the class is fun but the exams are hard. recitation problems and homework are a piece of cake but the questions in the exams are hard. goes over very simple questions in the lecture and expects us to solve complex ones for homework and even harder ones in the exam.

Its hilarious how he even is a professor at SU. He doesnt even teach the students but instead acts like a social justice warrior. He basically wasted an entire lecture to apologize to the Chinese about coronavirus. He completely neglected me when asking about the physics problems. The recitations are pure non sense with the TAs acting like clowns

I had a difficult time communicating with him during traditional circumstances, but once our classes had to be online he became even more difficult to work with. He cares about his students, but only certain ones with certain circumstances. These communication difficulties translated to his teaching and never explained the concepts very well.

Prof. Freeman is a horrible professor. He failed to teach this semester. Luckily, you can pass this class due to the huge curve but you might not learn much at all, as I honestly did not learn anything. He is accessible outside of class but he made me feel worse for not understanding a concept and for trying to ask questions.

Doesn't really care but acts like it. Decided the entirety of his class cheated not because of math, but because of "similar wording"

Nobody liked this class

I really didn't learn anything in his class. I taught myself a majority of the material and I felt very adrift about what we were learning. He relies heavily on students having taken high school physics and his TAs, so if you don't rely on your TA and didn't take it in HS you're kinda on your own.

His 3 hour class is given the work of a 5 hour class and he relies heavily upon his TAs to teach instead of teaching the material himself.

His lectures are pretty worthless, as he wastes most of the class period talking about logistics instead of actual material. Relies on recitation and TA's to teach the material, both of which aren't very good. Assignments are long, hard, and barely relevant to what you cover in class. You won't learn anything, but you only need an 80 to get an A.

I took this class because of the great reviews on here but I had a bad experience. As an async recitation student, we got 2x as much work as the synchronous students just bc I wasn't there on BB. He gets sidetracked and will never finish an example, just expects you to know how to finish these complex, contextual problems (and the TAs are no help).

there's so much busy work for this class that it gets discouraging and he doesn't help to explain how to do anything at all

Most professors teach the material in lecture and use recitation to reinforce what's already been taught. Not this guy. This dude expects students to "teach each other" in recitation and glosses over important concepts in lecture. Extremely disorganized and poor teaching style. You're better off using khanacademy to teach yourself the material.

Teaching style leaves a lot to be desired. Lectures are disorganized and students go into recitation clueless. Homeworks are absurdly long and made all the more difficult by the fact that the Professor hardly goes over the fundamentals in class. He is a friendly guy but that doesn't make up for his poor teaching style.

Knows what he is teaching, but is unable to break it down for those who are trying to learn. Gets off topic fairly quickly, and doesn't give you feedback on your homework. All you see is your grade, but not what you did wrong on it.

AST101 is not an astronomy class, its a physics class. Dr. Freeman looks like PFT Commenter, which is cool, but the man treats this class like its a 300 level physics course. I took this as a senior just looking for an interesting and easy class and got the exact opposite. Look elsewhere for classes fulfilling a lab requirement.

Walter is a very nice man. But he CANNOT teach. He does not give full answers or explanations during the class. If you go to his office hours he will basically tell you to "think about it" instead of giving straight up answers. No answers given for the homework and worksheets also. Overall, a terribly confusing class and I would not recommend.

Absolute worst professor I've had. Does not answer emails, quizzes were absolute hell and we had one every week, no way of studying for them you just had to go with educated guesses, quiz guides were incredibly irrelevant and unhelpful, I could not recommend this class less. Taking it was the works decision I ever made and I've taken stats.

Absolute worst professor I've ever had. That's all I have to say.

you won't pass the quizzes because they aren't related to the course material. if you want to pass make sure you go to the lab and do the papers. the grades are curved so more likely than not you're going to pass

One of the worst professors on this campus. So easily distracted by the twitch chat and talked about anything and everything not related to class. Didn't teach at all and the only reason I passed is from watching an excessive amount of youtube videos. He was unresponsive and rude the few times he did respond. Take this class at another school!!

The lecture is designed to only 'introduce' the topics which consists of not going over the topics at all. The sections for this class do nothing but further confuse students, due to it relying on students teaching other students material that none of them have learned. If you have not taken a high level physics course in high school good luck.

I would be mad that he taught in a way that only makes sense to him, however, I am even madder that he barely teaches at all. At least if he taught enough maybe I would be able to understand his thinking, however, the amount of teaching he does is probably close to 10 minutes out of every 120-minute class.

Class is curved because so many would fail without it. Even so, it's difficult to get an A. He never fully solves problems in lecture, which is unhelpful. He claims the course is designed for people who have not taken physics in high school, but it's not. He wastes lecture time going over more advanced examples that you aren't tested on for fun

Doesn't teach you, only introduces the concepts (these are his words) and tells you to learn in recitation. No one in recitation knows what they are doing so it is near impossible to learn. Then he gets mad when you ask him to do an example because 'you have been doing this for almost 2 weeks you should know it'

Pt 1: Prof. Freeman makes this class unnecessarily complicated, focusing way too heavily on the concepts of physics, seemingly attempting to make what should be a simple and straightforward course inaccessible to anyone who has not previously taken a physics class. Also relies too heavily on TAs in recitation.

This professor is the worst one ive had a Syracuse. He doesn't talk to his students, doesn't make himself available and then will punish you for it. He is a grade A nerd, like I mean weirdest dude I've ever seen. Saw him walking with a walkman one time down marshall street. The fact that this man still has a job here is beyond me. Dude sucks

This man was awful. Terrible all around. Most of the 5 stars are probably given by himself. Avoid at all costs. Take ast with Watson. He is the best.

Worst class I've ever taken. If you haven't taken a high level physics course/AP Physics, DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS! It is absolutely a nightmare if you do not already have a strong physics background. There's a lot of homework, and you can go to the physics clinic for help but it is almost always swamped.

Horrible. If you think this is an easy class it is not. He should not be a teacher at Syracuse.

I think this class is really easy actually if you study properly for the exams. The hardest part is actually the multiple choice surprisingly. The lectures are literally not necessary, didn't go for the last month and did the best grades wise in that time span. He goes off topic a lot, when I did go to lecture it was to do other work.

You would expect it to be easy to handle and understand. Well, sadly that is not the case. Clearly, Walter is not capable of teaching the number of students he has. The entirety of his students had absolutely zero idea of their overall grade until the semester was over because he has his own grading curve. Yeah.. bc no one understands the material.

The worst. That is it.

Very smart and caring guy but simply does not know how to teach an introductory level physics course.

Just terrible.

He grades very harshly and the exam average was in the 40's. He goes off topic. Unless you took AP Physics, it's easy to get lost. He spent so little time on the "most important topic" of the course and relies too much on the TA's. His lectures barely help and he vaguely explains the concepts and barely teaches us how to utilize these concepts.

Walter Freeman... where do I start? Lectures are basically just him laughing and talking about things that don't pertain to the class at all. Nothing he teaches in lecture has anything to do with the exams we take. He expects TAs to teach the class and they all give out different answers to questions so there is no set way to do any problem.

I'm about to graduate with a 3.5 GPA in EE, and this is the lowest grade I've ever received. This class will overwhelm you, not help you succeed, and teach you nothing. Walter is a brutal grader, awful at explaining, expects TAs to teach, smug, and thinks he is without fault. Surprised he hasn't been fired yet. One of the worst profs I've ever had.

Walter's a nice guy and I'm sure he's fine outside of teaching, but as a professor he's terrible. His lectures are hard to follow, the homework he gives are unnecessarily difficult, and the recitations (where he expects you to learn) are an absolute joke. If you never learned physics before, you have a long painful road ahead of you.

You don't learn anything in the lectures and he expects you to go recitation to learn the actual material.

Good Luck... As every lecture passes you dig yourself deeper and deeper into a hole of frustration, confusion, and depression. All you can do is hope that the curve helps you out in the end.

Walter teaching this class is comparable to teaching your 100yr old grandma how to send an e-mail.

Terrible professor no matter how hard I tried to like him. He was a wonderful person who was passionate about many things, but his teaching style was absolutely awful. Disorganized, irrelevant lecture materials and difficult recitation packages that we were not prepared for whatsoever. It was hard to find resources that would actually help.Badexams

A disorganized and messy professor. He never finished all the slides every class and often went off-topic. He refused to post grades on Blackboard until near the end of the term, always posted homework late, and often made mistakes doing problems in class. He's rather unprofessional and the only way to reliably reach him is thorough Discord.

He makes AST 101 seem like a 300/400 level class. The tests are crazy hard for no reason. He lets you use a cheat sheet but nothing on the study ends up on the test, so it doesn't matter anyways. There's no extra credit available either. The only thing that makes this class okay is the fact that attendance isn't taken.

The worst college experience I have ever had. This is a 101 level astronomy course that most take for a science/lab science. He treats it like AP Physics. Tests and material barely correspond with one another, and the questions on the tests are so poorly worded. DO NOT take this class.

Terrible professor. Nothing on his exams is what we learned in lecture. Took AST 101 and your grade is entirely based off of lab and only 3 exams. Exams are extremely long and ask for very specific information. Would not recommend at all.

Lectures are not very useful.

This was a terrible professor. The entire semester had lectures that were not useful. The day before exam 4 he updated the class grades. Many students were left only one day to prepare for exam 4. *Context: 3/4 exams are required for this course (the lowest exam is dropped, and if you are happy with the grade you have, it is not necessary to take.)

This class was terribly organized. The lectures were all over the place and forced me to use outside online sources to learn the material for almost every unit. Additionally, he changed our grades the day before the final exam, and many students that wouldn't have to take the optional final now would have to with little to no preparation.

walter cannot teach for the life of him, lectures are so boring and most of the time he just wastes time, if someone asks for homework question help he doesn't really answer the question rather just goes over the broad idea which doesn't help, his examples and participations during classes are fun though, but would not take again.

Chemistry major here taking physics with Walter, this class is very heavy on the textbook and recitation. Lectures are yes great for understanding the basics of physics, but does the bare minimum for examples in class, and for recitation you're forced to work in a group on practice problems with the work from TAs which is no help. Waste of time!!

Professor Freeman makes his exams beyond difficult, his recitation packets are a nightmare, as they most times contain content that has not yet been taught. Homework is the only reason I have the grade I do as well as just showing up to recitation. Class is overall awful due to having a lecturer who teaches completely differently to Freeman.

Pt 2: TA's are beyond incompetent and cannot do their jobs for the life of them, TA during recitation stands and stares at you blankly waiting for a response which is never given. Nice guy and loves what he does, but his exams are downright awful. If you go to ESF, highly recommend waiting until it is offered there, absolute joke of a class.

Worst class I have ever taken. We don't get taught any of the tested material in lecture. We go through huge amounts of material without actually ever learning HOW to solve problems. TAs also don't know what they're doing. I ask a question and they just ask me another question in response. Half the time they dont even know how to solve the problem.

If youve never taken phy, youll see how unnecessary hard this prof made exams. His exam questions would be two paragraphs long and youd have to decipher what the question is even asking before you do the problem. He does unnecessary stuff in lecture and doesnt teach well. Choose a good group for his group exams because that makes your grade.

took his class twice, failed then withdrew. if you miss one lecture you are cooked. we go through so much material without actually learning. recitations are war. TA's answer questions w questions. tests are everything. test questions are puzzling and always have mistakes. homework is so hard. he cares about his job but he just doesn't work for me.

Accessible outside class but overall a very bad prof. His lectures barely cover any useful material, homework is very long, TA's are very bad at explaining things. He makes the class much harder than it's supposed to be, I've barely learned anything during lecture and often have to understand things outside of class/during recitation.

I took this class four years ago (graduated since) and this is still the worst class I've ever taken. Walter is a passionate, terrible prof. Relies too heavily on the TA's, who don't receive guidance from Walter. Assignments are impossibly difficult. I guess this class is STILL rough. Good luck folks, waltuh is the worst prof I have EVER had.

You won't learn in lectures don't even bother attending. Most of your learning will be from the homework. The recitation TAs are very bad at teaching, they also don't even try to help you out, they'll watch you stare at a problem for 30 minutes and not reach out. I highly advise you to take this class with a different professor!

this class is so overcomplicated by the professor you barely learn anything. extremely homework heavy and all the homework is extremely long and tedious. His exams are so much harder than the content we review in class and often half the things he says will be on the exam don't even end up being on the exam. overall worst prof I had in this school.

Worst Professor I've ever had and it's unfortunately not even close. Tests are different than stated and all the preparatory material given not helpful half the time. The grading scale is the only reason that many people manage to get decent grades, as the exam averages are usually horrendous.

Walter is the worst teacher i've ever had. there is no textbook so the only resource available are his awful lecture slides. the homework problems and practice problems given before tests are nothing like what are on the actual test, and he doesn't cover what is on the test. the easiest way to learn the material in this course is to teach yourself

Walter is a good person, but a poor teacher. Lectures don't help, TAs ignore you, and the exams are nothing like class or homework. Questions are overly long and confusing—no one needs a dog's backstory to solve a physics problem. Take this class in the fall with a different professor.

This might've.. no is the worst professor I have ever had. but can not teach. If you really want to learn then you have to pray. This is supposed to be an intro level course but he teaches as if you have been knowing this for years. He has good practice problems but they nothing like. His exams ARE WORST THAN THE PRACTICE EXAMS AND NOTHING ALIKE.

Walter is a funny guy that clearly likes what he does but forgets that we don't know physics yet and goes way too fast in lectures, relying heavily on TA's in recitation that give conflicting information and don't help at all. Tests are 10000x harder than what he prepares you for and studying will help, but not a lot.

This guy spends more time "uwu"ifying his questions than actually giving us comprehensible questions. Ain't nobody need to know the backstory of your pets pal, just test us. You may be wondering why I chose "hilarious" as a tag... Its because he is "hilarious"ly unfunny and you will only be laughing at him. He cannot teach. I'm so very tired. Help.

It doesn't matter if you've taken an AP or IB course for Physics 1, because chances are you'd get the same grade anyway. His methods of teaching are so subpar for a required course for engineers. His tests are riddles that rely on luck and assumptions since he words them so poorly; and there is almost no partial credit given at all. Good luck.

No. Just no. Heed my warning and please just try your best to pick another professor. The lectures are organized poorly and are usually just rants he goes on forever and ever. The homework is looonnnggg and considerably tougher than anything you'll ever see on his lousy lecture slides. EXAMS ARE HARD and he prides himself for making them impossible

Listen. I did well - but that's cause I put in effort in my recitations and didn't chatGPT the homework. But Walter himself is a mediocre teacher at best. He cannot really explain physics in a way many students new to the subject can understand. Tests are not like the practice - kinda unfair - but if you prep, you've got it. Wouldn't recommend him.