This course is fascinating. The teacher is great. But the Quizzes are IMPOSSIBLE to pass. They require a simulator that does not work and all the questions have multiple answers and are extremely difficult. Also, there are A LOT of questions in every Quiz: 25. I am extremely sad, but I think I'm going to have to drop this course. It's the first time that I will have to do something like this, but I cannot lose my time repeating for ever an extremely difficult and impossible quiz in a course that it's not intended for professional physicians. I have notified Coursera several times about the extreme difficulty of the Quiz but nobody did anything. If in the future this Quiz is updated and made for learners, then I will happily continue the course. I've read in the Forum that many learners have had the same problems, but nobody arranged the Quizzes. Such a pity. The teacher is great and the lectures are fascinating. But already the 1st Quiz is impossible to pass (even if you take thousands of notes, like I did).

Again a course that comes with very simple (and not always good prepared) video lectures but for recieving a grade an enormous math knowledge is necessary, with no further help given

End-of-week quiz contains materials not covered in the course videos, and is significantly more difficult

Too much time required. The first Quiz had almost nothing covered in the video lectures. I saved all transcripts and was unable to answer the questions. The Sim's... I have never seen anything like that and again - it most certainly wasn't covered in the lectures. Disappointed in this course. It took 3 hours for each segment of the first week... not 3 to 4 as was stated. Leaving this course.

The course material is very interesting, the lecturer is dynamic and communicates the information well. But I was unable to get any of the simulators to work on a standard browser, so could not possibly pass the quizzes, since the simulators are required to calculate many of the answers. Regrettably, had to drop course.

Very interesting course, isn't too geeky and mathematical, unlike many other astronomy courses. The only thing bothering me was the inability to learn the correct answers and explanations to quiz questions. Some of those were rather mindboggling.

Must take course for astronomy geeks. Excellent professor. I surely would have given it 5 stars if it were not for the quizzes. The quizzes are too long,tedious and perplexing. Otherwise the course is fantastic.

This course is the worst i have taken on coursera. They just want to mention everything in very short time. Quiz is much harder than material on video.

Can't complete the first quiz because I can't download the simulators. - hence can't complete the course.

I rated this course a 2 because the lectures are very good. It is unfortunate that the tests are not good.

Many of the questions on the tests are ambiguous and at best, plainly more difficult than needed.

Several of the questions are not covered in the same detail as the lectures. Without a TA or somehow to provide guidance the exercise becomes frustrating. Small details can be instructive, but not in the case of these tests. I spent a lot of time with various interesting simulators only to come up short on the test. This was not instructive. If this were a university course I would be camped in the professors office...and not happy.

By comparison, I recommend Chris Impey's U of Arizona 11 week astronomy course. In order to pass the tests an understanding of the material is required, and the tests are instructive and useful. More tests, but only 8 - 10 questions each.

I will watch the remaining lectures, but I will scrap the tests. Fortunately I have no reason to obtain a certificate. Overall, I am disappointed. I don't mind tests, but they should be fair and instructive.

(That said, I really enjoy Adam Frank's books).

Hey Coursera,

A bit more on the course and why I did not proceed.

The course material is excellent, challenging and well presented by the lecturer.

I made an extensive summary in order to be well prepared for the first quiz.

In the quiz I got three simulators that were difficult to start (Flash problems) and without any explanation or exercise before - I could not answer the questions properly.

Next to the simulators there were quite some questions that I could not answer with the knowledge I got during the course.

I ended with a very frustrating 44% - this killed my positive feeling knowing that I had to read (but what?) and get knowledge somewhere else before trying the quiz again.

I decided to stop - I want to learn exciting facts about the universe instead of moving (and being blocked!) from one frustrating quiz to another.

Hope this helps for developing and enhancing your nice course portfolio.

Best regards - Cees Kok (Netherlands)

It is impossible to get 100% on a modern computer for the first two quizzes because they rely on obsolete technology.

Professor Frank is super down-to-earth (ha) and easy-going, so the difficult concepts seem less intimidating. I like how the videos are cut into short, topical sections, and the information on the green screen next to him helps with understanding. The weekly lecture note PowerPoint slides are even more detailed.

I had a basic understanding of astronomy coming in, and this course struck a good balance between reviewing info I already knew, and introducing me to some more challenging concepts.

The quizzes were pretty difficult for me, and I had to take 3/4 twice to get a passing score. You really have to take what you learned, think about it deeply, then apply it. It wasn't just regurgitating information, which was good, it also meant I was scouring my notes and Google for a long time. They aren't kidding when they say the quizzes take 50 minutes!

If you can finish this course in four weeks, I applaud you. I admit I wasn't very diligent, but it's a lot of information to digest each week. I took closer to 10 weeks, but they were well-spent months! I learned a lot, and could subsequently "wow" my friends. Very well-done course! Thank you!

Easy to follow. Anyone who is interested in Astronomy should take this course. This course is better than the course (Astronomy - Big Questions) that I took at my University.

Amazing course, definitely recommend!

Adam Frank does a great job at keeping you engage and learning more. Test was really demanding and certificate felt well deserved!

An excellent introduction to the big concepts of Astronomy

it is an interesting subject but the content is now quite old and I think could do with updating. I found it difficult sometimes to pay attention to Adam and the way he presents. He seemed to feel rushed in his presentation and this lead to a lack of flow and him stumbling over is words. I would love to see it updated.

too rudimentary discussion/presentation and frequent mention of undefined terms. More explanation would help with natural history of stars before and after main sequence, more detailed discussion of AGN, more discussion of particle interaction

Course is abandoned. You can't complete quiz without simulators, which are FLASH-based, packed into .zip alongside with old trash and can't be run in modern browser.

Prof Adam has done superbly well in engaging viewers into the subject, the structure of the course is obviously well thought out, so that viewers will be able to comprehend step by step into the deeper mystery of the modem Astronomy has to offer without going into the maths.

After the course, I have the dismay feeling that the course has ended and human being is so minute compared to the vast mega parsec of the Universe.

Bravo !!