Reviews for Rabindra N. Mohapatra
Average Rating:| Anonymous Course: PHYS270 Grade Expected: A December 24, 2011, 2:56 pm | Dr. Mohapatra is a fine lecturer and teacher, but he's not really given much to work with - the material covered in PHYS270 feels disjointed and would likely be difficult regardless of the professor. Our class was apparently two weeks ahead of the other one, so I'm thankful for that. There appears to be a hefty curve in the class. |
| mreese Course: PHYS270 Grade Expected: A December 2, 2010, 9:44 pm | Mohapatra is an average lecturer, and class notes were either somewhat disorganized or not thorough. However, he's really nice and helpful in office hours. The weekly quizzes he gave were fair for the most part, and helped to indicate what topics were most important. Tests were not too difficult, but don't expect to get anywhere without reading the book. The Mastering Physics assignments ranged a bit in difficulty, but were probably the single most useful part of the course. Doing well in this class is all about practicing a variety of problems, and Dr. Mohapatra didn't assign a bunch of single bar problems like the other teacher (Bantu) did. I personally found his accent entertaining and very easy to understand, and I also thought he was pretty funny. He's very responsive by e-mail, and is extremely understanding about grading concerns. You probably won't find much better teachers for PHYS270. |
| Anonymous Course: PHYS161 Grade Expected: April 26, 2010, 6:43 pm | Funny dude in lecture, but is very difficult to understand. Take a different teacher. Wants to get to know students, so he's good in his limited office hours, but that's the best I can say. |
| Anonymous Course: PHYS161 Grade Expected: C April 19, 2009, 10:21 pm | If you've taken some form of physics before then the class will be pretty straightforward, but Mohapatra's accent made it near impossible to learn anything from the lecture. However, he's a nice enough guy and seemed willing to help if you took the time to go to him and ask questions. Quizzes and homework were annoying, but I probably learned more from those than the lectures. Sad thing is, he's probably one of the better physics professors on campus (the least bad of the physics professors if that makes sense) and I would take him over most of the other physics professors. |
| Anonymous Course: PHYS161 Grade Expected: December 23, 2008, 11:35 pm | Go to discussion. I made the mistake of not going and learned nothing. His teaching style and accent aren't helpful either. The book won't help you either. |
| jahs389 Course: PHYS161 Grade Expected: A November 25, 2008, 11:19 am | Giving weekly quizzes isn't such a bad thing. You actually learn under this guy, and he is a riot. His demonstrations and explanations are very entertaining. He was also really nice and approachable in his office hours and help me make up they exams I missed. |
| xinio64 Course: PHYS161 Grade Expected: A June 2, 2008, 7:46 pm | I did not really get much out of his lectures. They were so boring and his accent got on my nerves. I learned by doing the written homework and masteringphysics. Even though masteringphysics was a huge pain, I actually did get something out of it. He did make jokes occasionally and some were actually funny. The first midterm was easy but the second and third ones were kind of difficult. The final was not that bad. Best advice is to go to office hours, go to discussion class, do the homework in a timely manner, and try to do as many other practice problems from the book. |
| Anonymous Course: PHYS161 Grade Expected: May 20, 2008, 10:24 pm | Mohapatra in my opinion should stick to teaching grad courses. Not only are his lectures extremely boring, but he makes it a nuisance for students to not go to class. He gives a weekly quiz, which is good and all, but gives them on sporadic times to his whim. In addition, his accent does put a large barrier in terms of learning. If you don't like powerpoints, or find yourself falling asleep while looking at them, do not join his class. He's not a very good teacher. Nice guy, but he definitely doesn't know how to convey the information over to students. He's also quite unreasonable when it comes to problems with the online homework. |
| Anonymous Course: PHYS161 Grade Expected: May 2, 2008, 10:30 am | Although Mohapatra appears to know his stuff, he doesn't teach very clearly. His accent is an unfortunate barrier, it took me half the semester to get used to it. He used masteringphysics which was a disaster because there were glitches with the program. Despite many complaints, he remained indifferent to the fact that many people had low homework grades because the online homework wasn't working correctly. He usually just gives confusing proofs in class and doesn't always point out which forumlas are worth knowing. He is, however, very eager to help anyone who comes to office hours or makes an appointment so if you don't understand something, take some time to see him after class. Despite his confusing explanations, he is happy to help anyone who is truely interested. |