Professor
Yuzhang Li
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2020 - This professor is new and this impacted how the class was structured, as I felt that the professor did not reach a reasonable pacing until later in the class (he would go fairly fast in the beginning where it was not possible to take detailed notes of everything). I did feel like I learned a fair amount about chemical engineering and the thought processes that we need to learn to succeed in our field. The homeworks were in "report" style, where you had to almost draw a diagram or description of every problem (usually around 4-5 problems each homework), restate each question in your own words, and state any assumptions you had to make for your solution. These homeworks took a large amount of time to complete and the pdfs I handed in usually amounted to 12-18 pages of written solutions. The first two exams for this class (the two midterms) were poorly structured to the point where it was nearly impossible to complete everything in the given time limit. The second exam was slightly better in this aspect, we had more time but the exam was still extremely hard (average was in the 40s). However, by the final exam the professor got a lot better at exam design since the final was extremely reasonable difficulty-wise and more reasonable to be completed within a time limit (yet we were given 24 hours). Overall, the professor improved over the course and I definitely believe you will learn a lot if you pay attention and be diligent in your studies.
Fall 2020 - This professor is new and this impacted how the class was structured, as I felt that the professor did not reach a reasonable pacing until later in the class (he would go fairly fast in the beginning where it was not possible to take detailed notes of everything). I did feel like I learned a fair amount about chemical engineering and the thought processes that we need to learn to succeed in our field. The homeworks were in "report" style, where you had to almost draw a diagram or description of every problem (usually around 4-5 problems each homework), restate each question in your own words, and state any assumptions you had to make for your solution. These homeworks took a large amount of time to complete and the pdfs I handed in usually amounted to 12-18 pages of written solutions. The first two exams for this class (the two midterms) were poorly structured to the point where it was nearly impossible to complete everything in the given time limit. The second exam was slightly better in this aspect, we had more time but the exam was still extremely hard (average was in the 40s). However, by the final exam the professor got a lot better at exam design since the final was extremely reasonable difficulty-wise and more reasonable to be completed within a time limit (yet we were given 24 hours). Overall, the professor improved over the course and I definitely believe you will learn a lot if you pay attention and be diligent in your studies.
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2021 - Dr. Li himself was good. His lectures were engaging and on-point. I definitely learned a lot about statistics and experimental designs from him. Li also cared about the class, and student learning. He was also considerate about logistics. Slides were released early and all lectures were recorded. Student groups with international students were allowed to pre-record presentations, too. Quizzes were open-note and 24 hours, with collaboration allowed. Unfortunately, lectures were only a small portion of the class. Non-lecture logistics were very haphazard (although this was Li’s 1st time teaching this class and 2nd time teaching ever). 90% of the class was labs, and labs depended a lot on the TA. A couple TAs were decent, but some stunk at teaching. Furthermore, most of the class was data analysis and report writing. Reports and data analysis were long and very time consuming. Just 1 or 2 bad groupmates can ruin your experience. Next, grading was very inconsistent between TAs. I did not know why I was graded in a certain manner for lab reports. Quizzes too were graded inconsistently. Some TAs gave differing amounts of partial credit for the same answer. Sometimes 2 students graded by the same TA got different grades for the same answers. Tl;dr: Professor was good but class logistics sucked. Grading was frequently unclear and arbitrary, due to difference between TA's (and even amongst the same TAs).
Winter 2021 - Dr. Li himself was good. His lectures were engaging and on-point. I definitely learned a lot about statistics and experimental designs from him. Li also cared about the class, and student learning. He was also considerate about logistics. Slides were released early and all lectures were recorded. Student groups with international students were allowed to pre-record presentations, too. Quizzes were open-note and 24 hours, with collaboration allowed. Unfortunately, lectures were only a small portion of the class. Non-lecture logistics were very haphazard (although this was Li’s 1st time teaching this class and 2nd time teaching ever). 90% of the class was labs, and labs depended a lot on the TA. A couple TAs were decent, but some stunk at teaching. Furthermore, most of the class was data analysis and report writing. Reports and data analysis were long and very time consuming. Just 1 or 2 bad groupmates can ruin your experience. Next, grading was very inconsistent between TAs. I did not know why I was graded in a certain manner for lab reports. Quizzes too were graded inconsistently. Some TAs gave differing amounts of partial credit for the same answer. Sometimes 2 students graded by the same TA got different grades for the same answers. Tl;dr: Professor was good but class logistics sucked. Grading was frequently unclear and arbitrary, due to difference between TA's (and even amongst the same TAs).
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