First midterm really easy, 2nd midterm crazy hard. Didn't give much partial credit for the first midterm but he had to for the 2nd or everyone would have failed. The final was between the two in terms of difficulty, but probably closer to the 2nd midterm than the first. I got 2 points above average on both midterms, and 58/80 on the final (which he didn't give an average for) and somehow ended up with an A. Must have been a generous curve. His lectures are pretty useless, but I still went to every one. I found myself playing games on my ipod, as was over the class (those who went, at least). He has a thing for picking ridiculously hard Mastering Physics problems, so good luck with those. Overall, not the worst but definitely not the best.

I suppose he's very easy; there's a complete solution's manual floating around, so unless the homework glitches on you, you should get at least 9.5% on the homework.

His lectures focus a lot on the math behind the formulas; however the book just gives you the formula and tells you to go solve some problems. That's kinda hard if the professor doesn't really dwell too much in the concepts and such. The book's style is along the lines of giving you easy examples followed by very hard problems.

The first midterm was very easy, I might've gotten full score if I didn't make a stupid mistake that only put me 2 points ahead of the average.

The second midterm was very hard; I guess if I didn't screw up the first problem I would've gotten at least average instead of 6 points under it.

The final seemed fair; there were questions on force as a function of time, which I had no clue about since the textbook only throws F=ma at you so I guess I may have royally screwed it up.

Anyways, somehow I ended up with a B instead of a C, so I'm thankful for it. I guess he has a pretty lenient curve.

If you know your physics and you know you won't screw up like I did, take him. If you seriously want to understand the concepts and such, you might want to consider another professor. HOWEVER, this quarter the 3 1A professors were Zocchi, Musomeci, and Gekelman. I heard Musomeci was pretty cool.

He seems to know a lot... but he doesn't lecture very well. He uses complex examples without explaining any of the concepts behind the material. Perhaps if you read the book before lecture you'll be able to follow him better, but normally I found that I would stop paying attention rather quickly (maybe this has something to do with his accent), and after the second midterm I stopped going to class entirely. Lecture is not necessary in this class - only doing the Mastering Physics homework is required.

His first midterm is easy, and second one significantly harder. The final is somewhere in between. If you want a relatively easy physics class, take this one. If you want to learn, perhaps look elsewhere.

His first midterm was really easy, second midterm significantly more difficult, and a fair final.
when it comes to grading the exams, he tries to give you as much points as possible. If you were kind of getting there, he'll give you a lot of points for it.
Homework was from masteringphysics and really did help for the exams.
He's a funny professor, but had generally useless lectures.
He had a generous curve and I ended up with an A.

Take him if he's teaching 1A.

I hardly went to class and managed an A with minimal studying. Zocchi has a very heavy accent and his courses tended to be all over the place and often covered topics which weren't necessary (I remember him going over oscillations the first day of class, a topic that you won't learn about until late in the quarter). He's very passionate and enthusiastic about physics and funny at times. His first midterm was way to easy, second was ridiculously hard, and the final seemed about right.

He's seems to like the calculus portion of physics which is different from most of the homework he assigns, so it was quite a shock to see these things. Overall not a bad professor especially if you've taken a physics course before. If you haven't, I'd recommend going to another professors lecture to learn the material.

Okay, so first things first
Professor Zocchi is an extremely nice man
I went to his office hours once and he talked to me for over forty minutes
about things kinda unrelated to the course, so he obviously cares about his students

As far as teaching goes, he is a little erratic but he does go over all the material is good detail
the only thing is that he tends to let the math do the explaining for him and doesn't spend too much time
on explaining the actual physical concepts behind everything

That being said that class was not too difficult.
Two midterms worth 25% each, one 40% final, and several online assignments that count for 10% of your grade

The first midterm was extremely easy and the second was pretty easy as well with the exception of one ridiculously hard
problem that actually turned out to be unsolvable through the methods we learned about

The final was also not to bad, no major curveballs just straightforward physics with a few tricky parts

Overall, I recommend taking Zocchi for 1A if you want a relatively easy class where you can learn quite a bit

If you really want to learn the concepts very well, i might consider someone else

Professor Zocchi is a nice guy, but his lectures were pretty much useless. After the first midterm (which was pretty easy even though I screwed it up) I went to Corbin's lectures for the rest of the quarter. The second midterm was a lot more difficult than the first one but somehow I got above average. The final was pretty difficult too but somehow I ended up with an A- in the class and most people I know either got As or Bs. Take his class if you want an easier physics professor than Corbin, but expect to have to learn it on your own.

Yea, it's true that he made the first midterm ridiculously easy and the 2nd one almost impossible. I think that was because no one went to class though, that's what i heard from a T.A. at least. I'm not sure if his lectures help too much, sadly i was one of the ones who didnt go to class... But he's a nice guy, and even though the average was 45% on the 2nd midterm, he made it out of 30 points, when originally it was out of 40 points. I somehow came out with an A so I highly recommend him. Generally his class was pretty chill and easy, and he's waaay better than most of the other physics teachers anyways.

ya the last two posters are exactly right...first midterm easy, second one insanely difficult, and the final was almost as hard as the second. anyways grades i was over the average on the first midterm, WAY over the average on the second, got near perfect scores on the homework and am pretty sure i at least beat the average of the class on the final.. but grades just came out i got a B- so much for a nice curve...gg

his first midterm was easy second one was hard. its clear from the fact that the average for the second midterm was 45%. however it wasnt impossible since if i had taken a look at all the formulas and examples that correspond with them in the book, I would have done fine and i mean fine by like above 90%. you should keep up with reading if you want to do well on exams. And oh, final was intermediate between the two midterms so it was in just about right difficulty. lastly, we will see what happens when the grades come out since he better curve otherwise he will be cursed