Physics 1028 or 1301 UWO

[Downfall]

Hey, incoming first year med sci student here. I've done hs physics and am fairly decent at it (got 90% this year), but I'm unsure on which one to take. I planned on taking 1028 since I probably won't be needing physics in the future, but I noticed Zinke (is that his name?) no longer teaches 1028A physics. Poepping will be teaching 1028A this year, while Jones and Soddu will be teaching 1301A. 1028A and 1029B best fits my schedule, but I'm apprehensive to take a harder prof/class for no reason. Mittler would be teaching 1029B, while Cami or Wong will be teaching 1302B. All of their reviews don't seem to sound the best, but I guess that's expected for any science course. Can anybody please suggest which classes to take, which will help me best prepare for the MCAT, and get the best possible mark?

Forgot to add that I mostly just self-study things from the textbook. Exactly what I did in physics,  chem, and calc. this year. I don't mind having the worst teacher as long as their tests are fair and the textbook problems are a good source to succeed with.

[j17f]

It'll be hard to say because they may be changing the course structure if Zinke is no longer teaching it. I took the physics 1301 (or it's equivalent in 2012) before the mcat, and physics 1028 after I wrote the mcat 3 times. He asks some pretty fucked up weird questions that aren't really reflective of the mcat, but others that are. I did really well in the class and I didn't read a single lecture or textbook (I don't even know if there was a textbook), and just used the knowledge from my MCAT studying to do well.
Physics 1301 requires a lot more math than mcat physics, but the kind of thinking you learn in that physics class was more relevant to the mcat. Physics on this new mcat is more conceptual (and it's only like 10% of the exam), so I think the physics 1028 would be your best bet if you want to be prepared for mcat. I also think it'd be your best bet for getting a better mark, although this can change because Zinke used to mark on a curve and we don't know anything about how these new profs will run the course.

[Downfall]

ah :/ 

I think i'll just work hard and try to get a good grade in 1028. thanks

[Student07]

I took the new physics course taught by Poepping this year. If you did grade 12 physics it'll all be review. Poepping's exam questions, unlike Zinke's are very straightforward and 1029 actually had the highest class average out of all the first year courses I took (78). I  personally never went to class and still managed to get 90+ using my knowledge from high school, doing homework questions and going to the occasional prep session. I would definitely recommend 1028/1029 if you are not super interested in physics and just want the knowledge for the MCAT

[Downfall]

29 minutes ago, Student07 said:

I took the new physics course taught by Poepping this year. If you did grade 12 physics it'll all be review. Poepping's exam questions, unlike Zinke's are very straightforward and 1029 actually had the highest class average out of all the first year courses I took (78). I  personally never went to class and still managed to get 90+ using my knowledge from high school, doing homework questions and going to the occasional prep session. I would definitely recommend 1028/1029 if you are not super interested in physics and just want the knowledge for the MCAT

yo, thanks! I was stressing when I saw terrible reviews on ratemyprof lol. I have 1028 with Poepping and 1029 with Mittler. Any advice for Mittler? Also, did you take calc 1301B? Should I take it or 1201B? I have 1301B with Reid, but I have calc 1000A with Yu and his reivews look terrible. 

[Student07]

1 hour ago, Downfall said:

yo, thanks! I was stressing when I saw terrible reviews on ratemyprof lol. I have 1028 with Poepping and 1029 with Mittler. Any advice for Mittler? Also, did you take calc 1301B? Should I take it or 1201B? I have 1301B with Reid, but I have calc 1000A with Yu and his reivews look terrible. 

Hi! Mittler actually wasn't the prof for 1029 this year so I can't give you any tips for him. But I believe the reason they got rid of Zinke was because so many people were complaining that his exam questions were random and he didn't prepare them for the MCAT. I'm pretty confident that no matter the professor the exam questions will be fair (pretty much like the homework questions) and Poepping's exams are VERY easy to do well on.

And yes I took calc 1301b. Calc 1301b is definitely much harder than 1201b but if you genuinely like math then you will probably like calc 1301. 1301 isn't impossible to get 90+ in, and this is definitely a course that rewards the amount of work you put in. The final for 1301 was literally a mashup up of questions from  past exams. So if you start studying well in advance and put in the time to do the past exams you would have found it very easy because they were the EXACT SAME QUESTIONS (same numbers and everything so you would know right away your answer is right). However, people that didn't do practice exams found it to be difficult. 

For calc 1000 pretty much all the profs have bad reviews but majority of the course is grade 12 math review + the introduction of integrals. So the prof really isn't necessary for learning the material well. I would actually pick my prof based on what people say about his quizzes. All the calc profs give different quizzes so you may have gotten 100% on the quizzes if you had prof A, but you only got an 85% on the quizzes because you had prof B and his are much harder. Profs will adjust the class quiz average because of this but even with the adjustments that 85 won't become 100. Also, profs will not adjust class averages to be the same. For example, I had one of the calc profs with easier quizzes and then on top of the easier quizzes he curved the class' quiz average up to 87% from 75%. Other students had profs with much harder quizzes and didn't see a curve that generous. SO DEFINITELY PICK YOUR PROF BASED ON THE QUIZZES HE GIVES!!!

[Anon-e-mous]

I took 1301 with Mitler  a couple years ago and would recommend taking 1028 instead. I took 1301 because I did very well in high school physics and wanted something harder. Although it was not incredibly challenging, 1028/1029 sequence is notably a lot easier (class averages my year were incredibly different.) I would recommend sparing yourself the extra heart ache and going with the easier class . 

Mitler was not a good prof. Stopped going to her class halfway through the semester and instead taught myself from the textbook and youtube. I did not like her teaching style which consisted of reading off of slideshows. Also, she is German and likes to put a lot of irrelevant German info into her lectures lol. Not the nicest lady either. I saw her yell at people who asked questions in class... more than once lol.

Currently prepping for the MCAT and feel like either course would suffice for the content covered. The second engineering physics just gets a lot more calculus based. If you don't need it, I wouldn't recommend it.

Hope this helps! Goodluck

[Downfall]

54 minutes ago, caramilk said:

I took 1301 with Mitler  a couple years ago and would recommend taking 1028 instead. I took 1301 because I did very well in high school physics and wanted something harder. Although it was not incredibly challenging, 1028/1029 sequence is notably a lot easier (class averages my year were incredibly different.) I would recommend sparing yourself the extra heart ache and going with the easier class . 

Mitler was not a good prof. Stopped going to her class halfway through the semester and instead taught myself from the textbook and youtube. I did not like her teaching style which consisted of reading off of slideshows. Also, she is German and likes to put a lot of irrelevant German info into her lectures lol. Not the nicest lady either. I saw her yell at people who asked questions in class... more than once lol.

Currently prepping for the MCAT and feel like either course would suffice for the content covered. The second engineering physics just gets a lot more calculus based. If you don't need it, I wouldn't recommend it.

Hope this helps! Goodluck

thanks, i'm gonna stick with 1028/1029. I'm a little worried about Calc 1000 even though I'm pretty good at calc imo. Have you by any chance had Miransky or Yu? This is my last class I need to finalize. 

 

Also, would you mind looking at my schedule and giving some feedback?

https://gyazo.com/4eecbf761a7cf5850345bc60b301d397

[Anon-e-mous]

Unfortunately I didn't have either of those professors for Calc1000 so I'm not much of a help there. I had Dr. Kiriushcheva and she was a sweet Russian lady. Her quizzes weren't bad. I recommend you buy the Calc1000 past exam booklet at the bookstore with your textbook. This sounds excessive, but if you do all of the midterms and finals in the book (from maybe 2008 onward), it will really help. The textbook questions do not reflect the difficulty of the exams very well. Do those practice exams along with the recommended textbook problems and you'll be golden

Your schedule looks good. Nice work getting everything back to back! If you take the first calc and decide you want to switch your second calc later, there is always that flexibility

[Crunch fitness]

Hey guys, I am planning to start Med sci this year. Any tips for physics 1028 course with Poeping? I heard that her test are very hard. What is the best way to prepare?

[Crunch fitness]

Also, anyone has past physics 1028 exam questions for practice? Can we practice from Zinkie’s questions for poeping’s Exam?

[DrMeme]

I took Physics 1028, it was a shit show. You're honestly better off taking Physics 1301 if you want to learn something. The only way to really prepare for the tests are taking Prep101, since they keep a bank of past questions that they reuse. There are no past exams in Physics 1028/1029 cause they just reuse the same questions year to year. For 1029's final, I don't even think it was worth studying for.