Ignore all the hate comments, i got 50s and 60s on every exam and ended with an A its really not that deep ngl

Professor Yoshida was a very nice and kind man. He did demonstrations in class that were engaging and funny. Although everyone complained very much about the low test grades and how terrible the tests were, which is true, Professor Yoshida was very generous with the final curve and I had no issue with the grades. For reference, I scored 35% and 40% on both of my midterms and a 40% on my final, and I still ended with an A- as my final grade. And I came from zero physics experience and do not consider myself to be good at physics in any form, and yet I still ended with an A. As long as you go to TA office hours, I felt as though this class ended up being very manageable and I really appreciated how kind Professor Yoshida was. He remembers all of his students and does care about them, and he would say hi to me when I see him around grounds, even when I had never directly engaged with him before.

So, I don't normally review teachers, but I found out Professor Yoshida reads these reviews, and I thought I'd give him an honest one after seeing all of the harsh ones. Truth be told, the class is difficult, but that's the nature of physics. Ask anyone with any other professor, they too are struggling. The issue with Yoshida's class isn't necessarily the way he teaches, it's just the lack of difficulty provided in homework problems that makes everything seem harder. For example, the group quizzes are hard (so hard he had to make them easier), but after talking it out with a TA or the professor, most people I know are were able to do those problems and similar problems again. If we had more of these harder examples, the exams wouldn't have seemed so extreme, and the average probably would have been higher than an F. The homework on the other hand, is ridiculously easy and led many people, including myself, to underestimate the exam. Also, the exams - while being difficult - are multiple choice. In my opinion, this makes a better tradeoff for the difficulty of the exam, as you have a chance to guess if you have no clue what to do. However, some free response would have been nice for more partial credit (he said this was hard to do due to the nature of grading). Finally, my biggest gripe with the class is the question at the end of the exam that asks you to guess what score you got, and answers outside the margin of error will deduct four percent from your grade. I think the idea of making students think about the effort they put into the test is a fair idea but docking points like that on a test - especially a multiple choice one where people guess - is unfair. Maybe just add extra points or something. As for the final grade, there is a massive curve (I went from a C to an A-) which helps, as Yoshida often talks about it being more important that we learn from our mistakes instead of making easier tests. The professor himself is also a wonderful person, which is why I felt the need to write something a little more positive. He is often prompt when responding to emails and was always respectful to me. He is also very active with the class and has great demos. All in all, the class is a massive headache, but Yoshida is a good guy to go through that headache with.

Honestly I think he was a nice funny guy during demos and cracked some jokes during lecture that were funny and corny, but when you get those first quizzes/exam it feels like you just got slapped. The content is nothing like what is gone over in lecture, and all he does is talk about how to derive the equations but not how to actually use anything like he asks on the quizzes or exams. And yes the exams are horrible and traumatizing and it feels like no studying can help you. I considered myself good at IB Physics HL in high school, and my HS teacher would agree but this class takes all the confidence away.

Before I start, I will preface by saying that all of my grievances are related to the way Yoshida has chosen to structure his course and not his ability as a lecturer. Yoshida is very knowledgeable, and his lectures are actually quite good. That being said his exams are weird. The guess your score thing is stupid and most of the questions are designed to be trick questions. Despite this if you are moderately good at physics or actually study there is no reason you should be scoring below a 40 on these exams. Yes that is still bad, but the individual midterms aren't worth that much and the group exams bring your average up some. My biggest problem with this course is the fact that Yoshida refuses to give an indication of how he is going to curve the class, so no real indication can be given on how the course grades will turn out. If you want to get an A, try getting into Zhang, but this class will not kill you. Physics is hard anyway, all engineers have to take it, and if you try you should get at least a B. Keep in mind this whole review could change if the curve sucks.

Yoshida's class is definitely hard, but what physics course isn't? Expect to get a B or C depending on how u do but the class itself is fun. lotta live demos and he cares about his students. Classwork is 60% of ur grade and its impossible to not get an 100. Plus group exam is easy 90. The actual mideterms (yes obv very difficult avg of like 30) are only worth liike 12%. You will do fin, and yoshida gets a bad rap. love the guy, so stoic and makes jokes with the students.

If you don't enjoy physics, don't take this class. If you enjoy physics, don't take this class. The list of victims here speaks for itself. Yoshida is not a bad physics professor, as he teaches new material well and often includes fun demonstrations in lecture. However, he makes the midterms significantly harder than any coursework he gives us, which includes the online homework, group quizzes, lecture material, and the practice exams offered.

The exams are designed to fail you - they consist of about a dozen questions to complete in an hour, all of which are multiple-choice questions. A few of these are considered "free-response" questions, but are essentially MCQ's since they are weighted just as much and Yoshida gives almost no partial credit for written work or error carried forward if the incorrect answer is selected. For each question, every incorrect answer choice is placed to deceive you with a small conceptual mistake in the solution, which makes the correct choice extremely hard to derive.

If you think you've failed enough, not quite. At the end of each midterm, there is a "self-assessment" that requires you to guess your score within 10 points of your actual score. If you guess outside the range, which most students end up doing since they'd rarely guess such a low score, congratulations - you've just lost another 4 points for something that has nothing to do with physics.

Homework and group quizzes are your saving grace - while time-consuming, they are quite intuitive and graded leniently. However, if you need help in class, the TA's are pretty useless from personal experience. Chances are, they will be just as confused as you since the material is so difficult, though they might provide a semi-coherent conceptual explanation if they have the answer key with them.

For reference, I've scored decently above-average on the midterms (in the 55-70 range, believe it or not) and I'm fighting for a B with my homework keeping me afloat. Midterm averages, according to Yoshida himself, fell in the 30s and 40s. The final is coming up with little hope of a grade curve. In my class, I know of maybe 1-2 well-regarded students who have received good scores on midterms and are on pace to ace the class. Everyone else I know is in the same boat as me, if not worse.

As an ESchool student who has taken two years of high school physics, I'm extremely relieved that ECE 2200 is offered as an alternative to Physics 2 so I never have to touch this department again. If you're like me and absolutely need to take Physics 1, either pray you get an early enrollment time for Zheng's class or take it over the summer instead.

On behalf of the readers, I'm sorry if I come across as demeaning or arrogant. I'm trying to keep this as blunt and transparent as possible to save others. Prof. Yoshida, if you're seeing this, I apologize for my venting session. Your lectures are interesting and you teach concepts well, but I sincerely hope you reconsider your structuring of this course, especially with regard to these midterms. Not every student wants to be a physics professor.

TL;DR: Don't take this class.

DO NOT TAKE, My god, i have never felt so stupid in a course. Listen I may be stupid but Jesus christ, if you struggle with stem courses please avoid this class like your ass is on fire. First midterm you cooked if you got a 50, second midterm? a 30. Not only did he not take any accountability but told the students to go back to the beginning. As said by another victim,"Studying for this class is almost useless, as the exams are not reflective of the material". He's a funny professor but funny will ruin your GPA. He is unsure of a curve(almost everybody I know is failing). Take it from me who took his class because he didn't have any reviews when I signed up for his class. The homework does not match to the exams, good luck if you have him.
TLDR: No.

DO NOT TAKE. Extremely frustrating class. Even if you did well in high school physics, this class is nearly impossible. Yoshida is a fine lecturer, but his lesson slides are dense and complicated. Still, the in-class quizzes and exams are even more difficult. You basically need the TA's to solve the quizzes for you, assuming they aren't also completely lost, and even when the entire 100+ person class takes the group exam, nobody can agree on the answers. Studying almost feels pointless, since each exam question is some sort of trick or wording issue. It basically comes down to how lucky you are during the exams. With the curve, one correct MCQ in a midterm is the difference between an A vs a B grade. If you normally are a B+ / A- student in STEM classes, this class will be bad for you. The low averages and random bonus credit means that only students who are insanely good at physics will do well, and everyone else is randomly sorted through the letter grades.

I actually really liked Professor Yoshida's lectures and it was clear he tried to make things exciting and cares about his students, but his tests and group quizzes are INSANE. Group quizzes you can pretty much ask TAs how to solve and they'll tell you, but the tests are not good. Even the TAs I've talked to have said he makes them much harder than other professors. I wish I could say I recommend him because he is a cool dude, but I really can't based on how poorly I and my friends have done...