Tarantino, Jon 
Cumulative GPA: 2.82/4.00 with 17 evaluations
Presents Material Clearly: 2.82
Recognizes Student Difficulties: 3.06
Aerospace Engineering Department, Cal Poly, SLO
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ARCE 211
Sophomore
Grade Earned: C
Required (Support)
9:57 pm, Jan 7, 2010
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  Well first off ARCE is insane! John would have done fine if his tests were as easy as all the examples he did in class. The tests were way to long. I didnt even have enough time to finish 2 problems. If you love math go for it if not..DONT. The final by the way was INSANELY HARD..almost the whole class failed it. He didnt cover 2 of the problems on the final that other teachers had..so there you have it. Thanks.
 
ARCE 211
Freshman
Grade Earned: B
Required (Support)
7:57 am, Jun 16, 2009
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  Okay, I had 8am Friday labs and well that didn't work out so well. I missed 4 of 10 labs. He has you turn in HW on wednesdays and well I also missed 2 of those. He does a hardcore curve i went from like a C/C- to a B+ for a final grade. Its 40% final, 40% midterm (there are two), and 20% labs/HW. Labs are worth 10 pts and HW 30pts. HW wasn't to bad usually. This class is pretty straightforward. The lectures are fairly basic but take notes, the class boils down to a few basic principals rather then a billion different things like in calc. um, label your free-body diagrams on midterms, i lost 10% on a midterm because I didnt do that, and he likes to ingrain that in your mind. He is really nice, he let me do all the labs over again on my own, but i didn't really have much time for that with studio. Don't rely on him for email, he gets a lot of them. Great teacher. I think the nature of ARCE lends to low polyratings for some reason. Take Him.
 
ARCE 211
Sophomore
Grade Earned: C
Required (Support)
9:35 pm, Mar 18, 2009
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  Very knowledgeable in material. Clearly explains material in class and over prepares his class for the common final. Approachable in office hours and helpful to students who seek help. k
 
ARCE 212
Sophomore
Grade Earned: A
Required (Major)
2:58 pm, Mar 15, 2009
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  Tarantino explained everything pretty clearly. He would give out a more difficult problem for the activities. Homework didn't have too many problems, it was the right amount of work. The first midterm seemed to be harder than the second. Final wasn't too bad because he just added the new material to the next test, but when I took the class there was only 1 section and no common final.
 
ARCE 212
Sophomore
Grade Earned: A
Required (Major)
8:58 pm, Feb 22, 2009
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  Tarantino is a solid teacher. Lectures were clear, straightforward and done at a fair pace.
 
ARCE 225
Sophomore
Grade Earned: A
Required (Major)
11:48 pm, Feb 5, 2008
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  Tarantino is nice, but lazy, unorganized, and unprepared. Half the time he would cancel class. He makes a lot of math errors in lecture, and you can't figure out his hmwk unless you go to every possible office hour. He skips over a lot of material that is crucial later on in engineering. You need to take a better teacher that will provide you with a solid foundation for upper division.
 
ARCE 211
Sophomore
Grade Earned: N/A
Required (Support)
12:27 am, Oct 17, 2007
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  i didn't understand anything. his office hours were only in the mornings, which made it hard to go to. confusing material, made worse by a confusing teacher. i love homework that wasn't covered in class. love it. not.
 
 
ARCE 225
Sophomore
Grade Earned: N/A
Required (Major)
11:55 am, Jun 11, 2007
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  Someone else said that Jon used to say his e-mails "bounced". I guess his new excuse is that he "tried" to post the notes, hw, practice problems, etc. on Blackboard and HE can see them but apparently we can't. Every single time...? He is really smart but is way too lazy to be a prof, and with his ME background he should not be teaching ARCE classes. I really can't imagine that they would ever let him teach dynamics again though.
 
ARCE 211
Sophomore
Grade Earned: B
Required (Support)
11:37 am, Apr 9, 2006
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  Jon is pretty good guy, hes pretty easy going and knows his stuff. He doesnt really teach it all that well but he helps you out with grades. He kind of fumbles around a lot like he hasnt taught for that long but overall hes a good teacher.
 
AERO 300
Junior
Grade Earned: A
Required (Major)
12:48 am, Mar 27, 2006
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  Tarantino is for sure the best lecturer in the department. Very enthusiastic, not at all boring, knows his shit, and presents it clearly, concisely, and in a way that is easy to understand. You will understand his lectures easily. His tests are easy and his HW is reasonable. His projects are pretty challenging. Overall, a nice guy and a great teacher.
 
AERO 300
Sophomore
Grade Earned: A
Required (Major)
4:48 pm, Jun 16, 2005
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  Tarantino is a very good professor for 300. His pace is very good, he spends a lot of time on the hard stuff and speeds straight through the easy stuff. His test questions are very straight forward and before tests and projects, he adds a lot of office hours, where he is very helpful. His only problem is his worksheets have a lot of typos, so you got to watch of for them. Other than that, he's a great professor.
 
AERO 121
Freshman
Grade Earned: A
Required (Major)
6:35 pm, Jan 4, 2005
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  Tarantino is a good teacher, but sometimes you begin to wonder if he really knows what he's talking about. We had to build a glider and a rocket and his glider ideas were just not good. On the contrary he lended a great helping hand when it came to building the rocket. What a Fun class!
 
AERO 121
Freshman
Grade Earned: A
Required (Major)
4:36 pm, Dec 20, 2004
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  Awesome proffesor. He is always their when help is needed. He knows how to show hands on work, but his lectures are kind of boring, which we only had two of them and the rest were just about making the glyder, if u get a chance take tarantino because he is a fun teacher and really good at showing how to make ailerons. Make sure to get a easy design for ur glyder, I suggest the flight wing because its easier and their is a likely chance that it will fly. To pass the class all u have to write are two essays just analyzing on what happened to the glyder. If it didn't fly that is ok, all that matters is ur analysis as to why it didn't fly. U also get to make a rocket, but u only spend about one week to get it done. Aero 121 is a good class and it is the easiest class that u can take in SLO.
 
 
AERO 420
Senior
Grade Earned: N/A
Required (Major)
9:50 am, Nov 5, 2004
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  Somebody give this guy the Ansari X-prize because this material flew so high over the students head, it went sub-orbital. He starts writing on the board, and students fall asleep, because they have no idea what's going on. Tarantino is also famouse for his "bounced" emails. He's always saying he sent stuff out, but the email bounced. Yeah right, and this happens everytime? He needs to talk to Tso, who seems to have no problem with sending email out.
 
ME 318
Senior
Grade Earned: A
Required (Major)
4:46 pm, Mar 27, 2004
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  Before taking this class I had heard nothing but bad things about Prof. Tarantino. I have no idea where those rumors came from, but I was pleased to find out that they were all false. Not only is he an above-average professor, he is also very approachable, and always willing to help you out. I found his tests (he calls them quizzes, but whatever) to be on the easy side; if you got to class regularly and keep up with the work, it's no problem. Although the syllabus predicted 1 homework assignment every week, we got closer to half that. The worst part was the lab, which took a lot of time. Other than that, no complaints.
 
AERO 121
Freshman
Grade Earned: A
Required (Major)
4:13 pm, Jan 9, 2004
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  had tarantino for the aero 121 lab. very good for this class. he's always in a good mood and is very approachable when you have questions about the rocket, the glider, or the reports for both. probably one of the better of the 121 lab instructors.
 
AERO 420
Senior
Grade Earned: B
Required (Major)
1:13 pm, Aug 13, 2003
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  This was his first quarter, so I have to give him a break, but all in all he did a crappy job teaching it. I've heard that he has gotten better, and he is a fun teacher to have, just not so good the quarter I had him.
 

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