Richard Wirz
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
AD
1.8
Overall Rating
Based on 4 Users
Easiness 1.8 / 5 How easy the class is, 1 being extremely difficult and 5 being easy peasy.
Clarity 2.5 / 5 How clear the class is, 1 being extremely unclear and 5 being very clear.
Workload 1.8 / 5 How much workload the class is, 1 being extremely heavy and 5 being extremely light.
Helpfulness 2.5 / 5 How helpful the class is, 1 being not helpful at all and 5 being extremely helpful.

TOP TAGS

  • Uses Slides
  • Tolerates Tardiness
  • Tough Tests
  • Issues PTEs
  • Needs Textbook
GRADE DISTRIBUTIONS
15.2%
12.7%
10.1%
7.6%
5.1%
2.5%
0.0%
A+
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
C-
D+
D
D-
F

Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.

34.0%
28.3%
22.7%
17.0%
11.3%
5.7%
0.0%
A+
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
C-
D+
D
D-
F

Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.

20.5%
17.0%
13.6%
10.2%
6.8%
3.4%
0.0%
A+
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
C-
D+
D
D-
F

Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.

ENROLLMENT DISTRIBUTIONS
Clear marks

Sorry, no enrollment data is available.

AD

Reviews (3)

1 of 1
1 of 1
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Quarter: Spring 2021
Grade: P
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
June 8, 2021

All the lectures were prerecorded, with live qna sessions during the scheduled lecture time. This meant that you would have to watch the lecture videos the night before the qna (which were at 8-10am) if you wanted to understand what was being covered in the live sections. Depending on the person, this would either make it so you didn't have to wake up early, or made it so you had to watch additional content outside of the scheduled time causing conflicts.

About 70% of the class was taught from slides and 30% with on-screen writing. The slides were often information-dense, and I found the textbook to be a much better learning experience than any of the lectures.

Wirz would often mention his own experience (Which came off as somewhat annoying imo). It's different to use your own experience as teaching material, but often he would just mention how he went to CalTech and worked at JPL, which added little to help us understand the material.

The homework and exams are extremely difficult, and while I did well on the midterm and homework, the final was completely out of my league (I think wrote it for both graduate and undergraduate students). The questions weren't at all representative of our understanding of the course material (besides some conceptual short answer questions). I understand his goal was probably to determine whether or not we could apply our understanding of the course material to harder questions, it felt to me that these questions were just written to be unnecessarily difficult.

And the TA made a lot of mistakes in the discussion videos, so they were honestly not much of use. The same applies to the homework answers.

A good point would be that they were very responsive to questions on piazza.

You could say I'm leaving a negative review due to my own poor performance, but I wholly anticipate getting a good grade overall despite all my complaints.

tl;dr. Take it with somebody else. You will both learn more, have a better time, and have easier work.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Spring 2021
Grade: N/A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
June 6, 2021

Homework and tests are unnecessarily difficult. Take with someone else.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Spring 2017
Grade: C+
June 25, 2018

He is terrible. Homework and exams are very hard.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Spring 2021
Grade: P
June 8, 2021

All the lectures were prerecorded, with live qna sessions during the scheduled lecture time. This meant that you would have to watch the lecture videos the night before the qna (which were at 8-10am) if you wanted to understand what was being covered in the live sections. Depending on the person, this would either make it so you didn't have to wake up early, or made it so you had to watch additional content outside of the scheduled time causing conflicts.

About 70% of the class was taught from slides and 30% with on-screen writing. The slides were often information-dense, and I found the textbook to be a much better learning experience than any of the lectures.

Wirz would often mention his own experience (Which came off as somewhat annoying imo). It's different to use your own experience as teaching material, but often he would just mention how he went to CalTech and worked at JPL, which added little to help us understand the material.

The homework and exams are extremely difficult, and while I did well on the midterm and homework, the final was completely out of my league (I think wrote it for both graduate and undergraduate students). The questions weren't at all representative of our understanding of the course material (besides some conceptual short answer questions). I understand his goal was probably to determine whether or not we could apply our understanding of the course material to harder questions, it felt to me that these questions were just written to be unnecessarily difficult.

And the TA made a lot of mistakes in the discussion videos, so they were honestly not much of use. The same applies to the homework answers.

A good point would be that they were very responsive to questions on piazza.

You could say I'm leaving a negative review due to my own poor performance, but I wholly anticipate getting a good grade overall despite all my complaints.

tl;dr. Take it with somebody else. You will both learn more, have a better time, and have easier work.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Spring 2021
Grade: N/A
June 6, 2021

Homework and tests are unnecessarily difficult. Take with someone else.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Spring 2017
Grade: C+
June 25, 2018

He is terrible. Homework and exams are very hard.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
1 of 1
1.8
Overall Rating
Based on 4 Users
Easiness 1.8 / 5 How easy the class is, 1 being extremely difficult and 5 being easy peasy.
Clarity 2.5 / 5 How clear the class is, 1 being extremely unclear and 5 being very clear.
Workload 1.8 / 5 How much workload the class is, 1 being extremely heavy and 5 being extremely light.
Helpfulness 2.5 / 5 How helpful the class is, 1 being not helpful at all and 5 being extremely helpful.

TOP TAGS

  • Uses Slides
    (3)
  • Tolerates Tardiness
    (2)
  • Tough Tests
    (3)
  • Issues PTEs
    (1)
  • Needs Textbook
    (2)
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