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Klay, Jennifer

Cumulative GPA: 1.94/4.00 with 16 evaluations
Presents Material Clearly: 1.81
Recognizes Student Difficulties: 1.88

Physics Department, Cal Poly, SLO
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PHYS 340 Junior Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 3:08 pm, May 10, 2013 Report Evaluation		Klay is approachable and understanding. Solid teacher.

PHYS 202 Sophomore Grade Earned: No Credit Required (Major) 6:56 pm, Apr 30, 2013 Report Evaluation		This is a course on physics on the computer and we have learned no physics!

ASTR 102 Freshman Grade Earned: A General Ed 11:46 am, Apr 3, 2013 Report Evaluation		I'm pretty blown away by all of the negative reviews on here, at least from people that had her for 102. I think people may have had a mistaken understanding of what the class was going to be about going in but I still don't understand some of the comments. 102 is a weird combination of going over some very basic chem and physics for some ground work knowledge and then incredibly complex theoretical physics like the study of black holes, so I think she may struggle a bit with bridging the gap between people that have trouble understanding things and people that already knew most of the information. People ask her questions and then get upset when she can't give them a straightforward answer as if she just doesn't know when the reality is the answer is probably a combination of calculus and quantum theory that would sound like another language. Klay was incredibly nice, organized and effective. Above all anyone that says she doesn't know the material clearly just doesn't understand how complex astronomy really is. I stayed often after class to ask her about science related news and she definitely knows plenty. A good portion of the class is based on homework(online,helpful if you try, and you can manipulate the program to get 100% every time), classwork(graded for completion, collected on test days)and going to the observatory one time. The tests weren't super easy but I didn't study and did fairly well and the whole class is curved. Extra credit is offered. TL;DR I went to class and mostly sat on my phone, actually tried on the online homework, didn't do any reading, and studied for less than an hour for each exam and got an A. If you are remotely interested in the subject it's an easy class.

ASTR 102 Senior Grade Earned: Credit Elective 5:09 pm, Mar 26, 2013 Report Evaluation		she brought her damn baby to the midterm. 'nuff said

ASTR 102 Sophomore Grade Earned: A General Ed 11:25 pm, Mar 25, 2013 Report Evaluation		Dr. Klay is an extremely sweet woman and seems to care about her students. That being said, much of the material was presented in a manner that was difficult to understand. When students asked questions, she would constantly say "just hold that thought," and never get back to it. Our class as a whole struggled to grasp the material and although she noticed that, she did not do much to help us. Anyway, here are the facts of the class: 25% mastering astronomy (online homework that really buffers you grade so do it!), 10% observatory visit (on campus observatory), 10% participation (in class workbook), 15% each for two midterms, and 25% final. Tests are difficult but not outrageous. At the end of the day she curves the class which is the only way I was able to get an A but if you really want to learn and understand the material, I would not suggest taking this class with Dr. Klay,

ASTR 102 Freshman Grade Earned: B General Ed 1:41 pm, Mar 3, 2013 Report Evaluation		Klay is super nice but wildly oblivious. Her lectures are a complete waste of time and tends to treat her students like children. I went into Astronomy thinking that it would be a cool class but she makes it so difficult to understand. The class is mundane and not worth it. DO NOT take this class.

PHYS 133 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 2:49 pm, Dec 7, 2012 Report Evaluation		There are a lot of negative reviews on here about Klay, but here are the facts: Grading: Participation: 10% (In-class responses to questions on her powerpoint. They seem to be graded on completeness. They are super helpful for understanding the subject) Lab: 10% Homework: 10% (~13 problems per chapter, graded very strictly) Quizzes: 20% (only four quizzes all year, given in lab. That means that they're 5% apiece. They're on page, single-sided in length and 100& conceptual. I'd say they're medium to hard. If you did the homework before hand, you can expect an A without any additional studying) Midterms 20% (Calculation problems. If you did/understood the homework, you can expect an A. No real tricks. Medium difficulty. Not worth a lot of your grade) Final 30% (Medium to hard difficulty, depending on how you studied. She literally gave us the subjects that the problems were about. If you studied those subjects, you'd get an A. If you didn't, you'd probably get an F. The questions were calculation/theoretical. If you studied what she told us/understood the concepts very well, you could expect an A. Some tricky problems, but most were straightforward.) Teacher Skill: I'd say Klay is average for most people, but I really liked her. She's clear in class, but sometimes leaves you to learn about things while doing the homework (maybe ~10% of the material). Anything she doesn't cover in class will not be on her tests, but it will be on the homework. When compared to the other physics teachers at Cal Poly, Klay is well above average. I recommend her, it was a good quarter for me. No real complaints.



PHYS 133 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 12:22 pm, Nov 27, 2012 Report Evaluation		I had professor Klay for E&M physics, for the most part going to class was a waste of time. Professor Klay would often spend a huge amount of time explaining very simple subjects, while spending very little time explaining the difficult concepts. Overall this class felt more like directed self learning given that in my experience all my learning came from reading the book, doing the homework, and asking my room mate to explain concepts to me when the book was insufficient.

PHYS 133 Sophomore Grade Earned: N/A Required (Major) 12:06 pm, Nov 27, 2012 Report Evaluation		She says she worked at the Cern Supercollider, but as far as I can tell, she must've been a janitor or something there, because she knows nothing about E&M.

PHYS 133 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 9:56 pm, Nov 19, 2012 Report Evaluation		Professor Klay is a very nice lady. But that's where the positives end. As a professor, she was god awful. Lectures were pointless, and I did a majority of my learning out of the book. Her homework has a ridiculous grading policy, and if it weren't for the participation that's 10% of the grade, there seriously would be no reason to come to class. She conveys ideas poorly, her examples are OK, but don't really challenge you and aren't at all similar to what's on the test, and she fails to cover all the material in class that then gets assigned in homework. So my recommendation is to not take her if you can help it. Of course, they're now just posting STAFF as all the physics teachers, so you might get screwed and end up with her anyways. If so, I highly recommend finding a new class if you want to learn anything at all.

PHYS 133 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 5:37 pm, Oct 3, 2012 Report Evaluation		Good instructor!

PHYS 133 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 12:55 pm, Jun 27, 2012 Report Evaluation		She is SUPER NICE. There were only 3 required homework assignments for the quarter. She would save her harder problems for homework because she wants you to really try and understand the problems. The exams are mostly all problems taken directly from a list of focus problems she gives you. This is good because it is easily to do well in this class. However that applies to everyone so the min score is usually around 50%, which is high for a physics class.

PHYS 133 Freshman Grade Earned: C Required (Support) 9:03 am, Mar 28, 2008 Report Evaluation		Took her the first quarter she was here. She was a good lecturer, but she was new so she wasn't solid on methods of teaching and how things worked. But after a couple of quarters, I'd say she had potential to be great. Very nice lady.



PHYS 133 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 8:22 am, Feb 27, 2008 Report Evaluation		As mentioned before, Klay is an extremely nice person. She really wants the best for her students. Her tests are very straightforward and relatively easy IF you do the homework. The examples she does in class are always super easy and then when you get to homework, you have to look a lot of stuff up in the book, but hey, that is what you are supposed to do in college so get used to it.

PHYS 133 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 9:53 pm, Dec 18, 2007 Report Evaluation		Dr. Klay is a very nice person, but she doesn't explain anything in class. You can go to every class and take excellent notes, do all the homework, and still get a C on the tests. She never does any difficult examples in class, whcih makes homework somewhat difficult. She expects you to learn most of the material from the book. Any of you who have done any reading in a textbook know that this is impossible. The tests are VERY hard, and include things that she never talked about in class or assigned homeowrk problems about. However, even though she does a poor job of teaching in class, she knows her shit, and is more than willing to explain in office hours. So if you get confused, just go to office hours. She is nice.

PHYS 133 Junior Grade Earned: C Required (Support) 9:05 pm, Aug 7, 2007 Report Evaluation		Dr. Klay She was very nice and kind in office hours, having no problem clarifying and explaining the concepts to anyone. She loves using Mastering Physics to collect & explain the homework, and uses blackboard to explain everything from what she expects to grades and percentages. She is very organized and shows good examples in her lectures. Honestly, She is the best Physics Professor at this school. All midterms are reasonable. She knows and knows how to teach the material inside and out of the classroom. Do not let the fact that she is a Nuclear Physicist scare you.:-)

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