Gutierrez, Thomas  

As far as physics teachers go, Gutierrez is pretty great. I ended up with a B+ in the class, which is beyond me since i walked out of the final almost in tears it was so horrible. If you arent a physics person like me, then physics will be a challenge with any teacher you get. We did mastering physics quizzes online...which well was horrible, but gutierrez understood and we stopped doing them towards the end of the quarter. Our homework and tests were based mostly on the work and not the final answer, which was fantastic. And like a previous reviewer stated, gutierrez learned my name within the first 2 weeks, just from me asking a question or two in class, he would ask your name if he didnt know it and then just remember it, i still say hi to him whenever i see him around campus

He is good at explaining the material and also makes it interesting. If you don't understand, he does his best to help you. I would highly recommend taking him for PHYS 132. He is the best physics professor I've had at Poly.

Pros: Chill, helpful, passionate about physics, funny, standard grading system (quizzes, 2 midterms, final, lab grade, no H/W due) Cons: Can't think of any! Take him; he's great. I kind of slacked off because this was my easy class compared to my other classes, but if you have a moderate 16 units, this will be a cake-walk.

Fun guy. very cool and relaxed. With that being said, he's boring as hell during lectures. The highlight of each class is probably the demo he does..where something usually goes wrong and he makes a joke about it. He really is a nice (and funny!) guy though, it's just that the material is pretty boring and he goes through ALL of it (derevations and such). Labs with him are pretty relaxed too. Tests are not bad at all and he'll give you problems to look at before the test (the same concepts from the problem are on the test). He gives a quiz every week but those aren't too bad at all.

Dr. Gutierrez is awesome. He is a great guy and loves his physics. He is not the best lecturer as he is boring, very boring in lecture. He also writes unusually small in class. But nevertheless, he is still a great teacher. His quizzes during his lab section are easy, as they are just homework problems he tells you to focus on. Then his midterm is the same except multiple homework problems. Do these problems as they are on the test, he just selects a handful of problems and puts them on the test. Great teacher, great guy, take dr. gut.

The gut is the man!

The only problem is that if he tries to clarify something, he might go into a crazy tangent that, though really enjoyable and educating, has little to do with the topic. he proceeds by saying something along the lines of "that probably didn't make sense" and then actually clarifies. He is fun, not too hard unless you want to get an A. Then you have to learn the stuff. Great class. This guy is awesome. TAKE HIM if you can and you like nerdy things like physics talks about Portal or Star Trek.

One of the best professors I have had at Poly. Extremely passionate about his work and amazing at relaying it to the students. The labs are always fun and help you understand the concepts. This class was a lot of work, but Gutierrez made it very interesting. He was very clear on what you needed to know and the exams were based on homework questions plus one "challenge" question. I learned a lot from him, would 100% recommend.

Professor Gutierrez is a very confusing professor. I would not recommend taking him. He tells the class one thing and expects something else from them. The class average for the midterm was a 50%. He had to curve the midterm 20% so the class average can be at a 70%. He assigns a lot of homework and a lot of busy work. You have to do a lot for the pre-lab and have to do a lot of recitation problems before the lab. He spends the lab lecturing instead of letting you do the lab. You often have to work till the last minute in lab. He starts a new topic knowing there is only 5 minutes of class left and often goes overtime. He makes references to things that the entire class doesn't understand. Majority of the people in his class is on their phone rather than listen to him.

Gutierrez is a really great guy and is really passionate about the subject. I felt like I really gained a lot from his lectures and that he did a really good job presenting the information in many different ways. Sometimes he's one of those professors that are just too smart to explain something in simple enough terms, but overall I didn't feel overwhelmed by him.

Professor Gutierrez was awesome! He is passionate about the subject and tries his best to present the information as clearly as possible. Some of the material is a bit abstract and can get a little confusing, but he is super helpful during office hours. Tests were reasonable and as long as you study and clarify any questions, you will do well in the class.

Dr. Gutierrez is a nice professor. He always tries to help the students to the best of his abilities. His lectures are really hard to follow though. Sometimes, he would write too small that it is hard to read. In his class, never sit in the far back. Dr. Gutierrez doesn't give that many examples. Everything is conceptual and can be a bit confusing. Whenever students do ask him questions, he does try to clarify a lot. Most of the time, I have a hard time understanding what is going on anyways even though he explains a lot to the questions that are asked. He gives focus problems which are almost exactly like the quizzes, midterms, and final exam. He also allows students to use a cheat sheet for the midterms and exam. I think the only reason why I got an A in this class is because I wrote down everything on the cheat sheet and knew they were going to be on the exams. I don't think I retained everything though.

Gutierrez is not the best professor, but he is better than a lot of the other Physics professors. His lectures are very based on deriving things, which I hated, but he seems to present it ok sometimes. A lot of the time I was lost in class, but in the Circuits chapters he did examples and it was so easy to understand. As a lab professor he is super laid back, gives a quiz at the beginning of lab and then explains the lab, and you can get up to 8/10 points for completing it, and an extra 1-2 points for extra things which are usually pretty easy. His midterms and final focus a little too much on broad things that he might not have covered a lot in class, but he does give focus problems for all exams and quizzes so they're easy, and he allows cheat sheets on the exams! For the final, I hardly studied, literally wrote all the focus problems down on the 3 PAGE FRONT AND BACK cheat sheet he allowed and they were almost the exact same problems as the focus problems, they usually are exactly the same ones! He puts a little too much faith in people reading the textbook and his lecture supplementing that, but as long as you do the homework and have an idea how to do things then you will do fine, he gives lots of partial credit too...like a lot!

Professor Gutierrez is the man. We're not quite done with the quarter yet and I still may not do that great in the course. No matter, I recommend taking Gutierrez if given the opportunity. He's extremely helpful inside and out of class. Answers all questions to the best of his ability. Goes on plenty of nerdy tangents. He's freakin hilarious with his physics jokes. Overall, very smart, nerdy personality, very interesting, very helpful, makes the entire course very straight forward, and loves his physics. With any little tiny bit of effort, a B should be no problem to obtain. No effort, pretty much guaranteed a C. Work hard for an A. PRAISE THE GUT

While lecture can be improved and are often hard to follow, Gutierrez is an awesome professor. He definitely tries his best to see each student succeed and understand the material. Office hours are very helpful and he is easy to communicate with, would recommend!

Gutierrez is one of the best Physics professors at Poly, if only because he doesn't use mastering physics. I already learned Physics 131-133, but took the wrong AP test and didn't get credit, so I can't speak for someone who is new to the material, but Gutierrez makes it easy to get an A if you already know the material. That should go without saying, but with some of the professors your final grade is a real crapshoot, even if you know the material. Take Gutierrez.

Professor Gutierrez was one of the best teachers I have ever had. He is great at presenting challenging material and recognizing when students don't get it the first time. His quizzes and tests are reasonable, and he was very helpful in office hours. Take Gutierrez!

Gutierrez is a very fair teacher for both lecture and lab. Phys 133 covers hard material for most, so a little extra studying is necessary. Homework due once a week, two midterms and a final.No quizzes.I loved the guy, lectures got a little dry sometimes. Overall would recommend

Thomas is awesome. He really cares about the students and will put in a lot of effort to make sure that you understands and that he answers your question. He gets really flustered sometimes and will go on tangents in relation to a question sometimes, but ultimately brings it back to topic. You do use the textbook for this class for homework assignments. You don't have to do lab writeups, just answer questions in lab. Go to office hours, Thomas is very helpful.Nice guy, read the book

Dr. Gutierrez is the best physics professor in the department. He is really good at explaining concepts clearly, even in courses with many convoluted topics like Physics 3. The lab time is very relevant to the lecture and is good practice for the exams. He is very helpful during office hours and when answering questions in class. Additionally, his exams are easy if you follow along in the course, they only make sure you understand the concept. His polyrating should be a 4/4

THE BEST PHYSICS PROFESSOR I HAVE EVER HAD!! Professor Gutierrez has been the most helpful and understanding professor that I have had. I lived at his office hours this quarter and it was always worth it! I have never been really good at physics, but he somehow managed to make it understandable, even for me. I feel like I can't thank him enough. I hope I can take him again if given the chance!

damn good professor...he writes really fast but just ask him to stop for a second and he will. he's really approachable and most all REASONABLE. if theres a time conflict w/ a quiz or something...tell him and he'll push it back. overall, he's a great professor and you'll understand physics really well

Gutierrez is a great guy, I had him for 141 and also 132. When I registered for PHYS132, I chose a different teacher, but somehow, Gutierrez took the professor's class so I got stuck with him for two quarters. I was pretty decent in kinematics and the likes, so I was able to earn a B without good instruction. The one thing I did like about his classes were that you could bring one page front a back to midterms, and three for the finals. That REALLY helped. The area he lacks in is conveying the material to us. He uses the online homework Mastering Physics, it may be frustrating at first, but becomes a very easy and nice software that you can do at your leisure. Overall, if you don't have to take him, try and get Jon Fernsler for the class, but if you end up getting Gutierrez, it'll be fine

Dr. Gutierrez is way cool. His tests were very similar to the homework. I often went into his office hours and he was always willing to help me out. He remembered students and would refer to them by name. The only thing I didn't like was the use of Mastering Physics. The program didn't help me out at all. Don't let my grade fool you, I neglected study in this class. If you do the homework and pay attention, you will do fine.

This class is pretty hard which means the test averages will be low. Don't be discouraged by your low score before you see what the average was. The class starts off with special relativity which is really interesting stuff and is sadly the easiest part of the class. Everything gets harder and obscure from there. I pretty much just stopped going to class after week 4. The average on the 2nd midterm was 46% with a 27% curve. I just studied the homework problems and was fine. Also follow the homework submission guidelines or you might get a 0 on some hw assignments. I came out with a B and basically did nothing in a class that people say is hard so... I can't really complain

Gutierrez is the best teacher I've had at cal poly, take him if you can.

I loved his class, while he did go off topic occasionally the topics were always extremely interesting. The only reason I did poorly in the class was because I was working two jobs at the time in order to pay for out of state tuition. He knows his stuff and will help you in any way he can, I should have failed his class but because of my situation he was understanding and passed me. If you give him some effort you'll pass, and considering his teaching ability you'll learn a lot along the way even if you only half pay attention. If you get the opportunity take any physics you can with Gutierrez!

GUT!!!! Dr. Gutierrez was awesome. I had this class at 8AM four times a week, and he made it manageable. There were four homework sets, one midterm and a take home final. He presented the material as clearly as one could in Modern II and really cared about us learning. Take him whenever you can

Upon filing this evaluation, Dr. Gutierrez had a 2.93 overall Polyrating but it really should be closer to 4. Educational theory/dynamics has been one of the topics upon which I have spent a fair deal of time while in college. This includes training as a professional tutor that are consistent with my own aspirations to become an educator. From this lens do I evaluate professors and rarely give ratings such as this, but Dr. Gutierrez is one of the professor who seems worthy of emulation in many of my own future habits as an educator. He is respectful and descends to our intellectual level when answering questions both in class and during office hours which give a dignified air to the student. Often he will use phrases such as "This can be kind of tricky" when clearly it is not something tricky for him as a professional physicist. This shows how he understands and empathizes with the students in their difficulties. Another good example is the way he handled our first midterm. The initial average was 58.5% for which he took some responsibility, claiming explicitly in class that the test was probably about 0.5 problems too long. To accommodate for this, he curved the exam 4.5 points (11.5%) to bring the average to 70%. It was very encouraging to hear him be so open in taking on such responsibility and acting accordingly; he also made our second exam shorter so as not to repeat the same issue. As a final note, I failed the first exam and still think he did an excellent job in the way he handled the situation. In general, I did find him to be confusing sometimes and his lectures to go very quickly, but this was for reasons that do not speak negatively to his teaching style. I was not as "in tune" with physics at the beginning of this course on account of having not taken any physics courses for quite some time before this one. Furthermore, I didn't always wear my glasses and am near-sighted which made it hard to see the board during lecture sometimes. Overall, he is great as a professor and an individual, if only a bit socially awkward (which usually takes the form of some corny joke). If you can take him, it would likely be a good match due to many of the dynamics he employs.

Let me start by saying that i've taken 3 classes with Gut, i started with classical 1 and have taken C2 and theoretical. a strong decider in taking these classes was the fact that gut teaches them. Gut is a little unorthodox, but in the best way. He can go off on a tangent about some thing that he likes or is interested in for a few minutes that may not be related to the immediate topic, but this, at least for me helps with learning and allows me to take a second to refresh. Gut has a way of explaining things that makes you think about it and the go "ohhhhh thats awesome". He will explain it well, but he wont spoon feed you in lecture, (if you need a lot of help, he will really go the distance during office hours) . Gut is also very humble with his teaching style, he will never make you feel dumb and will always find a good and interesting response to a tough. He will also check in on the class periodically to make sure they get it. Also, he is always trying to improve his style of teaching, this is what i think makes him a great professor, he is willing to adapt to the class and is not in the least stubborn. I really cant stress enough how good he is. He's also got a lot of info just rattling around in his noggin so ask him a question or two! You never know what you might learn! If you take his class, expect a fair class, dont expect an easy A, but if you put in the work, his teaching style really cant fail

Hands down deserves the Nobel prize for teaching!

This is the best class, Gut is the man.

The Gut is a towering figure in physics. The Noble prize is in the bag next year!

Singlehandedly the greatest teacher ever at Cal Poly. This man is a BOSS. I could not have asked for a better teacher. Unfortunately, I had to withdraw from this quarter because of health issues. I'm soooooo pissed about it because Special Rel with the Gut was the best. Of course I had to drop; it was too good to be true. FML. Luckily, I was fortunate enough to have Gut for PHYS 212 a few quarters back, and I can't tell you how great it was. This man loves three things: physics, his students, and teaching. Put those three together and you have the best academic experience you've ever had. Some are turned off by his somewhat erratic and wordy style, but I love it. He challenges you but forgives you when you fail with liberal grading. Every teacher at this school should try to be more like Gut.

The Gut is the best professor on campus! His teaching and research is top notch. I would not be surprised if the Gut is the first prof. at Cal Poly to win the Nobel prize!

A wonderful person to interact with. His enthusiasm for physics is radiant and contagious. Infrequently gets frazzled while presenting material, but this doesn't detract from his merit as a teacher. Just ask him questions after class or in office hours if you didn't completely understand and he'll be glad to provide helpful information.

Passed over with the nobel prize again. Why?

I love the Gut! Great teacher and not demanding!

If you're a physics major take PHYS 424 instead of PDEs any day of the week. And for that matter, take any glass with professor Gutierrez if you're remotely interested in the class. He's the funniest person, and a really great & fair teacher. He lets you know what to expect on the midterms and won't make them ridiculously challenging, although his homeworks are definitely long and difficult. Overall amazing professor.

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