Conti, Hugo  

I may be new to college, but I have taken a similar class in high school and found this class covered exactly the same thing as in the high school class. The problem is, this guy doesn't let you do it how you learned. and when you turn in the homework, if you did one little tiny bit of it wrong (according to him), even if you got the same answer, you will automatically get the whole problem wrong. and this is a big problem when on the first homework, 95% of the class got below a 50% on the dang thing. His lectures are horrible. He sits there the whole time telling you what you should know, or should have already know, (like reading the book, he didn't tell us until the 4th week that we should have been reading it), and looks at you menecingly if you answer a question wrong or if you ask him something that sounds wrong. i am writing this as a forewarning. DO NOT TAKE THIS TEACHER!

Professor Conti is the worst professor I have ever had. If you end up in his class by chance drop it before it gets any further. DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS!!!!!!! There is a lot of homework (which is extremely difficult) and the tests are even Harder. Do not take Professor Conti.

I have taken Calculus my junior year of high school and retook it fall quarter to refresh. I didn't think it would be hard at all since I passed the AP test and didn't need to take the class again. This teacher has a very confusing way of explaining the material; Sometimes explaining things twice in different ways, ways that are totally unneccessary and only confuses the student further. Half of the time, the students have to interrupt his lecture to correct him and when this happens, he gets offensive and believes his way is still right but says "you can do it your way if you want." I personally would not recommend this teacher.

HUGO IS THE WORST TEACHER I HAVE EVER HAD! I can't believe i am paying money to listen to this man rambel about a subejct he obviously knows nothign about. We ask him to so examples in class and he can't because they arn't in his notes. He really has no passion for teaching math and he is so incredibly boring that i have trouble following what he is saying. Now normally i would ignor a message like this but actually every single preson in my class feels this way. On the first mid-term the highest grade in the class was a 68%... what does that tell you about his teaching methods..keep in mind that EVERY ONE in this class has taken claculus in high school. Please DONT'T TAKE CONTI!

FUCK THIS TEACHER. HE IS SO DAMN HORRIBLE. I AM NOT WRITING THIS BECAUSE I AM AFRAID OF FAILING. I AM WRITING THIS AS A WARNING. IF YOU TAKE THIS TEACHER, YOU ARE GUARANTEED TO REPEAT MATH 141 ANOTHER YEAR. HE HAS NEVER TAUGHT MATH 141 BEFORE, AND DOESN'T USUALLY TEACH MATH. HE IS AN ENGINEERING TEACHER. HE SHOULD STAY WITH ENGINEERING BECAUSE HE CAN OBVIOUSLY DO NOTHING ELSE. HIS LECTURES ARE LONG WINDED AND BORING. HALF THE CLASS LEAVE, THEN THE OTHER HALF IS GONE BY THE END OF THE 5 MIN BREAK HE GIVES US. HE DOESN'T HELP WITH THE HOMEWORK. IF YOU HAVE A QUESTION AND GO TO HIM FOR HELP HE WON'T HELP BECAUSE IT WOULD BE "CHEATING" AND YOU SHOULD ALREADY KNOW HOW TO DO IT. HE HAS NO PASSION FOR TEACHING HIS STUDENTS AND IN FACT PROBABLY LIKES TO SEE HIS STUDENTS FAIL. IT IS A GOOD THING HE CURVES OTHERWISE HE WOULDN'T HAVE ANYONE PASSING IN HIS CLASS. WORDS OF ADVICE: DON'T TAKE CONTI.

Let me start by saying, before this quarter, Professor Conti had no experience teaching Calculus. This experimental teaching experience, however, did not turn out to be a productive one. The lectures consist only of him writing endless information on the board that is uncomprehensable. If any questions are asked during the class time he is very rarely able to supply the answer. If it is even possible to stay awake during class to take the notes, it is impossible to find time to go home, review the twelve plus pages of notes taken during the class time. If, by some chance of God, you are able to comprehend and learn what is written in the notes....it won't help you. The homework questions have nothing to do with what is found in class lectures....and further more the tests are totally unrelated to anything found in either the notes or homework. It is impossible to explain his grading method to you because I don't understand it myself. For example...one of the two homework assignments may contain fifteen problems. The whole assignment may be worth ten points, yet if you miss one problem you will lose at least three or four points.....I know I have never taken Calculus before, but that doesn't seem to be right. Now, about the tests. I would recomend not studying. Even if you do it won't help you. He has to give you more time than the allotted for the class because it is impossible to finish the test in a simply two hour class. Why is this you may ask...well it is because, as he will freely admit to you, he purposely makes up questions to "trick you", and they are so difficult that I guarentee that he would not be able to answer them himself if they were not in his notes.

TERRIBLE.....wow....RUN....as fast as you can.....

THIS TEACHER IS THE MOST HORRIBLE TEACHER TO EVER WALK CAL POLY CAMPUS. I OBVIOUSLY HAVE NOT FAILED THE CLASS SO I HAVE FULL RIGHT TO RIP ON HIM. HE CAN NOT TEACHER AT ALL. HE IS THE MOST UNHELPFUL PROFESSOR I HAVE EVER SEEN. IF IT WERE MY PLACE I WOULD MAKE SURE THAT PROFESSOR CONTI NEVER TAUGHT A CLASS AGAIN. HE TAUGHT STRAIGHT FROM THE BOOK AND TESTED MATERIAL THAT WE COULD NOT KNOW FROM THE BOOK ALONE. THE ONLY REASON I ACTUALLY PASSED THE CLASS WAS BECAUSE OF HOW HE CURVED ALL THE TESTS. THE HIGHEST TEST GRADE IN OUR CLASS WAS A 68%. HIS TEST QUESTIONS DO NOT TEST YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF CALCULUS, IT TESTS YOUR CAPABILITIES WITH PROBLEM ANALYSIS. IF BY SOME STROKE OF HORRIBLE LUCK YOU END UP IN CONTI'S CLASS GET OUT AS FAST AS YOU CAN. I WOULD SHOOT MYSELF IN THE HEAD BEFORE I TOOK HIM AS A TEACHER AGAIN. DO NOT EVER EVER TAKE THIS TEACHER FOR THIS CLASS OR ANY OTHER!!!!!!!!!!

Professor Conti is a horrible calc teacher. I took ap calc in highschool and did pretty good in it but didn't take the ap test, and had to take calc again this year so I had credit for it, so one would assume that the class would be one big easy review. Wow, I was wrong. I'm sure Conti is a great teacher in all of his other classes, but with calc, he just led everyone in circles. His class was basically an entire note copying session in which he wrote quite literally the entire calc book's contents on the board. His homework problems were all questions in which he pulled out of his butt using physics knowledge, which by the way was stupid because this is a calc class. And his tests (there were only three: the midterm, a test on differentiation, and the final) were all just one big mess and no one really knew what to do because they were so incomprehensively hard. The girl next to me was freaking out so hard that she was actually crying during the test. (The highest grade in the class for the midterm was a 53. The lowest was like a 2.) In his defense, he did have a study session before his tests. However, at those study sessions, he basically just sat at his desk and drank his v8. He has really inconvenient office hours and doesn't know any of his students names or even bothers to get to know you. (Antisocial much?) Whenever anyone asked questions about a problem, he went into this long tirade and basically reiterated the entire chapter and in the end never answered the question. Really. Spare yourself (and your gpa) from the agony.

Professor Conti can not teach Calculus worth shit. All he does in class is write down examples from his notes. If want another example you better hope there's one in his notes or else he wont give you one. A large portion of the grade is based on homework which is insanely hard but if you dont do it you have no chance of passing the class. His tests are nothing like what he teaches in class! The only good part is that he curves but if one person gets a good grade your all fucked. It may be possible to pass the class if you put tons of time into and all your other classes are easy but otherwise avoid Conti at all costs, especially if you've never taken Calculus before.

CONTI IS THE DEVIL. I used to think that i was good at math until i took this teacher. I took the ap calculus class last year in high school and i got a "b" in the class and i passed the ap test. but i wanted to take calc over again because i thought i needed a "refresher" course not a one way ticket to hell. The man never helped anyone with homework whatsoever, during class, or during his office hours. I went to see him during his office hours and he helped me on my assignment, but then he told me i couldn't turn in my homework cuase he helped me on the problem, which i should have already known how to have done. If you want to burn and cry in the middle of the night doing homework and busting your ass to pass the class without grace, be my guest and take the class. but if you like to avoid test that are physics problems rather than calculus I problems and a total trip through hell and back, take heed to my warnings and avoid satan as best you can

on the first day his class sounds manageable. if you get certain amount of points on tests and homework you dont even have to take the final. DONT BE FOOLED. doing this is impossible. after you get back the first assignment youll realize you can no longer accomplish this. the tests are even more ridiculous. i dont even think it was calculus. stay away from him he is a horrible horrible teacher.

This is my first post as I feel obligated to do for you poor freshmen who must take this course. DO NOT TAKE THIS INSTRUCTOR! The only reason he got a C on the presentation was because he copied the books words exactly. He didn't try to present the material himself. Read the book, you'll get more out of it. And he has the most monotone voice in the world, he put many of us to sleep many a time. He wasn't very good at answering our questions either, he usually ended up dancing around the questions because he doesn't like to use numerical examples, his examples are purely variable based. Don't take this guy for 141!

Goodness... I gotta say, this guy must be the slowest person alive, I don't know how he owns his own buisness because if I were one of his employee's I'd quit on the first day. He speaks about 2 words per minute, and writes even slower. Not only does he confuse the heck out of you, he makes it so you can't even stay awake. I can't say that there's anything you can do to get around it because there aren't any decent Water teachers in this department

Part-time professionals/lecturers are either exceedingly good or numbingly lousy. Mr. Conti belongs to the larger latter group. His tests are intentionally different from the homework. The book was $120 and underused. Poor ability to identify student problems.

Conti is truly amazing proffessor. He owns his own company in which he works in the ocean/coastal engineering field. He truly enjoys teaching CE 431 as his "favorite" class. He gives 2 midterms and an optional final where the midterm is divided into a theory portion and a practical portion. If one does well ie receives at least a 444/500 he does not have to take the final. Homework is worth 300 and the midterms 200. He gives you the homework for the whole class on the first day of class. I suggest you do the homework as early as you can so you can compare with others in class before you turn it in. Do well on the homework! Because the highest scores on the midterms are 85s. If you don't make 444 don't worry you can still get an A or B, everything is curved based on the high score. Conti does not believe in a TIMED examination so I suggest that you schedule CE 431 to be your last class of the day. He will stay until the last one finishes the exam whether its 1.5 hours or 5 hours. The exams are NOT like the homework so if you want an easy elective class DONT take this class. This class requires you to think "outside the box" and it is a lot of work. You earn every point. Conti is excellent at answering questions in the class and he is happy to go over a concept multiple times until you understand. He encourages you to ask questions during lecture. He goes out of his way to help you in office hours and will stay extra time if you need him to. He holds review sessions prior to the exams. If you want to learn coastal engineering take this class!

One of the bst teachers I have ever had. Very fair to students and gives you several opportunities to understand the material. The amount of homework is acceptable and just right. If you study the examples and tricks he does in class, it will help you on the exmas. You are never crushed for time on exams because he gives hours upon hours for it. The tests are generally open note so take good notes. I also took him for CE 432 and the same policy appears. I would easily take him again if he offered any other classes.

I liked Conti as a professor. I could see how some didn

Honestly, one of the worst instructors I've ever had at Poly. I started off enjoying the class, but finished hating it just because of him. I received a decent grade in the class, but despised it more and more every day. For a class that could be interesting, he does all he can to bore you. He is also the most arrogant instructor in the department, including Dr. D. He refuses to teach certain things because he wants to seem smarter than the class. His tests would be reasonable if he actually taught the material, but they are very difficult because he refused to cover the material on the test. I tried his office hours, and he was the most unhelpful instructor I have ever seen. A few people liked him...I really can't understand why. Even if you're interested in the subject, do not take his class.

Professor Conti is probably one of my favorite teachers at Calpoly, and 431 was one of my favorite classes. Conti is truly a teacher who is all about the students, not the B.S. politics of the university and his ego (ahem, DeNatale). His class is totally hard and makes you work for every point you earn and that is something Calpoly students aren't used too. So many of you complain because you're spending long hours doing homework or studying for a test, well this is college and a 400 level class, what do you expect? I actually found the class to be very straightforward and logical. I didn't have to take the final because I did well enough on the rest of the class. The subject matter, the teacher, the theory (not like any other engineering class) all made this class awesome!

Here's what I'd've liked to have known going into this class. The first couple of weeks Conti goes over wave theory, which is mostly just derivations. The first few homeworks involve manipulating hyperbolic trigonometric identities, so its pretty much just math. Once theory has been covered, all hell breaks loose. Conti hands out what he calls the “wave calculation worksheet”. This is basically just a blank table with each column representing a different wave characteristic. Pretty much every problem from here on requires filling out one of these tables. The purpose of these is to determine the wave characteristics of a breaking wave. To do this Conti has developed a very crude numerical method that involves countless iterations, and he expects FIVE DECIMAL ACURACY for every number in the table, not just the final answer, but EVERY NUMBER IN THE TABLE. Why does he require this? well a number of years ago Conti wrote some computer programs that will automatically produce these results and 5 decimal points happens to be the accuracy he set his float point to. So the bulk of this class is producing the outputs for his programs by hand. What really pissed me off about this is after consulting several books in the library, I was able to find a few streamlined methods that don't require mountains of iteration, but get approximately the same result, however he would not accept these methods. I guess from his point of view there was nothing wrong with the method he has, but I doubt he'd feel the same if he had to do any of this stuff by hand. As a lecturer he isn't terrible, I don't think this is because he has a natural ability for teaching, but rather because he has been teaching this class for so long and is constantly trying to improve. He makes note of every question students have and tires to come up with better ways of describing things. After several years of this he can more or less anticipate where students will have difficulty. The comment several ratings down about how he's “very picky about his wording” was accurate, he explains the concepts very well. His greatest fault in lecture is when he goes to do an example problem he will copy every number off one of his “wave calculation worksheets”, and he writes very slowly. So for as much as 15 minutes he will be silently standing in front of the board, copying numbers, while the half the class snickers and mumbles sarcastic remarks about him. His tests are some of the most tedious I've ever taken, I spent over 4 hours on each of the midterms, most of this just filling out those damn “wave calculation worksheets”. He says he has “untimed tests” , but count on this only if he doesn't have any appointments after, for the final exam he only allowed 4 hours which sucked for me because I was unable to finish, and I know I would've got an A in this class if I had another half hour. As the other reviewers have stated if you get 444/500 points in the class you don't have to take the final, and get an automatic A. This is totally doable if you do well on the homework, didn't happen for me though. Overall, there were a few things I liked about this subject and Contis teaching style but I would not recommend this class to any sane person.

We had our final during the 1-4 time slot. Since Conti allows for untimed tests he allowed us to begin at noon. Everyone in the class showed up at noon. I left at 5pm because I mentally drained from probably doing 30-40 iterations at that point. When I left 1/3 of the class was still there. This leads to one of two conclusions: Either A) he gave us a 5+ hr exam or B) he made the 3 hr exam so hard and tedious that it was ridiculous. Either way that test was a nightmare.

You Freshmen are a bunch of bitches. This guy is a great teacher.

In addition to the rating I gave for 341, I only have a few additional things to add. In 341 there were maybe 35 people in the class. In 342 there were 8 or so. This means that 27 people didn

One of the best teacher's I've had at Cal Poly. Explains all the concepts well and goes over everything as many times as necessary for everyone to understand. The class was really intersting and the topics flowed well with each other. Homework was not hard if you took notes during class. I wish Conti taught more classes so I could have him as my professor again.

Missed the first day, went to the second day. Went to the midterm. Went to the Final. Three days of class total. I got a B, easy. This kind of shit gives our school a bad name.