If you're a bioengineer, this will be your first upper-division course. Kamei's a great guy. He's very interactive and really wants his students to learn the material. If you've been around and about as a 1st year bioengineer (i.e. BMES and etc.) you will have seen this guy around. Pretty chill.

Regarding the class, your first homework assignment and your first two lectures will seem like cake. The second problem set is more difficult but is mostly the same sort of probability stuff. Then Problem Set #3 (yes you see I even capitalized the first letters) hits, and all hell breaks loose. Even with what he does in the lectures, you will be completely clueless as to what to do. At that time I thought that was the hardest homework assignment I've ever gotten.

After your 1st midterm, which is pretty fair, you get a break and learn some easy stuff. Then he launches into the biggest part of the class: chemical potentials. This is essentially where the core of the class lies. The problem sets aren't as gigantic as PS#3 but are difficult in their own ways. Midterm #2 hits, which is about the same difficulty as #1, and then you learn about a few more things and finish off the class. The final has one more problem than a midterm. For our final, I finished #2 to #5 in an hour and spent the rest of the time on #1. It's not uncommon for Kameizing to put a WTF curveball question on his exams.

So how do you do well? Go to every single office hours session because he does extra problems that really help drive home the material. Discussions are a must too. Kamei posts everything on CourseWeb. You may not be used to going to OH for other classes, but for BE100 it will seem like just another lecture session, except you get to ask questions and see example problems done. Problems are generally derivation-based with no numbers; you will most likely have the entire lower-case Greek alphabet memorized by the end of the course. The exams WILL take up the whole time for most people as well.

And near the end Kamei advertises positions in his lab. Beware though, he requires a lot of work from his researchers. So have fun with the class, it'll be a blast.

Dr. Kamei is definitely one of the hardest, if not THE hardest professor I've ever taken. Yet despite this, I would still take his class again. Why? Because if anyone else was teaching it, you'd be screwed. The material is very challenging. However, Dr. Kamei is one of the few professors who loves teaching and really cares about his student's learning and understanding.

To suceed in this class, office hours are a must. The extra problems he goes over helps a lot, and he answers homework questions and any other questions you might have about the material.

The class is very organized and structured. TA discussions and office hours are uniform as Dr. Kamei has material(more problems) prepared for each and detailed notes about what the TA's should discuss. His lecture notes are very clear and rarely are ambiguous. Everything you need to know is covered in his lecture notes, so buying a book is unnecessary, which saves you some money.

He makes the class hard to make you think and develop analytical skills for your future job as an engineer. The homework is very challenging, but they prepare you for the exams as the homework is composed of old exam problems. Don't regurgitate how to do a certain problem or you'll be screwed for the exams. Try to see the message behind the problem. Why is he giving this to you? The exams are pretty long, so don't get caught up on a question and waste time on it.

Overall, Dr. Kamei has a great personality and tries to make a difficult class into an enjoyable one. He's definitely more personable than other professors, as you can have a conversation with him about the most random things. Take his class if you want a great professor, but you better be ready to work.

Do all the homework early, go to all the office hours, attend every discussion, and when you study the problems, don't just regurgitate. You need to practice problems from memory, and come up with variations of the core concepts.

The class is difficult, but completely doable and reasonable. The concepts are all abstract and new, which is why it is hard at first.

Professor Kamei deserves the 10/10. If you ever take his class, you're lucky to have just one professor in your college career who cares that much about us students and the learning experience.

Dr. Kamei is pretty much one of the best professors at UCLA, and I'm really glad to have been able to take his class, even though it was difficult. His lectures are so organized, his communication is clear, and he genuinely tries to help his students understand the material (he always asks if anyone has questions during lectures, he held office hours even on a Sunday before the BE 100 final, and sometimes he stays after his normal office hour or lecture times to answer any questions we may have). Besides that, he is really one of the nicest and caring teachers I've ever had. He tries to get to know all of his students, and is really good with remembering everyone's names :)

So about his class... yes, it is difficult, but if you put in the effort, you can do well. There is a problem set (HW) almost every week, and some of them are pretty challenging, but GO TO OFFICE HOURS!! He usually gives hints (and sometimes the answers) to the problems. Make friends in the class and work on problems together, but attempt to them them individually first. If you can, I suggest you study your notes before lecture so it would be easier to stay on track. There is a lot of material covered, so it is easy to get lost. Just don't procrastinate! There are two midterms and one final. I think his exams are fair; there are "short answer" questions that reward the people who study the material, but then there is maybe one or two hard problems that really test whether you know your stuff. Just don't panic! He's really generous about partial credit, and the curve is pretty generous as well. =)

So yeah... I think Kamei deserves a 10/10 rating.

I agree with most of the things other people have said, but one important thing to point out is that Professor Kamei himself isn't a hard professor--it's the material itself that is challenging. Kamei does a great job making things comprehensible. Definitely take Kamei if he teaches one of your required courses.