He is a horrible lecturer. He lectures off of slides that he either handwrote or copied from google images. He does very few examples and obviously does not care if people do well or not. He didn't grade the midterms until 2 days before the final, which is absolutely ridiculous and prevented people from fixing the mistakes that they made on the first midterm. Also, most of the homework and exam questions were written by the TAs, so Jalali basically didn't do anything in this class. He was gone for 5 of the 20 lectures the quarter that I took him, and even more the quarter before. He does not care about his students at all and he makes that very clear. He has been reported to the department for this (because professors must attend at least 90% of the lectures) and he is an embarrassment to the department. Do not take him if you have a choice.

He is a horrible lecturer. He lectures off of slides that he either handwrote or copied from google images. He does very few examples and obviously does not care if people do well or not. He didn't grade the midterms until 2 days before the final, which is absolutely ridiculous and prevented people from fixing the mistakes that they made on the first midterm. Also, most of the homework and exam questions were written by the TAs, so Jalali basically didn't do anything in this class. He was gone for 5 of the 20 lectures the quarter that I took him, and even more the quarter before. He does not care about his students at all and he makes that very clear. He has been reported to the department for this (because professors must attend at least 90% of the lectures) and he is an embarrassment to the department. Do not take him if you have a choice.

Honestly, people are being too picky and choosy nowadays.

Professor Jalali DOES TEACH pretty well, contrary to what people say. He gives good analogies and sometimes jokes during lectures (you might not laugh). He was really concerned about his students and taught me even when it wasn't his office hours. It's true that he's NOT THE BEST in teaching, but he really does care and does teach relevant material.

E-mailing him might not be the best idea, but he's always in front of class when he ends to answer any questions. That's the time to go up to him and schedule a meeting with him to clarify concepts, etc.

The class overall is conceptually tough, but arithmetically easy (although complicated in the sense of small numbers and multiple equations to reach 1 answer AKA tedious). Homework was easy, and similar to mid terms and finals.

His mid term and finals are just arithmetically tedious, not hard. Its just a little more tricky than the homework and a lot longer. E.g. when temperature changes, you have to know what other things change too before proceeding the next calculation (You'll get what I mean when you take the class). However, the proof questions are not as simple. I'm not good at proofs (there was 1 sub-question proof in the final) but many of my friends managed to do it.

Mid term avg was 55 and final avg was 48. Really, it's that low because HALF THE CLASS DOESN'T SHOW UP. I did well above avg on both exams. His curve is normal, I think 20% A's and so on and when there are so few students, e.g. 50 ppl, only 10 get A's.

Definitely recommend. It's just that more effort has to come from YOU. Don't be lazy. Take the effort and initiative to learn.

I agree with rating below. He does not teach. If you read the course reader you are in much better shape than going to lecture. Midterm is simple plug and chug, but final was a bit trickier and conceptual. I was ranked pretty low but still ended up with a B, so it isn't too bad if you are looking to just pass the class. Getting an A however is tough and you must work hard and understand what the course reader/book means. Jalali won't help in his lectures. Even when someone asks a question he hardly answers it. Self-study is the key for this class.

He doesn't really care about the course.

During lecture, he gets his laser pointer and points to sets of equations, reads them off, and explains the variables. Occasionally, he focuses on a concept and asks us a question regarding it and then explains it, but not often. Keep in mind, he has a very monotone voice, and says "umm" a lot during lecture.

Some people are good at staying focused/listening to really shitty lectures, but for me, it was not worth my times.

And don't let the above statement make you believe going to lecture is sufficient to get even a B in the class, you need the course reader. At times you need to read the textbook too, he asks for explanations from there too.

Overall, my response to this class is frustration. Frustration because this guy doesn't give half of a shit about student learning and that we are learning something so conceptually sophisticated. Sure, I can sit down and read 20 pages of the textbook and understand it, but I won't understand it to the same level as when a professor would teach it to me. Plus, it wouldn't take 4 hours either (usually to stop and conceptually link all the multiple ideas together).

We pay for education in college, and as of recently, A LOT more. It honestly pisses me off to see that I'm paying $4000 a quarter, and I'm still teaching everything to myself. I can just buy a $30 book for that.

On top of that, it really detracted from my pleasure of the material. All this stuff is boring as hell, but if I had a quality instructor teaching it to me( even a high school teacher would be better than Jalali tbh) you would value and enjoy the material more.

The few times jalali didn't lecture, his TAs did, and they did a solid job. I say if he continues with this effort and quality of lectures, he should just leave and do his research. Make everyone happy.

Bottom line - this is a tough class. It's the toughest lower div class I ever took, but with Jalali it is more than bearable. I can't imagine a 10 week crash-course in semiconductor physics is easy to teach - and it definitely requires a bit of time to learn - study hard. His lectures are focused primarily on mapping the mathematics to the physical concepts, so to a certain extent, if you read the textbook and/or the course reader before class, his lectures are good at filling in the gaps.

THE COURSE READER IS A MUST!! There were several problems that mimicked examples in the course reader on his midterm/final, and the course reader is a good bridge between the book (too stupid) and his lectures (too smart). Where this guy capitalizes as a good teacher is the fact that he grades somewhat graciously, knowing full well that the course is ridiculous, and he's very eager to help students. Best professor to be teaching one of the toughest courses you'll have to face. Work for it, and you'll be rewarded - I highly recommend.

EE2 with Jalali was not what I'd call a good class.
Lectures: he screws up at least 4 times per lecture, and then continues to use those messed up formulas in further derivations. This was very frustrating because he'd then post the incorrect lecture notes online as well.
HW: pretty basic plug and chug.
Midterm: the midterm blew everyone away, it was very hard and the average was quite low. There were 4 questions and only 1 was similar to the hw questions - the rest were either something we didn't have a formula for or conceptual.
Final: I thought it was easier than the midterm but I studied the course reader a lot at the end and make sure you know everything ideal and non-ideal about a PN junction.

I think Prof.Jalali is a very smart man and he seems to know what he is talking about. He is also quite nice when students ask questions. Even when students try to argue with the professor about the material, he manages to answer in a calm, respectful attitude. He also throws out jokes sometiems and they are quite funny. The homework problems are very easy, just a bunch of plugging in, but it is very hard to understand the basic concepts behind the formulas because the material covered in this course is abstruse.
Consequently, prof Jalali is not a bad choice.

I honestly had no idea what was going on in the class for the first 9 weeks. Just a bunch of formulas and equations. I decided to buy the course reader 10th week, which was probably the smartest decision I made in that class. By furiously reading half the course reader in a week, I had a better grasp on what a p-n junction was (the bulk of the final), and I did pretty well at the end. I'm a 3rd year, so I took this lower-div class pretty lightly. Don't be like me and buy the course reader!

a total moron. well, that may just be the ee 2 question itself. but obviously, i wouldn't understand any of ur damn lectures. class isnt that hard, just plug in shit. im about to take my final but i have a high A in the class right now. Ive never attended a single lecture. total waste of time. why listen to what doesn't make sense? just read the reader and try to make of it what you will. gl.