MECH&AE 101 will be one of the first upper-division courses mechanical and aerospace majors will take at UCLA. And if you take this class with Vijay Gupta, oh boy, what a remarkable way to start your journey toward that mechanical engineering degree. On day one, it will be apparent that this class will be one of the most mundane and laborious classes you'll have to sit through. So let me say this: You do not want to take this class with Gupta. If you can take MECH&AE 101 with any other professor, I wholeheartedly encourage you to do so. If not, then just know that you are in for a snoozefest, and here’s why.

One of the worst aspects of taking this class with Gupta is his lectures. It doesn’t take the world’s greatest fortune teller to foresee that his method of teaching is outright futile, as attending the first lecture alone gave me an idea of what was to come for the rest of the quarter. Case in point, Gupta’s lectures are disastrous. They are so unorganized and in such disarray that it is mind-boggling how he thinks anyone would learn from his notes and explanations. Gupta begins every lecture by briefly mentioning the topic for the day, and then endlessly scrolls through a plethora of examples until the time is up. In theory, going over many examples seems like a decent approach in a class like MECH&AE 101, but the way Gupta teaches the material is simply NOT how you teach students. For one, Gupta gives you no time to solve any problems since he explains to the class how he got the answer in the most drawn-out way possible. Additionally, there is no progression in difficulty from the examples he presents. They are all just randomly chosen statics questions that are impossible to solve. I’m not even asking for much here. Gupta lacks the most fundamental skills in teaching a new subject. I’m confident that a high school tutor with minimal history of teaching others will do a better job than Gupta, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. And the biggest gripe I have with Gupta’s teaching style is his notes. Whenever he does an example in class, instead of writing out each step to demonstrate what he’s doing, Gupta already has all the work on the board and rapidly scrolls through all his work, poorly attempting to recall what he did in each part. And his notes are infuriatingly awful, quite literally chicken scratch. His notes are like if you have a blind chicken a paintbrush and tell it to write the Declaration of Independence after giving it twenty cans of Monster energy drink. In fact, I am doing a disservice to that chicken, as its writing will probably be more comprehensive than whatever Gupta presents in his lectures.

While not as inherently poor as his lectures, the other aspects of his class are substandard. I have never found the discussion sections to be extremely helpful, although I appreciated the effort the TAs put into solving statics problems. The homework was usually complicated. However, you can find a solution sheet very easily online (I’m not encouraging cheating, just wanted to put that info out there so you can "avoid it"). And while the two midterms and final were challenging for me, it seemed like the rest of the class didn’t have a problem with it. So there isn’t much to say in that regard.

Before I close off, there are two pieces of advice I’d like to give everyone who is going to take MAE&AE 101: 1) Self-studying is critical. By practicing a lot of problems outside of the homework and developing a good understanding of the concepts and equations, I guarantee you will pass, whether you are taking Gupta or not. 2) Go on YouTube and watch Jeff Hanson. Do yourself a favor and start watching his videos as soon as possible. Jeff Hanson is quite literally an angel sent from the heavens for mechanical engineers. Not only will explain most of the concepts you’ll tackle throughout the quarter meticulously and clearly, but they’re also pretty entertaining.

So if you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading, and I wish you the best of luck on your mechanical engineering journey. And also, PHYSICS POTATO.

Professor Gupta is a nice guy. He comes from a background in civil engineering and biomechanics, so his lectures come with some examples that keep the course (somewhat) interesting. That being said though, he is not the most entertaining man and his lectures are quite monotone and hard to follow especially since his notes are already all written out.
The content itself though is very easy, one might even say that attendance is unnecessary as long as you read the book and attend some discussions. Homework is easy. Midterms (2) are harder than homework and require extra effort to get an A.

arbitrary potato

aRbiTraRy pOtAtoEs

Gupta is an interesting professor. He definitely cares about teaching, but I don't think he was particularly engaging. It was the one class that I always found myself struggling to stay awake in, and there were usually a few people just fully asleep in their seats.

He is lenient about grades, though, in that failing a midterm will not alone break you. My class was told that our first midterm was the worst in years by the TA, but most people I know still got As in the class. He tends to use examples from lectures and discussions as similar if not the exact same problems on exams.

I had concerns initially because the Gupta has a really bad microphone and it is hard to understand what he is saying. His drawing are also pretty bad but he got better over the quarter. However if you copy down all the equations he writes down you should be fine. The midterm problems are copies of the homework problems so do the homework. The second midterm was week 10 which was really annoying but because of that he pretty much cancelled the final.

He rambles a lot in lecture about the applications of MAE 101 to biology but we were never tested on it. Though he isn't that great at lecturing, he's an understanding guy when it comes to student concerns. I learned most of the class from YouTube, Chegg, and Slader.

Overall it's a really easy class so don't stress.

He really cares about his students and them learning but oh my, this class was a roller coaster of emotions. His lectures aren't super clear or helpful, shoutout to Jeff Hanson on Youtube for teaching me a lot and making everything that Gupta said in class make sense. His midterms were 3 questions and reasonable and he pulled some stuff from the lectre (watch it on 2x speed it lowkey sounds normal). But having a midterm week 10 (and telling us week 9) was not it and my mental health was plummeting that week. Luckily he cancelled the final ( which I did not study for) and he served us a fat Christmas miracle so shoutout to him for that. The TA's had review sessions which were kind of vague but it at least condensed the material and they usually saw the tests before so they kind of hinted at what was going to be on the tests. I never went to discussion and did great in this class, Gupta also gives a lot of useless examples/applications and you get lost when he's explaining them but you don't need to know them for the midterm, it's just so you can learn about the application of the material if you're interested. Basically this whole course is about how to apply F = ma = 0 and don't overthink the stuff. Homework is straight out of a bunch of different textbooks also. So I would take this class again, you have to work, but the curve is usually pretty good. At the end of the day though, he does listen to his students and genuinely cares about everyone learning way more than the tests and tricking you on there. Also, he often reuses problems from old tests.

Gupta wasn't a particularly exceptional lecturer, sometimes I found it more helpful to open the textbook as his figures and derivations were pretty confusing sometimes. Homeworks were relatively challenging but not too bad, and the midterms were shockingly easy. I'm pretty sure like 90% of the class got an A, but I know for a fact that these midterms were easier than pre-coronavirus midterms so keep that in mind. Overall he seems like a nice guy and is very knowledgeable, so I'd recommend his class.

This class was a mess. Lectures aren't helpful (didn't go to class after week 4) and everything about it felt very unorganized. We had a midterm week 10, less than a week before our final... like??? I learned everything from Jeff Hanson's youtube channel (statics and solids playlists). I recommend you don't rely on lecture to teach you the material because Gupta is a notoriously bad lecturer.

The midterm and final exams were hard af this year, idk what changed with the midterms compared to what past reviews have said. The only reason I think you should take this class with Prof Gupta is for the grade distribution. I was slightly below average on the first midterm, did really well on the second midterm, and felt like I did hella bad on the final but I still walked out with a B+.

While the midterms were pretty straightforward, the final was almost impossible to do in the time allotted and was extremely difficult compared to the midterms and the homework. No idea how this class is curved because I thought I failed the class but then Gupta gave everyone an A??? Old midterms are pretty useful and he also tests on examples he's used in class like the one where he prevented a guy from going to prison using statics (aka the one with the champagne bottle). He talks about himself a lot and spent more time taking about MIT than beam theory (which was unfortunately also tested on the final). Easy class, okay professor,

Gupta is a pretty bad lecturer — he rambles a lot and doesn't explain things well. He spends a lot of time talking about how smart he is and flexing on everyone about how he went to MIT. He shows up 10 minutes late to every lecture. The class is pretty poorly organized. He spends like 3 weeks on really easy problems and then goes over the more tricky stuff (like beam deflection) in a few lectures. Honestly I would just watch YouTube videos (I would recommend Jeff Hanson's channel), they explain things better than Gupta. The only reason you should go to lecture is to hear the random stories he tells that he sometimes includes on tests. I also bought the textbook which everyone told me not to do, but it was pretty helpful. I would recommend buying it. Overall this was not a very difficult class. I got a 68 on one of the midterms (and felt like I did pretty well on the final) and got an A.