Polyratings.com: Zhang, Shanju

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Zhang, Shanju

Cumulative GPA: 2.57/4.00 with 14 evaluations
Presents Material Clearly: 2.43
Recognizes Student Difficulties: 2.57

Chemistry and Biochemistry Department, Cal Poly, SLO
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CHEM 129 Freshman Grade Earned: N/A Required (Major) 5:09 pm, May 17, 2013 Report Evaluation		Oh man. It's actually really difficult to rate Zhang, but let me get one thing straight: TAKING ZHANG WAS THE WORST DECISION I'VE EVER MADE. I don't think he is a bad teacher, he seems to care for his student for some degree, his tests are straight from the practice exam...but none of that matters if you can't even understand him!!! I say it's difficult to rate him because I know some people (asians) love him, and that's because they can understand him. He has the thickest Chinese accent I've ever heard, which makes him incapable of pronouncing any consonants. Labs kinda easy, just listen to his lecture before you take the lab quiz and you'll probly be fine. MEMORIZE YOUR PROCEDURE. Gotta take advantage of those easy but stupid questions. He holds review sessions and has office hours which would be helpful if I could understand him. We cannot even have a casual conversation. I cannot stress how strongly I recommend sitting in on one of his classes before choosing Zhang.

CHEM 128 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 1:22 pm, Mar 28, 2013 Report Evaluation		I thought Dr. Zhang was a great professor. It was clear he really wanted his too succeed. He gives weekly quizzes and suggested hw problems, all of which definitely helped to do well on his tests. He also makes all of his lecture notes available on polylearn, which made it easier to do more learning in lecture and less frantic note writing. He also will do examples in class, and say that they will be on the test! That was helpful.

CHEM 128 Freshman Grade Earned: C Required (Support) 5:14 pm, Mar 25, 2013 Report Evaluation		Worst teacher possible. He has a thick accent that no one understands and even during office hours, he still cannot explain anything. DO NOT TAKE HIM.

CHEM 128 Junior Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 1:58 am, Mar 13, 2013 Report Evaluation		Enthusiastic, yes. Like a puppy. Knowledgeable, no. He is seriously terrible. I'm pretty sure that his accent covers over the fact he doesn't know much.

CHEM 128 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 10:20 am, Mar 2, 2013 Report Evaluation		Best chemistry teacher ever.

CHEM 128 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 11:38 am, Mar 1, 2013 Report Evaluation		Dr. Zhang is the best Chemistry teacher I have ever had. Chemistry definitely does not come naturally for me and I have always struggled with it since high school. But Dr. Zhang wants every student to succeed. He has office hours and a review session each week to answer questions and review lectures. He is very enthusiastic about what he is teaching. His tests and quizzes are pretty straight forward, mainly based on the lecture examples and homework problems.

CHEM 128 Freshman Grade Earned: N/A Required (Support) 6:21 pm, Feb 7, 2013 Report Evaluation		If you are not used to being around heavy accents, I highly suggest that you do NOT take Zhang. He is from China, and his Chinese accent is very hard to understand. His handwriting is also nearly eligible most of the time and he doesn't always understand what a student says when they ask a question, and ends up just repeating himself a lot, not answering anything. I ended up not going to half of the lectures because I would simply get frustrated at my inability to understand what he was saying. I ended up doing fairly well in the class, but only because I worked my butt off studying at home and teaching myself all of the concepts. Overall, unless you can understand Chinese accents, I highly suggest that you do not have him as a professor.



CHEM 128 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 11:36 pm, Feb 5, 2013 Report Evaluation		As long as you follow his "steps" you can succeed. He does have an accent but it does not impede on his intelligence and passion for chemistry. At first he may seem a bit intimidating, but quickly you realize how nice and funny he really is. I would HIGHLY recommend this teacher, he is awesome!

CHEM 127 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 10:36 pm, Jun 13, 2012 Report Evaluation		My parents spoke Mandarin, so class with Zhang was never bad since I was always able to understand his accent, which is thick. He's a nice guy, and probably smart. If you're a native Chinese speaker, definitely take Zhang!!!

CHEM 547 Graduate Student Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 12:39 am, May 22, 2012 Report Evaluation		Zhang can give you the opportunity to learn in a deep way the concepts behind a course. He appreciates when his students are engaged and put in the effort. If you do your homework and you THINK you will do well. He's a great teacher and makes learning fun and rewarding if you genuinely are up for the challenge. Also, Dr.Zhang is one of those people who knows a great amount but is never arrogant. He appears to be really humble. He also knows when you aren't trying so just because he's not easy to figure out don't think he's not highly observant of you. He's very aware when a student is not putting in the effort even if he doesn't say it out loud.

CHEM 127 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 12:19 am, Apr 19, 2012 Report Evaluation		Very straight forward and great teacher. Really wants his students to succeed. As long as you follow his lecture and do the homework it is an easy A or B. I would highly recommend taking Professor Zhan. I am currently taking him for Chem 128 and could not ask for any better professor, he also occasionally makes jokes with his funny accent which will lighten up anyones day!!

CHEM 127 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 1:11 am, Apr 16, 2012 Report Evaluation		Zhang is a reasonable, empathetic, and kind professor. The homework assignments and lectures completely prepare students for weekly quizzes. Keys are provided for the quizzes after the fact so students can learn from and use them to prepare for midterms and finals. He teaches everything on the quizzes, midterms, and tests which I really appreciate. Review sessions are held every Friday so that students have an opportunity to ask Zhang about the homework in case they struggle with any of the problems. Every now and then he tells chemistry jokes, which reinforce the material better and provide a nice mental break from time to time. His accent didn't take long for me to get use to at all, so I don't believe his accent is a legitimate reason to rate him poorly as a professor. I highly recommend this professor. He genuinely cares about students, and wants them to both understand the material and do well in his class.

CHEM 127 Freshman Grade Earned: N/A Required (Major) 10:09 pm, Feb 27, 2012 Report Evaluation		He is a very nice person who really does care about his students. He does anything and everything to help, but has an incredibly thick accent. I eventually kind of started to understand what he was saying, but its still pretty hard. He is a brilliant person who really knows what he is talking about and has an incredible resume, he just doesn't know how to teach the material.



CHEM 127 Sophomore Grade Earned: N/A Required (Support) 11:25 am, Feb 3, 2012 Report Evaluation		At first he seems intimidating and difficult since he expects a lot from his students, but really, he's not a bad guy. It took me a while to get used to his accent, and sometimes I still don't understand him clearly but it's getting progressively better. He has confusing lectures but I still like him because he genuinely cares about his students and hosts review sessions every Friday (that he probably doesn't get paid extra to do) where he does hw problems and answers questions. If you study hard and go to the review sessions, you can do well.

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