Brady, Pamalee  

Pamalee is a horrible teacher. During lecture she would go over the same stuff and teach it so poorly. I never learned anything from her and when i went in to her office hours she would never answer questions, but simply avoid them. She is also heartless... i slept in during the midterm and got there with only 10 minutes to go and she only gave me those 10 minutes to take my midterm. She never once tried to help me pass the class and actually laughed at me when i turned in my final... I only passed the class because i studied my ass off for the final.

biatch. now that there is no more ARCE 221 and its now 211 Brady feels like she was just awarded with an additional hour of class that instead of using as a practical lab she can use to for lecturing, quizing and giving a midterm. out of the 10 - 2 hours activity days we had maybe an hour and half where actual activities. the rest of the activities were at home over the weekend. one midterm one final. total seven questions totalling 70 percent of the class. fuck the activity, study for the tests in order to pass the class. and what was already written about her being heartless. average score was 66 on the midterm, and i think she is the only teacher that wouldnt curve that score up. dont take her.

Compared to other professors, she's definitely tough. However, she covers all the necessary material in her lectures to make the homework manageable. If you can do the homework, her weekly quizzes (which count for quite a bit) shouldn't be a problem. With the common final format last quarter, she really over-prepared our class. If you need help, she is more than happy to answer your questions, both in class and during office hours. She is probably one of the nicer professors I've come across in my time here and I've got to wonder how others (below) got the impression they did.

While I was really scared reading these polyratings, Brady is actually a pretty decent instructor. She hand selects her homework problems (and doesn't assign very many). During lecture, she not only teaches the concept, but will then do an example which will be a lot like the problems on the homework and exams. In activity, you will work through problems in groups for most of the two hours, rather than learning new material or making complex cardboard models. Her tests are not just like her homework, but if you go to class and do the homework, they are pretty manageable. At least for 212, she is a good professor to take.

Read through this page and you will get the impression that Pamalee Brady is the embodiment of the world's evil in ARCE professor form. Looking at PASS, you'll see that her sections are usually the last to fill up, if at all, while sections taught by other professors at the same time might be have a waitlist in the double digits. However, in my experience of taking her for ARCE 212, I feel that her teaching warrants little of the negativity that others have directed at or said and written about her. Though she is not a stellar professor who might inspire her students about the wonders of structures, she nevertheless teaches the course adequately, probably no worse than any other ARCE professor. This has led me to believe that the majority of Polyratings are written by disgruntled students as an outlet to whine about the grades that they earned. The course consists of very conventional lectures with diagrams and calculations. Lectures are fairly coherent, though it is not always clear how the concept being taught will be applied until after the entire process has been explained. Homework is assigned weekly and consists of four to seven problems taken from the course textbooks but with numbers slightly modified. Assignments take about three to six hours per week, but are mercilessly graded. Activity usually involves a handout with a multi-step problem incorporating concepts from the week's lecture. Both midterms are three problems. Study guides are posted for both, so there are no surprises.

Step one to having a bad quarter with Pamalee Brady: calling her anything other than Pamalee. Especially not Pam, PamBam, PamaBamaLee or any variation there of.

Professor Brady was a great instructor. I think she taught the course material very clearly and straight to the point. I liked that she assigned work at the beginning of the quarter so we knew exactly what was due and when so that we could plan for it. Her office hours are very helpful and I utilized them often.

im still currently taking brady but so far she has been an awful instructor. she told us to study stress and statics for one quiz but it was all about strain and deflection. the class consistantly finds her making errors in her equations and explainations. she assigns good homework problems...a few difficult and a few average...but it makes it hard when she doesn't teach the relevent lesson. She's a new teacher who knows what she's talking about but doesn't know how to teach it, yet.

She's an OK teacher but she seems to confuse herself as well as the class. She often will make errors in her own calculations on the board and then go back at the end when she realizes it was wrong and then somehow it's still wrong but, no...wait, it is wrong. Needless to say she can be really hard to follow. Also, she does extremely easy examples on the board and then the homework is extremely hard. Be prepared for that. Also, even if the whole class gets the whole problem wrong she won't adjust the grade. Partial credit on problems in exams, quizzes or homework is possible, but hard to get. Her questions/problems are also very unclear. IF YOU ARE NOT 100% SURE WHAT SHE'S ASKING THEN ASK HER. Sometimes that doesn't help eiher though. I was getting a B in the class up until the final, studied hard, misunderstood two of the 4 questions and got a 41% on the final and passed the class with a D-. I talked o her about my final and I found some of my mistakes to be simple ones and others to be the fact that she wasn't clear. She wouldn't change my grade at all whn I explained how her question could have been better worded or explained why the question was unfair because it could be interpreted several ways. She is very good about her office hours and is very patient if you have the extra time. Good luck.

I didnt have the greatest experience in this class with Pam. It wasn't bad, but I think it could have been better with any other teacher. I ended up with a B-, which isn't a bad grade, but i felt like a deserved better. Pam grades very harshly on test, quizes, and whoever the hell the grader is for homework, that's graded a little too strictly also. My biggest problem with Pam was her lack of interest in helping students. maybe it was just me, but whenever I went into her office, she seamed annoyed. Perhaps I just had a bad experience in this class. I dont think she is a bad teacher, just had a little trouble helping with student difficulties.

Brady is not a professor that i would recommend to anyone. She does not take an active role in the development of her students. She doesnt seem to have a grasp on where the class is, and is not very good at delivering the material. There is not very much homework assigned, but it is graded very harshly, an doesnt serve as a tool to improve your grade. The same is true of the quizes and tests, which are very difficult, and are not nessasarily linked to the current material in the class. She does not do reviews in class. And in the extra sesions for the reviews she does not expain anything new. She mearly gives you examples of possible test questions, but she does not give you the answers, making it impossible to know for sure if you did it right or not. The few times that i tried to meet her durring her office hours, she never showed up. when i emailed her, it took a week for her to respond. Please heed this warning: DO NOT TAKE HER CLASS!!!

Avoid. Not a good teacher. Pamalee Brady I believe is not worth the money that I spend to go to Poly. I felt like she was not aware of whether the class was with her or not during lectures. It doesn't surprise me at all that others have said she has confused herself and misgraded. I have been told incorrect information and given a wrong answer to a problem during her office hour. How can a teacher have a masters from Berkeley and be as clueless as her students, or even more so. I do feel however that her tests were fair and that she prepared us somewhat for them. I got B's on my tests but never completed the homework. I guess I got too used to late grades. oh well. I don't feel like she knows her material well enough to teach and I would rather hang around a smelly outhouse than experience this woman again.

Pamalee is really good at lecturing; she presents 4-5 pages of new material every day, but she gives lots of examples and handouts to help. She has a few in-class activities that help with concepts--no big deal. She doesn't even have a textbook! It's recommended, but we had 2 readings all quarter, and they were exactly the same as her lecture. Just use the book on reserve and save some money. She didn't give out much homework, which would have helped me understand the topics better (especially for the midterm--the class average was 65). Get a big binder for all the handouts and notes. The final project is cool, but leave a few days for the calculations.

I am a architecture student, and design professors can be very critical of your work, but I have yet to meet a professor as inconsiderate as Brady. I have never felt as discouraged to go to office hours as I did in her class. The two times that I attmepted to go to her office hours and brought questions about assignments I was met with sarcastic comments from her. She did not seem to be concerned with how well the class was understanding the material. Ironically enough, she would ask if everyone understood what she had just presented, and when only one or two students raised his/her hand, she moved on regardless. I would recommend avoinding her class if at all possible.

Probably the worst teacher ever. As the previous entry mentions she does a horrible job recognizing student difficulty. Numerous times during the quarter she would take a survey to see how many people understood the material and when one or two people raised their hands she pretty much didn't care at all and continued to move on with the lecture. She does do a good job patronizing her students. We basically did one model which was the final project so that was sucky. And her grader or she does a remarkable job docking points on all the homework assignments. In conclusion, shes a douche bag.

She has absolutely no consideration for student needs. The averga grade for her midterms is FAILING and her office hours are during studio so arch students cant even go! She will make your life harder than it needs to be! Avoid!

Pamalee knows what she's talking about, however, the problem with her teaching comes when she's trying to convey that information to the students. She's forgetful and jumps all over the place with her notes, only confusing the students. She's helpful in her office hours, but they were only during times the majority of her students had class and would not make any exceptions. Her quizzes are deceptively easy, and her homework and tests are much harder than anything you will do in class or in practice. All three of her sections had an average failing grade for the midterm, and she actually made fun at one of her sections for their low average. She assigns way too much homework for the three units the class was worth. Her grading is the worst! She takes off loads of points for the simplest mistakes, and is very stubborn and will not give them back even when justified. She's a terrible professor and should be avoided at all costs.

I have currently gone about 36 hours with zero sleep and I have slept approximately 6 hours in the last three days. I am doing the project for this class at 1 in the morning. This class has fucked me over so hard. As an architecture student, I have needed to pull more allnighters than ever before because of this stupid structures class that doesn't leave time for studio. If you want to feel like you will literally die take this class with Pamalee. Why have sex when this class fucks you over every day.

If you had good 211 and 212 professors like i did, (Jill and Nuttall) Pamalee is a major let down. I had to grind my ass off to get this grade for a 3 unit class. She's pretty condescending in her office hours as well as unfriendly and unhelpful. She seems to be annoyed at the fact that she has to teach these mid-level classes to non-arces, and her grading system was wack on the midterm and the class had a failing average to be curved at the end of the quarter which is highly stressful. Avoid her class.

Pamalee Brady is probably the worst human being I have ever met in my life. This woman does not know how to teach at all let alone know how to grade. Taking ARCE 226 probably caused me to become more stupid and probably loose 400 braincells throughout the quarter. Her grading doesn’t make sense at all and will NOT give partial credit. When you ask her for help she will scoff at you if you don’t remember something from three quarters ago and will tell you to teach yourself because that’s the best way to learn EVEN if you don’t know how to do it. I honestly don’t know how she still teaches at Cal Poly and why they waste money paying her. This woman gives unfair exams that are literally impossible for the whole class to finish. If you get one tiny part on homework wrong she will give you an F. Her project is absolutely ridiculous and assigns a huge model during final review season so you will not sleep Throughout the quarter I became depressed and got anxiety again because of this class. If you value your education, mental health, sanity, brain cells, time, learning how to actually stabilize a building, someone who doesn’t scoff at you, and not wasting your tears crying every night, do not take Pamalee Brady. If you go into her office hours she will make you feel awful and you will probably cry after. Honestly, if she’s the only option, switch majors, move schools, or wait however long to take this class with a different teacher. You’re welcome.

O Pamalee. She is really an awful professor. This class (steel lecture) was taught by two professors. Her, and Kevin Dong. Having this setup made it even MORE obvious how lacking she is as a professor. We learned more from Kevin than her, and to top it off, she would show up and write a test for the class after Kevin had taught for two weeks, and OF COURSE it was on something that either Kevin barely glossed over, or didn't teach at all. When she lectured we learned nothing. When Kevin lectured, we learned a new topic, learned how/where to find it in the steel manual and did an example. She really is a terrible professor. Pray you never have her. The one person who made the comment about her not being that bad, is a hardcore asskisser who is full of crap. Look at ALL of her grades on this. EVERYONE IS FAILING HER. With legitimate reasons. She is an awful, unfair, and generally bitchy professor.

Nothing to say that hasn't been said.

Pamalee is a very nice person, just not a good teacher. Her examples are so basic and simple compared to the tests -- where we all got screwed. Her grading is very fair, though. The course load is medium. I think she is too academic to teach a practical, real-world course, and we get lost along the way.

Pamalee is extremely disorganized when it comes to lecture. She does not present the material in a clear manner. If I could give you advice, it would be to not take her. You will pass the class with no problem but you wont learn a thing. If I could give Pamalee advice, it would be to first learn the material before trying to teach it and more importantly, dont teach a class if you dont care to learn the material! Hope this helps! If you are still wondering if you should take her, just ask around the labs. Everyone should agree!

The thing with Pamalee is that she must be intelligent since she has her Ph. D. I think this is where it stops, though. I had her for ARCE 371 as well and what people have said about that is true--she lectured almost the full three hours every single day. 'Work days'? I think not. If you're male, you have an even better chance of passing. Being a female who asked questions, I was screwed from the beginning in 371 and then had to take her for Timber. It was by the grace of God that I passed that class. If you're female, the best way to deal with her is to lay low and ask the guys she helps about material you don't understand. Try not to ask her questions, she'll give you a different answer every time. BIGGEST ADVICE!!!! On a midterm, quiz, anything of that sort, if something doesn't seem particularly clear, ASK HER WHAT SHE WANTS!!! I cannot tell you how may times I got marked off because I had no freaking idea what she was asking. But even in asking her about it, you're taking risks...she loves the power trip of being able to not tell you if she doesn't want to. JUST GET THROUGH IT!!! Avoid if possible...but she's tenure so she's not going anywhere.

This is the second time that I have had Pamalee, and I still cannot say anything good about her. She is unorganized during lecture, takes the first ten minutes to set up the projector/laptop and attempts to make the students peer teach on the subjects that she fails at teaching. When the class unanimously fails a class, it is the classes fault, and apparently the only solution is telling us and nailing us with more group work (basically teach each other this topic, because she failed at it). Basically, the best advice for Pamalee- don't take her. She's a bad professor and she honestly doesn't belong at Cal Poly.

She's not the worst. She talks very clearly. She also reads from the powerpoint and basically nobody takes any notes. The homework was long as fuck this quarter. It sucked but it did teach me more than she taught us. It's not like she didn't teach us. It was just kinda vague since she always assumed we knew more than we knew? She's super nice though. I went to her office hours and she's pretty patient. I don't hate her; I just am not a big fan of her homework. Her quizzes are straightforward. She gave extra credit a couple times. She doesn't really give curveballs.

I am not sure, from the sound of it Pamlee has really changed a lot since I found nothing of the negative true. I am also one of the first to take the new ARCE 315 & 316 series so maybe that makes a difference. In any case I found her lectures informative and made homework and the tests easy to understand. When I did have questions on HW or models she was very helpful in her office hours. I noticed a lot of people with poor grades venting. Come on sleeping through your midterm does not make her heartless, she is only being fair to everyone else. I am president of my majors club and I had to miss an hour of her class once a week and she was very understanding and would even save me the days hand outs for when I should up. She even joked with me about it saying things like, the test is Tuesday, make sure you are there. Heartless I think not.

I am in her class this quarter. I have her midterm tomorrow. I am taking a study break to come on here and bring her "polyrating" down even lower than it already is. Cause she sucks. All the negative stuff on this page is totally accurate. The person who had a positive experience is full of it. This lady sucks. We have homework due tomorrow that has nothing to do with the material on the midterm tomorrow. We asked her to change the due date of the homework for that reason, but she refused. Cause she sucks.

WORST ARCE PROFESSOR EVER!!! The first day I remember thinking to myself, wow, she seems so organized, I think I\'m really going to like her. BOY, WAS I WRONG. First of all, she over-annunciates and repeats ever other word, like she\'s talking to mentally disabled children. Second, she acts like you\'re completely stupid if you go to office hours and scoffs if you dare say the wrong answer. Homework is awful, she\'ll mark you down for every single thing, and make up rules as she goes, like oh, you should have had a diagram...minus 10 points!! She is the most anal professor I have ever had, not in a good way at all! I suggest you do not take this teacher at all if you want to live through another quarter.

If I could compare this woman to a fictional character it would be Dolores Umbridge from Harry Potter. She always assumes your a devious underhanded naughty child whenever you try to ask her a question or get points you deserve on hw or quizes. Her lectures are pretty much her reading to you from a text book yet you are still unprepared for hws and quizes. Everytime there is an extensive hw assignment you will struggle with it for days and want to rip your hair out and then an hour before its due she will email you instructions on how to do it because she hasn\'t taught it to you yet. This happened 3 or 4 times this quarter. She gets pleasure from saying no to honest requests and insults you when you ask her questions in office hours.

I had read previous ratings of this professor and was hesitant to enroll, but I am glad I decided to take her class. Pamalee's lectures are clear and understandable. The assignments are straightforward, and all of the information is available on PolyLearn. She gives great example problems, and gives a lot of credit for homework and in-class assignments, which is great if you are a poor test-taker. She is very knowledgeable, especially about concrete design, and I honestly don't understand why she has such low ratings on this site.

Pamalee is not only a bad professor, she is a bad person. She is really mean and makes fun of her students when they don't get something right away. She is not helpful at all when it comes to clarifying doubts and questions, and she really does not present the material well at all. She is also ruthless when it comes to grading exams and projects. Honestly, if you have the option, don't take her because she is truly horrible.

I never expected to struggle so much in structures. This class was by far the most confusing structures course I have ever taken. The material itself wasn't difficult to learn, but that way that the material was conveyed was completely ineffective. On top of that, anytime I or anyone asked a question, there was attitude loaded into the answer making us (me) feel as if 1) I was already supposed to know it 2) as if it had been explained a multitude of times already 3) honestly just dumb for not knowing it. This made me not want to ask questions in class or going to office hours in fear of being ridiculed. In the Final review in class today, there were a few questions asked in class and 2 of the 3 topics that were vaguely covered were followed with "oh but this is not going to be asked of you on the final" what kind of review is that! I'm not ripping on Pamalee because of my "poor" grade. I still passed with a grade I wasn't happy with, but nonetheless, passed. She just makes you feel stupid and if you can avoid to take her, AVOID IT.

I feel the material of the course was not difficult to understand but the way it was taught to us made the course one I thoroughly struggled with. I ask myself how I am able to understand the work and concepts and still manage to have a poor grade. When asking questions in class, Pamalee will make you feel dumb for not knowing the answers already. When going to office hours, something I was quickly discouraged to do, it seemed as if she didn't seem to have any sympathy or time for your concerns, very short and curt. She is also a very tough grader, which I understand and respect as her teaching methods, but there are times where you and a classmate got the same answer and same work process but only one of you received credit for it, maybe bias? maybe carelessness? not sure, but there have been times were I would just consider it to be unfair. If given the choice, I would suggest not to take Pamalee because of how sad it will make you.

I am currently enrolled in Pamalee's online 321 class. This class is horrible. Everyone constantly feels lost. She has incorectly graded our assignments, and failed to put critical information on homework assignment(meaning the entire class wasted hours trying to solve an impossible problem.)

I pray that I will never have to take another class from this woman. Unfortunately the ARCE department is never on top of things so you never know who's class your signing up for until long after every section is closed. This class top me very little, and I worked very hard. Every ounce of information that I got came from many trips to office hours. The class top me nearly nothing, and the online lectures taught little as well. Avoid taking her, but absolutly never take an online class from her! She doesn't understand where her students are in the class, and doesn't seem to care.

Pamalee Brady is a retarded bitch. I have had the luxury of having her twice as an instructor. She cannot teach and will not teach you what you need to know. She assigns a shitload of hw (even our grader felt sorry for the amt of hw we had to do) and you will never have adequate info to complete the hw successfully on your own. This class is supposed to be a lab but she lectured the full 3 hrs 3days/wk. That means we had to do all the lab work on our own, outside of class time. She didn't supply us w/ enough info to begin the first of two half-quarter long projects until 2 days before it was due! The midterm was fucking ridic., it was the length of a final. The final was insane. There are a ton of in-class assignments too. People often don't believe the horror stories until they've experienced it for themselves as it is unlike any other classroom experience. She is a demon lady from hell who is out to make you hate life and hope she gets hit by a car on her bike ride home. I think her hair is so voluminous b/c her horns hold it up. If you get stuck with this evil bitch, make sure you are ready to sacrifice all non-ARCE existence. Oh and for those saying she isn't that bad: U R SO FUCKING FULL OF SHIT AND U KNOW IT.

I'm midway through this quarter and I have her midterm tomorrow. I would say that the rating of understanding students problems is 100% correct, ask her any question and she will answer something else completely. Her assignments don't make her intentions and wants completely clear. I personally believe she doesn't know very much and tries to make up for it by being bitchy. If she is wrong she wont admit it. For those of you who have had Audrey Schultz for CM211---Pamalee is very similar only, instead of being nice and kind and willing to admit mistakes/lack of knowledge, you have a ego tripping bore of a teacher who lectures for almost the full three hours three times a week.

Pamalee is not a good teacher. She is petty and inconsistent. She writes tests that are not actually on the coursework that she teaches. Also, she lacks the maturity to keep her preconceived opinions of the students out of her grading. Despite a clear understanding of the topics that she lectured on, the tests were very difficult. She is unprofessional and extremely rude. It got so bad that people were poking fun at her behavior TO HER FACE DURING LECTURE. She would just laugh it off and continue to be horrible. The homework load is extremely heavy (but it IS an ARCE class, so you expect it) but as many of the other reviews say, she would OFTEN wait until 1 hour before class until she sent out how to do the work because she JUST realized she hadn't taught that subject yet. Overall, she's an immature bitch who can't teach well.

Pamalee was disorganized and inconsistent. She backtracked on an overwhelming amount of her material, often a lecture or two down the line. She would sometimes change her instructions for how to do an assignment the day before it was due, and then mark us down for the two weeks of work we had invested before her change. In addition, her personal approach seems to be one of suspicion and disrespect, never giving anyone the benefit of the doubt, and never treating the student as a person worthy of esteem.

Haters step off! Pamalee isn't the best teacher in the world but she certainly isn't the worst. I learned about concrete design and that's all you can ask for. When you take her, just get over the fact that she messes up sometimes. Oh well. If you are ARCE then you will have her, and that's that. Shut up all you dumb people.

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!