Cai, Xiaowei  

Agribusiness

2.29/4.00

24 evaluations


AGB 202


Freshman
B
Required (Major)
Apr 2012
She was a super nice person/teacher, and was VERY qualified to teach the class. She was always available in office hours to furthur explaain the material, very approachable and her class was well oranized. I have nothing bad to say about this professor. If you give it the smallest amount of effort, and seek her help when you need it, you will do fine. Her tests are very straight-forwad and she tells you what you need to study. VERY glad I took her.

AGB 212


Sophomore
C
Required (Major)
May 2011
This course was difficult to understand because she has such a heavy chinese accent. She is a very nice lady, and often I felt bad because the class wouldnt participate because nobody could really understand what she was saying. You must print out the notes before class everyday (waste of paper) and she goes over the material very quickly so pay attention! If you know somebody who has taken this class with her then get his/her homework. She uses basically the same problems, which was very helpful. Overall, if you can get a different teacher I would advise doing so because if youre an AGB major, this class is a prereq for a lot of classes.


Sophomore
B
Required (Major)
Oct 2011
She is very monotone and quite frankly, her lectures bored me to death. However, her homework and quizzes were very much help oriented and explained material clearly. DO NOT GET BEHIND ON YOUR ASSIGNMENTS. I kept up with my hw, but if I hadn't I would have been in deep shit come the end of the quarter. Pay attention and ask questions.


Sophomore
B
Required (Major)
Feb 2012
It pains me to make a negative comment on this lady because she is very, very nice and I wish her the best in her future at cal poly. But realistically, this class is too difficult to learn as it is and it doesn't help when you have a professor who has trouble speaking English. Pay attention for all 50 minutes of her class and you'll be lucky to retain 10% of the information she covered.


Freshman
C
Required (Support)
Feb 2012
TAKE HER, SHES GREAT AND REALLY EASY. She lets you have a notecard for the midterm and has open note quizzes and has funny clothes that she wears but she's super sweet. Good lady right here.


Freshman
N/A
Required (Support)
Feb 2012
I am taking her class this quarter and i think she is a great teacher. If you just pay attention in class you will do well. She lets you use a notecard on the midterms which is awesome. Also if you go into her office hours for help on the homework she is very very helpful.


Freshman
N/A
Required (Major)
May 2012
A very BORING class and instructor! Find someone else.


Sophomore
B
Required (Major)
May 2013
If you can understand her accent she really is a great teacher and willing to help you with anything you don't understand. 3 tests, weekly quizzes and homework, and value pulse comment, with a couple opportunities for extra credit. I was a shoo-in for a n A until I messed up on the 2nd midterm but I still got a B+ and never really had to study that much for anything, as long as you go to class you are guaranteed a decent grade. She is a good professor and actually pretty funny even though she doesn't realize it. I would take her again if I had the chance!


Freshman
B
Required (Support)
Mar 2014
I thought Doctor Cai (pronounced Tsi) was an awesome professor. You do have to print out the lecture slides before class, it's about 6-8 pages a class. She teaches off a powerpoint and is really clear (despite her accent) about what she is teaching. She goes through the information very quickly but takes it in baby steps. I found her very easy to understand, she provides industry-relevant examples that accompany a majority of the lectures and makes an effort to answer all questions to her whole ability. There are two midterms, both of which are very do-able. I would recommend taking her for this class.


Sophomore
B
Required (Major)
Dec 2014
Professor Cai is a really kind woman, but sometimes it is hard to understand her over her accent. She knows what she is talking about, but it is hard for her to get it across to the class. There is homework every week, 10 quizzes but she drops the lowest one. 2 midterms each worth 20% and a final work 40%.

AGB 260


Sophomore
B
Required (Major)
Dec 2018
Professor Cai is such a nice lady and I really like her as a person, but her teaching ability is not great. You basically have to teach yourself all the material and she does not understand how we don't learn the material and thinks that it is due to a lack of effort. There is a massive amount of homework that overall is only worth 10% of your grade and incredibly hard in class quizzes that are only worth 10% of your grade. The rest of your grade is based upon 2 midterms that are 30 times harder than the homework and material that she teaches, and theres really no way to prepare yourself for them. If you can take this class with somebody else, I recommend doing that.


Junior
N/A
Required (Major)
Feb 2019
AVOID!!! SHE IS HORRIBLE. you can barely understand her english. I am an A+ student and struggled so much in her class. She blazes thru material and doesn't care if the whole class is lost. She just continues on. Her tests are very hard. The homework just gets piled on.

AGB 308


Junior
B
Required (Major)
Dec 2015
She speaks Chinese, she doesnt know the material so dont ask any questions because she will just give you the answer to get you away from her. You completely have to self teach yourself Finance, finance sucks. Idk who else teaches this class but im sure you can find someone who at least speaks fluent english. This ones a no go.


Junior
A
Required (Major)
Nov 2016
Solid Teacher, knows her stuff and will gladly go over it again with you if you ask. Lets you have a cheat sheet for all the tests. Can't complain


Junior
C
Required (Major)
Dec 2016
As a person she seems nice. Thats where it ends. She does an awful job at teaching, impossible to follow, her notes are so disorganized when she writes on the board. Tests, practice exams, quizzes, and homework are all unrelated...Total waste of time, I didnt learn shit in the class. there was one day where we looked at real stocks. ONE DAY. Garbage class, nothing agriculture about this just like everything else in AGB...Keep your standards low for gaining anything. If you actually put in the 3 hours each homework assignment would require you might get a B...Multiple choice tests where credit is only given you have all the work. So if youre good a process of elimination, well youre fucked...Sorry Dr. Cai is nice but cant explain anything and the class is a waste of time and another AGB class where you learn NOTHING about ag


Junior
N/A
Required (Major)
Dec 2017
Professor Cai is really nice if you go talk to her. Class is boring but she does not lecture on what the online powerpoint shows so you have to be in class to actually get the notes. But class work is a waste of time. The midterms were decent and then BOOM the final was hard as hell, cumulative and weighted 40%.


Junior
B
Required (Major)
Apr 2019
Good luck with this woman. Here's my biggest advice for the final. STUDY ALL OF THE MIDTERMS AND PRACTICE MIDTERMS SHE GIVES. She makes it super confusing by giving you the practice exam for the final with only the material covered in the last part of the class. I shit you not, probably 80% of the students, including me, thought that everything on the practice exam would be on the final and that she wouldn't include anything else (because it wasn't on the freaking practice exam). Its totally cumulative. Other than that, this woman DOES NOT RECOGNIZE STUDENT DIFFICULTIES WHATSOEVER. The whole world revolves around this class. Lord forbid if you get sick or miss class, she will not go over material with you. Also she's terrible at explaining things and I really didn't like her teaching style. Also just a heads up, any class that makes you do work over Pearson is terrible. If the professor can't teach you the material themselves and provide you with relevant coursework, they are lazy. The only good thing about this is that you can just google answers for homework or guess on the questions until they give you answers. The class is easy enough, I just wish it were someone other than Cal teaching it.

AGB 310


Sophomore
N/A
Required (Major)
Dec 2011
i hate to hate on professor cai because shes seriously soooo nice, but shes a crappy teacher. shes extremely smart and qualified to teach this course, but her method of teaching is extremely difficult to follow. she gives u lectures everyday straight from the powerpoint everything is basic and she expects u to just get it ..the material is HARD in agb 310 and not having a good teacher to teach it makes it even harder. she also doesnt curve or anything so .... i love prof cai as a person, seriously shes such a chiller but dont take her class ..its nearly impossible


Junior
C
Required (Support)
Dec 2011
She is a really nice lady. However, she is a terrible teacher. I put A effort into this class, about 20 hours a week, and still got a C+. I'm pretty sure half the class has to re-take this class and if I were you I would not take this class with her. She does not know how to teach and strictly goes off of powerpoint which consists of 10 pages of slides per lecture. Also she uses the Excel program with homework so if you don't have that you are screwed. Take it Credit/No Credit if you have to take this class.


Junior
A
Required (Major)
Dec 2012
Tough class but great professor who truly cares about her students success. DO NOT buy the book nor a calculator. She provides lecture notes to print and take notes on and also in class exercises to save onto your Dropbox to use to study. If you’re not familiar with Excel, I recommend going into her office hours- actually just go because shell walk you through the homeworks. Curves the entire class.


Junior
A
Required (Major)
Aug 2013
Dr. Cai is thoughtful, kind, and caring. She is quite competent with the material and is more than willing to clarify any nagging questions that you have looming. She possesses all of the qualities that one wants in an instructor. Her accent may take time to get used to, but its nothing that should hinder your ability to absorb info. Definitely recommend her.


Sophomore
B
Required (Major)
Mar 2018
Dr. Xiaowei Cai is seriously awesome. Her class is very easy to pass with an A or B as long as you go to class and make sure to submit the online work as on time as well. She cares about her students understanding of the actual material and is totally willing to meet with you outside of class to help students understand. This class is also the same as AGB 308, so working together with them before midterms and finals is very helpful.

AGB 311


Junior
B
Elective
Jun 2014
I had Professor Cai for 310 and 311 and had a very similar experience for both classes, but will focus on 311 as there are few evaluations for it thus far. Professor Cai is nice, but is not flexible if you approach her about grading corrections even if they are reasonable and she is clearly in the wrong. She is a dry lecturer and operates the class on an inverted format where a chapter is taught in this order: 1) you read the chapter online 2) you take an online quiz on that information 3) she lectures about that information in class 4) you do an in class assignment on Excel which gives a more in depth coverage of the material 5) you do a homework on that same material. 311 is nice in that is broken into 2 exams (a midterm and a final) which fall during weeks 5 and 10 and are both equally weighted and non-cumulative. The other added benefit of this is that you do not have a final during finals week and are done with the class a week early. The major downfall of this class is that it has very low demand as an elective class and thusly does not get high enough priority to be taught in a computer lab even though it clearly belongs in one with in class work being done on the computer every day. (We had 8 people in the class in a 40 seat classroom) This means you are expected to bring a working laptop to every lecture. The material is a continuation of the same textbook used for 310 so you do not have to buy the same online Pearson textbook if you take 310 right before. I felt very lost throughout the quarter but her test setup is such that you can do alright even if you do not feel strongly on it. It is 24 questions with 4 questions being thrown out so each question is worth 5 points and the entire test is graded out of a 100 points. (So yes if you get a perfect score is will actually be a 120 out of 100!) All of her questions are multiple choice and she is extremely generous when it comes to partial credit on writing out steps that would have gotten you closer the correct answer if you get it wrong and she gives you full credit if you guess the right answer even if you do not understand how to get it. Overall 311 teaches you some good practical information which is good to know for life situations but it is a lot of information and difficult to understand/retain. Overall unless you are interested in finance there are better 300-500 level elective classes you could take but this one hardly ever fills up if you do not have other options. Most of the students found this class tedious, but it is good information to know and you usually got out early if you knew your stuff on the group in class work.

GEOL 861


Sophomore
A
General Ed
Nov 2016
Prof cried today.... What a weirdo hahahah get a grip of your life.