Professor
Ravnesh Amar
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Most Helpful Review
I had Professor Amar for MAE 105A and MAE 103. I didn't like him all that much in 105A because he seemed to enjoy making us suffer when giving us pop quizzes. However he told us when the quizzes were in 103 so that made things a lot better. He does have an attitude and can be quite sassy but he's a great teacher. I never had any trouble understanding what he taught (as long as I was paying attention). The first quiz in both classes was fairly easy but the ones after that were quite tricky. The midterms for both were fine. The 105A final was pretty hard but the 103 final was fairly easy. The homeworks were also quite short for both classes. I would recommend taking his class but don't bother asking any questions because he'll just ask you the same question back.
I had Professor Amar for MAE 105A and MAE 103. I didn't like him all that much in 105A because he seemed to enjoy making us suffer when giving us pop quizzes. However he told us when the quizzes were in 103 so that made things a lot better. He does have an attitude and can be quite sassy but he's a great teacher. I never had any trouble understanding what he taught (as long as I was paying attention). The first quiz in both classes was fairly easy but the ones after that were quite tricky. The midterms for both were fine. The 105A final was pretty hard but the 103 final was fairly easy. The homeworks were also quite short for both classes. I would recommend taking his class but don't bother asking any questions because he'll just ask you the same question back.
Most Helpful Review
I actually took Amar for MAE 105A, but the option wasn't listed above. Anyway, the class was very fair. There were 5 pop quizzes, no midterm, and a final. The questions are all very straightforward, ie not tricky, but you need to have the right idea about how to solve the problem or you won't get much partial credit. Also the final was 5 problems long, and they weren't too bad. Amar explains concepts really thoroughly so everything that shows up on his exams is very doable. Lectures can be boring (and if there are pop quizzes you can't miss classes), but I'd recommend him! And go to the discussion, both TAs were really good.
I actually took Amar for MAE 105A, but the option wasn't listed above. Anyway, the class was very fair. There were 5 pop quizzes, no midterm, and a final. The questions are all very straightforward, ie not tricky, but you need to have the right idea about how to solve the problem or you won't get much partial credit. Also the final was 5 problems long, and they weren't too bad. Amar explains concepts really thoroughly so everything that shows up on his exams is very doable. Lectures can be boring (and if there are pop quizzes you can't miss classes), but I'd recommend him! And go to the discussion, both TAs were really good.
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Winter 2020 - I really liked this class! Very standard upper div mech e class- homework, one midterm, four pop quizzes (lowest dropped), final. Lectures could be dry and he was a little hard to hear, but I thought he did a really good job of having us work through examples. A lot of my classmates agreed that they didn't have to study very much outside of class and homework, so if you put the work in during lecture, the material wasn't so bad. However, you do have to come to every lecture and pay attention. He gave pop quizzes during lecture that were worth quite a bit of your grade and were definitely difficult. Homework questions were standard, out of the book, but he posts them online so you really don't need the book as long as you take good notes in lecture. Discussion was not mandatory, and they basically went through three or four problems each week. I thought discussion was super helpful and helped me out on the midterms and quizzes. I thought the midterm was very fair. He wasn't very transparent on averages/curves, but I think the average was around a B/C. For the final he liked to find problems that combined all the things we'd learned throughout the quarter. I thought he was a pretty nice guy, but could be a little tough on people who answered wrong or asked bad questions, so come in with a tough skin and don't be too put off if he doesn't respond very nicely. Overall I would recommend him! Especially if you learn best by working through examples.
Winter 2020 - I really liked this class! Very standard upper div mech e class- homework, one midterm, four pop quizzes (lowest dropped), final. Lectures could be dry and he was a little hard to hear, but I thought he did a really good job of having us work through examples. A lot of my classmates agreed that they didn't have to study very much outside of class and homework, so if you put the work in during lecture, the material wasn't so bad. However, you do have to come to every lecture and pay attention. He gave pop quizzes during lecture that were worth quite a bit of your grade and were definitely difficult. Homework questions were standard, out of the book, but he posts them online so you really don't need the book as long as you take good notes in lecture. Discussion was not mandatory, and they basically went through three or four problems each week. I thought discussion was super helpful and helped me out on the midterms and quizzes. I thought the midterm was very fair. He wasn't very transparent on averages/curves, but I think the average was around a B/C. For the final he liked to find problems that combined all the things we'd learned throughout the quarter. I thought he was a pretty nice guy, but could be a little tough on people who answered wrong or asked bad questions, so come in with a tough skin and don't be too put off if he doesn't respond very nicely. Overall I would recommend him! Especially if you learn best by working through examples.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2021 - DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS with Amar!!!!!!!!!!!!! 105D material is inherently difficult to capture, but Amar makes it even more difficult by not engage the material clearly. He barely know technology, including writing on surface / iPad, which makes taking a class with him a terrible experience. He talks really slowly and without a focus on what is important, he goes everywhere. The homework is A LOT and was BARELY RELATED to the material covered in class. Half of the equations used on homework does not even appear in class lectures, nor was covered by class examples, so you have to read tedious textbook for answers. You will take roughly 8 hours per homework to finish them. The exams are tricky and he is ALWAYS AMBIGUOUS about what is covered for each exam (Quote: "covers everything"). This is especially terrible when the homework and the lectures are NOT the same thing AT ALL!!! He WILL attempt to trick you with something never taught in class.
Fall 2021 - DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS with Amar!!!!!!!!!!!!! 105D material is inherently difficult to capture, but Amar makes it even more difficult by not engage the material clearly. He barely know technology, including writing on surface / iPad, which makes taking a class with him a terrible experience. He talks really slowly and without a focus on what is important, he goes everywhere. The homework is A LOT and was BARELY RELATED to the material covered in class. Half of the equations used on homework does not even appear in class lectures, nor was covered by class examples, so you have to read tedious textbook for answers. You will take roughly 8 hours per homework to finish them. The exams are tricky and he is ALWAYS AMBIGUOUS about what is covered for each exam (Quote: "covers everything"). This is especially terrible when the homework and the lectures are NOT the same thing AT ALL!!! He WILL attempt to trick you with something never taught in class.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2025 - For the life of me, I will never understand why Professor Amar continues to teach at this institution. He is a fine professor. The class is fine. It covers the back half of the 105A textbook, and covers the classic thermodynamic cycles. It met the job. Amar is an awful professor. He spent the first 3.5 lectures repeating content from 105A - review that long is excessive and wasted my time. He does not know how to use a computer. He doesn't post his lecture notes, and it's difficult to do practice problems when you have to copy extensive problem statements instead of utilizing slides. His premise is that he adds more value than the textbook, which is rather bold. His lectures have step by step guides on how to solve problems, but he regularly overcomplicates concepts. The examples in the textbook were far more effective. Half this class is reading steam tables, and he manages to severely over complicate even that menial task. All we have to do is find the enthalpy at every point in the cycle, and yet it took weeks to go through that content. He should have never been allowed to return after his two heart attacks. He should not have replaced Fisher for this quarter, and he should not be teaching two classes this quarter (or even one class). He wastes time and is ineffective. Everything I learned in this class came from working through the homework and reviewing the solutions. He cares, he's passionate, and he's kind, but that doesn't overrule his weaknesses. There was a class where he wanted to distribute some worksheets. Instead of posting them on BruinLearn like any normal professor, he printed them all out. Fine. He handed them to the front of the class and asked us to distribute them ourselves. It took 30+ minutes for every student to get every sheet of paper. And the sheets were not particularly useful in our understanding - they didn't add much to the textbook, and were honestly just a mess. The class ie needlessly hard. I attended office hours for the professor and TA as well as the final discussion, and none of these sessions actually covered in depth what would beon the final. In fact, the week 10 discussion covered 2 problems that previously had been covered on HW and whose solutions were already available, and 1 problem that the professor explicitly ruled out. Huge chunks of the class like refrigeration, Otto/Diesel/Dual Cycles, Cooling Towers, and more were never assessed, while exergy and the Rankine/Brayton cycle were excessively emphasized and final problems on Combustion and Maxwell’s relations were assigned that were all borderline impossible. The class is a shitshow, there’s no rhyme or reason, and Amar is oblivious to how poorly everything is executed. Thermodynamics is interesting too, making it all the more disappointing to slog through this class. As compensation, the curve is generous and I scraped through with a far better grade than I deserved. Amar is a nightmare. The MAE department secretary was visibly fed up with him when I attended Office Hours. He forgets thinks constantly, including to write one of his students a letter of recommendation. He doesn’t communicate with his TA, so the course is poorly integrated. He is a bad teacher. UCLA should hire the best and brightest, especially for core classes like thermo - yet we use the same lecturer (NOT a professor) as CSUN, suggesting the department is unwilling or unable to hire a proper thermodynamicist. What a disappointment. For a man so close to death, he wastes an awful lot of his own time and even more of ours. I wish him all the best, but I beg the administration to encourage him to retire as soon as possible.
Spring 2025 - For the life of me, I will never understand why Professor Amar continues to teach at this institution. He is a fine professor. The class is fine. It covers the back half of the 105A textbook, and covers the classic thermodynamic cycles. It met the job. Amar is an awful professor. He spent the first 3.5 lectures repeating content from 105A - review that long is excessive and wasted my time. He does not know how to use a computer. He doesn't post his lecture notes, and it's difficult to do practice problems when you have to copy extensive problem statements instead of utilizing slides. His premise is that he adds more value than the textbook, which is rather bold. His lectures have step by step guides on how to solve problems, but he regularly overcomplicates concepts. The examples in the textbook were far more effective. Half this class is reading steam tables, and he manages to severely over complicate even that menial task. All we have to do is find the enthalpy at every point in the cycle, and yet it took weeks to go through that content. He should have never been allowed to return after his two heart attacks. He should not have replaced Fisher for this quarter, and he should not be teaching two classes this quarter (or even one class). He wastes time and is ineffective. Everything I learned in this class came from working through the homework and reviewing the solutions. He cares, he's passionate, and he's kind, but that doesn't overrule his weaknesses. There was a class where he wanted to distribute some worksheets. Instead of posting them on BruinLearn like any normal professor, he printed them all out. Fine. He handed them to the front of the class and asked us to distribute them ourselves. It took 30+ minutes for every student to get every sheet of paper. And the sheets were not particularly useful in our understanding - they didn't add much to the textbook, and were honestly just a mess. The class ie needlessly hard. I attended office hours for the professor and TA as well as the final discussion, and none of these sessions actually covered in depth what would beon the final. In fact, the week 10 discussion covered 2 problems that previously had been covered on HW and whose solutions were already available, and 1 problem that the professor explicitly ruled out. Huge chunks of the class like refrigeration, Otto/Diesel/Dual Cycles, Cooling Towers, and more were never assessed, while exergy and the Rankine/Brayton cycle were excessively emphasized and final problems on Combustion and Maxwell’s relations were assigned that were all borderline impossible. The class is a shitshow, there’s no rhyme or reason, and Amar is oblivious to how poorly everything is executed. Thermodynamics is interesting too, making it all the more disappointing to slog through this class. As compensation, the curve is generous and I scraped through with a far better grade than I deserved. Amar is a nightmare. The MAE department secretary was visibly fed up with him when I attended Office Hours. He forgets thinks constantly, including to write one of his students a letter of recommendation. He doesn’t communicate with his TA, so the course is poorly integrated. He is a bad teacher. UCLA should hire the best and brightest, especially for core classes like thermo - yet we use the same lecturer (NOT a professor) as CSUN, suggesting the department is unwilling or unable to hire a proper thermodynamicist. What a disappointment. For a man so close to death, he wastes an awful lot of his own time and even more of ours. I wish him all the best, but I beg the administration to encourage him to retire as soon as possible.
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