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Davol, Andrew

Cumulative GPA: 3.64/4.00 with 28 evaluations
Presents Material Clearly: 3.57
Recognizes Student Difficulties: 3.50

Mechanical Engineering Department, Cal Poly, SLO
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ME 318 Junior Grade Earned: N/A Required (Major) 1:16 am, Mar 28, 2011 Report Evaluation		I only had him for the lab but wished that I had him for lecture instead. His ability to clarify was amazing and his grading was very fair. He's the department chair, so he had no office hours but they were not need considering how well everything was explained. Make sure your lab partner doesn't do everything for you throughout the quarter or else you'll pay for on the lab final.

ME 211 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 9:51 am, Nov 24, 2010 Report Evaluation		Amazing teacher. Great examples given all class with helpful answers to all your questions. The best support class teacher ive had at cal poly

ME 134 Senior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 11:40 pm, Nov 7, 2010 Report Evaluation		Easy class, if you\'re lucky enough to have the opportunity to take this class with Dr. Davol, you should do it. He doesn\'t teach a lot of classes now that he\'s the Dean of ME and such. He\'s a cool guy, and will have an in-depth conversation you about anything moderately cool.

ME 134 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 8:45 pm, Mar 29, 2010 Report Evaluation		ME 134 is an introductory class, so although you have to write a lab report once in awhile, you really don\'t have to put in that much effort. Classes were prett fun- Davol definitely knows what he\'s talking about.

ME 211 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 1:19 am, Mar 24, 2010 Report Evaluation		Out of the 20 office hours he held, I probably went to at least 15 of them throughout the quarter which helped A LOT. This is guy is ridiculously SMART and really does go above and beyond to help out his students. One time I was sitting outside of Campus Market at one of those cement tables between class working on one of the hw questions he assigned, and I was having a lot of trouple on this particular problem... all of a sudden Davol comes walking my way and sits down and makes sense of the problem for me. What a G. Really clear/thorough teacher and is super nice. HW was 10%, his almost weekly quizzes were 40%, and final was 50%. He drops the lowest quiz and hw grade and he assignes a lot of problmes, about 10-12 per week but it was critical to succeeding in this class. I would definitely recommend him and I hope to take him for dynamics.

ME 134 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 12:30 am, Dec 15, 2009 Report Evaluation		Dr. Davol was very understanding when you do not understand the material presented in ME 134. The course is introductory, and despite the fact that most of the class knows material at some point, he does not expect you to know the course material walking in.

ME 212 Sophomore Grade Earned: F Required (Support) 12:37 pm, Feb 11, 2009 Report Evaluation		His lectures consisted of him writing variables and equations from the textbook onto the board. He never actually derived anything for the sake of understanding the theory. I don't need someone with a Ph.D. to copy equations from a book for me. There are many special cases and methodologies in dynamics that he never touches upon. When solving problems, he basically just goes straight through them without considering other methods. I took this course again with Kennedy and got an A. Go figure. If you're down to have someone re-read a textbook back at you, he's the right professor for you.



ME 212 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 9:44 pm, Sep 24, 2008 Report Evaluation		I did well in this class, but that doesn't reflect Davol's teaching. I don't really agree with his philosophy of dynamics. He encouraged us to rely too heavily on our math instead of actually visualizing the system. This is the problem with our education system. People who can't think for themselves and just know how to chug away at numbers are rewarded while the people who see the whole picture and use common sense are penalized. I never went to office hours, did pretty poorly on his quizzes because I made too many (correct) assumptions and didn't do much homework, but he gives you the grade you got on the final if you do well. Got an A on the final, so that worked well.

ME 212 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 8:43 pm, Sep 24, 2008 Report Evaluation		Davol is such a good teacher. He explains material clearly and amazingly made dynamics easier to understand. This class is hard, no matter what, but having Davol definitely made my experience a lot easier to bare. I went to office hours basically every day and that helped so much. Go to office hours and it will definitely pay off.

ME 212 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 9:28 am, Aug 21, 2008 Report Evaluation		Davol is a smart guy he just has a hard time sometimes projecting his knowledge on to other. The first day he scares you, telling you not to take the class unless you want to work hard. And he was right, you will work your ass off in this class. But if your willing to put the time in Davol is an teacher. HW is 5% quizes 40% (which are every other week) and the final is 55%.

ME 212 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 3:51 pm, Jun 27, 2008 Report Evaluation		Professor Davol is a really good teacher. He explains things clearly and does a lot of good examples. His quizzes are hard, but they are good examples for what is on the final. Dynamics is a really hard class, but going to his office hours help a lot.

ME 212 Sophomore Grade Earned: N/A Required (Major) 5:11 pm, Jun 19, 2008 Report Evaluation		Go to office hours! Simply put, this is a hard class. All that you have heard about it is true. Now if you're willing to do all the homework (not half-assedly, or with the answer manuals) and also attend the office hours when you don't understand representative problems, you should be set. However, make sure that you go over the problems that are bold (the ones that representative of the quizzes) on the homework sheet and fully understand them.

ME 441 5th Year Senior Grade Earned: B Elective 11:48 am, Jan 7, 2008 Report Evaluation		Davol's the man. He explained the topics clearly and was always eager to give extra help if necessary. Take Davol for anything he teaches.



ME 328 Junior Grade Earned: C Required (Major) 2:21 am, Oct 25, 2006 Report Evaluation		Davol was nothing special, and actually is probably one of my least favorite ME teachers here (excluding the obvious). He does really want the students to understand the material but seems to focus on the weirdest shit. The design book covers pressure vessels in 3 pages....it took Davol 3 weeks to cover it. I would much rather have covered it in as much depth as the book and focused much more on fatigue and failure theory in other types of design. If you go to office hours, you better have a fairly extensive grasp on the problems already or else he'll be no help. The lab project was the stupidest project ever, a saddle rack. C'mon the labs are supposed to be useful and interesting. I sure as hell hope no poly engineer ends up designing saddle racks for a living. His tests were hard and extremely time crunched and alot of points are easliy lost on the t/f portion. I don't plan on taking any other classes from him here at poly.

ME 328 Senior Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 8:58 am, Sep 7, 2006 Report Evaluation		I really dont see why Davol was a "great" teacher. He does the same thing as every other prefessor. There was nothing special about his labs. We designed a stupid horse rack for his trailer. The most impractical designs recieved the best grades, go figure. Also he is turning into a huge jerkby hanging out with Klisch. Davol is a good teacher, but he still has much room for improvement. Dont feed his ego anymore then you need to, or else ten years from now his head is going to be so bloated he will notbe able to fit through his office door.

ME 328 Senior Grade Earned: N/A Required (Major) 5:04 pm, Sep 5, 2006 Report Evaluation		Prof Davol is an awesome prof. too bad hes going to australia for a year. he is a super cool laid back guy who likes his job and cares that his students learn the material (imagine that). Lots of help in office hours and very intelligent. would highly recommend taking him for any other class and hope to have another class with him. By the way Sky Mullonough is a jack ass

ME 404 Senior Grade Earned: A Elective 10:24 am, Aug 3, 2006 Report Evaluation		Interesting class, awesome professor. Make sure you talk to him outside of school stuff, because he's a pretty rad guy.

ME 404 5th Year Senior Grade Earned: A Elective 2:35 pm, Jun 25, 2005 Report Evaluation		Dr. Davol is a really good teacher. My experience with tech electives so far is that teachers tend to go a little easier on the grading, which is probably why I ended up with an A, but thats cool for me. The labs in this class were very useful, and they're worth 40% of the grade, so they're definately worth putting the time in on and doing well on. The exams were fairly tough, but he has a fair curve so just do better than everyone else and you're set. All in all I'm really glad I took this class with Dr. Davol and I'm definately gonna try and take single track with him in the fall

ME 328 Senior Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 11:40 am, Jun 11, 2005 Report Evaluation		Davol has to be one of my favorite professors at Poly. It was a little tough to follow his lectures initially because the class is designed to combine four other classes but his office hours were awesome. His test were really tough with average grades on both midterms of 59% but he has a fair curve and if you understand the material, it shows. Bottom line, this man CARES about helping his students learn and as far as I'm concerned, thats what makes a great professor. Take Davol if you want to learn.



ME 329 Senior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 7:32 pm, Mar 31, 2004 Report Evaluation		Not only is Davol a cool guy just to talk to, but he's also a great professor. But don't let his laid back demeanor lull you into a sense of security for his class. His tests are extremely intense, and are definately time crunches (even the 3 hour final). The average hovered around 60 for both midterms. The tests will really test your knowledge of the material, which is good. If you know your stuff you will be rewarded in the end. The lab for this class was fun. It was a design project where we designed and built a machine to perform a specific function, from concept to construction. It might be a challenge for those who have never built anything before, but it will teach you that the little things, such as friction or tolerances, really make a load of difference in a design. Davol stressed this throughout the process. he is a fair grader and wants the most out of his students.

ME 318 Senior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 2:41 pm, Feb 2, 2004 Report Evaluation		Professor Davol is an excellent teacher. He made vibes very easy to understand. I struggled in the middle part of the class, mainly on my own fault because I wasn't doing the homework, but despite all of that he was more than willing to go over things with me in his office hour. And another nice thing about him is that he puts more weight into the final (even though his syllabus won't say it). So you can do kind of bad ont he first midterms, but if you do well enough on the final, he says "you won't be disappointed with your grade". I recommend him so highly that I even fought to take intermediate design with hime this quarter!!

ME 211 Sophomore Grade Earned: C Required (Support) 12:48 pm, Jun 12, 2003 Report Evaluation		Dr. Davol kicks A** He is the best ME professor I have had so far. He had a ton of office hours plus if he saw you standing outside his office looking at homeworks solution, he will ask if you have any questions and if you want to come him. He will go out of his way to help you understand and he goes far above what an average professor does. I definitely recommend him. He is hard grader but you do receive partial credit if what you do "makes sense". (DRAW the FBD)

ME 211 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 10:47 am, Mar 20, 2003 Report Evaluation		DAVOL IS THE MAN!! ME 211 is supposed to be this dreaded class that everyone fails. I didn't think it was that terrible. If you have Davol, you will work hard. He assigned the HARDEST freakin hw problems(those ones with the cursed triangles next to them) and they were due every 2 days. He gives 10 quizzes(1 per week) instead of midterms and this wasn't too bad. Some were a little rushed but I think he timed them so you could perform well on the final. Overall, Davol is a really good guy to have. He won't fail everyone in the class like Locasio but you will learn the material. Thanks Davol.

ME 328 Junior Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 10:50 pm, Feb 10, 2003 Report Evaluation		Davol presented several design problems, each of which illustrated the different topics of the course. Instead of lecturing, he presented what amounted to giant example problems, strung out through multiple classes. I found it very helpful. Not only did he explain new material and synthesize and clarify old material, his method allowed me to see the thought process and steps in design. The lab was less innovative, but useful nonetheless. It included one extended group project, given during the middle of the quarter. Homework was copious but manageable. Tests included a 10 true/false and 4-5 short answer problems (about 1/3 of the points), and 3 'real' problems. The tests were time-crunches. The final, despite his claim that it wouldn't be, was as also a time-crunch.

ME 211 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 3:35 pm, Jan 31, 2003 Report Evaluation		In me 211, there are no tests, only quizzes which are 50 percent of your grade. the quizzes were kind of hard, but not like anything I hadn't seen before from the homework. homework is due everyday, and counts as 20, while the other 30 percent is the final. He is very good at teaching, especially compared to what I hear about many other statics professors. He is nice, straightforward, and patient.



ME 328 Junior Grade Earned: N/A Required (Major) 3:26 pm, Jan 31, 2003 Report Evaluation		Dr. Davol is an excellent professor. He's willing to help and really knows alot about what he teaches. He knows alot and also knows how to explain it to students which makes taking him definitely worth a while. If you're planning to take your first design class, take it with him; trust me, you'll be crying in frustration if you get Professor S*** for design. Dr. Davol is hard, but you'll learn and understand the material.

ME 318 Senior Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 11:24 am, Aug 9, 2002 Report Evaluation		Davol is a really smart guy, and as such, his vibes lectures are somewhat intense. His homework assignments were very difficult, but worth only 5%. Do as much of the homework as possible, because his tests were based on them. He gave our class a big curve at the end, but during the class you think you are doing worse than you are. His lab was really good. He explains everything to you perfectly, if you just ask. That goes for lecture and office hours, too. Basically, he's hard, but worth taking.

ME 318 Senior Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 10:12 am, Apr 23, 2002 Report Evaluation		Dr. Davol has had a lot of professional engineering experience. He knows the material. He is extremely sharp. However, these facts don't distance himself from the students. He always takes time to make sure everyone understands the material. Office hours can be extended, and he's just a really reasonable guy(on the level). My favorite quote of the quarter,(when he saw my incorrect lab data) "Oh man, you're hosed!"

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