Cooke, Terry  

Mechanical Engineering

2.86/4.00

14 evaluations


ME 211


Sophomore
N/A
Required (Support)
Feb 2009
Terry's an awesome professor. Though he does have a bit of a spelling problem - "strait" lines anyone? He's pretty laid back and approachable. Heck, he still looks and acts like a grad student. He covers the material well and stops for questions if you have them during class. You have quizzes every week or so that are pass/fail which can be a real bummer if you almost got the right answer but did a stupid algebra error. He does let you make corrections to your quizzes to get half credit back, which is nice. The midterms are pretty difficult, but he gives you partial credit [half of your points are from the Free-Body-Diagrams]. Homework is assigned everyday [3-4 problems for every day of class] and due once a week. Be prepared to work hard - it's statics after all - and be prepared to get lost finding his office.


Freshman
A
Required (Major)
Feb 2010
I am not a fan of Terry Cooke. He admits that he teaches just for the money, and this attitude really reflects in his unenthusiastic, let\'s-get-this-material-done-as-fast-as-possible-so-I-can-go-home approach. I don\'t know about you, but I find it difficult to learn in a class where the teacher isn\'t interested in his or her own subject. The material is difficult enough as it is; it shouldn\'t require much more energy to overcome the teacher\'s boredom. Also, Cooke\'s grading method is questionable: you either get the question right or wrong. There is no partial credit, even for stupid algebra errors (and ironically, he makes plenty on the board). On the plus side, Cooke\'s explanations are adequate, his knowledge is substantial, and he is helpful during office hours. He also curves the final hugely despite the ME department\'s internal conflict on how to adjust class scores. Bottom line: I don\'t recommend Cooke, but there are many worse teachers.


Sophomore
B
Required (Major)
Mar 2010
Cooke does well at explaining the material but can be a dick a lot of the times. I heard he is nicer at his office hours but I did not go. What brings him to a bad evaluation score is his way of grading and running the class. His quizzes are either 0/10 or 10/10 and sometimes on multi-part ones you can get 5/10. However he does let you turn in corrections for half credit. But it doesnt help much because he crunches you SO hard on time that pretty much everyone gets 0/10s first time around. My quiz average at the end of the class was like a 5.5/10 because I got 0s on almost all the first time. The first midterm was easy for me and i got 100/100. It was only two problems :/ The second midterm, I got 65/100. HW, I got 8 or higher on all assignments. And I got a C on the final. My final point grade was a C+ but Cooke curved the class to get me a B+ in the end. He doesnt tell you his curve though so you\'ll probably get a better grade in the end than you might think you\'re gonna get halfway through the class. I thought I was going to get a C halfway...


Sophomore
C
Required (Support)
Apr 2010
When he says do hw. Do the hw! it will be your best friend. Also his grading policy for 211 kinda sucks but it is fair. its either 0/10 or 10/10 and w/ quiz correction you can get a 5/10 so it definatly helps to do your hw to get a 10/10 on the quizes. Quizes are a huge portion of your grade almost the same as if you had a third midterm. He is a great professor, lecture notes are very organized, his spelling could be better but honestly we all suck at spelling so it really doesnt matter. you can still clearly understand what he is tryng to say. Awesome teacher just a tough grader. def recommend him to anyone else. his 212 class has a totally different grading policy, one that will benefit you.


Sophomore
B
Required (Support)
Apr 2010
Terry is one of the best professors I have had so far. His lectures are extremely thorough and really help with the homework. He makes sure to go over problems very similar to the homework. You have weekly quizzes that are all or nothing but he gives you the opportunity to correct your quiz for half credit. So don\'t freak out if you get a 0/10 on the quizzes the first time around. He really pushes you for time on the quizzes and midterms but it only benefits you when you get to the final. If you ever have trouble with anything go to his office hours and he will be more than willing to help you. I went almost every week and he would always take the time to explain the question and would make sure I was understanding the material. Overall, he made what was a tough class very interesting and I learned the material extremely well. I plan to take him again if I can.


Sophomore
F
Required (Major)
Jun 2010
I took this professor during winter of 2009. This man is a tool and has no idea of the students overall understanding of the material. He is ignorant and does not even wince at student difficulties. All the posts below me who claim that Cooke is excellent are natural geniuses (probably people who should honestly be going to more challenging schools like Cal Tech instead of screwing us ordinary people who tend to learn things at a slower pace. No offense but I really feel this way)whom cannot relate to the average intelligent but hard-working student. The man is terrible at responding to emails and fails on his part to give assistance to students. Needless to say I failed his class in the winter and retook the class with Prof. HP in the Spring: a MUCH better choice for statics (although for dynamics you may wish to find a better teacher as I hear he tends to fall behind in the material). I passed the class with a C in the end. Although joining a study group and hearing the same material the second time around may have helped, I realized that Cooke missed some very key points in the lecture and FAILED to give any sort of tip or guide to follow when solving each type of statics problem. Statics is a cornerstone class which weeds out true engineers from non-engineers but it should be passable given the student makes an effort to learn the material. Take my word and do not take this guy. We are not paying $20,000 a year to have some guy lecture from an already written text but to actually help us LEARN the material by TEACHING. Cooke fails in all aspects of teaching statics.


Sophomore
C
Required (Major)
Jan 2011
I took him for statics, i thought he prepared us well even thought it was obvious he didnt give a shit about you, he is definately one of the better statics/dynamics teachers, i had shaw for dynamics and cooke seemed like a god to him, even though he seems(is) to be a douchebag, if you fail this class with this teacher its simply because you dont put in the time(like the idiot below me) i studed 40 hours for the final and got a c, but i definately learned the material well, just messed up on the final, seems class average was a d up until the final, because he doesnt curve until after the class, but if you go in office hours and show him your trying you wont fail


Junior
N/A
Required (Support)
Feb 2011
Do not take Terry Cooke. His grading policy is inconsistent and unpredictable. He claims that no partial credit will be offered (quizes are only 10 or 0 and you can turn it back in for a 5), but on random quizes throughout the quarter he decides to award partial credit on a subjective basis. He does not set certain checkpoints from which to award partial credit, but rather gives you an arbitrary score out of 10 without marking where he took off points. Further, he often decides to award "leniency" points if you happened to show some specific (usually trivial) step in the solution. His lecture slides are full of errors and he occasionally gets lost or confused in a problem and just decides to move on. His attitude toward teaching is extremely self centered. He seems to smugly enjoy knowing more than his students. Cook is a terrible excuse for an educator.


Sophomore
A
Required (Major)
Mar 2011
Super hard midterms and a lot of homework but overall chill guy and the final is super easy since the class is so hard.


Sophomore
B
Required (Support)
Dec 2011
Cooke is the man. I'm not gonna lie. I struggled a bit with his class but that wasn't his fault. He explained everything clearly and goes through a lot of good examples. I legitimately thought I was gonna fail the class. I went into the final with a 69 and got around a 66 on the final. I ended up with a B- for the quarter. Cooke is a great teacher and I'm taking him again for ME 212 'cause I liked him so much.

ME 212


Sophomore
B
Required (Support)
Jun 2010
Cooke is a jackass, but he really prepares you. You will most likely be failing the entire time and paranoid of failing the class which is good because it makes you work that much harder for the final. If you want to be stressed, worried about your grade, but actually come out understanding the shit take this guy.


Sophomore
A
Required (Major)
Apr 2011
I don't understand why so many people seem to dislike Terry. He's a really good professor. It's true that his midterms are pretty hard - I got an 81 on the first one (avg of around 50-55) and then a 60 on the next one (avg around 55 again). However, he ends up curving the class a lot and I jumped from around 70% to an A in the class. Plus, he's not an asshole. He's actually pretty nice and funnier than a lot of other professors I've had. His quizzes were tough. He'll pass them out face down, and make everyone wait until the clock strikes the next minute while sitting there with a big ol' smirk. And then your average will be about 50% in total... but it all gets curved. In terms of teaching ability, I can't think of any other class where I came out of it feeling as though I knew the basic material as well as in his class. He's a boss. Basically, if you do homework and do lots of practice problems you'll be fine.


Sophomore
B
Required (Support)
Apr 2012
It's a shame that people take out their hatred for ME 211/212 on Terry. Anyone who says that Statics/Dynamics is easy is either a genius or lying: these two classes are much more difficult than anyone imagines them to be. But that doesn't change the fact that Terry is really a very solid professor who communicates material well and does a fantastic job of answering questions both during lecture and office hours. I'll admit that the grading policy for ME 211 is REALLY bad (seriously, read the comments below), but everything ends up coming out in the curve. Take these classes very, very seriously.

COMS 900


Junior
A
General Ed
Nov 2016
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