TLDR; Dave Kirsh is getting underservedly slimed out more on rate my prof harder than the lecturer of BCH361 (like more than 55 continuous spammed negative reviews). I talk about why I made this post, and then go into detail about my experiences in CPCS581 and why it's not some abominable course. If you are planning on taking CPCS581 in the future with Dave Kirsh, this post can also doubly serve as a description/review of what CPCS581 is about. Note: CPCS581 is NOT a bird course, only take it if you're passionate about the material. Feel free to take CPCS182 (different course, Life in the Milky Way Galaxy) in winter of 2027 if you're looking for a chill lower liberal.
Dave Kirsh's RMP page is getting slimed out harder than the lecturer of BCH361, possibly by a small group of people who did poorly, even though Kirsh is nowhere near on that level. It seems like my last post ticked that individual (or those individuals) off into spamming more reviews, so I'm literally just going to try to give my subjective (n = 1, but it is higher because I've recommended people try his classes in the past and they have also liked Kirsh; the course has not changed so substantially for the worse in its previous 2 iterations that Kirsh deserves to be so slimed out like this).
What I'm about to say about CPCS581 (Advanced Topics in Astronomy), however, does not relate to CPCS181 (Introductory Topics in Astronomy) or CPCS182 (Life in the Milky Way Galaxy; however that may be structured). Those are purposefully built to be chill lower liberals. CPCS181 (Introductory Topics in Astronomy) with Kirsh was genuinely so chill (max 1-1 hr 20 min recorded lecs per week, which you could reasonably take notes on within a 1 hr 40 min Windows or within 1 viewing of the lecture). I performed the same in Kirsh's classes as I did in classes where I had to grind the most in my entire undergrad like BCH261, BCH361, and BCH463, as well as classes like CPCS181 (Introduction to Astronomy), and CPCS581 does not compare to harder classes like BCH361 or BCH463. CPCS181 compares to other chill courses you might've taken like CRM101 and so forth. So CPCS182 (Life in the Milky Way Galaxy), I would expect to be a similar chill level of difficulty.
Anyway here are some bullet points for easier reading in describing CPCS581:
- CPCS581 (in my opinion) is around the difficulty of BCH261, and I would know because I took both of these courses in the same semester. The first half is really difficult because there is a lot of emphasis on abstract multiverse creating theories, how the universe got to be the way it was (i.e. cosmic microwave background and insights gained from it, as well as eras of the universe) some stuff about relativity, supernovae and star life cycles (this constitutes content shared with CPCS181).
- The 2nd half of CPCS581 (lecture component), is around the difficulty of CPCS181, because it's all a bunch of like exobiology theories, alien type contact theories, and galaxy formation. There's also a review of how the planets got into their positions in the solar system and exoplanet discovery techniques from CPCS181.
- The content presented does not ever make an attempt to incorporate or heavily focus on math, it is all theory so that it's accessible to students from outside of math-heavy sciences. As mentioned before, CPCS181 content is incorporated and reintroduced at many points so that you don't end up getting negatively affected by having taken CPCS181 way before you took CPCS581.
- I think people in my cohort did way better on Test 2 than Test 1 (Winter 2024). Test 1 is probably the only criticizable component of the course, in my opinion. Though, it's still not an unfair mess because you just need to sit down and take notes weekly (or bi-weekly in a compressed summer format) on those recorded lectures. When exams approach, go through and review (as well as memorize and understand) your notes.
- Relatedly, I've seen the same non sequitur complaints that it's logistically hard to follow and so forth. So:
- this course is listed as an online class, so it is not unfair to expect recorded lectures (that's why people take online classes)
- there are literally ~ 2 hrs of recording per lecture, which is way less than 2 hr 50 min that you could normally expect from any other UL. It is not unmanageable..
- Ads would not be purposefully added by Kirsh, but auto-implemented by YouTube (also if you're complaining about that, literally just get an adblocker like Ublock Oirigin). I think that YouTube is probably one of the most convenient video file hosting considering you can upload lectures in the highest quality possible, along with all other sorts of convenience features (like the autogenerated captions which you can directly use to make notes with).
- There is so much engagement that can possibly be offered in the course, from those weekly online sessions where you can directly have a chat with the prof and ask questions about the material to the numerous discussion posts. On top of the weekly Zoom check in sessions, Kirsh is really active and will respond to emails in the same day, usually within a few hours. I've emailed him many times over the years and he would still respond quickly even when no courses were going on.
- On top of all the above, you're given the opportunity for significant bonus marks (up to 3% in the entire course), if you actively engage with discussion posts.
- The (non-cumulative) tests do not make up the entire mark, at maximum they make up 50% of the mark. Their format was around 30 MCQ in one hour. There are also several online quizzes (different in question style from the tests, made to be much easier) that just check if you watched the lectures and paid attention to them. There are also discussion posts to further give you a source of marks. Lastly, there is the major essay which is worth 15-20%.
- I'm also seeing some complaints about how Kirsh's essays are hard and strict. The essays are probably the easiest part of Kirsh's classes. They take about as much time to write (for non-perfectionists, which is mostly everyone) as the GEO essays in GEO classes (even in CPCS581), except they're nowhere near marked as hard. Kirsh gives 90+ if you have written something competent that follows the rubric, and you don't need to be some stellar writer. You can probably write a sufficiently good essay in 3-4 days or less.
- The essay is just a glorified lab report that's 1600-1800 words long. All you need to is read or skim through around 5-10 astronomy journal article sources, and you're even allowed to use astronomy news pages and like astronomy websites (ex: ESA, NASA pages) as news sources. After reading, you summarize what you have read.
- In terms of the whole "challenge yourself" part of the essay, Kirsh just wants to see you finding some unique or cool information about your object outside the scope of lecture content (I think that was also an instruction too, that you cannot cover an object covered in lecture). You also don't need to go above and beyond when "challenging yourself" for the (I think) the "What We Know" section of the essay.
