Current instructor

Keith Bechtol

/5Adjusted rating
/5RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 5.00/5 from 10 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

What students say

Original student reviews · all captured dates

PHYSICS 311
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
Very nice professor compared to Duncan after doing 247-248 sequence. He cares students a lot and he does spend time on teaching and he wants his students to succeed. He might focus on deriving equations a lot in class, so reading Marion - one of the textbooks he posts would be beneficial. 311 with him was amazing experience
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PHYS248 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
Prof. Bechtol is one of the best physics profs I have had at UW Madison: great lecturer, very responsive to student's questions, and clear expectations. This class was a lot more conceptual and takes on topics like general relativity, special relativity, cosmology, and other areas of Modern physics. Problem sets were relatively easy.
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PHY249 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
Professor Bechtol is an amazing teacher that is very invested in his students. His lectures, while online, were very intuitive and easy to follow. Bechtol is also a very fun person to talk to during office hours. 10/10 would absolutely recommend him again
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PHY249 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
He's very caring and encouraging. He's always open to questions and can explain a concept in multiple ways, which is always helpful. Also did a great job planning the course, gave us a good overview of the topics in modern physics and also got us familiar with python, which is used extensively in research. Take a class with him if you can!
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PHYS104 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
Super nice guy! If he ever messes up a problem in class, he always reaches out the whole class and fully explains it later. I think a lot of professors don't do that, but he is really specific and helpful!
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PHYSICS 205
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
Keith was a great guy to talk to if I was ever struggling in the class. He explains topics well, and can explain complicated topics multiple ways if you struggle in lecture. Homework takes time, but is often the same as test problems, so its worth it to spend the time on it. Final Project instead of an exam was a godsend around finals week.
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Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.

Classes with Keith Bechtol

PHYSICS 691 is a mentored individual research and study course for students completing a senior thesis.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

No recorded grade history

PHYSICS 990

Research

1–12 credits

PHYSICS 990 is a research course where students conduct supervised research projects with individual faculty members.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

No recorded grade history

Recorded teaching history

Explore courses taught by this instructor →
Browse recorded courses
TermCourseTitle
Fall 2026PHYSICS 691Senior Thesis
Fall 2026PHYSICS 990Research

Teaching history may be incomplete. Course pages contain course-specific feedback and citations.

Instructor identity & provenance
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