Polyratings.com: Clague, David

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Clague, David

Cumulative GPA: 2.64/4.00 with 14 evaluations
Presents Material Clearly: 2.21
Recognizes Student Difficulties: 2.79

Biomedical Engineering Department, Cal Poly, SLO
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BMED 425 Senior Grade Earned: C Required (Major) 1:44 pm, Jan 8, 2013 Report Evaluation		Liked him as a person, but he is not a teacher. You can tell he's a smart guy, but when it comes to presenting the material to students...BEST OF LUCK.

BMED 500 Graduate Student Grade Earned: N/A Required (Support) 7:15 pm, Nov 25, 2012 Report Evaluation		I actually caught him looking at this site in his office. I am pretty sure he writes some of the positive reviews. That shit cray. Dude earn your points by the way you teach.

BMED 520 Senior Grade Earned: A Elective 2:23 pm, Mar 26, 2012 Report Evaluation		Clague is the most brilliant of the biomedical staff at poly. His lectures are invaluable- the material is difficult but incredibly useful with regards to industry. Clague keeps students interested and entertained with his off-the-wall antics and great sense of humor. He is a genuinely nice guy and is always eager to help students who wish to learn. Go to office hours if you encounter difficulty- he will walk you through anything. I would definitely recommend this guy, he is a mathematical wizard and innovative engineer.

ENGR 123 Senior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 8:27 pm, Nov 9, 2011 Report Evaluation		Had him for a variety of BMED classes. He is friendly, funny if you can relate to him, definitely approachable. Though all too often I felt that Clague's lectures, whether they covered the topics of fluids or heat transfer, were way over our heads. One minute we'd discuss something as elementary as converting SI units and the next we are deriving lists of equations we don't even know how to apply. I will say that his tests and homework, though not always easy, were always fair. And he would help us as much as we needed in office hours. Take him if you get the chance

BRAE 425 Senior Grade Earned: N/A Required (Major) 8:12 pm, Oct 3, 2011 Report Evaluation		I seriously hope that he would be a little bit more serious and teach us something in this class. Too much jokes

BRAE 213 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 1:27 am, Jul 24, 2011 Report Evaluation		Many people think this course shouldn't be required. Dr. Clague gets this and doesn't force the material down your throat. If you're serious about learning the material, you can either talk to him in person or visit the links he gives to the class. Otherwise, you should be thankful that he keeps that class entertaining and gives a broad overview of the techniques used in bioengineering.

ENGR 213 Senior Grade Earned: N/A Required (Major) 9:23 pm, May 28, 2011 Report Evaluation		I graduated Poly last year, and no, I did not take ENGR 213, I graduated as a BMED. I took a couple courses with this guy. Although he is very approachable and pretty entertaining, he can't teach.



ENGR 213 Junior Grade Earned: C Required (Support) 3:22 am, Nov 4, 2010 Report Evaluation		I\'m the same person who submitted a rating on 12/29/09 about the experience I had the year before in Dr. Clague\'s class. To the person who wrote the comment two below this one: you\'re an arrogant asshole. Here you are, a sophomore who got a B in the class, calling a freshman who got a C in the class \"a noob ... who really [doesn\'t] know sh....t.\" Obviously, I have more college experience now than I did two years ago, and my perspectives have changed in many ways; with that said, I continue to stand by every word I wrote at the time. Of course Dr. Clague TRIED to connect the material to real life. Of course he TRIED to \"[use] humor to re-engage students in the subject matter.\" He TRIED to be a good teacher, but in my opinion, he failed. All I ever claimed, and all I continue to claim, is that Dr. Clague sucked at conveying information in an effective manner so that his students could understand the material clearly and be inspired to apply it in their lives--you know, actually TEACHING. I\'m super-happy that you found ENGR 213 an \"exceptional class\" and I wish you the best in finding future \"exceptional class[es]\" where freshmen who \"have no experience in life\" are incapable of \"appreciat[ing] the experience\" in the same way you do. But please, if you\'re going to post on this site, don\'t waste your time hoisting yourself onto a pillar and ridiculing others who have opinions equally valid as your own. (I also find it curious that the two comments below this were posted within 15 minutes of each other, but that\'s a different topic for a different day.)

BRAE 213 Senior Grade Earned: C Required (Major) 10:49 pm, Jun 22, 2010 Report Evaluation		I am a senior. This was a good course, but I did not work. The instructor used humor to help us stay involved. It worked for me and kept my interest. He allows crib notes on exams. So it is possible to get an A every exam. I found that freshman and sophomores would complain. I don\'t think they know what is important. The instructor brought in information from 10 yrs of industrial experience. New kids don\'t understand the importance of the course. I didn\'t do so well, but I am thankful for the course and do understand that the information was genuinely important to my future in industry. I did find my people from CS and the IT organization on campus arrogant. If they took the time to study and understand, they might benefit from the class.

BRAE 213 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 10:34 pm, Jun 22, 2010 Report Evaluation		This course was a survey of biology that engineers should know for preparation for industry. I found that freshmen could not appreciate the experience. I however could connect the professors experience with real life. The professor uses humor to re-engage students in the subject matter, but clearly teaches what is actually important in industry. Freshman have no experience in life and do not understand what is important. This course was exceptional and brought real world applications into the class. The instructor was in industry for several years and communicated this information. Some underclassmen didn\'t understand the importance of what was being taught. The information was up to date and even beyond they biology department, e.g., aptamers. I highly recommend this course. I also recommend ignoring noob freshman who really don\'t know sh....t, especially those who get a C in this course.

BRAE 213 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 4:07 pm, Mar 25, 2010 Report Evaluation		Clague\'s class was alright...this is the complement to Bio 213, but both sections are barely related and kind of do their own thing. This was much less work than ONeill\'s BIO section, just show up, watch powerpoints for an hour and a half of the two hour section, and leave. You don\'t even really have to go...he gives out a bonus word at the end of every section which is worth 2-4 extra credit points on the next weekly quiz, but you can ask a friend or copy it from the person next to you. The quiz questions (and midterms!) are just mainly fill-in-the-blanks based on the powerpoint, and maybe a few true-or-false questions. Easy class, and we could probably get out in an hour if we didn\'t talk about South Park or watch Youtube in between slides. So just look at the powerpoints, got it?

BRAE 425 Senior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 8:49 am, Jan 4, 2010 Report Evaluation		Clague is AMAZING! This guy is so hilarious, making tough and somewhat boring classes, really fun! He is a fair grader, and helps you out because he genuinely wants you to understand and succeed in his classes. I would take Clague for anything.

ENGR 213 Freshman Grade Earned: C Required (Support) 6:32 pm, Dec 29, 2009 Report Evaluation		This guy was the worst teacher I\'ve ever had. He didn\'t take the class seriously the entire quarter and his overabundant, time-wasting jokes about South Park and the like were not funny. I struggled because Dr. Clague frontloaded all of his PowerPoint lectures with a massive list of vocabulary whose definitions were explained in other text-heavy slides throughout the lecture. It would have been more logical to introduce terms as we went along and to use more pictures and diagrams. My friends and other students found this class to be easy, but \"easy\" isn\'t the same as \"worthwhile.\" I learned nothing in this class, and at the risk of offending, I think Dr. Clague an embarrassment to the Biomedical and General Engineering department and to Cal Poly as a whole. On the plus side, the guest speakers he brought in for one class were absolutely fantastic--enthralling and inspiring. Why couldn\'t other lectures have been more like that? Hopefully your experience with this guy is or will be better than mine.



BRAE 213 Junior Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 1:31 pm, Jun 18, 2008 Report Evaluation		What a funny guy. Weekly short quizzes (40%, no notes) and two exams (30%, notes). All with little but reasonable difficulty. Just study for an hour or two before each quiz, and make proper note sheets for the midterm and final. Each lecture had an "extra credit word" at the very end for the next week's quiz. If you don't stay, find someone that does to get that word. Sometimes he even gave us the answers to some questions as a joke.

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