Fernando, Ray  

Horrible teacher. He makes the class a lot harder than it needs to be. Each lecture involved him reading off the slides. Occasionally he would pick up chalk and try to diagram something on the board, but he would usually give up half way through his convoluted explanation and tell you to read the textbook. The subject isn\'t bad nor particularly hard, but he can\'t explain even the most basic concepts coherently in class.

As a senior in the Chemistry Dept's Polymer program it surprised me that no one has written an evaluation for the courses Dr. Fernando teaches. He's the Director of the Polymer program so if you want the MS degree you'll have to take his courses at some point. I wish someone had told me more about him before I signed up for the program thinking it was a good way to get a graduate degree. As you may have heard the material in this class is not hard (hence my grade), and the grading policy speaks for itself...but Dr. Fernando isn't very good at teaching the new concepts. I felt like I didn't learn any new material to build on later. Fernando seems like he's more comfortable teaching "industry professionals" not undergrad students, and he is absolutely terrible at (or just does not care about) recognizing when students are struggling. He makes it clear he's not interested in helping you learn. Maybe he should stick to teaching post-docs or whatever.

If you are thinking about getting a Master's in Polymers and Coatings, you had better love paint and shitty instruction. The Chemistry Department overall is pretty phenomenal but the Polymers program sticks out like a sore thumb in its awfulness. It has been a complete waste of my time and every one of my fellow graduate students agree. Someone shook down industry for a million dollars to fund Fernando's salary but his incompetence will astound you and the fact that he is the highest paid professor on campus will make your head spin. What a joke.

Ray Fernando does a poor job managing a classroom. I would not reccomended taking this class unless you're required to.

This guy was hands down the worst professor and man I've ever met. Zhang and costanzo are miles better than him at teaching polymers related material, and are actually human beings. Fernando is unclear on just about everything in the class. He grades based upon his opinion (which fluctuates), he teaches the bare minimum, and when people ask questions he tries to dodge them instead of address them. He is terrible at addressing student needs and I regret staying at Cal Poly for my master's because I had to deal with this man's bullshit to get my degree.

One of my main problems with Dr. Fernando is that he's not really concerned about how he teaches a class and how well students understand it. If you don't get it, it's your fault not his. If you go to office hours, he'll pretty much either try to explain something and fail or he'll laugh and call you stupid. Unfortunately for the students he's in an endowed position and therefore there is no way the faculty could ever get rid of him. One benefit of the Polymers program is if you can make it through, you WILL have a job or get into grad school........

Okay. Let's get some stuff out of the way. Dr. Fernando can be hard to work with. Asking for help or asking why he docked so many points on homework or an exam is an emotional process. He has a slightly demeaning tone and definitely has favorites. All in all, CHEM 450/550 can be a frustrating class. That being said, I would like to say that it actually turned out to be an incredibly interesting class. Spring 2017 was co-taught by Fernando and Sapper, with Sapper doing 1/3 of the class and Fernando doing 2/3, and I think this was a good format. Fernando is a paint/rheology expert, and if you can put away any anger towards him during lecture, the material turns out to be quite interesting. Plus, he has enough industry connections to get anyone a job or internship at the drop of a hat. But enough fluff, let's get down to a survival guide. Tests Fernando's tests aren't necessarily that hard, but they are very specific. Almost all of the information comes from the slides. There is one take-home test, one in-class test, and the final. The take-home isn't that hard, and neither is the in-class exam, but the in-class exam is long. For the in-class exam, don't bother with incredibly long answers; focus on creating concise responses and don't include information that isn't on the slides and wasn't discussed in class even if it's correct (longer answers won't necessarily get you more points, but they will eat up your time). Homework Make sure you answer the question and are thorough in your responses. Behavioral Fernando will make you feel like an idiot at least once during the quarter (or every week/day depending on who you are). However, in a lot of instances, especially in lab, his advice comes with the demeaning tone, so if you can get past the demeaning tone and squeak out a 'thank you Dr. Fernando, that was a mistake and I'll make sure to do whatever it is you said to do in the future', he'll tend to have a more favorable opinion of you. Last notes Despite the stress that comes with CHEM 550/551, the class is interesting, especially with Sapper's new content. It's also a pretty good bonding experience because you've usually been with all of the people in the class the entire year (plus group venting about Fernando is a surprisingly good team-building experience). Being in this class actually made me consider (more) grad school.

I learned that if I were to take up hunting, I should shoot deer, not bears, because a bear will hunt me back if I successfully wound it. Fascinating! I didnt know that the key to production and operations management was so brutally simple!