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Stern, Stephen

Cumulative GPA: 3.70/4.00 with 20 evaluations
Presents Material Clearly: 3.55
Recognizes Student Difficulties: 3.45

Business Department, Cal Poly, SLO
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BUS 404 Junior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 3:31 pm, Jun 11, 2009 Report Evaluation		Stern is a nice guy. He's a practicing lawyer who is very knowledgable and, i would assume, good at his trade. He is not, however, a teacher. He prepared his notes before class outlining everything he wanted to say and he did a good job saying that. Unfortunatley, either because of his profession or personaily, he was not really able to answer any questions with new material, or anything different from what he had just said. The class was very interesting and I learned a lot. I would recommend him as a good teacher for 404

BUS 207 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 8:47 pm, Apr 6, 2009 Report Evaluation		It was really difficult in the room we had to see the board, and he would write really random things that we wouldn't understand how they related to the subject. Other than that, it was a fun discussion class. An opportunity for extra credit (that my group lost on a technicality, we were pretty bitter). Groups would take turns explaining cases to the class and the midterms were straight off the "daily doubles" (weekly chapter group quizzes for extra credit). One midterm, final not cumulative. Overall a very fair class. The trial observation paper was difficult because he gave us no guidelines.

BUS 207 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 1:14 pm, Mar 23, 2009 Report Evaluation		Stern is awesome. He is actually a practicing lawyer with his own firm so he knows his stuff. The grade is broken down between 4 things. Participation, 1 midterm, court observation paper, and the final. The final is essentially the 2nd midterm so it isn't too bad. I personally don't really know how I got a B in the course as I got an A on the final and should've gotten 100% in participation. Perhaps my observation paper sucked. Thats definitely the worst part of the class. Try not to wait until the last minute to go observe a trial at the san luis courthouse. I'm pretty sure he figures that out and marks you down because of it. But besides this, Stern is an awesome guy who explains stuff very well and applies things very nicely. If he's teaching any quarter, take him for 207 or any of his advanced courses. Way better than Parello.

BUS 207 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 3:15 pm, Feb 26, 2009 Report Evaluation		absolutely amazing! He was so welcoming. I had him over summer and it is by far the best class I have taken. His law office is right downtown so I went there to talk to him instead of his office hours. Take him! This was my first A at Cal Poly. He is so down to earth!

BUS 404 5th Year Senior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 11:42 pm, Feb 18, 2009 Report Evaluation		Prof. Stern is certainly one of the better teachers I have had at Poly. As mentioned before, he is a full time lawyer and teaches part-time at night. I found his class really easy. I don’t get A’s very often (maybe one a year) though I was able to get on in this class. He makes the class interesting and assigns “team assignments” in which your team studies what is assigned and tells him briefly what it was in front of the class. It’s pretty chill in that you just talk from your seat. Most groups switch off who does this so you will probably only have to do this as an individual twice. While you’re talking he scratches notes on the bored while you’re talking, will help you out if you need it, and then he goes into more detail. The end paper is straight forward. If your team splits it up it should only take a couple hours each. These are INSANE extra credit opportunities in this class. The class is out of 500 points and there was more than 100 points that could be earned through extra credit by doing things like seeing a movie at the Palm, going to an event on campus, having the best team presentation, or doing the best on the team quizzes (quizzes aren’t a part of your grade – so if you do bad, no big deal). This is why I received an ‘A’ in the class and a ‘D+’ on the midterm. Take him for sure if you can!

BUS 404 Senior Grade Earned: N/A Required (Major) 2:16 pm, Jun 10, 2008 Report Evaluation		Stephen Stern is a nice guy who knows a lot about law and business, he is a lawyer as well as being a CP professor. He loves hanging out with his students so much that he organizes a class beach day for the class to hang out together. The class involves 2 midterms (no final), weekly reading, a book report, and a group paper written about a country. The group paper also requires a presentation. I found the group paper and presentation to be relatively easy and straight forward. It is not hard to do well in this class if you go to class and study for the tests. You also must participate in class discussion, which isn't hard because he assigns groups questions to answer in class.

BUS 404 Junior Grade Earned: N/A Required (Major) 10:46 pm, May 12, 2008 Report Evaluation		So I feel the need to write this since the reviews are mostly positive as I ran through the Poly Ratings for Stern and when I registered this class I consulted them. The truth is, I love classes with intellectually stimulating topics, discussion, and learning everything there is to know about business. However I must say I hate classes where the teacher uses this as an excuse to not teach. I am currently enrolled in this course so I cannot be a complete judge yet but for our first midterm the material on the exam did not reflect what was being taught in the class. Stern's way of presenting the material focuses on him assigning topics to the the different groups in class that then present the material to the rest of the class. After the person speaking finishes, he simply nods his head in agreement, scribbles a few notes on the board and moves on to another topic. And come midterm time, he says he won't test you on the details but the questions are (surprise) detail oriented. I am a pretty good student, 3.5 GPA and I love taking challenging courses in finance, accounting, economics, etc. But what I hate is studying like crazy for a class in which in the end the professor screws you over by throwing curve ball questions and playing favorites when grading your essay. If you value hard work and intelligent conversation and you are the type of person I am that gets pissed off when you know you should have gotten that A and a teacher gives you a B+ then take another teacher. I would recommend Perrello, now he knows his stuff and you will learn a great amount. My two cents, thanks for reading.



BUS 404 Junior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 12:42 am, Feb 20, 2008 Report Evaluation		He is the nicest little man ever!!! He's super understanding and his lectures are amazing!! Definitely take him!!!!

BUS 404 Senior Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 4:22 pm, Feb 20, 2007 Report Evaluation		This class requires a ton of reading. This past quarter he formatted his class differently. He didn't use a text book, which was good. He tries to apply everything to every day life. His midterm is okay, but he curves. I think his final was kinda hard. The group project is fun and a great experience. He is soo chill and very understanding.

BUS 404 Junior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 10:50 pm, Aug 2, 2006 Report Evaluation		Stern is one of the better teachers I have taken at Poly. His class is very interesting and he doesn't do boring powerpoints! there's one big project and two tests. It's pretty easy and he is the nicest, most helpful person ever!

BUS 404 Senior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 5:32 pm, Jan 2, 2006 Report Evaluation		I really enjoyed Stephen's class. His lectures were very interesting and he only used the book in class as supplemental information. He did have quiz questions (daily doubles) every class that came directly from the chapters but you work with three or four group members to answer them. This is a group intensive class. You research and present topics each class and at the end of the quarter your group presents a big business project complete with a 15 page paper. The tests were fair and straight forward. Most of the questions come from the daily doubles. I recommend taking this class with Steve. He's a great professor and you will enjoy going to his class every day.

BUS 404 Senior Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 10:02 am, Jun 29, 2005 Report Evaluation		Stern is allright. His grading is a little weird, and he didn't really know what was going on because he had never taught the class before but it wasn't too bad.

BUS 207 Junior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 10:14 pm, Mar 2, 2005 Report Evaluation		i would take this class again if i could. great professor. great ability. don't full around, take stern, he's fabulous and you won't regret it.



BUS 207 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 11:48 am, Feb 12, 2005 Report Evaluation		Stern is an amazing teacher. not only does he really know his stuff (since he actually is a practicing lawyer) but he sincerely cares about his students and does his best to make a potentially boring class interesting and interactive. he isnt the traditional teach out of the book lecture kind, he has a very unique teaching style which took me awhile to get used to. in the end it proved to be very effective because i learned a lot. his tests are fair but require a lot of memorization. its not an easy A class but well worth the work. i highly recommend taking him.

BUS 207 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Elective 1:37 am, Jan 15, 2005 Report Evaluation		If you take this class, take it with Steve, he's great.

BUS 207 Freshman Grade Earned: N/A Required (Major) 8:56 pm, Nov 18, 2004 Report Evaluation		Everytime I hear the term "law," I freak out because in my opinion, it is the most boring subject in the world. I decided to take it my first quarter at Cal Poly to get it out of the way. My low expectations were proven wrong when I enrolled in Prof. Stern's class. He is so good at making a horribly boring subject okay. You can easily stay awake through the lecture with only a single latte in hand. Stephan knows exactly what he is talking about and can immediately answer the student's, sometimes odd, questions and scenarios. This class is interactive and informative.

BUS 207 Senior Grade Earned: B Elective 3:20 pm, Nov 14, 2004 Report Evaluation		Best teacher ever! He is an amazing guy, great integrity, and captivating to listen to. I learned a lot. Easy lecture. I took it over the summer and the time went by like that. Definitely take him if you can!

BUS 207 Sophomore Grade Earned: N/A Required (Major) 9:17 pm, Aug 27, 2004 Report Evaluation		Stephen Stern is a very laid back type of teacher, a suprise considering he is an attorney. He is very knowledgable on the subject matter, and presents interesting hypothetical situations to get his points across. The class is based on group work, which really helps when you don;t understand a concept. A few suprises along the way, mostly to the favor of the students. There is little written homework (except you do read chapters) and a trial observation paper which isn't to hard (make sure you ask about the expectations, they can be ambiguous). Two tests, each 40% non cumulative. Overall, a good class to get an A or B in without an unbelievable amount of effort (work hard, though, and participate often). Take Stern if you can, it will be a rewarding quarter.

BUS 207 Junior Grade Earned: N/A Required (Support) 12:56 pm, Feb 25, 2004 Report Evaluation		Stern in probably the coolest professor at Poly. He's an attorney, so he knows what he's talking about. He gave our class outlines for each test and he even eliminated one of our midterms. He is very approachable and easy to talk to. His class is structured around class discussions and what he calls "hypothetical"'s, which really help out the learning environment. He makes an effort to try and make you think about the material you are reading about. His tests are very straight forward. If you don't go to class, your grade will suffer. You have to obeserve a court trial and write a short paper about it. This guy is awsome. I highly recommend him. This guy motivated me to come to class and learn.



BUS 207 Junior Grade Earned: B Elective 3:24 pm, Dec 20, 2003 Report Evaluation		By far one of the best teachers at calpoly. I took this class as an elective because i want to go to law school, and i though it was awsome. This guy really enjoys what he is teacher and always comes to class excited. Sometimes he brings coffee and cookies and breakfast food in the morning which was awsome. You have two somewhat big papers to do and while they are not the easist thing, he is a liberal grader. The test are hard if you do not understand how cases affect other situations. I will deff take this teaher again. The only reason i got a B was because it was at 7:00 in the morning and i had a million other things going on. If you put the effort in you will get the grade you deserve.

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