Battles, Ralph  

Ralph is a good man, but a poor teacher. He passes throught topics without clearly explainig. If you plan on taking him be sure to keep up on the reading. He is very down to earth and has a great out look on grades (which can help you in the end) if you show interest. He might just be too smart to teach. Go with another professor if you have the option.

I had to retake this class after failing the first one and Battles was way easier than the first teacher I took. He didn't really cover everything you need to know for the tests so I just studied for the test from the book and didn't even look at my notes. His tests are mostly multiple choice with some word problems which always include something exactly like the homework that he has you turn in on the days of the tests which help cushion the grade a lot. Also, he has an amazing grading scale because I think a 47/75 was a B- on the first test when normally that should work out to a D-. His test questions are pretty fair-you might want to check out some old tests to get an idea of how they are. Anyway, he;s cool entertaining-take him!

His tests were really fair and he clearly identified what was going to be on the tests. He kept class interesting and the workload wasn't too much.

This class was pretty cake, anyone with a basic knowledge of financial concepts will do well. I took Battles because I sure as hell wasn't going to take that A-hole Gorman. I highly recommend buying a financial calculator, the A is worth the money.

This teacher is the best teacher to take for this course. His lecture will put you to sleep, but his class is easier than Gorman or Weatherford's class. The second test is hard so make sure you study hard for that one. Good Luck!

I took Prof. Battles for 342 only to regret it tremendously. If you want to learn nothing, take battles. Getting a high score isn't difficult. Battles is easy paced, laid back and very monotone. As far as academics is concerned, Battles will 'in a nut-shell' show you how to use the basic functions of a financial calculator, but will give you no intuition as to what is really going on.

RALPH BATTLES IS A SHITTY TEACHER FOR FINANCE. HE NEEDS TO BE OFF IN SOME FUCKING REAL ESTATE OFFICE DISCUSSING FANNIE MAES. TAKE A REAL PROFESSOR THAT WILL ACTUALLY TEACH YOU SOMETHING

Professor Battles presents finance in a "real world" way. He does not force you to memorize countless formulas that can be done in seconds using a financial calculator. Ask anyone in the profession and they will tell you they rely on a financial calculation 99% of the time. He is always willing to help in office hours and is very personable. I would recommend Professor Battles to anyone.

Battles doesn't explain anything about finance or how to do the problems. His tests are nothing like the book and you have to remember like 20 formulas before you take them. He expects you to study 30 hours the week before for each test to do good. That's how much time you need to prepare for the exams, because you're only learning from the book and the book is incoherent. Unless you already know a lot about finance or want to learn from the book, take Weatherford or someone else.

I recommend Dr. Battles to everyone! Basically, Dr. Battles wants you to learn and will help you do so, but if you don't care about Finance then you won't struggle in his class quite as hard as you will in other professor's courses. My concentration is in Finance and so I actually tried to learn the material and did well in the class. However, if you really want to gain some finance knowledge then I would recommend Dr. Gorman- he will teach you whether you like it or not, but you will have to work hard to get a passing grade. BUT, if your interests do not lie so heavily in the financial world, take Dr. Battles...he is a nice guy, he will help you if you need it, and he realizes that BUS 342 is a REQUIRED class for all BUS majors, and he therefore cuts his students a little more slack than some of the other teachers. GOOD LUCK!

Battles is a great person. He really cares and tries to help his students. He is always avaliable during office hours and loves to fix any problems the student may have. He gives you a great knowledge base to take into other finance classes.

Professor Battles is probably the nicest teacher in the COB. He still says hi to me though I took his class ages ago. His class was kind of hard for me since I hate finance, but it did give me just enough information I needed for my concentration. I think that if people say to take Gorman because you will learn more, that doesn't have to be true. It's all what you put into it, and you can learn a lot in this class.

Battles knows his stuff therefore tends to do a lot of steps in his head when he lectures on the board. I was failing the class was about to drop it toward the end of the quarter when my friend told me that going to his office hours really helps. That was so true! I only wish I had started going to his office hours earlier. I'm almost 100% sure I could've grabbed an "A" instead of a "C" if I had. GO TO HIS OFFICE HOURS! He is really ready to work with students on an individual basis. And he actually cares about how his students are performing.

Battles is a great person!!, unfortunatelly he is not a great professor. I would recomend him to everybody NOT concentrating in finance. His class requieres hard work.. however it is not impossible to pass the class. This guy really cares about students...if you are completely lost go to his office hours.. he will help you SOOOOO much... I think he teaches better in his office than in class. If you have trouble with the spreadsheet problems he will pretty much do it for you..... GET A FINANCIAL CALCULATOR... IT DOES MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Professor Battles is a great professor and an asset to Cal Poly. He is very high strung at times but all you need to do is ask him to slow down and he is more than willing. Most students don't ask and so therefore he goes pretty quick. He know Finance very well and does most of the steps in his head but all you need to do is ask him to clarify. He is very helpful in his office hours too!!! He doens't require a Finacial Calculator but GET ONE!!!! They will help you out sooooo much. The test and midterm are very similar to problems he has done in class. He doesn't mess around with any trick questions. Also the spreedsheet problems seem like a pain in the ass but you end up learning quite a bit. Definitly would recommend him to anyone.

He's a nice enough guy, but he's a little cocky and assumes that you already know this stuff. It's also bullshit that it's all financial calculator stuff. It's mindless work and you don't actually learn much. If you want to learn finance, don't take Battles

Battles, battles, battles..if the name doesn't give you a hint..take it from me DO NOT take his class- He seems like a cool guy that would rather be out mountain biking than half ass teaching all day. He recommends that you study for at least 20 hours for each test but in reality you'll need about 30 hours. His tests always take the allotted two hours and he assigns 2 spreadsheet problems that do not grade on effort sooo..If you get the worng answer, no points are given. His lectures are always based around this one calculator he uses, so its pretty much pointless coming to class when the calculators come up. To top it all off-he's totally sensitive.He made a point to stop class because I had to leave early and tell me how rude I was. and dont get me started about talking in class.. With a challenging course like finance, you need some motivation and Battles just doesn't do that.

I really like this professor,he does not come off as all high and mighty. He's a laid back teacher who cares about his students. I have him this quarter and will be in his class in the spring because he presents the material in a simple way that makes you feel anyone can do it. I was worried about finance because i heard it can be really hard with some teachers but after taking him, i realized i should concentrate in Finance.

Professor Battles is probably the best teacher to take for finance - unless you're a finance major. I dont feel that he adequately covered material that a finance major would need for future classes. However, for the basic student this is a great class. You get the basics, and he focuses more on concepts that can really be applied, rather than the theoretical aspect of finance. His grading scale is great. 87 = A, low 70's = B, and for those that just want out his C range starts at about 60. This scale doesnt exist to offset extremely hard tests or anything - his tests are, in my opinion, VERY easy. Not difficult to get an A at all. Take him? Depends on what you're looking for.

Battles' class is okay. You really have to be willing to learn the info yourself and have the time to do the problems, but his tests are fair and curves the class at the end. There's two midterms (75 points each), 2 spreadsheet problems (25 points each) and a final worth 50 points which was nice because you didn't have to stress about the final that much. He's kinda wierd but overall you learn the material and its not hard to get an A or a B. He's willing to help and always lets you out 10 minutes early. I would defintely take him over Goreman (howeve you spell it)

This guy is totally WEIRD. I've seen this guy have like mental break downs when people leaves his class. There is something very mentally unstable about the guy. To add to that he makes a horrible leacturer. He goes off on tangents. Does alot of nervous rambling. And he does the classic, jump into something with out giving any foundation.

Very good and fair professor. He does everything he can to give you a good grade. He is helpful at office hours and during the lectures. I would highly recommend taking this 342 with him.

Battles is definitely not the worst teacher that I've had at our wonderful college, but that is not saying too much with gems like Biggs in the midst of the university staff. He is a really nice guy, but his teaching is less than stellar. He tries not to fail people or even give D's so if you show up and do decently you are guaranteed to pass this class with a good solid C. Other than that this class is really boring and you probably will not learn much (which is ok if you're not into this stuff).

Battles.....battles.....battles....Now although i didn't learn as much as i could have from other BUS 342 teachers, i thought this class was somewhat beneficial. Yes, battles didn't teach out of the book. And yes, he wasn't clear about what was important and not important. And yes, he didn't help as much as he could have during his office hours. And, his lectures were absolutely dry. You guys can complain about how much u didnt learn the material and what not, but please don't complain about his grading. He presented ALL the material that was on the tests during his lectures(if u stuck around you would have realized it). The examples ran through during class were very similiar to tests problems. And since he's retiring this quarter(or not teaching 342) i'm sure everyone will miss the guy. :)

Super easy 342 teacher...would definitely recommend since the class is curved heavily! I averages 70's on tests and I got a B in the class

This class was not too bad. It was boring, but he was pretty clear and his tests didn't try to trick you. Sometimes he would ramble and it would be hard to follow him, but he does tons of examples so that definitely helps a lot. I think he'd rather be teaching an upper division class so sometimes he would go off on a tangent, but the class wasn't bad at all.

Business majors: A degree for the intellectually impaired, HA HA.

Let me be honest with you. If you actually want to learn anything about finance from this class, DON'T take it with Professor Battles. I just finished this class (spring 2000) feeling frustrated, and quite frankly, pissed off. First of all, Battles doesn't have a Ph.D in finance and with this in mind, he gives you absolutely no intuition as to what's going on. His lectures are somewhat unorganized, and he has a very difficult time not only teaching the material, but doing the problems himself. There were numerous times when either myself or fellow students had to correct his problems. Now I know it seems harsh to blatently 'rip' on Battles, but I'm just being honest and trying to help you out. I didn't learn anything from this class and I plan to sit in on Dr. Cyrus Ramezanis' Bus 431 next quarter. Numerous students who have taken Cyrus told me that he is a great instructor who knows and teaches finance really well. Dr. Gorman is also a great professor who knows really knows finance. Bottom line: if you want to actually learn something (espically finance), while at Cal Poly take GORMAN and CYRUS. They both have Ph.D's and they both really know what's going on.

Frankly anyone interested in learning, and I mean learning to the point of understanding Finance, not just passing a class, should NOT even consider taking this course with professor Battles. While he is a genuinely nice individual, he has no reason to be teaching any Finance class let alone a 400 level Security Analysis course. His lectures are unstructured, pointless and actually set me back in my Finance training. If you are looking to get frustrated, loose ground in your education and waste a finance class, take this course, however, if you are interested in learning and mastering Finance and pursuing a well respected high paying job in the field of Finance, then you should see Dr. Gorman and Dr. Ramezani. I CANNOT recommend Battles teaching to anyone (regardless of major) whatsoever for Bus 431.

Yea, the curve helped bring my grade up, but Battles is the worst teacher I've EVER had!!!! I think most of the class knew more acout finance that he does (he even said it a few times.) I took Gorman (despite the horror stories) for 2 other finance classes before this one and was used to the prof. actually teaching you! This class threw me for a loop and I basically taught myself the course from the book because Battles really can't teach. Wait until you can take this class with Ramizanni.

Ralph Battles is a great person and he tried very hard to teach my finance securities class. However he exposes a signifant hole that exists in the Orfelea buisness program. If you want to take the easy way out take Battles, if you want to actually learn about finance and have a succesful carrer in the field of finance I highly suggest that you take Dr. Larry Gorman. Dr. Gorman may sound hard at first however the tools and concepts he embeds are invaluable and critical to anybody pursuing such a career. Listen to me from experinece you won't learn anything significant by taking the easy way out.

Since this is a real estate class, not just a finance class, it was good to have someone(Dr. Battles) who had participated in the real estate market. The finance end of it was taught well also. Another value-added to Dr. Battles classes was the use of guest speakers. This gives you someone new to interact with; ask a person in the "real world" about various topics. The atmosphere in the class was good. None of that imperious, "I am so smart, and you will bow to my authority" that some profs emit.

Professor Battles is a one of my favorite professors in the College of Business. He knows this subject in and out, and his personal experiences help with the class also. He makes you learn what you NEED to be prepared and sucessful the this area of study. This class will put your BUS 342 skills to work, but after you get through this class, you will be very prepared to dive into any R.E. transaction no problem. This instructor is highly recommended.

Rizzle Bizzle tries to teach, but he cant. He knows what he is talking about, but cant teach it. I took 434 hoping to learn somehthing about Real Estate, not how to do a mortgage in a 3rd World Country. I hear 435 is better if you want to take one or the other. But Im sure he'll continue to stand in front of class and press buttons on his calculator.

I think that many of those that says he cant teach are just to lazy to ask fo help. I've had him for 3 classes and enjoyed each one in the end. Its hard to enjoy a class when you are enrolled but when you finish and reflect you realize you did learn alot. Office hours are a must if you really want to learn the material. You get what you put into this class. Its not very hard if you study the material and show up to class, he pretty much walks you through the hard questions for the spreadsheet in class. 1 quiz 1 mid term and 3 spreadsheets (two due for final). Do as you like because this is just my 2 cents on the class.

Let me tell you about RALPH(as I'll call him since Dr. Battles is too much of a compliment). I've only had one worse teacher at poly and THAT teacher decided to just not show up for a week. Ralph's problem is that he doesn't know how to teach. He knows what he's talking about for 80% of the class(mostly about mortgages), but he seems to assume you already know the majority of the material and he's just repeating it for you. Considering there is no class to prepare you such a way at poly, this is extremely irritating, especially when he doesn't define critical terms. I asked a question once and instead of figuring it out and answering me he referred me to another teacher.. (???) One girl asked a question to clarify his vague lecture and his response was - "What do they call that? When you're my age I think it's a BRAIN FART." Yeah. Everyone's jaw in the class dropped open in shock. He flat out insulted a student! Another issue is that his tone of voice and manner of speaking is the same whether he's talking about his weekend randomly during the middle of class (ADHD?) or lecturing. As far as the coursework. This class is very hard, and I have about a 3.4 gpa so I'm not retarded! The excel assignments he gives have little instruction behind them. He assigned a whole part on CMOs for one of them with talking about 5 minutes on them beforehand.. I spent about 8 hours on that one and it involved a section with 4 nested IF loops! COMPLICATED STUFF! oh yeah, so after that 8 hours I got most of it wrong anyways! haha. I was very much expecting to get a C in the class, but magically pulled a B.. While that pleases me somewhat the fact of the matter is ralph needs to attend school again to renew his teaching credential. As with most bad teachers, ralph is tenured and isn't going to change a thing about his class. If you really want to learn about real estate finance pray someone else teaches it when you want it. AVOID HIM.

Ok so this guy really does not know how to teach, he tries to but thinks that everyone already knows what hes talking about. He knows the material pretty well except for when it comes to tax terms, he comes up with his own words that he uses to describe certain things and for anyone who knows accounting, when you finally figure out what he has been talking about all quarter your pissed off. His excel projects that he gives are so hard and when you try to use the book to follow it, after you turn it in he comes out and says "well i can see a lot of you tried to mimic the book and how the book did this type of problem but you cant do that for this type of problem" so everyone looses points. The tests are usually a few MC and then problems on each of the different types of loans that he talks about. Some times he spends five minutes talking about a certain type of loan then you see it on the test and say to your self WHAT THE F*&@ is he smoking, hes really testing us on something he spent five minutes on. I dont know how i got a B i was expecting a C-. All in all i would not take him again.

Ralph mentions everything you will need to know in class. Tests are extremely fair. The exams actually ended up being a lot easier than I anticipated. If you go to class and do the problems he suggests you will be fine on tests. The spreadsheets are based on problems you work out in class. They take time to put everything in the spreadsheet but are not hard.

I had great expecations going into this class. I was highly interested in learned the topic of Real Estate Finance in order to apply it to my career. However, Battles ruined it for me. This guys speaks Charlie Brown. All you can hear coming out of his mouth is "wa wa wawa, wa wa wa." I guess for those business students who know all of the little terms, tricks, formulas, shortcuts, programs and what not, he might not be a bad teacher. But for someone unfamiliar whith the finance world, DO NOT TAKE THIS GUY. He does not explain anything, he rambles on and on about something nobody even knows what he is talking about, punches in a bunch of numbers on his calculator without telling you what he is doing, and then magically comes up with some answer... and always throws in a surf report or mountain bike story sometime during the class. As far as the grading goes, I'm pretty sure he takes the lowest score in the class and makes it a 'C', which is nice but that doesnt mean I learned anything. I certainly wish I would have taken another class for my minor. I feel as though I wasted my quater listening to this guy's ramble. If you can, steer clear of this guy.

Battles is very versed and informed when it comes to his field, the mortgage industry. He truly has a passion for finance and it shows. It is diffucult to translate years of mortgage experience into two hour sessions and a 10 week curriculum, especially when it takes a liftime of learning. However, Battles does a great job considering most of us are just getting started in the Real Estate sales and mortgage industry. I recommend him highly, but you must understand that you will not learn or understand the material overnight. Be patient and ask a lot of question, battles know the answer, and if he doesnt, he will love to fiind it. He gets a kick out of new knowledge, you can tell. And hes well connected and often passed on leads for job opporunities. take battles.

Battles is a great guy and a good teacher. It pisses me off that other reviews have complained because he uses "finance terms". Damn it, its a 400 level finance class, if you are a Rec major you might have a little trouble, but as a finance major, if you attend every class and go over the home work problems, you should ace the test. It is important to focus on working the home work problems, because the vocab is only a small parts of the exams. The excel problems are possibly the easiest that I have done in any uppper division finance class. If you think his spread sheets are hard, I would recommend avoiding gorman and ramezani at all costs, or maybe switching to marketing.

He is a really interesting guy and his tests were very fair. He doesn’t test on anything not done in class so you don’t need to get the textbook. Two excel projects that don’t take much time. Notes are clear and he really likes real estate and knows what he’s talking about.

This is one of the worst teachers at Cal Poly. He should not be teaching and I don't recommend taking him for any course. Someone needs to take this guy out because he will never quit and never be fired. If anyone wants help taking care of him put out a sign up sheet and I gurantee it will be full of signatures

he sure does like his women, wet!!