He mostly just reads off slides and just gives the basic information instead of delving deep into the content. However, he makes expectations clear and provides you with a lot of resources to let you succeed. Often times, test questions are just modified HWs.

He's a difficult professor in terms of he tells you the information and expects you to work out the "learning" part of it, but he really does want to make sure you are learning and he will stop the class for any questions, and encourages it.

Lectures were lazy and were just slideshows with definitions and formulas. He expected everyone to just know everything because we were physics majors, so he would never explain anything he deemed simple. When asked a question, he would start answering a different, unrelated question, so it was impossible to ask meaningful questions in lecture.

Professor Pan is an engaging lecturer, though the pace can be challenging. Staying engaged and using resources like the textbook and Unstuck study make all the difference. Overall, a rewarding class if you put in the work.

Just reads off slides and fails to elucidate derivations of equations. Everything is "trivial" and you never have a fundamental understanding of whats being taught. That said, Pan is very fun. We do demos and I find myself consistently engaged in lectures, though not due to understanding the material. He's passionate, just not a great lecturer.

Almost completely inaccessible online. If you want to talk to him about anything you have to do it in person. Lectures were fine overall, he posts slides.

Though the pace of the lectures is a bit faster than normal classes, Professor Pan is very passionate about teaching and really wants his students to learn Physics well. Gradings and exams are all fair.

He tries (but fails) in lecture, and is completely unavailable outside of it. He does not teach well, as in, he cannot. He shows equations, tells us to derive them, and then moves on. Homework, tests, and all of the actual teaching falls to the TA.

The class format he has made is very dumb. Since everyone gets nearly a 100% on all of the non-exam content, your grade is entirely decided based on exam performance, which is 20 multiple choice questions per exam. Each exam you make a notesheet and try to put every formula you can find on it, since the exams are just plugging in numbers to them.

The concepts are often overcomplicated and only taught conceptually, which is of no help to those whose majors rely on the application of physics.

Physics 201 is definitely not an easy A but Yibin at least made it entertaining. His lectures were sometimes confusing, but he did live demos which often helped with understanding. His tests are all based on past exams and homework questions, and you get a whole paper for an exam notecard.

The professor is a very passionate lecturer, but he makes little sense when explaining complex topics and expects to know how to solve the problems already. The pace of the class is also weird with quizzes not covering anything he covers in lecture and tests being curved very poorly.

Professor Pan's lectures were extremely fast and hard to follow. The first few topics were fine since the contents overlapped with what I learned from high school, but it started going downhill from there. My advice for future students would be to avoid him if possible, trust the negative reviews from this website, and be prepared to self study.

I don't think I learned a single thing from any of his lectures. He did not often explain things, even when answering questions. Seemed to just hate teaching. Not at all accommodating, never answered a single one of my emails, least clear grading criteria to date, exams were just terrible.

Lectures with Pan were nothing more than him calling concepts "trivial" even if they were new or complicated concepts. He assigned lengthy multistep questions for homework that was nothing like the lecture examples or the textbook. Going to his lectures is about as much use as throwing a cup of water into the ocean to raise the sea level.

I took the Pan/Sherafati combo for physics 201 and regret it. Pan is absolutely god-awful at teaching. Everything is too "easy" or too "simple" and does not deserve an explanation in his mind, even though this is an introductory course. The tests were full of errors, and the last two were ridiculously difficult. Avoid these professors if you can.

Took Physics 201. Very hard to reach, especially in online format. Wouldn't respond to key emails(on tests, submissions, etc) until 1.5-2 weeks later. And on those replies, all tried to gaslight the student on being in the wrong. Appears that he is also hard to reach through TAs, as multiple times it wasn't until friday our TA would get an answer.

Pan is not the best professor because he always modifies the slides to his liking before lectures and never uploads them early. As a result, when he goes too fast (which he often does), keeping up with his lecture is often hard.

Yibin Pan is an embarrassment to the Physics department and the university. He routinely berates his students for "stupid" questions and is not conducive to a productive learning environment. When taking his course, the one phrase you will learn to hear most is "it is trivial" and "this is easy," this class is anything but. Avoid him at all costs.

While the physics 202 team in general is a mess due to the often horrible TA's. The pan and shiu will take care of you and give solid lectures with some cool demos scattered throughout them. Course is still a mess and was a wretched introduction to the physics department.

Prof. Pan is a horrible teacher. Very nice guy and is willing to work with students to discuss and solve problems/concerns about exam grades, but his lecture slides are dense, ugly, and move way too fast. Reading the book is a necessity to gain all of the relevant information. Amazing that he's allowed to teach such a central course.

This man derives joy from torturing students. The class is curved competitively, with only the top 20% of the class being able to get an A. The lectures are entirely useless, since on top of hating students, Pan is entirely incompetent at teaching. The tests are riddled with mistakes -- the second midterm had an unsolvable problem.

Lectures are very boring. Does a bad job of teaching the material. First tests were easy but the third and final exams were unnecessarily difficult.

He does not appear to put thought into his lectures. The concepts are overly confusing. Worthless labs and worthless discussion sheets. This class exists to demotivate engineers with its stupidity which leads to difficulty

this guy has no clue how to teach. overly confusing lectures and relatively simple high school physics with impossible curves and tests

Lectures were hard to understand and not recorded, so you were screwed if you missed class. Concepts were not explained well and Pan would often contradict himself while lecturing. Inaccessible outside of class and unforgiving with homework and tests. I had to teach myself physics from the textbook

Although he is kind of confusing and hard to understand sometimes, overall he will answer questions and will try his best to make things clear. He also always has good energy and keeps lectures interesting to help you learn the difficult material.

The hardest class I've ever taken. The only time I learned anything was from the textbook, taking notes by myself, or from my TA in discussion. Lectures are confusing and most of the learning is on you. Worked super hard in this class and still worried I won't pass.

Professor Pan made a subject that I love incredibly boring. I stopped showing up to his lectures because he put in very little effort and the exams were based on the book anyway. For the final exam, he released a practice exam hidden within the files on canvas which had half the questions from the final and only told his favorite students.

He has really good lecture content and tells you some of the problems that will be on the exam in lecture. Weekly homework and quiz are not too difficult, and are a good grade boost. Exams are all multiple choice and fair. Overall, take him if you can.

Lazy professor with bad class setup

The semester started with another professor, and then Yibin took over the class about half way through and my understanding plummeted. In comparison he doesn't discuss the process of diagrams or demos and merely just tells you what is occurring. If you can avoid taking class with him, you will likely understand much more of the class.

Only two attempts on free response HW questions, which is questionable. Tests are graded on scantron. Constantly insists class is "Easy".

Not the worst professor but did not do well with online format. Tests curved individually rather than your overall grade being curved unlike most classes. He curved down on some exams (1 exam had a 98% cutoff for an A). Learned mostly from the textbook. Failed to respond to emails, would change exam formats arbitrarily. Don't recommend.

Maybe Yibin was a lot better before COVID. But he is definitely the worst-adapted professor to online learning that I've ever seen. Doesn't know how to respond to emails. All he does is assign online textbook readings and assignments through WebAssign. I learned 100% of the material for this class through the textbook, not him. Just a bad professor

The class was completely self-taught from the book and the lectures pointless. He just read off slides and skipped every step saying its just basic algebra. Grade on canvas wasnt weighted so a 95% ended up destroying my gpa. Didnt help that most of the people in this class were cheating which screwed all of us who did not. Very poorly ran.

Bad explanations. Takes forever to reply to emails. Doesn't care and understand his students at all. I felt like he didn't put in a lot of effort into this class. Maybe it might be better in person but I doubt it. The grade shown on Canvas is not accurate, which made me think I was doing relatively well until a couple of weeks before the exam.

Class lacked any form of infrastructure and little to no support was offered to students. I went into this with little experience of physics and it was definitely very painful. Lectures were incredibly boring and lacked proper demos and homework took hours. Very hard to learn from. Maybe in-person it would've been better, but beware.

Do not take this professor if you want a good grade. The language barrier makes it difficult to understand what he is saying during lectures. His class is curved which shows he can't make good tests with most of the test problems being HW prb with numbers changed.I missed the final exam because of the hospital, and he didn't give me a make-up exam.

Dr. Pan was a very average professor at best. He never really did anything outstanding that made him more enjoyable as a professor, but he did okay at teaching the class. The class overall is notoriously difficult, but most of the exam questions are ripped straight from the homework. As long as you work and study hard, this class won't be too bad.

I would not recommend this class to my worst enemy. He is awful at explaining what is going on and takes forever to get back to your emails. I know this is a mandatory class for a lot of people just try and not take it with him.

I can't imagine how UW-Madison can hire such professors who have no idea what they do and do not care how their students do. No motivation for physics and he has no clue how to explain. The worst physics professor in the department. He covers the lectures and puts up different questions on the exams. Not recommended with a little curve.

Grades all semester were unknown as the tests weren't weighted correctly in the grade book. I had this class and another final on the same day at the same exact time and Yibin Pan refused to allow me the alternate time after not responding to my original request sent a month before the final and well before his cut-off final exam conflict date.

I got a grade of A totally depending on my hardworking and smart brain! Reading textbook by myself is much more useful than listening to his lecture. He is a very rigid person and unwilling to answer some simple questions from students. He never replied email and his excuse was "I receive tons of emails everyday".

Online class for physics 201 with Yibin Pan has been awful. He has no clue what he is doing most of the time when it comes to technology. For exams, his approach to fair grading includes no partial credit. Scores are based purely on answer. If I could only say one thing about this professor it would be STAY AWAY.

Professor Pan: *Spends barely any time on lecture slides and turned off chat so nobody could ask questions *Doesn't respond to his email quickly, if at all *Is generally not helpful to understanding course material *Labs are confusing, stressful, pointless *Exams are unfair, but curved This course was the worst academic experience I ever had.

As someone with no background in physics this "introductory course" is heavily reading based and lectures barely help you understand anything as they are rushed and lack thorough description of content, based on the fact that your already supposed to understand what you're being taught? Also the adjustment to online instruction is disorganized.

The class is very difficult, and many of the exams follow that trend. He gives out weekly WebAssign homework, which is lengthy, and some questions may be on the exam, but be prepared for exams on content never seen in class or the textbook. His lectures go through some examples, but he just talks through the process. and doesn't explain concepts.

Prof. Pan is a solid choice for Physics 202. Exams and homework focus entirely/mostly on the basic equations and concepts, so you don't have to worry too much about derivations. He is an entertaining lecturer, but all I got out of his lectures (that I didn't already get from the textbook) were some pointers on what would and wouldn't be on tests.

Dr. Pan's course Physics 201 course is subpar. He's too lazy to put proper derivations on lectures and makes us look for it on our own time. He makes tons of caught and unnoticed mistakes during his lectures which makes them confusing and pointless. The exams are bad because they are exclusively on webassign so you basically get not partial credit.

Prof. Pan is not great. Exams have mistakes (which he makes) that waste test time for students, but he doesn't care. Exam difficulty and grading is another problem, to get an A you need a 95% (curved)??? This course is disorganized as hell, all the learning is from the textbook. Horribly executed online labs.

I believe this is Dr. Pan's first semester teaching 202, but other reviews apply. I've never seen such a lazy professor. Lecture is low-effort conceptual examples and he pulls test questions from the homework problems he didn't make. No attempt was made to adapt the in-person labs do something of value in an online setting.

Dr. Pan is an absolute joke of a professor. His lectures are terrible. He gives the minimal amount of examples and the ones that are given are so basic they are totally useless in preparing you for the exams. Get ready to learn on your own because his attitude and effort put into this class are abysmal.

He is careless about the course in general and it is evident from his poor organization. The slides are all over the place and are very difficult to read. The exams are conceptually difficult which adds onto the fact that your exam grades are based off of the answer you got rather than your written work (which is much more important in physics).

One of the worst classes I have taken. I do not know why other people said Yibin Pan is caring because he certainly is not. He is rude to students who ask questions and doesn't realize that 90% of the time a student is asking a questions is because he didn't explain clearly. Online tests are also extremely hard and poorly made.

His poor english and inability to properly explain concepts makes this already difficult class even worse. Probably his worst quality, he is very condescending to students who ask questions, which discourages participation in lecture.

Pan is a good professor, the class was in great logical. But i wish he could give us more practice exams before the midterm.

Do not take this professor. He can't speak English or teach any physics. The only word you hear is "calculation". Take another professor with whom you can learn it. He has a terrible attitude. UW-Madison shouldn't let such professors teach. I regret I paid Non-resident tuition for this horrible class. The quality of instruction is extremely poor.

Class is fairly difficult unless you have a strong math background. The tests were all multiple choice, although this does not mean they were easy. Some did not like his English, as he has an accent, but I found it easy to understand. Going to lectures is important as many of his examples gone over in lecture show up on the exam.

Pan is amazing and very funny. You will learn most of the class in discussion so make sure you show up and you should be good.

Very good lectures- interesting and easy to follow. My only real complaint is that the tests were all multiple choice, so you cant get partial credit.

Fun guy. I always enjoyed his lecture and Dennis! You can tell he tries his best to make physics fun and easy to understand. Having a good TA is really helpful and understanding the homework is key to doing well on the tests so do the homework and understand it! :)

He is NOT interested in student success. Not approachable AT ALL; will be rude and make you feel bad for asking questions and gets frustrated if you don't understand concepts he as already explained. Lectures are not cohesive and hard to follow. Please, please, please, if you are not a physics major avoid taking a class with Pan at all costs.

First of all you can't understand him half the time, even though his lectures don't make sense to begin with. He did not adjust to online classes well, and clearly is oblivious to what is going on outside of his lectures. Just pray you don't have a bad TA like mine who just hands us impossible worksheets every discussion and doesn't teach

Yibin is a great lecturer, sometimes to the point of geeking himself. Make sure to pay attention and understand what is going on conceptually, as the exams are strictly multiple choice.

Really fun and energetic professor. Tried his best to explain things and did so adequately. The multiple choice format on tests can be annoying because doing one thing wrong leads to an incorrect answer which is often a choice. Test questions are often like the homework so study carefully. Not a ton of work but concepts can be difficult.

Difficult to understand language at first

Exams are so much like the homework, so make sure you actually try on hw. Also, exams are a huge part of the grade so one bad exam grade can screw you over (I got 90, 40, 80, did great on hw and labs, but a BC) Labs are totally irrelevant. Lectures are easy to tune out so I started using Khan Academy, since they made everything easy to understand.

He's enthusiastic and fun to listen to, but his class overall did not give me a better understanding of physics, which is something I look for in a physics class. He was kind of all over the place. A good TA probably helps but mine was truly awful. The best way to study for exams is old homework problems. The book was pretty useless.

Yibin's lectures were straightforward, energetic, and gave me everything I needed to know for the exams. Exams were multiple choice, but easy since he allows an entire notebook sheet for formulas on the midterms and three notebook sheets on the final.

All tests are multiple choice and only test you on how good you are at guessing between options. Came in with a great curiosity to learn physics but ended up wanting to leave the class half the time.

Great professor. Don't skip a lecture or you'll miss his funny demos! Exam questions are pulled directly from homework and old exams, an easy A's as long as you study

Yibin's lectures contain everything you need for this class. He makes quite clear what is going to be on exams, which formulas you will and won't need, and how he expects things to be done. The only negative is that the exams are all multiple choice with no partial credit, but the questions are straight from the homework and lectures.

This class was extremely easy. The material isn't easy, but the exams are a joke and very straightforward. Yibin is fine at teaching, not the best though. He is very engaging, funny, caring. I would definitely take him again because of his easy exams. I barely attended 3 lectures throughout the whole semester. Lectures are fun (demos!) but useless.

The grades were pretty solid. Homework is worth the same as an exam grade which is nice. The labs were easy and I didn't use the super expensive textbook. I double blocked and did not make it to a single lecture. Just make sure you study for the exams, they're similar to the homework and the practice exams.

Hes the man for 201. If you understand the homework and do the practice exams youll be fine on exams.

Mr. Pan is the GOAT. I never had so much eneg in a class before. I skip nap class to come see Mr. Pan spin in circles to demonstrate momentum. Mr. Pan has some wack exams but if it aint broke don't fix it.

No one loves physics more than Yibin Pan--it's hard not to get excited about the subject when he's teaching it! The exams aren't too bad: 20 multiple choice questions, most of which are taken directly from the homework. You also get to use full-sized sheets of paper (front and back) for your formula sheets. Not too hard if you put in enough work.

Mr. Pan is honestly one of the best professors here. People who shame him on this site did not try in his class. His exams are straightforward if you actually understand the homework and practice exams. He gives you everything you need to succeed in his class. Just don't be lazy (5 credit class) and an A is very possible. Funny, caring, and a gem.

Yibin is honestly not a bad prof. He is hilarious when giving lectures and I would always look forward to them. It is important to go to lectures because if you pay close attention, he will literally tell you some of the questions that will be on the exams. For exams, you are allowed full sized sheets of paper for formulas. Not Bad.

Somehow this class made me worse at math and physics. Yibin would just throw equations at you without explaining them and you had to figure them out basically on your own. The tests were all 20 multiple choice questions with e) non of the above as an answer for each one. The only reason I passed this class was because of my TA.

Be prepared to teach yourself everything. He gives you all the equations you need but you need to understand how to manipulate ALL of them to solve hard problems. If anything, his class demonstrations are the most important aspect of lecture. Exams are hard and unforgiving. Beat the average classmate.

He was decent at explaining the material, and was pretty engaging. His accent can take some getting used to, but you don't even notice it after a little while.

Yibin is the worst professor I have had here. His lectures are not well structured and you will likely be confused on the material if you don't prepare before lectures. I would recommend going to tutoring hours. Yibin's office hours are the LAST place you want to go! His exams are tricky and will become your worst nightmare bc no partial credit!

This class crams 16+ chapters into 14/15 weeks, which is why it is understandable that Pan might not go into a lot of depth during his lectures. Read the book, it will teach you what you need and Pan's lectures will compliment that. Pan is a great professor, very fair, and his lectures and demonstrations are fun to watch.

Professor Pan loves physics, and is an average professor. His tests are all multiple choice, so there is no partial credit.

I found Yibin easy to understand and his lectures engaging. They aren't mandatory, since he posts his slides online. The downfall is the tests, which are 20 multiple choice questions with no partial credit. The are heavily based on his homework and practice exam. Labs are a joke. He does not budge on grades.

Yibin Pan is a lovable old man who loves physics and he presents his material well, lecture material is always posted online, lets you use plenty of note sheets on exams, and if you have a good TA, labs aren't too bad. The downside of this class is that all exams are 20 multiple choice questions that are super hard with no chance of partial credit

He's really hard to understand to the point where I didn't even go to lectures. Honestly just read the lecture slides and you'll get the same thing out as attending lecture.

Awful class. The lectures are not thorough enough as compared to what is on the exams. Not a class where I learned physics just learned how to take timed mcq by memorizing the homework(which I think are super unfair because how can you grade calculations without giving partial credit?) You will do bad if you are not good at physics coming into this

I had low expectations for this course but this course was far worse than I expected. Yibin is hard to understand and hard to follow. He is a nice guy but he is not good at explaining the material. I would suggest taking this course with someone else if possible. Exams are only 20 multiple choice questions and they are hard to finish in time.

Pretty easy class unless you struggle with timed MC exams. Yibin makes lectures entertaining, but, for those who don't have much physics experience, the information doesn't come across the best. This class was pretty much a repeat of AP physics but instead of energy we have energe.

Yibin is adorable. I did not take physics in high school, but I somehow survived this class. Labs are useless and frustrating. Test questions are straight from the homework and practice tests. Memorize how to do those problems and make a good formula sheet for the tests and you'll be fine.

Crazy thick accent. Not in a way that's too hard to understand. He's an old enthusiastic man (this and his accent make him really funny) and you can't help but like him, even if he's not a fantastic lecturer. Goes thru a lot of examples in lecture, which I personally find valuable. Tests are multiple choice and you can have a note sheet

He wasn't a bad professor, I met with him outside of class a few times for some concerns I had. The major knock is the tests in this class. They aren't written all that well so it is a huge swing from what is online. The practice exams do not follow what he gives out. I would recommend finding someone who has had him before and using their exams

we only have multiple choice for all exams. not a bad lecturer but need self study.

He is good at explaining knowledge. But his exams are only 20 multiply choices. Take his class if possible.

Overall, his tests are very straight forward. They are basically modified homework problems. Although the tests aren't bad, his lectures are excruciating because he has trouble speaking English, so it is difficult to learn much from lecture. I learned everything in that class from my TA in discussion.

Really the only reason I went to his lectures were to see his hilarious antics. I have literally cried laughing from some of his demos in lectures. I don't think he's as bad as these other reviews make him out to be really, if you can grip the homework material then you'll do fine on the exams.

Yibin is hands down the worst professor I've ever had. He teaches the course like you already know the stuff, his lectures are unclear and he doesn't have office hours. several of my friends( who are physics students) have trouble completing the practice problems for the exams. Tests are multiple choice, no partial credit allowed. DO NOT TAKE.