Chivens, Donald  

Rocks!

Couldn't be more accurate in preparing for actual work.

Chivens was a really good guy. The only problem I had with the class was that we were usually one lecture behind where we should have been (we'd go over homework that was assigned the previous class, and that would constitute a lecture.) If we just jumped ahead by one lecture, the class would have been a lot better in the homework situation. I felt prepared for midterms and quizzes and that the homework was an adequate preparation. The final was difficult, but that was because I didnt study enough for it. Dr. Chivens is very approachable and will be more than willing to spend extra time explaining things to you should you need help. The class is pretty straight-forward in concepts and as long as you understand the basics, you should do fine. I recommend Chivens

Chivens is an extremely nice guy, I don't think you can make him mad. I too had the same problem as the previous poster with the lectures being behind the homework. The final was tough, but it was a common final with all statics classes so every class had the same problems. His office hourse were helpful if you needed anything.

Professor Chivens is a smart guy and he probably knows statics well. Having said that, I have to say that he probably should not be teaching. He gets really nervous in front of the class and gets really confused if you ask him about a different way to do a problem (and in statics there are always multiple answers). He doesn't assign too much homework, but that can be a bad thing if you are using it to learn the material. His quizzes come from the homework but the tests are made up by him which makes them very difficult.

He is very smart but has no social sense and that hinders his teaching. He is very nervous in front of class and it makes his lectures very choppy. When he is asked a question he never answers the quaestion right b/c he gets so nervous i think he forgets what the questioon was or he just didnt understand what the student was asking. Not a good teacher at all...stay away

Frech fries anyone? This guy couldn't serve french fries or waffles on a rotating angular plate if he tried let alone explain how the plate was rotating. The nt,rectangluar and polar coordinates are all hard to understand. And watch out for chapter five. That chapter feels like your stomach after eating 5 cans of cattle drive chicken chili. What a nightmare. This guy can't teach and we all know it becasue we all got branded on our butts from this course. ME 211 is easy. ME 212 is not easy. In fact ME 212 is like getting hit by a rotary girter spinning at 0.5 rad/sec. I feel like I just got hot with a tomato thrown at an speed of 45 m/s at a 45 degree angle. Rootin Tootin. This one knocked my socks off.

Horrible! No point in going to class as all he does is copy the proof out of the book, word for word. He then procedes to re do the example in the book and get lost half way through. When someone asked him if he could incorporate more examples in the lecture he got the deer in the headlight look. One of the reasons I got into Cal Poly is I can read pretty good and dont need the teacher to re read the book. Dynamics is a complicated subject that is learned by doing problems. When the teacher writes F=MA which is all the book pretty much says alot of the time followed by about 20 pages of problems you need to have some worked out problems to refer to when trying homework. When people would get stuck on HW and ask questions he would never really answer them as he was afraid he "would give too much away". The only real reason to go to class is to take the quizzes. I'd ask him when they were going to be, show up and take it, then leave. The only way I got through the class was going to the ME tutoring and working on the HW with them. These guys are just students but are really good at explaining problems and will help you work through them. Next we have the tests which were rather easy for the first two. However by the end nobody had any clue what was going on and pretty much gave up. As it turn out the "comperhensive" common final was only on the last section. It was out of 100 points I think and I maybe got 40. There must have been a large curve as I ended up with a C in the class. No thanks to Chivens. He even skipped the teacher evaluation at the end which made me rather mad as I wanted to let the ME department know how bad this guy is. All in all this class was a waste of time and money. I would have rather worked with the tutors on my own time and shown up to take the final.

Simply put Chivens is not a good choice for dynamics. He bumbles through the problems after he spends 45 minutes out of 50 on the "theory" behind them. Midterms were easy after doing/trying all the homework. Final was very difficult. If you have to take this class, take another instructor, if you can't do that, then get in a study grp with 2 or 3 other people.

Gotta get this guy! Seriously unbelievable experience. Now I get why grades are dumber than bridges and stuff working.

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