Historical instructor

KEITH BECHTOL

Adjusted rating
RMP 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

No teaching recorded in Fall 2026.

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Recorded teaching history

Distinct courses recorded per term

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Browse recorded courses
TermCourseTitle
Spring 2026PHYSICS 990Research
Fall 2025PHYSICS 990Research
Spring 2025PHYSICS 990Research
Fall 2024PHYSICS 691Senior Thesis
Fall 2024PHYSICS 701Graduate Introductory Seminars
Fall 2024PHYSICS 990Research
Spring 2024PHYSICS 682Senior Honors Thesis
Spring 2024PHYSICS 990Research
Fall 2023PHYSICS 681Senior Honors Thesis
Fall 2023PHYSICS 990Research
Spring 2023PHYSICS 990Research
Fall 2022PHYSICS 990Research
Spring 2022PHYSICS 311Mechanics
Spring 2022PHYSICS 990Research
Fall 2021PHYSICS 311Mechanics
Fall 2021PHYSICS 990Research
Fall 2020PHYSICS 249A Modern Introduction to Physics
Fall 2020PHYSICS 681Senior Honors Thesis
Fall 2020PHYSICS 682Senior Honors Thesis
Fall 2020PHYSICS 990Research
Spring 2020PHYSICS 104General Physics
Spring 2020PHYSICS 681Senior Honors Thesis
Spring 2020PHYSICS 990Research
Fall 2019PHYSICS 205Modern Physics for Engineers
Fall 2019PHYSICS 990Research
Spring 2019PHYSICS 205Modern Physics for Engineers
Spring 2019PHYSICS 990Research
Fall 2018PHYSICS 249A Modern Introduction to Physics
Fall 2018PHYSICS 990Research

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

Instructor identity & provenance 
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