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Chen, John

Cumulative GPA: 3.61/4.00 with 23 evaluations
Presents Material Clearly: 3.70
Recognizes Student Difficulties: 3.57

Mechanical Engineering Department, Cal Poly, SLO
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ME 211 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 11:39 pm, Apr 24, 2013 Report Evaluation		words aren't enough to describe Dr Chen. He is one of the best teachers I have had at cal poly. I wish we had more teachers like him, clear concise and just amazing.

ME 211 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 1:12 am, Apr 4, 2013 Report Evaluation		great professor great guy very funny explains material very well

ME 211 Senior Grade Earned: B Elective 11:49 am, Mar 29, 2013 Report Evaluation		The BEST PROFESSOR I've ever had in Cal Poly and that's saying something because I'm graduating next quarter. I've never met a professor like this before. I enjoyed going to lectures because I actually wanted to. Hilarious! So evil and hilarious! Went to those online office hours just to have a good laugh. If Statics is not required for you take it if Dr. Chen is teaching! You'll have a good time and learn a lot. Seriously! The BEST PROFESSOR in Cal Poly!

ME 303 Senior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 8:17 pm, Dec 11, 2012 Report Evaluation		~1 quiz a week, based on the homework - all of which are relatively easy if you did the homework. You should do the homework -_-. Midterms are straight forward. Chen only throws curve balls on quizzes. If you do the homework, you'll be prepared for the quizzes. If you can't do the homework, go to office hours and figure out how to do it. Homework grade is worth 15% but quizzes are worth 30%. Exams (midterm + final) are 25% each. Chen is a great lecturer and getting an A in the class is easy. The man radiates with brilliance so brightly that my presence in the classroom is an insult to his genius.

ME 211 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 9:03 pm, Apr 12, 2012 Report Evaluation		Dr. Chen was great! He is humorous, though a bit towards the dark side, which was awesome. He gives you an option of how much you want your homework is weighed in comparison to quizzes. There is one midterm and weekly homework. The common final is hard but I feel that Dr. Chen adequately went over all the topics that could be tested on. He does have videos of him working out problems which are short and super helpful.

ME 211 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 1:26 pm, Mar 23, 2012 Report Evaluation		Chen was a great professor, he definitely knows his stuff and wants you to know it too. he is big on partial credit which can save your grade. I went into the final with a 96 in the class and ended with a B+, but I know I made a stupid mistake on the final. With Chen, it is easy to prepare for and get an A in Statics. His homework and quizzes aren't too bad, if you do the homework well, then you'll do well on the quizzes. Ask questions and participate, he really likes to interact with the class. DON'T be late or use your cell phone, he has a category for professionalism. Overall, I loved Statics thanks to Chen.

ME 211 Sophomore Grade Earned: N/A Required (Major) 5:57 pm, Feb 23, 2012 Report Evaluation		He gives a ton of quizzes. They aren't easy. He also lets you choose to weight your grade towards HW or quizzes. Choose HW and do a good job on it. He grades easier on the HW than the quizzes which is weird.



ME 303 Senior Grade Earned: N/A Required (Major) 12:22 pm, Dec 8, 2011 Report Evaluation		Chen is probably the most entertaining professors I've had at Cal Poly. Never afraid to speak his mind. He is also one of the best professors I've had at Cal Poly. He has notes pre-made for all of the chapters that you fill in and follow along with while he presents on his tablet. He makes the material very straight forward and easy to understand and does A LOT of examples which is very helpful. Only downside is he one of the HARDEST graders I've had (hw and tests). But, study the material and you will do well. Highly recommend him and would take hime again.

ME 211 Sophomore Grade Earned: D Required (Major) 1:11 am, Apr 22, 2011 Report Evaluation		Best teacher at cal poly! I enjoyed the course and would take chen again if I ever had the chance.

ME 211 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 11:58 pm, Mar 21, 2011 Report Evaluation		Kick ass teacher. He presented the statics material very clearly and methodically. He gave 1/3 the homework that the other statics teachers gave, but was still able to get us all through the course. He picks on people who say dumb stuff, and he's not very forgiving, but he knew what he was talking about and knew how to get everyone else to understand

ME 211 Sophomore Grade Earned: N/A Required (Support) 2:48 am, Mar 17, 2011 Report Evaluation		Professor Chen is the best teacher I have had at Cal Poly. ME 211 covers challenging material, but with Chen teaching, most of it seems easy. His lectures are extremely organized and really help you learn the material. I have never learned the material in a class as well as I learned statics with Chen teaching. Homework, quizzes and the midterm are all based off exactly what he teaches in his lectures. Seriously take this guy if you get the chance.

ME 303 5th Year Senior Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 12:00 am, Nov 12, 2010 Report Evaluation		Chen is definitely a legit guy. Tests are pretty tough and he doesn\'t really curve things. Keep up with the homework, be engaged in class, ask good questions. For the record, he is one of the few ME professors I have had that have made a point to remember the names of his students. Hell yes.

ME 343 Junior Grade Earned: D Required (Major) 12:40 pm, Jun 17, 2010 Report Evaluation		Well, I went into the class expecting butterflies and rainbows based on the other glowing evaluations (for Thermo, though), so I was a little shocked to find that the Chen teaching Heat Transfer might be a little different from the Chen teaching Thermo. As was said in the last evaluation, this was Chen\'s first time teaching Heat Transfer here. I wasn\'t expecting the class to be easy by any means, but I tend to not do too badly in Thermo/Fluids classes. However, these tests slaughtered me. I\'ve never been good with tests, but the grading on them was pretty brutal. On these tests, Chen tends to add problems that won\'t turn into mundane plug-and-chug type of work. It made it seem like you just need to be able to get the concept and the procedure correct for the problems, but there was some very nit-picky grading at work. In any case, though, Chen\'s lectures were great, and he explained the material very well, but I think the homework could be handled better (the last evaluation describes it well), and the tests could be handled better.



ME 343 Senior Grade Earned: N/A Required (Major) 1:08 pm, Jun 6, 2010 Report Evaluation		Im currently writing this a few days before my final exam. Hopefully I dont sound too bitter. Chen organizes his class by teaching from a collection of slides based on each chapter. He provides you with a PDF copy to bring to class and uses a tablet pc to write in formulae, diagrams, and examples on an electronic version of the same note sheet for you to copy down (kinda cool). No quizzes for us, but apparrently he usually gives weekly quizzes in other classes. HW is due usually every week, but sometimes he\'ll throw in another assignment due sometime the same week it was assigned. Two midterms, one final, HW, and \"Professionalism\". The midterms were a total 56% of your grade, HW 5%, \"professionalism\" another 5%, and the final made up the difference (basically not a lot of cushion). According to Chen, this was the first quarter at CP (Spring 2010) that he has taught Heat Transfer. Chen\'s HW is usually 7 probs long. However, Chen has a big issue with \"plug and chug problems\" (he says they insult your intelligence) and instead assigned mostly derivations, proofs, and iterations that take forever to complete. As this is coupled with his \"it\'s only 5% so you dont have to do it\" attitude, it made it almost impossible for me to finish every assignment. The lame thing is, those insulting plug and chug problems are a great way to illustrate new material and help students understand concepts behind a type of problem before jumping into more difficult stuff. The tests were 3-4 questions long, but easy to finish on time. They are almost entirely conceptual (never had a numerical answer). But, Chen is a hack and slash grader, so be prepared to lose close to a letter grade for a small mistake. I left the first test feeling very good about how it went. I got a 49%. Chen will dock you on what you did do, and then again for some random thing you didn\'t do. So you\'ll do fine if you dont screw up anything. Novel idea. Chen refuses to calculate the class average on tests. His advice to those who did not do well was to \"study differently\". No shit?? Taking Chen was a mistake. Im sure there\'s plenty that will disagree with me. Don\'t care. I wasn\'t the only one failing tests. I would have done much better with Mullisen (also teaching this quarter). Maybe Chen\'s good for Thermo or Thermo II, but not for HT. Ive never even come close to failing a class before, but this might be a first.

ME 302 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 11:44 pm, Apr 20, 2010 Report Evaluation		Chen was awesome for Thermo. I heard a lot of bad stuff about Locasio so I switched into Chen\'s section at 7am. Despite the early class, it was pretty fun. Chen\'s very serious about some things and doesn\'t like solution manuals, but in class he\'s funny and he teaches well. He\'s easy to understand and wanted our class to succeed. Got to the final and felt prepared for everything except Locasio\'s problem which was LAME. Honestly I don\'t know if Chen could have helped us prepare more for that but I failed pretty badly on that problem which was worth 1/3 of the points.

ME 211 Junior Grade Earned: C Required (Support) 8:19 pm, Mar 23, 2010 Report Evaluation		Professor Chen was an excellent teacher, his lectures were set up very well with powerpoint and it was easy to follow everything when you had the same notes right in front of you. He assigned an above average amount of homework but it payed off for when the his midterm came around. He had weekly quizzes that were cake if you did the homework. Now for the final, this is the problem I had, he did not teach two out of five of the questions on the final at all. They were subjects that were completely looked over during our lectures. People had some many questions about that he stopped the class and told everyone what to do but his face looked like \"Oh shit, I forgot to teach this to them.\" So, I would definitely recommend Chen to anyone needing to take Statics, he is the best, but just look over everything in the chapters so you don\'t get blindsided on the final.

ME 302 Junior Grade Earned: C Required (Support) 4:06 pm, Mar 23, 2010 Report Evaluation		Awesome teacher! Excellent at relaying the information. Regardless of my grade; by far one of the best teachers I have ever had. You are crazy if you have the opportunity to take him and don\'t! Quizzes every week based straight from the h/w. One midterm and One final.

ME 303 Senior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 11:28 pm, Jan 16, 2010 Report Evaluation		Dr. Chen is an AMAZING teacher! I think this is only his second year, but I certainly hope he stays at Poly. He is probably one of the most entertaining teachers I\'ve had. This guy is hilarious! It was almost effortless to go to class and pay attention. To top it off, he knows his stuff, and more importantly, knows how to explain it. Honestly, he did such a good job, reading the book was unnecessary. Also, he was always fair. We never had a quiz or test problem that was completely out of nowhere. If he didn\'t teach the topic, he didn\'t test us on it. I will say, our midterm was a little on the tricky side. It was all concepts he covered, but you had to take them a little further than he had expected of us on quizzes. What really stood out to me, though, was all the extra things he did. He posted power point notes online for us to print out and fill in during class. And during class, he projected the screen of his tablet PC and filled in the notes for us to follow along. And he had all the notes right there on his computer, so he never once made a mistake. He also passed out clickers and had everyone vote on a problem on the board - a completely anonymous way to get a sense of how well the class was understanding things. And the night before a midterm, he had extra office hours, online. So at 9pm the night before, when you have had time to study and actually have questions, you can click on this link which basically leads to a giant chatroom where he answers all your questions. Basically, take Dr. Chen if you can!

ME 211 Sophomore Grade Earned: C Required (Major) 6:00 pm, Jan 4, 2010 Report Evaluation		Chen was awesome! the grade I received was because I had bombed the midterm which was completely my own fault by not studying beforehand. He is very very clear in lecture, and assigns homework that DIRECTLY follows his in-class quizzes and midterm. The homework directly follows in-class examples. Therefore, you do the h/w and understand it fully, you\'ll do well on the everything else! Absolutely would take him again.



ME 303 Senior Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 10:00 pm, Jan 1, 2010 Report Evaluation		Chen was great. I would take him again if given the chance. He does assign an above average amount of homework, but if you take the time to do it, you will crush every quiz and midterm. He is one of the most competent powerpoint users. For the most part, I hate it when professors use powerpoint but Chen did it in a very easy to follow and very informative way.

ME 211 Sophomore Grade Earned: F Required (Major) 7:37 pm, Dec 20, 2009 Report Evaluation		chen was a cool guy and loved by everyone until the final came around. you must pass the final to pass the class and everyone takes the same test. well chen did not leave us prepared and i got my butt kicked on it. i had a solid b going into the final too but with an F i have to retake it

ME 211 Junior Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 7:35 pm, Dec 16, 2009 Report Evaluation		Chen knows what he is talking about and conveys the material to the students in a clear manner. Class notes are provided so you do not have to get distracted trying to draw diagrams instead of listening to what he is saying. Quizzes are big in the grading scheme, HW is turned in but doesnt mean anything (5% of final grade). Dont ask stupid questions in class or he will make you feel stupid in front of everybody, I never had the privelage of this treatment but was entertained by it a few times.

ME 303 Senior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 10:42 pm, Dec 15, 2008 Report Evaluation		Chen, is a great proffessor. He conveys the material extremely well, and tests you on things that are actually covered in the class. He does quizzes everytime that HW is due but they are very simple and straight forward if you do the HW. He only give out a couple of problems for HW so it is not bad at all

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