Current instructor

Robert McDermott

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 2.17/5 from 12 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 · course not matched
Quality 1/5Difficulty 2/5
Took him for PHYSICS 779, didn't care at all, assigned difficult homeworks that weren't related to lecture at all, but graded them leniently.
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PHYS103 · course not matched
Quality 1/5Difficulty 4/5
I would give this professor a negative 7 stars if I could. He is a boring lecturer. He talks at like 1/4 the speed of a normal person and does not teach you anything that will be on his exams. His exams did not reflect the lecture material or discussion material. 80% of our class failed his exam.
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PHYS104 · course not matched
Quality 1/5Difficulty 4/5
The worst class I've taken at UW. Lectures are insanely confusing. He does not explain any of the material in any significant way. Test had absolutely nothing to do with the lectures. Goes over the easiest question in a section and moves on. I understand the transition to online is probably tough, but this was a horrible excuse of a class.
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PHYS103 · course not matched
Quality 1/5Difficulty 5/5
I have never been so bored or confused in lectures. He explains absolutely nothing. In fact, I would just watch khan academy or something during lecture because that's probably a better use of your time. All I can say is good luck. This class is horrible. I miss Daniel Thurs.
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PHY103 · course not matched
Quality 1/5Difficulty 5/5
Horrible professor. Horrible explanations. Horrible class. Physics is supposed to be like a fun math class, but he makes the tests unlike any of the problems you will see. Honestly, there's no point to studying for these exams because there's nothing you can do to prepare. get ready for curve balls- tests aren't a reflection of learning at all....
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PHYS103 · course not matched
Quality 1/5Difficulty 4/5
He made the exams way harder than ive ever seen. and he didnt care that people that did amazing on the first exam (made by a different professor) failed the second exam(one by McDermott). dosent care about you or your grade, cares about making the class rediculously hard for no reason at all. the exam was nothing i had seen before or knew how to do
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Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.

Classes with Robert McDermott

PHYSICS 799

Independent Study

1–3 credits

Independent Study is a graduate-level mentored research project in physics.

Offering recorded · Spring 2027 · Sources

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2022: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=3 letter grades).

Roman KuzminDeniz Yavuz+20 more

historical GPA · grades

Fall 2025–Spring 2026 · limited sample
PHYSICS 990

Research

1–12 credits

Research supervised by individual faculty members. Students formulate and plan original research, creating work that contributes to the field of physics.

Offering recorded · Spring 2027 · Sources

Pupa GilbertIrena Knezevic+78 more

No recorded grade history

Recorded teaching history

Distinct courses recorded per term

Explore courses taught by this instructor →
Browse recorded courses
TermCourseTitle
Spring 2027PHYSICS 498Directed Study
Spring 2027PHYSICS 499Directed Study
Spring 2027PHYSICS 681Senior Honors Thesis
Spring 2027PHYSICS 682Senior Honors Thesis
Spring 2027PHYSICS 691Senior Thesis
Spring 2027PHYSICS 692Senior Thesis
Spring 2027PHYSICS 799Independent Study
Spring 2027PHYSICS 990Research
Fall 2026PHYSICS 799Independent Study
Fall 2026PHYSICS 990Research

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

Instructor identity & provenance 
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