It's difficult to say what is exactly wrong with this course. I can say that I have a masters degree in nuclear astrophysics and a PhD in nuclear physics. Not to be unkind, but I absorbed very little new information from this course, and I know very little about particle physics. I think a major problem is the language barrier, even though the target audience is English-speaking, the accents were so thick and pronunciations so bad, that I had to turn on subtitles just to understand what was being said. This is especially true of the two female instructors. If there were ancillary materials, I somehow missed them, but the videos were less than adequate for passing the tests. I often resorted to trial and error to pass the individual tests. Thus, the course became more of a test for my test-taking strategies than mastering any new understanding of physics. Perhaps, it might not be popular with your target, but improvements might be made with at least some required reading and a few homework problems in each module. And for the love of God, if you're just going to read the transcripts on camera anyway, get some speakers who speak English better.

I previewed the course. This is one of the worst course I have watched on Coursera. You would expect people who teach physics to know that you cannot do it by showing slides after slides while reading through your notes at a very fast pace. Apparently, these people don't. In the introduction, they say: "It would also be good if you had basic notion on the restricted relativity and quantum mechanics. But in any case, it will give you a quick reminder of this notion and the specific vocabulary." Note first that this is incoherent: if one doesn't have the basic notions (I actually did) one needs more than a quick reminder (how could one be reminded of what one doesn't know, I wonder?) Second, what they give is a VERY quick reminder. Don't look for the videos on quantum mechanics and restricted relativity because there are none, we are here talking of a few slides rushed through... Appalling.

This course is invaluable for any individual looking to advance their knowledge in particle and quantum physics. HOWEVER, the lecturers have thick accents and I found it nearly impossible to understand a lot of what they were saying. It is helpful to have the transcript, but it is frustrating to try and see their notes in the tiny screen on the side. And trying to go up and down on the screen to see the notes, and also understand what's being said, is obnoxious and frustrating.

Along with that, the audio for the intro/outro for the videos is DEAFENINGLY loud compared to the audio during the lectures. Be warned, if you're using headphones, you will lose a good chunk of your hearing.

It's also important to have a relatively solid understanding of physics and calculus before taking the course. I found some sections more difficult because I didn't understand those parts. A personal problem, for sure, but be warned if you have no understanding of the material prior to taking this course.

Very fast, hard to follow the course. English pronunciation is not good.

Fantastic course for graduate students needing a refresher, or other folks with cursory knowledge of the topic already. Not a great course for someone's first introduction to the material.

Challenging at first for someone with a non-traditional academic background, but thoroughly enjoyable and worth completing, if nothing but for the personal satisfaction of getting through it!

It was in general a very useful introduction to the basic notions of both theoretical and experimental Particle physics. While it is true one cannot contain all the concepts in just one course, it nevertheless helped me cover all the undergraduate aspects I lacked in my education about Particle Physics and a basis to focus on Quantum Field Theory and Theoretical Physics, while at the same time having important notions on experimental physics and Cosmology. However, I would rate that the course was a bit easier than expected, as the number of obligatory calculations was kept to a minimal. I think it would have been interesting to add some exercises that involved basic calculations in quantum field theory, such as cross sections or decay for a particular process (apart from those shown in the lectures).

I would prefer the videos to have more added value regarding the "teaching dimension" of the course, for example 1) the most important issues could be better explained and emphasized (as this is very well done in the section of the quizes), 2) the part of the slide that is being analysed at each moment should be somehow pointed at, 3) a few animations would be very helpful, 4) since every presentation consists only of reading the lecture slides, it would be better to select some people with a better english accent (no offence there), because it is very difficult to watch the video and read the subtitles trying to understand what is being said at the same time.

Apart from the above, this course is an extremely good effort to make a very useful, summarised and yet complete reading meterial about particle physics.

Thank you

I just started the course, but the way in which is presented makes it unbearable. The teacheres are just reading the informations from the paper without actively engaging in logical explinations. I understand that it's a very complex topic that require extensive knowledge, but even with a master degree in chemistry and some knowledge about particles it's very hard to follow due to the way the notions are structured and presented. Very dissapointed.

Not good as I expected. The teachers did not explain much. It seems that they just read out loud from their lecture notes. On the other hand, the lecture note is comprehensive. It takes time to digest the information in the note.

Very good introduction to the subject. Some prerequisite are mandatory to full grasp all contents, anyway you can go through the course since graded quizzes are not so hard, in my opinion. Thanks to authors for sharing these materials on Coursera and to mentor that can clarify if you have any doubt.

Massimo

Way hard if you are not a science major! But the challenge is interesting. A quick advice : Refer to the slides if you find the accents too hard to understand.

Thank you for the great course!

This is a wonderful course that offers an organized, streamlined, challenging introduction to particle physics that I think is presented in an educating and effective manner!

Fast paced lecture.

Very interesting but fairly difficult course. It was helpful downloading the relevant overheads before the lecture. Would prefer the lecturers spend a little more time discussing the graphs and equations on the overheads and not just reading them word for word. Thank you.

It was almost impossibke to understand the language of the teachers because of the strong accent.

Very interesting course. Quite difficult to pass week 6 due to a question on w boson quark transformation. Couldnt find answers in sylabus. Maybe just me. Overall excellant course.

easy to understand!!!! I'm in 8th grade and this course was fun and easy to follow. could explain the equations better though

I liked this course but from my point of view sometimes I found a bit tough to be confident with the concepts exposed just within the information given, those needs to be integrated by a quantity of notions from outside sources which makes the 8 weeks target not feasible. At the end of the course I have a lot of open questions about the arguments treated (which is, of course, not to be considered negative as this open questions are more deepen than what I had before) and I think to have a superficial understanding of the phenomena and concepts. Nevertheless the same title is "an Introduction" so that is the main aim of the course I think.

P.S. just for completeness of the review, I am an Electronic Engineer - master's degree

Very good overview. The equation require quite a bit more explanation and the tests really only test the concepts not the mathematics.

I recommend English subtitles for the optional lectures, which are in French.

The explanations done in English was sometimes very poor, enough to make things utterly incomprehensible and jerky! Also, the course was not totally smooth or organized properly right from the start and there were a few mistakes like the sign errors, etc. Overall, it had a detrimental effect on me or rather on my mind so much so that I felt like I was forgetting my own undergraduate or postgraduate Physics, following the course!! Moreover, the course did not have sufficient mathematical derivations or mathematical constructs and workings. So, the rhythm was naturally lost and it made it seem a bit less interesting. Again, the very positiveness associated with the course was that it covered a lot of topics in Particle Physics in such a short span of time and in such a concise and brief way, but again more explanations, mathematics and proofs of the equations and their derivations would have been much more welcoming!

This course is taught by experts in the field that are involved in exploring the frontiers of the particle physics world at the world's leading particle physics research center (CERN). The instructors provide excellent documentation throughout along with additional commentary, optional materials and some derivations. If you've been interested to know more about the particle physics world, the ideas and background on the search for the Higgs boson, along with discussions of dark matter and dark energy, you won't be disappointed. Quizzes are challenging and provide additional learning opportunities. If its been a while since you've had college physics, don't be discouraged, the option to retake tests and quizzes allow you to deepen your learning and improve your score. Many thanks to Martin, Mercedes and Anna for an excellent learning experience!

The concepts presented in this introductory course were a little beyond me at first, but after sometime I began to understand the concepts that governed how particles interact to create the universe we see today. I believe that I will need to keep studying these concepts to truly understand everything that has been discovered about particle physics, but I believe that this course has given me a good start in comprehending the basics of particle physics.

This course provides me with an excellent knowledge of Particle Physics. It covered all the contemporary areas of theoretical to experimental particle physics. It is highly recommended!

Great course! Things definitely become clear while taking courses like that. Interesting and logically structured, includes both math aspects and laboratory experiments.