of teaching make learning interesting and you will find yourself only learning about 170 but also how to apply them. Exams are relatively easy. Homework is manageable.
He seems to not show a lot of care for his students. Lectures are boring and consist of him reading off of slides. It takes forever for him to grade exams and he usually doesn't respond to emails. Try to avoid this prof if you can.
He did not care about the students at all and made minimum effort to improve the learning experience.
Although he is hilarious and enthusiastic about the course material, Dr. Mattison is not a very effective instructor. He goes off topic at times with explanations on how to use different calculators. The lectures are usually not engaging and do not involve any student participation (except for "Clicker-less clickers").
Starts of really unclear but class gets better after midterm
Prof. Mattison is an amazing person who answers questions patiently.
Course starts off easy and doesn't get difficult until after the midterm - which is EXTREMELY easy. The content following is confusing and VERY difficult to understand without extensive calculus knowledge and an expansive library of memorized formulas. Regardless, Mattison is a very nice person. Go to his office hours if you get the chance.
All he does is read off his slides that often have mistakes on them.He never explains a problem step by step and assumes you know everything. This course is not supposed to be a hard course. It's the professor's poor teaching skills that makes it ten times harder than it needs to be. Please avoid this prof if you can as he is a waste of your time.
Dr. Mattison made this class incredibly difficult for no reason. He puts up slides upon slides of convoluted calculations that are riddled with mistakes and he never explains how he does something. He took over a month to mark our midterms, with some of my classmates getting theirs back 4 days before the final. Avoid.
Decent guy, smart, can't teach for his life. A week and a half after we wrote midterms we were notified he lost some of them. Some midterms were only returned a few days before finals. Slides are semi useful, examples can be laden with errors. You'll end up teaching yourself.
Lots of mistakes in lecture slides and only read off them. Lectures were difficult to get anything out of especially without a strong background in math. Often got off topic and talked about calculators for several lectures. Still have not received final grade and second term has started.
The worst prof I have ever had. He does not teach at all and his lectures are awful. They make no sense and often have errors. We still don't have our final back and I am pretty sure everyone failed. He is often rude to students and talks down to them. You will learn NOTHING in this class! Avoid him at ALL cost!!!
If you're unfamiliar with the material (i.e. not doing pre-readings), his lectures may be difficult to follow, but he puts a lot of effort into his slides, which are very detailed and helpful. He's also nice and easy to talk to so go to office hours and don't be afraid to speak up or ask questions in class! And he's a very easy marker!
Takes extremely long to mark everything, didn't receive midterm until 5 days before the final. Worksheets continue to be graded well into second term, and final is still not graded. Extremely unclear what's expected on the final and very misleading. Lectures were extremely text heavy and hard to follow, barely did any examples.
Horrible Professor. AVOID HIM AT ALL COST
PHYS158 was overall disorganized and badly taught. Mattison's lecture slides are incomprehensible and unhelpful (Derivations with too much advanced math that nobody understands and are irrelevant to midterms). Expect to teach yourself the entire course if you want a good grade (no matter the prof). Class was honestly like nap time too.
Studied mostly outside of class he seemed to complicate things that we didn't know yet, but all in all he covered what was needed and taught well
Professor Mattison is a smart guy, but not a great teacher. I often found, as well as my peers, that the more he explained something, the less we understood. (Even things we already knew!) He tries, but he seems so disconnected from the experience of learning these tough concepts for the first time, and his lectures reflect that.
Prepare to teach yourself the entirety of this course. Lectures are a joke because he reads his mistake-ridden slides word for word with no extra input or information. He gets frustrated when students ask questions and acts as though they should already know the answers when he barely teaches the content.
Save yourself from this man he just reads the presentation to himself
Dr. Thomas Mattison is a very funny man. His lectures are often confusing and a little bit disorganized, however very funny and often the highlight of my day. His eyes are so blue, but maybe have not always been. Food for thought. He loves pepsi.
His lectures are very bland and not too helpful unless a lot of prereading is done. However, during tutorials, he always provides excellent feedback. His exams are relatively easy as long as you do the given practice.
TERRIBLE PROF, only reason I didn't rate him a 1 is bc he grades generously and gives fair exams. Material is tough and I attended every lecture, but never walked out having learned anything. He is terrible at explaining and his lecture slides make no sense. Very unclear and poor explanations but at least testing is fair and he provides resources.
Thomas Mattison is easily the worst prof I had in engineering so far, he not only seems uninterested in teaching but he is also a really bad lecturer, he knows what he is doing he just can't explain it to others. He will also spend at least a quarter of the course talking about calculators.
It was a pleasure to be in Mattisons class. Would definitely take again. He loves pepsi and low rides his pants, what more could you ask for!
Mattison is caring pro, and his midterm and final is ok. However, his lecture is horrible, and you have to learn all the stuff by your own.
I don't know why so many people rate such a low mark, as Mattison was absolutely great for me. He may not be good at teaching in words, but he indeed put all the contents in his slides, you just need to read carefully his slides, and then all the concepts about mechanics will become very clear. Highly recommend!
Dr. Mattison was great if you don't expect much from the lectures themselves. He comes to all of his tutorials and is very helpful. He grades nicely, and always offers good feedback. He is also so funny.
Lectures are useless but mandatory because of Iclicker, which is worth 5%, and the questions are made to trick you. He is smart but doesn't know how to teach, so prepare to learn everything yourself. Also, he has a magic bag of calculators, which he caries around.
Prof Mattison seems like a funny guy but man can he not lecture! He basically slaps a bunch of equations and derivations on the slides and then reads them out to you. I feel like he's trying but man I could have just taken the slides and used text to speech to read them out to get the same experience. At least he doesn't seem mean though
not supportive
He is so funny and goes to some tutorials. Lectures are confusing but honestly what lectures aren't? Try atleast 3 problems in the textbook a week ahead of the class content and learn how to use a calculator beforehand pls.
Goat. I should've bought him a beer this semester... (he hosts office hours at the pub)
Pros: super easy exams, shows up to tutorials, and can be quite entertaining. Cons: 258 MB lecture slides, reading directly from lecture slides, too much time spent on calculators, not enough explanation or practice with mathematical concepts, math errors, super slow grading.
Fair prof He's not an exceptional teacher, his lectures aren't useful. He reads off a slides similar to text to speech. However, I promise that if you put in the effort of doing the homework and attending office hours when confused, you'll do well. Treat it like an experience.
Prof Mattison is a hilarious guy and seems like a genuinely nice person but he cannot lecture. Be prepared to do 90% of the learning on your own. On the bright side, his exams are fairly easy and he is a generous marker as well as a really good guy.
Mattison slides are very solid but all he does in his lectures is read from them. You will have to teach yourself this course for the most part. The midterm and final are not unreasonably hard and he is a relatively easy grader. Even if you don't really understand what is going on you can still do well with Mattison.
He was able to go through all the lecture material with time for review in the last week which was helpful. However, he only read off of his slides which were difficult to understand. The weekly homework was often quite difficult and time-consuming but his exams are easier and fair. He also gave extensions when we all had exams in other courses.
Avoid at all cost for PHYS 170! He just reads from the lecture slides and the slides are difficult to understand. I did not understand a single thing from his lectures, and I had to self study while completing the weekly homework that takes up an entire day to do. Midterm was pretty easy but the Final was pretty tough and it weighs A LOT.
Professor Mattison is a professor who is really passionate about teaching PHYS 170, while his lectures were good, I found his tutorials and office hours the most useful.
This professor wastes 20 minutes complaining about problems that none of us are accountable and the proceeds to speed through one hour of actual lecture content in 30 minutes. If you enjoy teaching yourself physics, the proceed to take the course. Otherwise, please don't waste your time in this class.
My glorious goat Tom... He's like Batman responding to the bat signal whenever a student posts on Piazza. No need for TAs or student responses when Mattison is on it. I submitted a question earlier and foolishly decided to go to the dining hall to fill up my water. When I came back, he already answered. I would double my tuition towards his salary.
canceled midterms 20 mins beforehand
He is emotionally unstable. He cancelled the midterm exam without any reason at the last minute, which made me have two midterms on the same day and back to back. He even said it was my problem and asked me to change the time of another exam. The midterm exams are tomorrow...
Cancel mid 2 mins before it and not even say sorry or anything Emotionally unstable yelled at student for asking question Don't tech anything on the lecture make me study everything alone
Dont listen to these recent negative reviews. The first year engineering class this year pissed off Mattison so he made their first midterm very hard. Deserved in my opinion. No one disrespects my GOAT.
He's. The. Worst. He makes simple concepts awfully difficult in his lectures by explaining them with complicated examples right from the start. His slides make absolutely zero sense, so you'll 100% have to learn everything on your own.
Overcomplicates simple concepts, slides are blocks of text. Good luck studying for yourself.
Go to the Pub with Thomas and get a drink.
Big T my goat.
Big T is the physical embodiment of aura. He's so perfect, that his presence alone acts like a lens flare. The goat himself. If you get him as your teacher, consider yourself a chosen one of the most fortunate fate.
Big T is the GOAT guyz. Spread the word of Big T being the ultimate goat BIG T >>> Ronaldo
Big T is honestly the greatest of all time. He is the literal embodiment of aura. When he walks in to the tutorial sessions with the diet pepsi in his hand, you can literally feel his presence, he literally has haki irl. Big T is so goated, he even signed my calculator
The man. The myth. The legend. Tom. He is known by many names: Big T, The Glorious Goat; yet none of these are able to capture his immense aura. He is truly one of UBC's most passionate educators, and it is an incredible honour to partake in his class. Consider yourself lucky.
Rescheduled the first midterm because he forgot to book the lecture hall, then yelled at the students. Complains about departmental issues that have nothing to do with the students. Slides are walls of text. Overcomplicated the simplest concepts. Homework and tutorials, but exams are fair. AVOID AT ALL COSTS.
My goat BIG T. Piazza response time 6-7 times faster than my crushes response time. His lectures... I honestly don't know how they are because I'm always too distracted by his aura.
Cute old man. His exams are super easy by the way.
Lectures were walls of text on slides and complicates simple concepts. Asks if students have any questions however on multiple occasions have simply said "moving on" ignoring or during tutorials "you should've came/paid more attention to my lecture" and having to ask the TAs. He does scale his exams but be prepared to learn the course on your own.
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
22%
Textbook Required
67%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Stable
+0.04 avg changeRatings by Course
PHYS309LAB
5.0
(1)PHYS210
4.5
(2)PHYS309
3.5
(4)PHYS153
2.9
(8)PHYS170
2.8
(51)Difficulty by Course
153
5.0
PHYS401
4.5
PHYS170
3.5
PHYS158
3.5
170
3.2