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Kids who had Physics 7A with Chiao last year complained endlessly about how scary the class was due to his tests. Is it better to have a MWF 8-9 class with another prof, or TuTh 2-3:30 with Chiao? I don't think the guy is as tough as he's made out to be.

By Calbears2007 (Calbears2007) on Saturday, August 14, 2004 - 03:39 am: Edit

I think I might be able to shed light on this issue a bit. Last semester I was in Professor Chiao's lecture for Physics 7A. Basically, what happened was, the first midterm was very EASY partly because the first part of mechanics is about kinematics and basic forces. However, the average on the first midterm was an 87/100, and the distribution was one so skewed that like 70% of the students got 90+. Therefore, I think Professor Chiao tried extra hard to create a very hard second midterm and final exam. (Second midterm average was a 42/100 and final average was a 51/120!!)

Basically, I think Prof. Chiao did a bad job in writing an exam that gives a good distribution so he really tried extra hard to make the tests that have an average of around 50 so it guarentees a normal distribution. Don't let the fact that he gives hard tests be the only reason to change your schedule again. After all, a hard test means it is hard for everybody, so if you get 10-15 points above the mean you should be in good shape.

By Itempest (Itempest) on Saturday, August 14, 2004 - 11:16 am: Edit

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