Of the 3 professors I had for 103, he was the best of them. He is pretty clear about what is on the exams and his slides are easier to follow than the other two professors'. After having the other two professors, I completely forgot any complaints I had for this professor. The class is concept heavy, discussions will save you in this class.

Thurs was just ok. Lectures were long and boring, but, he got the job done.

the "best" lecturer for physics 103, but probably the rudest one. has no regard for his students' wellbeing and views his opinion as above all others. uses personal issues to justify disrespect towards students and cannot admit his faults. rude beyond belief.

He was one of the worst professors I have ever had. I think I could've just showed up for the tests without studying and had the same result. I'm pretty sure he writes his exams while evil laughing in a lair. This class has made me contemplate my life decisions and want to drop out. Run the other direction. Evil Evil man.

He is a great professor who clearly goes through many examples to give each student extra practice. Physics is a flipped-class where learning is supposed to be done outside, but Dan does a good job of walking us through each concept.

i just got my exam back from dr thurs and i am incredibly disappointed. if you are taking phys 103 be prepared to make your own way. even then, don't expect to receive good scores and NEVER think you know what will be on the exam. he gave practice material that was incredibly misleading and not close to the exam, his reviews were unhelpful.

Be prepared to spend a couple hours each week to complete pre-lectures, homework and quizzes. Discussion and homework aren't reflective of exams but are good for understanding concepts. Highly recommend attending office hours as TA were very helpful! Thurs is the best lecturer out of the three, and also occasionally frequents office hours

Mandatory lecture attendance but you won't actually learn anything. Exam questions are multiple choice worth 8 pts each and averages are ~50%. You basically have to teach yourself. I got a 25% on an exam after studying for a week just bc of the way the exam was formatted. Highly recommend going to TA office hours for help on quizzes and exam prep.

Thurs was one of the worst professors I have had. Thurs does not want students to succeed, the averages of the exams were only ever slightly above 50%. This is because the questions on the exams do not reflect the actual material taught in the classes or the required prelectures. The exam questions are riddles!

great guy horrible at teaching and explaining things be ready to teach yourself or get a tutor

He is just okay. He goes on a lot of tangents and knowing what is actually important is a great challenge.

Don't be afraid of physics if you're willing to put in an hour before each lecture and 2-4 hours over the weekend doing hw / quiz. Highly reccomend chegg for helping to understand the problem solving method for some of these problems (and so you don't spend 7hrs). Thurs is a good lecturer, but you need to do the prep work for the lecture to click.

TAs were good, but Thurs himself doesn't teach or explain any foundational concepts, but then expects you to be able to solve problems right away and gives little helpful guidance if you are struggling. Outside of the exams, I didn't find the course too hard, but it gives you a false sense of confidence walking into the very difficult exams.

the exams are short and multiple choice so very few mistakes give you a bad grade. they dont seem to align with the practice exams and i leave lecture feeling like ive gained nothing

Had Thurs for 103/104 & the experience was awful both times. Classroom is flipped learning & pre-lecture materials don't convey nearly as much as we need to know. Lecture doesn't help much at all and Thurs fails to explain things well. Exams are FAR more difficult than any practice questions & are overall unfair in my opinion. Would not recommend.

Overall, physics with Daniel Thurs was a pretty frustrating experience. Most exams were much more difficult than expected for an introductory physics course. The flipped lectures and the way the course is taught is unfortunately not very helpful and does not foster learning, many people I know would simply not go to lecture as they are no help.

Sarcastic, unwilling to explain methods, and rude to students who don't grasp concepts quickly. Exams are 12 multiple choice questions that are not reflected in homework or discussion work. You'll have to guess on most of the questions. Take this class at your local community college or get credit somewhere else.

This is a very hard class. The practice questions do not match the tests. The cheat sheet that we can make does not help. Thurs is a clear lecturer, the problem is the material is not relevant to the tests. Not sure if you can blame him for that or the physics department. If can't get different teacher, he isn't the worst just be prepared to study.

Does not release grade boundaries and you are kinda just supposed to guess your grade all year long. Exams are unreasonably difficult and you are constantly studying to try to pass the class.

The physics 103/104 intro sequence is definitely challenging, but the TAs are so supportive. The prefectures and lectures are pretty disorganized and don't facilitate learning, and many of the activities don't even seem like the students' perspective was considered. TAs definitely make this class possible, though I'm sure Thurs does care.

I learn absolutely nothing from Thurs. I hate the "flipped class" format of the class and I do not think this format is useful at all. At least for me, this is not how I learn, especially in a hard science class. There are absolutely no explanations to quiz answers which is frustrating.

Daniel Thurs is probably one of the most frustrating faculty that I have ever dealt with. The exams he writes are deceptive and confusing on the magnitude of someone who wants you to struggle. He also rarely posts explanations for answer keys and instead gives you useless prompts which do little to help you understand how to calculate the answer.

Dr. Thurs is the worst professor I have had during my undergraduate career. I have never been made to feel as dumb as this man has made me feel. There is a DRASTIC difference between the level you learn in lecture compared to what is on exams. Don't be fooled by how well you do on the practice exams, as the real exams are exponentially harder.

I don't think I will ever have a worse experience than what I did with Thurs. Was extremely passive aggressive answering students questions, that's if he did answer questions. Lectures were way watered down for what was expected on exams. Exams were near impossible. Only thing that saved me in this course was my TA and the Physics Learning Center.

My best advice for this class is to find a youtube channel you like and watch that during the mandatory lectures (just need to check in and pick a couple answers on the iclicker, doesn't matter if they are right). Pray your TA knows how to teach. This class is the biggest time sink and I learned nothing from them clicking through their powerpoints

104 with Dan was absolutely awful-by far the worst experience with a class I've had so far at UW. Exams were practically impossible. Don't waste too much time studying because problems on exams are unlike anything you will have seen before. Also don't bother posting to Piazza because you'll be ignored!

Not providing solutions after exams, practice exams, and quizzes is the most unhelpful thing for students. The "solutions" (which are just unhelpful questions listed after the exam problems) are convoluted and provide nothing to students. With 3 professors and many TAs, I think providing solutions would be simple to help the student. Nope. Avoid.

Gave us solution guides in physics 103 that were insanely helpful, but for some awful reason decided to take them away for physics 104...probably too lazy. Not to mention Thurs is extremely rude on Piazza, and avoids answering questions. Questions so hard on the exams they don't even know the correct answers!

Professor Thurs is one of the worst professors I have ever had in my entire life. The lectures are awful but you have to go anyways because attendance is required. This class is miserable and he does not care whatsoever about students in this class. You essentially teach yourself and the exam grades posted to canvas can be ridiculously inaccurate.

I really hated physics 103 and 104 because it tanked my GPA even though I put in a lot of work outside the class. Somethings I recommend if you are entering the class and might be worried: - Join the PLC - take good notes - go to office hours on Fridays - TAs will be your best friends! There was a lot of outside learning I had to do

Following our 2nd exam, grades were released 3 times, dans management of this course is unacceptable, 2 Q's on the exam didn't have a correct answer, they messed up partial credit and students grades dropped 20 points w/ no explanation & questions far beyond the scope of this course had to get dropped to bring the average up to a respectable number

Dan is the worst professor I have had, I had him for 103 & 104, he is not good at explaining concepts in lecture, and not very approachable. The exams are way too difficult for an intro course, the TAs even apologized to us before the exam started once after they saw how hard it was, some of them couldn't even finish it. Avoid Dan at all costs.

There's a difference between exams being challenging and tricking. Challenging lets a student show they know the content, whereas tricking it won't matter if you do. I don't get why he writes exams with the intent of tricking students instead of challenging them.

It is so bad I want to give you a zero. But, that's not possible so I give you a one...

I changed my major b/c of this class. Everyone consistently fails exams and the only ones getting As are international students or those already very strong in physics. I didnt learn anything and near the end it felt hopeless to try. I sunk hours into this class for zero payoff. Thurs didnt care about covid precautions either. Terrible experience.

Do not take this class with this professor. This class was something I was looking forward to in high school. Every time he showed up to lecture, we would literally learn nothing and rely on the online pre lectures to continue with the quiz and exams. I'm so disappointed.

Prof Thurs was great! He is very approachable and helpful outside of class (Friday help-desk) and truly wants his students to succeed if you make the effort. He gives a list of the type of questions we will see on exams. Literally just study quizzes and lecture slides and you'll be totally fine. He explicitly says to focus on these things.

He doesn't care about student's well-being and all you are to him is a number. You don't learn a single thing in lecture and are expected to come to lecture already knowing the material. Exams are unfair in the way that they are multiple choice but no partial credit is given for work, 8 points or nothing. Take this class elsewhere.

Professor Thurs has this class set up in an efficient orchestrated way. There are many opportunities to make mistakes (and learn from them) and still get a good grade. Thurs was also very easy to work with in regards to McBurney testing accommodations and did not make me feel like a burden for having them. I reccomend!!

Decent lecturer, but that's about it. Overall very unapproachable and unaccommodating, doesn't seem to care about students success in his class.

Good lecturer, but thats basically it. Not super approachable and definitely writes questions with the intention of tricking you.

The lecture hardly covers all the material. The class is too focused on answers instead of the process to get them. If you want to/need to learn physics it won't be due to this class. Grades based on convenience and their feedback are the same. Answer keys are barely legible. Homework gives no feedback until it is too late. Unaccommodating.

I had Dr. Thurs for both Physics 103 and 104. His lectures are clear and go through examples that help you understand the material. Exams are difficult but fair and he definitely wants to see his students succeed! If you can take physics with him, definitely do.

Unfair. Do not recommend. Made exams harder so people dont cheat. Went to office hours to ask about a question on the exam, he didnt even know the answer.

Thurs was my favorite physics professor I had. If you ask him questions after class, he really cares that you understand the material. You get a note sheet of paper for the exams (when I took them in person Fall 2019-Spring 2020) and get to add one sheet of paper for every next exam.

he clearly cared about teaching the class and making sure everyone understood the content. I have so much respect for him.

He was well organized and great at explaining things. He really made physics make sense for me. He is very accessible during his office hours and willing to help. He's a great professor.

Really great at explaining concepts and making himself available for his students. Seems like he actually likes to teach and he is very enthusiastic but not in an exhausting way!

I thought he was a fun professor even though we only had him for a few weeks he seems to be the one in charge of the whole class and cares if people get the material. Not to hard of a class, especially compared to what physics can be.

Paired with timbie. Was definitely the better of the two. Has a pretty good understanding of the material and tries to make sure students understand.

Honestly, one of the best professors I personally ever had. Although I am leaving this school... I appreciate him for being open with his love for raccoons. But if you like to sleep in..... Take it.

Daniel is a pretty cool guy. He works with Peter Timbie and cares for his student. Thankfully I have him for another semester (Phys104). Tests are fair and challenging

You can tell that Dan wants you to do well, and tries to make his lectures as organized as possible. He uses clicker questions to see if people understand, and goes back through info if a lot of people get the answer wrong. Also, loves raccoons so the raccoon pictures are a plus.

Most of the actual lectures are through FlipIt, so take most of your notes here. Actual lectures are just a bunch of clicker questions, but they count for participation points so you have to go even if it seems pointless. Overall, he's easy to listen to and can be funny in a super nerdy way. Understand the concepts if you want to do well on exams.

Professor Thurs is great. He goes through and proves and/or shows how the concepts and equations make sense during lecture, rather than blurting out "This is this because it just is". It's hard to find a professor who can teach the class efficiently, yet crack jokes that aren't off topic. Definitely take Physics 103/104 with Thurs.

I had DPT for physics 103 and am currently in physics 104 with him. He is an amazing lecturer. He provides clear examples and will stop and explain a topic further if you don't understand it. His powerpoints are filled with jokes. The exams are fair, with one or two tough questions that require lots of thought. I would recommend him to anyone.

Tests are almost the same as the practices ones. Very willing to help and answer questions. You get an entire sheet for cheat sheet on exams.

Professor Thurs was definitely the best out of the physics professor! He did examples during lecture and didn't just teach the concepts and move on. He was actually pretty funny and kept me interested through lecture. His test are a little on the harder side, but nothing that isn't manageable.