Current instructor
Original student reviews · all captured dates
I highly recommend this professor. He is very consistent with lectures, homework, and exams, all of which closely follow the textbook. He explains concepts well, answers questions clearly, and keeps lectures enjoyable. His exams are fair, and he is also very generous with grading curves, which makes his classes much more manageable.Rate My Professors ↗
I hope Prof Terry teach every my physics course, I take both 311 and 322 with him, both course themselves are difficult, but Prof Terry try his best to illustrate every concept and mathematical tricks by tidy handwritting. Well organized and coherent lecture, the grading policy is not easy but I would choose his course 100 times.Rate My Professors ↗
EXAMS ARE VERY DIFFICULT. He is not a bad lecturer, and the textbook wasn't bad, but after asking for more learning resources that was all he could come up with. Conceptually not super difficult but the math went past anything I had done in math 320, and added extra work for me having to learn new math almost weekly.Rate My Professors ↗
Great professor, very rigorous, basically just deriving every conclusion manually on huge whiteboard during the lecture. You need to keep his pace and always focused on the whiteboard, and point out his mistakes sometimes. Also very helpful outside the class, exam is difficult, no curve or little curve, low A rate.Rate My Professors ↗
Good lecturer, teaches almost word-for-word from the textbook. Class is very fast-paced and math-heavy. Exams were incredibly difficult, the average grade on both midterms was about 50%. Homework wasn't really representative of exams.Rate My Professors ↗
Extremely organized lecturer. Really helpful and pleasant to speak to. Exams average around 50% which is fine but the curve is pretty bad. Homework was accepted a week late, but at a 50% point deduction. This was not mentioned in syllabus. His HW problems were generally good but the book problems can be frustrating and tedious.Rate My Professors ↗
Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.
PHYSICS 499 is an advanced-level mentored research project in physics.
Offering recorded · Fall 2026
historical GPA · grades
Spring 2022–Spring 2022 · limited sampleA graduate course covering advanced electrodynamics, including Maxwell's equations, wave propagation, and relativistic electrodynamics.
Offering recorded · Fall 2026
Recent recorded grades — Fall 2006: 3.40 GPA, 62.5% A/AB (n=24 letter grades); Spring 2022: 3.50 GPA, 72.7% A/AB (n=11 letter grades).
historical GPA · grades
Spring 2022–Spring 2026PHYSICS 990 is a research course where students conduct supervised research projects with individual faculty members.
Offering recorded · Fall 2026
No recorded grade history
| Term | Course | Title |
|---|---|---|
| Fall 2026 | PHYSICS 499 | Directed Study |
| Fall 2026 | PHYSICS 721 | Theoretical Physics-electrodynamics |
| Fall 2026 | PHYSICS 990 | Research |
Teaching history may be incomplete. Course pages contain course-specific feedback and citations.
{
"instructor_uid": "instructor_86042dfe6a80c1991500d5a1",
"source": "enrollment",
"source_instructor_id": "pwterry",
"identity_basis": "netid",
"identity_status": "source_identified",
"name": "Paul Terry",
"email": "PWTERRY@WISC.EDU",
"first_observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00",
"last_observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00",
"ratings": {
"review_count": 26,
"quality": 3.31,
"difficulty": 3.88,
"quality_count": 26,
"difficulty_count": 26,
"profile_id": "rmp:549771",
"source_url": "https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/professor/549771",
"match_basis": "exact_name",
"observed_at": "2026-09-07 16:12:20.118453+00:00",
"courses": {
"course_aa45660f057a2b2997243229": {
"review_count": 6,
"quality": 2.67,
"difficulty": 4.83,
"quality_count": 6,
"difficulty_count": 6
},
"course_0a6dafcdaeb7c047d94f694f": {
"review_count": 1,
"quality": 3,
"difficulty": 2,
"quality_count": 1,
"difficulty_count": 1
}
},
"bayesian_quality": 3.462037297194172,
"prior_mean": 3.6596857835465957,
"prior_weight": 20
},
"current": true,
"courses": [
{
"course_uid": "course_3cd96617fa9bcb858e3cd214",
"course_id": "PHYSICS 721",
"title": "THEORETICAL PHYSICS-ELECTRODYNAMICS",
"credits_min": 3,
"credits_max": 3,
"gpa": 3.463
},
{
"course_uid": "course_478c9473f982809f4cde8cec",
"course_id": "PHYSICS 499",
"title": "DIRECTED STUDY",
"credits_min": 1,
"credits_max": 3,
"gpa": 4
},
{
"course_uid": "course_6bdb43fa4ad7d835066b602c",
"course_id": "PHYSICS 990",
"title": "RESEARCH",
"credits_min": 1,
"credits_max": 12,
"gpa": null
}
],
"revision": "e243353dcb7d79b7247ced91d69443ef4c2a6349",
"instructor_url": "/instructors/PAUL_TERRY"
}