I took Professor Warren for MAE 162A this past quarter (Fall 2012). She was a very effective instructor and many times brought actual parts to class to show how certain mechanisms worked. She lectures from powerpoint slides that have pretty good animations that also help you visualize how certain linkages and mechanisms work. She also writes on the blackboard to work out example problems, so you aren't just staring at powerpoint slides the whole time.

As for the midterm and final, they are pretty straightforward. She doesn't throw any curveballs on her exams and she even provided us a mock final exam where we worked out all the problems in class. Just study what she tells you and you'll do fine on them. Average was pretty high for both exams though. The project is assigned by the TA and can be time consuming. However our TA, Chih-Yung was good at giving us hints. Also Professor Warren provided us sample code for a four-bar linkage, so that helped greatly with the project.

In this class, the book wasn't very helpful, and I just relied on Professor Warren's notes to do the homework and exams. She allows a single sided 8.5 x 11 page of notes for the midterm and a double sided 8.5 x 11 page of notes for the final exam. I would advise you to write the definitions of certain terms discussed in class because her exams usually have a short-answer portion as well as computational problems.

If she's teaching MAE 162A, I would definitely recommend you take her.