Richard Haracz

School: Drexel University
Department: Physics
Location:Philadelphia, PA
Overall Rating
rated by 15 students
Helpfulness
Clarity
Easiness
Rating Comment
Overall
Helpfulness
Clarity
Easiness
 Pros: He's a very nice guy. He grades super easy and as long as you do the work you will get an A. He doesn't grade for accuracy which is nice. Because usually you don't know what your doing. But make sure you come to class, do the quizzes each time and do your homework because you will pass because he always curves everything and like drops practically all your bad grades.
Cons: If you have not taken physics before.. you are screwed. He doesn't teach really he just talks. Hopefully you have a good recitation person because otherwise...well good luck.
Overall
Helpfulness
Clarity
Easiness
 Pros: Impossible to fail, you really have to be bad at basic math and science to not get the class. He curves grades like crazy.
Cons: Rather disorganized.
Overall
Helpfulness
Clarity
Easiness
 Pros: Final project is really easy, he curves a lot, will try and help you if you are genuinely struggling.
Test is based on questions he explicitly gives you.
Cons: Your homework grades are completely dependent on the recitation teacher. Some of them can be hard graders.
Lectures are pretty boring, easy to fall asleep.
In general, the lectures will rarely help you with the textbook problems.
It's kind of a bad class, but it shouldn't be too difficult to pull an A or B in it provided you do the work.
Overall
Helpfulness
Clarity
Easiness
 Pros: such a nice man, its a joke class. the tests are difficult but have a huge curve on them. go to class and play a game on your computer, its really easy to pass with an A even if you get straight Ds on your midterms
Overall
Helpfulness
Clarity
Easiness
 Be prepared for the worst, most boring PowerPoints ever and him just rambling about physics and not actually teaching it. The lectures are terrible to sit through, so bring your laptop or phone to keep yourself entertained. The good thing about Dick though, is that grading is pretty easy and you can still get a good grade without learning a thing. The exams are weighed lightly, and there's a few projects that boost your grade, along with easy homework assignments and daily quizzes.
Overall
Helpfulness
Clarity
Easiness
 the thing is, he's a good teacher. but none of his students care about physics, we're DESIGN majors. doing homework every week sucks but as long as you put something down on the paper you get full credit for trying. tests seem ridiculously hard and you'll probably fail them, but then he curves so much that you'll end up getting a good grade for the term. so really there's no need to stress about tests. and you get to use an entire equations sheet to write whatever you want to help you and bring it to the test. dr. haracz also says a 68 average for the midterm is "great". and he's not being sarcastic.
Overall
Helpfulness
Clarity
Easiness
 Lectures are boring but he takes attendance. I got extra points for not skipping so you can definitely use that to boost your grade. Tests are hard, especially if like me you have never taken physics before. But then again they are not a huge percent of your grade because you've got attendance, homeworks, and two separate projects. I would recommend going to your TA's test reviews and copy down every sample problem they do in the review. I did that and got a 93 on the second test.
Overall if you do the work you will get a good grade. He curves the tests at the end and you get full credit for homework as long as your hand it in. Projects and essays are a piece of cake.
Overall
Helpfulness
Clarity
Easiness
 He's a really nice guy, but his lectures don't really have anything to do with what you're going to be tested on. It's really not even worth paying attention in class, since most of his lectures don't have anything to do with the homework, which is what you're going to be graded on; just pay attention in recitation. He grades more based on effort than accuracy, which is good if you, like me, don't understand Physics. I wouldn't necessarily recommend the class because overall I felt it was a waste of time...but Dr. Haracz is such a nice person, so I can't flat-out knock the class, either. It's a dumb required class, but it shouldn't be something to lose sleep over.
Overall
Helpfulness
Clarity
Easiness
 He's not a teacher, he's a professor. Let's start with that. He doesn't actually TEACH anything. His tests are extremely hard, and nothing short of painful. The only saving grace is he curves like a mother. I would say don't take him - but he's the only instructor for the course. Just pray you get a good TA, or have already taken Physics in high school.
Overall
Helpfulness
Clarity
Easiness
 He's not a very good teacher and you will most likely be left in the dark as far as what's going on until your recitation unless you just naturally understand Physics or have taken it before. Despite the fact that he can't teach, he's still a nice guy and does some crazy unexpected things sometimes that are just amazing and I'd recommend the class.
Overall
Helpfulness
Clarity
Easiness
 We can all agree that Haracz is a nice guy with his 4000 point curves and whatnot. But the point is, he's a wretched teacher. There are very few times I learn anything in that class (and usually it's from my TA) beyond the fact that playing with mirrors is fun.
Overall
Helpfulness
Clarity
Easiness
 I found myself at a great disadvantage having not taken a physics course in high school. Without any knowledge of the subject beforehand, his class was confusing, the material disjointed, and his teaching methods vexing.
I would never have taken this class if it wasn't required.
Overall
Helpfulness
Clarity
Easiness
 Great prof
Overall
Helpfulness
Clarity
Easiness
 Haracz is a good teacher. He cares about the students and is a pretty lenient grader. The work was insane (then again, I'm not good at science) but if you go to class and do the work, you should do alright.
Overall
Helpfulness
Clarity
Easiness
 Had him for Univ 101 and while the class was a joke I think he genuinly cares about the students and realizes the class is a joke but still trys to make it be worth somthing(Abet not succeding terribly well)

REFINE YOUR SEARCH

Refine Your Search

Professor Ratings Search
Search by Department Search by Last Name
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ