Keller, Melinda  

About Ms. Keller I must say... she started the quarter (her first ever at Cal Poly--and anywhere else as a matter of fact) on a process of self discovery as a teacher. The bad news is that as an instructor she just simply failed miserably. She failed to relate to the students as teacher and failed to teach with diligence and seriousness. You should all see the joke of a second midterm she gave us. My class got a 61% on that test, and funny enough, she seemed to enjoy the whole thing!! (not exagerating!) Apparently she felt that she had to "balance" the grades out because most of us did pretty good on the first one. You draw your own conclussions. Ms. Keller failed to place importance on what really mattered; to teach and relate to the interests of her students. Instead, she worried more about the grades she was giving (as if she was supposed to fail as many students as possible). Overall, I sure hope she cleans up her act if she wants to remain a member of Cal Poly's teaching staff. Without a doubt, the best choice for this class, and any of the CE courses, is still professor Devaney.

I strongly agree with Ms. Keller being one of the worst teachers at CalPoly. I can only think about who the heck is doing the hiring at this school for God's sake???

yeah... she's horrible!!! Extremely cheesy and dorky!!! And watchout! you newbies are going to magic mountain this quarter!!! I wonder how much longer will the department keep her.

Keller seems like a semi-nice lady, but there is a dark side. I think it was her first quarter at CalPoly. If you ever question her grading or policies she gets extremely defensive and starts to hyperventilate. She also has the habit of doing to much at once. For example, giving a quiz, doing a lecture, and giving a midterm all on the same day that your homework assignment is due! Overall, however, the workload is doable. There was one homework assignment per week with 10 problems that take a very long time on your own but if you go to the study session you can get most of it done in 3 hours with help from the instructor. Theres also one quiz per week you take on the day the homework is due and she lets you look at your homework for the quiz. Quizzes are 10% and homework is 10% and you can drop the lowest one for each. You can turn in homework late up to the last day of the quarter for 50%. Turn in every homework even if you arent done. Even if you turn in a homework assignment and get a 6/10 for instance, you can turn it in again "late" and get 50% of the remaining points for a total of 8/10. As for tests, the first midterm was pretty easy. Too easy apparently because she gave us an insane second midterm. If you sucked on that one she let you write a "report" (redoing the test in essay format which took many hours) to make up half the points you missed on the test. The final was not too hard, but had 12 problems and took the entire 3 hours. She lets you have a page with any notes on it that you want for the tests. This had no value whatsoever on the second midterm, but was useful on the 1st midterm and the final.

AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE! Keller is the worst proffessor I have had in my 3 years at Poly. She has no idea how to teach what so ever. Her tests are crazy. In office hours she is very condescending, and rarely cares for your understanding of the material. Her quizes arent bad, but they in no way resemble the tests. Her final is the definition of hell. It took the majority of the class the full 3 hours. Those who finished early, were done with about 5 to 10 minutes left. Who in their right mind gives a multiple choice final in an engineering class. If you actaully want to learn and pass CE 204, DO NOT TAKE KELLER.

When you first take CE 204 with Prof. Killer, you think that she is nice person and that this will be a nice change from all those other goofy CE instructors. As soon as she opens her mouth, you realize that she is the dumbest of them all. She gets up in front of the class and starts lecturing and writing on the board. 10 min. later, she will change a few negatives to positives and realize the final equation she wrote is wrong. Well, "whatever" she says. "Here is the real eq. I can't write things on the board while everyone is watching". I was floored when I found out that she was an Cal Poly Alum and an ME. She makes the ME dept. look bad. She is definitely not the sharpest tool in the shed. Her first test is pretty easy but beware of the 2nd midterm. You are going to go to Magic Mt. to take a test for 8 hrs. while waiting in line for 3 hrs. at time just to get on the ride and get some info. (Take the take home, it was easier.) The final was 43 questions in 3 hrs. She made sure that nobody could finish and that we were all "UNCOMFORTABLE" as she put it. Plus, it's on a SCANTRON. No partial credit!!! That's basically what you are in for.

I registered for CE 204 thinking that Devaney was going to be teaching the class. Imagine my surprise when Professor "my socks match my dress match the bow in my hair" walks in the door. Keller should be teaching kindergarten- during our first midterm she sat at the front of the class, making a starburst wrapper chain. Not only do I have a problem with her mannerisms (which is purely a personal opinion), I also have a problem with how she runs her class. There is nothing more disheartening than walking into class on time (or even a couple of minutes early) and seeing everyone busy at work on this weeks quiz, which Keller had passed out before class started. This happened to me on more than one occasion, and when I confronted Keller about it, she kindly explained to me that by giving me such an unforgiving time constraint, it was her way of testing me on my test taking ability. I then kindly kicked her in the teeth (or imagined myself doing it- Im not sure which). What Cal Poly "Professor" tests you on your test taking ability, as opposed to testing you on the material that you have learned? Given one or two more minutes I could have aced any of the quizzes she gave. I'll give her one thing though- the magic mountain idea was innovative and mildly interesting. So if you can get past her inane lectures, and obdurate personality then youve got a mundane, passable (with a little effort), CE 204 class.

Keller is the worst teacher! She should definitally teach kindergarten with her big fat pink chalk and matching socks, dress and big fat 80's style bows in her hair. She apparently can not do math on the board, yet expects her students to do perfect work on quizzes and tests while giving them unreasonable quantities of problems in a very limited time. She bores you to death and knows nothing about engineering. I can't believe that they even let her teach. To tell you the truth, she makes the entire civil engineering department look horrible, and destroys the "prestigious name" that Cal Poly engineering upholds. I would avoid her if I were you, not because the class is hard, but because you feel like it's a waste of time to go. It's not as bad to go to a hard class if you feel like you're getting something out of it, BUT YOU LEARN NOTHING FROM HER. She's horrible.

Keller is an OK teacher. If you take her, go to the study sessions and the homework is a lot easier. She is very helpful in the study sessions, but not in office hours. Dont take the magic mountain test.. it was a bunch of crap, the take home test was a lot easier. She also lectures in a "elementary school teacher" type of way, which is very annoying to me.

So Professor Keller is one of the worst professors i have ever had at Poly. I got so fed up with her stupid quizes and tests i withdrew. I would rather shoot myself then take her for another class.

Honestly the worst teacher that i have had in 3 years here at poly. She is the most unorganized imcompetent teacher i have met. She doesn't like doing problems on the board because she admittedly makes too many mistakes yet will reem you for the same. She told us that she made the first problem on the midterm the hardest to see if we would skip it and go back later. The final was multiple choice but had 43 engineering problems on it!!! It took the entire 3 hours to complete and many did not have enough time. She belittles people that ask honest questions. I hope that poly does not keep her around any longer, absolutely horrible.

Honestly, outside of school she is probably a very nice person, but that is her only redeeming value. As a teacher, I hate to say it, but I wish the departement would let her go. actually, I think she is the only teacher that I have ever had that I would like to see fired. The tests are unbearable, and the quizes are given on such a short time frame that she is really testing your ability to take tests.(funny, I came to poly for a "learn-by-doing" atmosphere, and to be tested on what I have learned, not on how well I take a test) Also, look out for the final. It is multiple choice, yes an engineering, mulltiple-choice final. It SUCKS! Oh, and the homework: lots of it, she figures you have it done by the day after the last assignment was do, and half of the problem are impossible without the study session. If you do have to take Keller, make sure you get to every single study session because she gives out nice little "tips" (formulae, shortcuts, assumptions etc.) that are the ONLY way to finish the quizes. Overall... I say, "dump her CalPoly, she is by far the WORST choice you have ever made."

She was a nice person I guess, but not a good teacher at all. She often would just repeat definintions and derivations in the book and wouldn't do very many example problems. There was never enough time on the quizzes and she seemed to take every question and comment as a personal attack on her. And usually half the homework was very difficult. We had our 2nd midterm at Magic Mountain with assigned groups. That was a good idea, but the midterm took up the ENTIRE day. Overall, I wouldn't recommend her.

Keller is a very nice woman. A little weird, but nice. Her lectures are disjointed and hard to follow. An important concept is often hidden in an example rather than explicitly stated. The homework is either a breeze or unreasonably hard, but never in between. I feel like I have a good understanding of the material now that the class is over, primarily from the book and the homework.

Who ever suggested Miss keller to become a teacher by virtue of her instructional skills just simply LIED TO HER!!! She's simply one of the worst teachers in Cal Poly!!! Someone please tell me... How is it that she's still teaching here??

Professor Keller should have gone over difficult concepts more slower. There were many lectures that were cut short, whereas we could have gone over some example problems or lectured on some different techniques on how to tackle to the problem. She also used printed overhead lecture notes, which made it hard for us students to follow along with such a quick pace especially with the 3-D equilibrium type problems. It took some time to actually draw a decent FBD and by the time I was done, she was always about half-way through with the solutions.

Professor Keller gives terrible lectures. But she is great in office hours. Her lectures typically took only 20-30 minutes for my class because she went through the material so fast and gave only example problems from the book. She is useless in helping you understand the material, but in getting problems done for homework and learning HOW to do them she is very helpful.

Basically, Keller does not know how to present material. She does examples in front of class during lectures, and the class has to correct what she is doing 75% of the time. She screwed up the answer key for one of our midterms the other day, and then was disgusted that she would have to give credit back to the people who did the problem right when she did it wrong. Statics is already a difficult subject, and having someone who would have made geometry impossible makes life terrible. Homework takes forever because you have to write the question from the book, draw the picture, draw a free body diagram and then use only one equal sign per line. Today she got mad because our boxes around our answers are not neat enough rectangles, so now we have to use rulers to box our answers. DO NOT GET HER FOR ANY CLASS AT POLY, because even if you pass the class, I highly doubt anyone will be prepared for whatever is next (ie dynamics for me).

Keller is aweful at explaining concepts. She is waaaay to harsh in grading homework. For a three credit class we were assigned from 6 to 10 hours of homework per week. The reason it takes so long is because of all the stuff that needed to be on the homework. The day you turn in your assignments she would spout some other bogus requirment; like boxing your answer with straight lines or one equals sign per line. That, on top of the diagram from the book, plus the problem statement verbatim, then the given info, then a free body diagram for individual components, then the original equation in variable form . . . it was endless. You'd be half way down the page before you started working on the problem. So, in general, AVOID TAKING KELLER! TAKE ANYONE ELSE BUT HER!

Statics is a boring subject to begin with. Prof. Keller is a horrible statics teacher. Do not take her, wait till next quarter if you have to. She reads off these shockwave files in class and occasionally writes on the board. It's hard to learn anything in lecture because it isn't very engaging. She often makes mistakes during problems on the board. The worst part is the homework. She makes you write out each problem statement and focuses on all this format stuff on the homework you get marked off for. Each homework set takes about 9 hours total. Her quizzes didn't prepare you for the final very well. Bottom line just don't take her, it isn't worth it.

Simply awful. Doesn't explain subject matter well and doesn't prepare you for the tests and the hw problems.

I worked my ass off in her class and still failed. Had 8 hours of homework given no credit because I forgot to put my stupid section number on the paper! A very unreasonable teacher... She's one of those teachers who tries to fail students and commends those who survive. I prefer teachers who try to pass their students and help them learn... aka GOOD teachers. Homework is time-consuming, but worth hardly anything in overall grade. (You still gotta do it, otherwise you won't understand for shit). Quizzes are terrible, just one or two problems that are worth 15% of your grade. Forget a negative sign? You lose one percent of your WHOLE GRADE. Very poorly prepares you for the final.

First of all she is in my opinion just not a good teacher. 95% of what I learned in this class came from reading the book on my own. I could not have passed without basically being self taught. Keller just reads from shockwave files that she didn't even make herself. When she does do an example on the board it has already been worked out on a piece of paper and she can't really even explain it. I would not suggest taking her unless you are willing to put in 10+ hours a week out of class time trying to teach yourself how to do the homework. If you are stuck with her, GOOD LUCK.

Heres the breakdown: Keller is a nice person, great human being, Horrible teacher. She deffinately knows her stuff, no complaints about that, but her ability to pass that on is...lacking. Everything she went over was in the book and every example (and I mean every, as in every single one) she did either came from the book or her slides off the blackboard. Basically, bust ass for the final, try not to bomb the quizzes, and life will be good. Until you get to Dynamics....

I don't understand why her rating is so low. She is a nice person, very willing to help, and definitely knows the subject. The homework is time consuming and not worth much, but you're going to have to do the homework anyway if you want to do well on the quizzes and final. And let's say you fuck up one quiz.. generally everyone else in the class did terrible on that one too, so she will curve it or offer extra credit. To get the extra credit, all you'll have to do is a few extra problems from the book and BAM! Your overall grade is bumped up a few percent. Anyway, just ask her questions after class or go to office hours and you'll be set. Don't save the 12 problems per week for Sunday night like a lot of other morons do. Spread them out through the week so you don't get as frustrated and can ask her about them in class!

Keller quite possibly has the easiest grading scheme for ME211. Only 50% of your grade is comprised of midterms/finals. The rest is participation, HW and a project. The only trouble is you have to pass the final. Her lectures are fine if you have had statics before, but if not you will be lost. Example problems given are really easy but the HW is not. Oh yeah and no office hours for HW questions! Not the worst teacher but there are better.

Keller is not a "great teacher," but she is nowhere near as bad as her rating makes her out to be. ME 211 is basically an independant study. The class blows but Keller grades rather easy. I didn't deserve a B.

There is NO way that Professor Keller deserves her rating. She is one of the best teachers that I have had at Cal Poly. She presents material in a clear manner and made all of the difficult things easy to understand. She had a midterm and a term project. The term project helps your grade a lot, because it is easier to do than another midterm (they are worth the same). One thing that does suck about the class is homework. Her homework format (one problem per page of paper, separate lines for everything, etc.) sucks. Otherwise, she is a really good teacher and I would highly recommend her.

Prof. Keller is my favorite professor at CP atm. Granted that's mostly because she's the Queen of Poly Con (all hail the Queen!) but it's also because I really loved taking statics with her, after all, I never would have found out about Poly Con and Game Theory without it. To enjoy this class you must 1) Love physics 2) at least LIKE math 3) be very good at the aforementioned subjects. I am all of those, and I still recieved a B+, do not take this class lightly! Anyways, if you like any type of board game or card game whatsoever, take Keller and go to Game Theory, if not take her anyways because she does a lot to make this tough subject understandable and she's a lot of fun.

ok, so statics bucks anyone? this is my first rating ive every done mostly to let you know that KELLER IS TERRIBLE. i enjoyed the subject, got a B, but hated every moment of the lectures. she basically tries to copy enough out of her notes to fill up the class time, but only ends up confusing the class and even moreso herself. so she tells us first day, to grade class participation, i will give out statics bucks when you speak up in class. now this is bull**** for two reasons. everyone hates her and won't talk otherwise, and THIS ISNT PRESCHOOL! she printed up little bills to hand out. and what ended up happening is every problem she did on the board she would make a ridiculous mistake that someone would correct. instead of saying, wow, i'm a total idiot, she could say, great catch! also she makes you copy paragraph-long questions for one line answers. you end up writing six pages of questions and 12 lines of answers. makes 15 minute hw into 2 hours. enjoy!!! also she is on a man-power trip. she wears work boots to class and huge t-shirts and likes making guys feel stupid.

Keller was a pretty entertaining teacher. She was the best statics teacher I had, and I should know because I'm an expert on statics teacher.

Totally skeptical at first. She makes everyone participate by handing out "statics" bucks that are worth a certain percentage of the grade. Besides that she's a pretty awesome teacher. She goes over everything pretty slowly; she's pretty easy to understand. Everyone bombed the midterm, so she let everyone retake it for a better grade. Her project is pretty easy if you do a good job. Just make sure you do your problem correctly and you will get most of the points. Overall I really enjoyed her class.

This teacher is horrible and disgustingly fat. She is a douche and hard to approach. She does static bucks which doesn't help the class at all. Everyone always ask random questions that is not hard to grasp just so they can get a buck. She makes people beggers of these bucks. She also needs to lose weight.

If you want to be prepared for the Engineering Statics common final, take Melinda Keller. Most of the people who gave her poor reviews received an F from plagiarizing, whether they said they got an F or not. You get participation points when you ask questions, so make sure to sit at the front of the room to load up on "statics bucks." I liked them because I didn't feel stupid for asking what might turn out to be a dumb question--this environment should always be encouraged. She is a very good professor. In 50 minutes, she covers everything you need to know to do the homework, makes sure everyone understands the material. Don�t believe PolyRatings� inaccurate reviews of her. I�d take her again. Melinda Keller is a professor from industry. Before coming to Poly, she engineered roller coasters. Midway through the term, she coordinated an optional field trip to Magic Mountain. You will have 12 weekly homework problems, due every Wednesday. You will have about 4 (easy) quizzes. You will have a midterm halfway through. You will culminate your understanding of Method of Joints and Sections plus Solving Three-Force Members in a term project that is due towards the end of the term--this project is a lot of fun and really valuable. You will have a common final, regardless of whether you take Keller or not. If you do not pass the final, you must retake Statics. If you�re an engineer, take Keller.

I was skeptical about Professor Keller at first. The statics bucks seem a little childish, the homework format is a pain to deal with, and she can be short with you at times. If you have the solution manual for the homework, don't make it obvious (i.e. DO the homework, don't copy it). She dropped about 8 kids the day of our midterm during week 6 because she found the same homework mistakes on their homework as the ones in the solutions. She's a nazi about it. That being said, if you put in the effort, she recognizes it. The homework format is kind of a pain, but its nice when you can read and understand it later when you're studying for a midterm or the final. Its not hard to find SOMETHING to say during class, and thats how you get participation. If you dont get the homework, go to office hours. She never really helped me with any of them, but statics is the kind of class where you just kinda have to bang your head on the desk until it clicks, and she knows that. But you'll earn brownie points for going in anyway. If she see's you put in the time, she won't let you fail. I completely blanked on the final for a couple questions and bombed it. As an ME department policy, you have to get at least 50% on the final to pass the class. She emailed me when she found out, said 'wtf happened,' and let me do a retake during the break. I don't think most teachers would be willing to regrade a test during their break, but she was basically awesome about making sure i didn't have to repeat the course thanks to a bad case of test anxiety. Statics is statics, no matter who you take. I would recommend her to anybody who plans to put in the necessary effort.

At first, I was like this lady is terrible! Her class was set up like an elementary class. But in the end I realized it is set up perfectly. Her class structure is designed to benefit her students. The first three weeks join a study group, get a tutor, or go to office hours. If you don\'t get it right away you will be lost the whole quarter. I got a tutor and it did wonder for me. First time I have had a tutor too. I got a 78% on the midterm, and a 97% on the project. However if there was ever a problem on the homework that required hours of time I didn\'t do it. You still can get 7/10 for the problem just writing it down and attempting. In other words, make sure you understand the fundamentals and don\'t get lost on the hard stuff. The final was all fundamentals. Professor Keller is a great lady that cares about her students success. IF you try hard to will have no problem passing her class. I have had far too many professors expect too much on midterms and dont prepare you well. She is a breath of fresh air.

Keller is a perfect example of the lack of checks and balances in place in the college teaching system. Examples in class leave most students lost and most of the time pertain in no way to the topic at hand. Way too much homework is assigned and problems are included that are far too complex for the curriculum. As for the \"static\'s bucks\" students are required to obtain throughout the quarter, WHAT A JOKE!! Static\'s bucks are basically Keller\'s way of making her self feel as if she is fulfilling her purpose in life by forcing students to ask elementary questions in return for a token which symbolizes the demise of their own intelligence. If you find yourself stuck with this excuse for an educational figure and tempted to utilize homework solutions to fill in the gaps left by her bush-league lectures, don�t do it! She will sniff out your scheme and fail you from the class faster than she moves onto the next topic being vomited across the whiteboard during lecture. Keller realizes her own deficiencies as a professor and this quarter even went as far as offering a study session twice a week for lost students (every ones lost any ways). This sounds like a noble gesture until you are forced to pay to attend these study sessions. You would think the 2000$ dropped at the beginning of the quarter would get you somewhere but no, think again. Professor Keller = Fail = Epic Fail!!

First of all, Keller is a ME. O.o lol not an aero or civil. She\'s a GREAT professor. There are MANY MANY opportunities for points with her. If you\'re one of those people that do the HW, TAKE HER. If you\'re not, then you probably shouldn\'t. HW & the term project make up 40% of your grade (20 each), you won\'t get by without doing them. The HW is tricky and occasionally TOTAL bull, but it\'s the book\'s fault for the way they word it. >:| Don\'t sweat it though, there\'s plenty of opportunity for help w/ it an the teachers all make the final pretty clear/obvious. ALSO! DON\'T worry about the quizzes if you don\'t do well on them! They\'re on a point system an barely worth anything! (i.e. each quiz is worth about 10pts.. but the weekly hw assignment is ~100 pts. so ALL your quizzes amount to ONE hw assignment. lol A lot of us were freaking out about not doing well on the quizzes until keller told us that they were worth less than a statics buck. (She hands out points for asking questions etc that go toward your participation points (10% of yr grade). She gives them out like crazy though, so you should be fine as long as you participate in class. She\'s a lot more stressed then she was a few years ago, she\'s dealing with getting her doctorate or masters or something in SB aaaaand she\'s got a family too! She\'s totally stretched for time but she does genuinely want to help you and teach you an help you pass the class. The class is a lot of work, but she WILL PREPARE YOU FOR THE FINAL! Take her and you\'ll be fine. =] One nice thing is that the final is worth 30% of your grade. You HAVE to get 50% to pass the final and pass the class. If you did everything else and are at an A, then at the very most, you will be working with -15% if you are way off your game but still pass. Not bad considering how easy getting all the points was in the first place!

Keller is not a terrible teacher per se. In fact, she was downright acceptable. She was decent at portraying the information and also adequate at answering your questions IN CLASS. After saying that, I\'m going to say AVOID TAKING PROFESSOR KELLER...until she is done being a student. She is working on getting her doctorate at Santa Barbara and it suffices to say that she is busy. Busy to the point where she literally said to us in class \"Don\'t ask me anything about homework problems\", which is ridiculous because her homework assignments are lengthy and difficult. She had ONE office hour last quarter (Friday 2-3....seriously?). It all seemed rather unfair that for such a tough class, we were put in difficult situations because of her schedule.

So after hearing all the terrible things about this class and this teacher, I was really worried about even passing it. Keller teaches very well, although sometimes it seems as if she doesn\'t really know what she is doing. The statics bucks annoyed me, because she would forget to give them to you and it just felt like another hoop to jump through. This class really isn\'t that difficult as long as you do all of the homework. She told us it should take about 10 hours a week and she isn\'t joking. The fact that she only had one office hour from 2-3pm on fridays when I had class was ridiculous. I don\'t know if that\'s even legal as a teacher, but she got away with it I guess. She is also anal about formatting, she will give you a zero if you don\'t put your section number on the assignment, or if you staple your assignments in the wrong order. It seems really stupid, but it definitely teaches you to keep your work neat and clear.

Prof. Keller was way better than any of these reviews say. Even though I did not get the best grade, overall, she was very fair and nice and genuinely cared about her students. Seeing \"raging thundercunt\" as the first rating on the other option was not a very good sign going into this class, but I was pleasantly surprised that that rating was wrong. Even though her grading policies and obsessiveness over neatness were a little much, overall, she was very fair, and gives out a lot of very easy, free points. As long as you answer at least one question per class, or even attempt to, she gives you participation points. People think her statics bucks are annoying, but really, if you even say one word in her class, she will give you one. You just cant be afraid to speak like most are. Just keep up on the hw and dont slack off, because that will really hurt you. She prepares you pretty well for the final, and covers the material until you understand it. Just pay attention and attend class and this class is not as hard as it seems. A lot of work out of class though, but that is expected. All in all, dont be afraid to take Keller, she is a really nice professor, and just finished her doctorate at SB. She is very good at teaching statics!

Keller was an excellent professor. She was approachable and did an excellent job conveying the material in class. Her homework formatting can at first seem extremely unnecessary and tedious, but when the final rolls around, you\'re prepared to present your work clearly and concisely, which will earn you higher points. As long as you follow the formatting guidelines (make sure you do), homework grading is fairly lenient and you will get almost full credit for trying. She expects class participation and draws it out of you using \"Statics Bucks\" -- her way of grading you for participating (you get a buck for saying anything and turn them in for points). While it can seem a little grade-schoolish, you can\'t say its not effective, and she manages to get people asking and answering questions that are actually relevant. She\'s totally open to helping students and will go out of her way to make an appointment if you can\'t make her office hours. She recently finished her doctorate, which lessens her workload and should translate to more availability for students. Don\'t expect to have your hand held through the course -- its a challenging course with any professor and ultimately you have to put in a lot of effort to get a good grade. But if you want a teacher who genuinely cares about the topic they\'re teaching, and wants to see her students succeed, take Keller.

Personally, I found her to be somewhat condescending and the homework was tough, but all the work paid off. Some of my friends really liked her though so it\'s personal preference.

I don\'t think Keller deserves the low polyratings grade she has. Her examples in class are OK--not great, but not terrible. You do have to learn a lot from the book but she\'ll help you out in office hours. I definitely suggest signing up for a study session as well. At the very least, it will force you to get your homework done correctly and you\'ll meet people to study with easier.

For Statics, Prof. Keller assigned a lot of homework and had a somewhat hard to understand grading system. Prof. Keller gave out "Statics Bucks" which you would turn in for a participation grade (10% of total), which incentivized some students to bring up unnecessary questions during class for the sole purpose of earning a better participation grade. Prof. Keller's examples during class were sometimes unnecessarily complex and silly. She assigns a hefty amount of homework, but the homework she assigns is very useful in doing well on her tests and the final (which is a common final). Prof. Keller is helpful during office hours (which she does not have many of) and you can schedule a private office hour meeting with her. Unfortunately, she never goes over homework, so unless you have the solution manual, you will not find out where you went wrong (even after it has been graded). This class seemed like one of those classes where doing the homework and thinking about the material outside of class was more important than having a particularly good professor, just because of the nature of the subject.

Keller isn't an easy teacher, but she was pretty fair, and VERY good at explaining the subject. Bottom line - don't take her if you want to have an easy class with little homework. Take her if you really want to do well in a subject, pass a common final, or get a solid base for dynamics, fluids 2, or whatever. You will have to work for it, but it's a fun class.

DO NOT take Melinda Keller. She is a complete psychopath bitch who has ridiculous grading policies and retarded logic. She makes you write references for everything you do, but if you are writing on a quiz (like you should) after she says times up, its an automatic zero. I could tell from the very start that I did not like her at all, with her childish voice and zero acknowledgement toward student confusion. This bitch should be fired! DO NOT TAKE MELINDA KELLER

Overall, she was a terrible teacher. She assigned excessive amounts of work, had inconsistent grading policies, never gave enough time on quizzes or midterms, fell behind on the lectures, and barely covered all the course material. Also, it felt, because of her inconsistent grading and the way she gave participation points that she clearly had favorites. She also was the only statics professor to assign a statics project, that was, in my opinion (and that of everyone else I surveyed), a giant waste of time and energy. On top of that, it felt like the examples she did in class were next to pointless because they were extremely easy and did not compare the types homework problems that were assigned. Thus making the homework that much more difficult. Overall, she was the worst teacher I have had, and I highly recommend not taking the course if you have to take her.

She is not a bitch she is just straight forward and doesn't have time for bullshit. I do not like the statics bucks concept but you talk a lot and ask lots of questions you will like that, however its only worth about 3% of your grade. She goes over one example then moves on and assigns extremely hard homework and lots of problems each week. The tests are nothing like the homework, in my opinion they were easier and more like the examples. I spent about 15-20 hours a week on this class teaching myself the material and trying to keep up. Do well on the term project and you are golden. You can tell she doesn't put much time into the class because she just assigns homework out of the book that she admits she doesn't like, instead of writing her own problems, and then she never reviews any of the problems. She doesn't grade the homework but is very strict about format. I did feel very prepared during the final more so than my friends who had different teachers. Her class requires LOTS of time, but I think pays off for the final?

If you want to waste a huge amount of time on a pointless project and be unprepared for the common final she is great! Otherwise avoid at all costs if you want to do well in this class.

*When you're looking at PolyRatings for Statics professors, keep in mind that it is a hard class. For the most part, harder class = lower grades = lower polyratings.* For the most part, I thought that Keller was a very good professor. She explained the material well and did a good number of examples to help us understand it. We usually had 9-12 homework problems a week. Averaging 30 minutes per problem would be considered fast. So be ready to spend a lot of time on homework. You quickly learn (hopefully) to space it out throughout the week so that you are not doing it all on Thursday night and then it really isn't that bad. Keller has some very harsh grading policies. Forget to put your section number...zero. Just learn to check for this each time you turn something in and you'll be fine. Quizzes are about once a week. They are open everything. You can use the book, your notes, the internet, and you can work with partners. Just be sure to write what your references are. The quizzes are still hard because she does not give you much time. Be prepared to get several quizzes below 50%. Don't worry about it though because everyone does poorly, the class is curved, and quizzes only end up being about 3% of your grade. One other thing that I didn't like was her term project. Basically you have to take pictures of a truss and a frame and then make statics problems out of them. It ends up being way harder than it sounds and takes a looooooong time. Learning how to make a problem is different from learning how to solve one, so it really didn't help me at all. She gives out "Statics Bucks" for participation in class. Seems kinda childish to me, but I'll take easy points. Some people were worried about people asking dumb questions just to get them, but this didn't really happen. You can go to any of her sections, you do not have to go to your own. She also does a big review the night before which I though was very helpful. Even if you don't take her I'd recommend finding out when her review session is and going. The common final is hard. That being said, I think she prepared us well. Keller's class is a lot of work. If people say that she did not prepare them for the common final then I guess they want the class to be harder??? I would certainly take her again, although her term project is pretty dumb.

Keller's goal was to prepare you for the common final better than any of the other professors. To do so, we had lots of homework, difficult quizzes, and fairly hard midterms (not too bad though if you understood the homework). While this class was a lot of work, it was definitely worth it because going into the common final, I knew way more than my friends in different statics sections. Keller is a quirky lady and really wants her students to do well. If you put in the time, statics is not nearly as hard as everyone says it is. I would recommend Keller if you want to learn the material well and pass the common final.

Keller was a great teacher. She is a bit crazy, gives a lot of homework, and has some interesting requirements but honestly all of it was really helpful. Her midterms were really not that hard if you did the homework and understood the material. The common final was torture. You could say she didn't prepare us well for it but honestly i doubt any of the teachers really prepared any of their students for that final. They put problems on it that we had never seen before but my theory is that they do that because they want us to use what we know to solve problems that we have never seen before, because eventually we're gonna have to do that in the real world. Anyway, I thought I failed that final but I came out with a solid A probably because they don't grade it very harshly or keller put a solid curve on the class. I highly recommend keller.

Keller was a very interesting professor. Although she was a bit odd, she was able to teach the course very well. She forces the students to truly understand and master the concepts in statics, which I appreciated. If you're willing to work hard in this class, I highly recommend Keller. If you are to take Keller, make sure the rest of your quarter is pretty light.

Prof Keller is focussed on making people engineers. For statics, this was the first class where there was homework due everyday so many people complain. After they grow up and actually pass the class, they realize everyday homework is the norm for upper division classes. She can present the material in a roundabout way, using metaphors and made up stories to try to keep it interesting. It's lost on many people and I'm not sure if it matters in the overall scheme but at least it's different than the typical lecturing style. Protip: learn statics well. You need it for mechanics of materials, thermo, fluids, design, vibrations, dynamics, composites, FEA, and oh yeah, EVERYTHING else in engineering. Her tests are hard, homework is due every day, quizzes are done in groups typically, EVERYTHING IS CURVED. I also learned that the room of requirement is located next to her office. Bottom line: she's a good statics teacher, do the homework, pass the final, take over the world. -Tom Riddle Reviews

Take Keller if you're an ME or in the Gaming club (if you're in the club you'll already know her). These students love her, and she seems to tolerate them more. If you're an outlier like me, work your tail off and live in her office or take someone else. Architectural and Agricultural Engineering students seem to be regarded as less, being outside the College of Engineering.

I think the low polyratings are usually attributed with the way she runs the class. It's possible to get a good grade with make up quizzes and hw available, but, the way she wants you to format your hw is way too structured. It may look nice to look at once you get it back, but you have to waste tons of time following that structure. She's also strict with the notation. Also, about Staticsbucks; I thought that is childish, even though it seems like a good way to grade student participation, since that system is about pure numbers instead of being subjective. I wouldn't recommend her, but she isn't the worst teacher to be with.

Keller is one of the worste instructors ever. I wish she and her unborn child would die. Her spawn should be wiped from the face of the planet. She assigns a term project which is crap. She fails students in the class for using solutions manuals. What a fuckin bitch. I know 7 people were flunked for it F/2005. She doesnt teach, not that i think any professor really does in this class.

She is the worst teacher I have ever had. I have been going to school for a long time now. She made this qtr absolutely miserable for me. I had to wrok twice as hard cause her methods for teaching are crap. She doeant step wise problem solving, I mean this is a problem solving class right? Then she gives us a term project which did boost my grade but it also about broke me in the process. Her midterm was a joke nothing but derivations and writing definitions of words, SO LAME! Then the final was to be an hour took 2 were told we would have an extra 30 min that didn't happen. We weren't prepared properly for a common final the test was vicious. So in other words when your on power and u click make a scheduel make sure Keller isn't on your list of choices.

Honestly I think some people are being a little harsh. For those Aero classes, that was a way advanced class that she probably had no business teaching. For Dynamics? She really isn't the best teacher in the world...but its not like she is the end all embodiment of evil. Her midterm was pretty easy and she gives a term project that boosts your grade. She definately failed a lot of people for using the solution manual (a bit harsh, but not really unfair considering she cracking down on CHEATING - and thats from me, who usually lives out of solution manuals). She was fine, not great...just...fine. She gives a lot of example problems and goes through them thoroughly. I wouldn't recomend Keller per say...but don't avoid her at all costs; she's not that bad.

Okay, here's my two cents: I think dynamics is going to suck, no matter who you have. Honestly, I felt lucky to have Keller as my professor. She assigns a project which boosted my grade a lot and saved me from having to retake the course. I especially feel lucky when I hear stories about Locascio. I heard his class average was like 30%. Yeah, there some things about Keller that bother me; for example she can be really anal about things, such as the policies (she wouldn't let us use calculators on the midterm because she was paranoid of people cheating). Overall though, I'd say Keller is decent.

Her midterm was mainly "conceptual" questions, which didn't relate much to the assigned homework. She's very tough on students using the solutions manual. Even though I didn't have the manual, I was afraid to write down the correct answers, for fear her grader would flag my papers for plagerism. I saw her fail several people from the course for copying from the solutions manual. Probably the only good thing about Ms. Keller's course was her term project. It was a lot of work, but she seemed fair in her grading. The term project was worth 20% of the grade. I wouldn't recommend her, but if your choice is Keller or Locasio, go with Keller.

yes, dynamics is a hard class for everyone, including the nerds out there..taking keller for dynamics was a pain in the ass, since i couldnt copy the solutions for the hw, since she was failing everyone she believed copied the solutions manual, the only good thing that came from this is that i actually tried and learn the material(spend at least 30 hours a week doing the hw).... but if your going to take dynamics, i recomend her, since her term project help me out a lot( came out to 25 pages).. oh, and her test was 50% conceptial(which i did bad on that part)...well who ever you take good luck, i was lucky to pass it the first time..

Keller was a pretty good professor for Dynamics. I don't know if I would take her for anything else, but with the alternatives for ME 212, I would recommend her. The common final was pretty straightforward. If you do ALL of the assigned homework, there shouldn't be any problems. Just don't expect to breeze through this class, with Keller or any other professor for that matter. If you can't handle dynamics with Keller, you should probably switch majors (especially ME's) because it will only get harder from here. To all of the people complaining about her crackdown on solutions: just do the work yourself. Real life doesn't come with a solution manual.

Professor Keller seemed to know what she was doing, its just that her ability to convey it wasn't that good. She started out with nothing but calculus derivations of general equations, and did not seem to start giving example problems until the class had asked for them on multiple occasions. After that, it seemed to progress to almost nothing but example problems for lecture. When doing example problems, I did not feel that she was teaching any kind of system to approach a problem, she gave the problem and worked it out for you, going from step to step that she had already worked out, but not explaining why she had chosen that particular process. She seems a nice enough person, I just don't feel like I got that much out of her class and am currently dreading taking intermediate dynamics without a very solid foundation.

AWESOME CLASS. Mediocre teaching/lecturing. Cool teacher though. Ok so pretty much your first concern should be a quiz worth 10% of your grade every OTHER friday (week 2, 4, 6, 8, 10). The first 2-3 quizzes look hard at first, but then you realize it's like... "CIRCLE THE WRITE EQUATION" or something like that. But eventually the quizzes will involve you doing more of the problem... until eventually the 5th and final quiz is a fucking RIDICULOUS problem on this 12x28" paper that you have to do completely... which I bombed haha because I was definitely hungover. ANYWAYS, a set of about 3-4 problems is assigned EVERY class (M W F) and all those sets are due the following Wednesday. Get a hold of the Dynamics homework solutions but ONLY use them to check your work and answers, and also if you maybe... are rushed or forgot to do them in time. But seriously, you may do alright on the homework which is worth like maybe 10% of your grade, but each QUIZ is worth 10%, and each quiz is out of 10 points, so you really need to be on top of your shit. Doing the homework problems yourself and then going over them with the homework solutions is really useful. You're only hurting yourself if you just copy, which is what I did in the beginning of the quarter. Actually, Keller used to fail people if her or her graded noticed similar or identical work your homework, but she scared us this quarter by saying the grader noticed copied work and she was going to start giving zero's on WHOLE homeworks that had even 1 problem copied. So yea, beware of that. Ok TERM PROJECT = THE SHIT. I don't care what anyone says who hasn't had the class and said "Oh term project, pssh I'd rather take 2 midterms and a final and some lame homework!" No. No no no. This term project is worth 25% of your grade... that's 1/4 if you didn't know! You may be thinking, oh shit... it must be SOOOOO LONG AND HARD!!! Wrong. All you have to do is make 4 problems that are just like SAMPLE PROBLEMS from the book, with set up, analysis, problem statement, calculations.... etc... with a title page, table of contents, and GET IT BOUND. It HAS TO BE BOUND.. because I thought I was tight and got a presentation cover for it instead and dropped it on her desk and she said she wouldn't take it. LAME. So I ran out of class and got it bound and threw it at her face. And then I got a 95/100 on it. SHIZZAAAAAAM. So yea, that term project was KEY. So ok, to succeed in this class, do all the homework because you'll get 10% for it and you'll be ready for the final. Then, take a whole day or 2 to come up with your term project problems a week before it's due (think of silly ideas because that'll tickle her into giving you some brownie points) and pretty much just copy a sample problem from the text and just change the numbers and objects used. Then, study the current material before a quiz, which she usually spills the beans on what it's going to be on. THEN, the only REEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLL concern in this class is the final. THE FINAL OF DOOM. If you don't pass this final, you don't pass the class; PLAIN AND SIMPLE. I know a handful of friends that are retaking this class, and I feel really sorry for them because they did the work throughout the year and just bombed the final. The final.. is pretty much 5 homework problems, and the teachers write 1 or 2 each. To study for this final, I suggest you read. READ READ READ. I didn't learn the IMPORTANT stuff for the final from Melinda (Sorry professor ;-P ). If you want to do well on her quizzes, pay attention to lecture. You can not pay attention and do your other classes' homework in there and do OK on her quizzes like me. But you have to make sure you read and do the homework problems at least HALF way by yourself to get your problem solving and analyzing skills up to par. That's all that really matters with most classes... the math is easy, you just have to be able to break the problem down and make assumptions and GET GOOD AT YOUR FREE BODY DIAGRAMS AND MASS ACCELERATION DIAGRAMS. Being able to just do the FBD's and MAD's is already like... 1/3 of the problems points, but pretty much the key stepping stone to solving the problem. If you analyze a problem wrong in your FBD, all the math is fucked. But once you have a correct FBD and MAD up, you can slowly but surely figure out which equations to use. OH YEA speaking of equations, make your equation sheet throughout the quarter, and USE IT as you do homework problems because when the final comes around, you'll have it ready with ALLLLLL the shit you need AND you'll be really familiar with it and maybe even already have it memorized, like me. So yea, if you take her and WANT to learn from her lecture, ASK QUESTIONSSSSSSSSS. She'll usually answer, repeat herself on shady subjects, and even maybe draw you a diagram. Oh yea, she's super quick as shit with replying to emails and even giving you hints and pictures in E-mails. So yea, umm if you'd like to LEARN from lecture, take someone else. But if you're good at learning yourself and reading a lot, then take her because he grading is cake. I definitely didn't expect a B, which is pretty darn good for this class. KTHXBYE.

having failed dynamics twice before with two other professors, it turns out that keller is one of the best dynamics professors at cal poly. I suggest getting the answer key, but making sure not to abuse it; when used right it is an incredible tool. When youre stuck on a problem, it really does help you to understand the material despite what other profs may tell you. Keller's tests are also easier than any other professor's, and everyone is almost guaranteed an A on the term project. Also, the final is only worth 20%. As bad as she may sound, just remember that dynamics is tough no matter who you have, and there are WAY worse teachers out there.

Keller is probably the best dynamics teacher out there. yes, there was a lot of homework, way to much even for dynamics. i spent probably a good 15 hours a week on just the homework. dynamics is a tough course, but that kind of homework really helped me understand the material, i ended up getting a high A on the common final. the lectures are a little slow, and shes not real quick on the draw with the problems, but who is? she probably relies on the solution manual a little too much, but i liked that. i mean think about it, 90% of the teachers at this school have been here for more that 50 years and have never been in the industry that they teach about and so know nothing outside of the textbook. Keller worked for several years for boeing and (i think) rocketdyne. Shes a real person, and so cant do all the problems right away in her head, she thinks them through. in my experience, the only people that can do the problems in their heads, are the ones that have been teaching this course forever and so know all the problems. she has plenty of office hours and thats where i learned the most. shes very helpful and its easy to get very high grades, just do the homework. the final is only worth 20% so it wont make or break you. peace.

first thing, final is not as evil as people think. if i passed it, heck really anyone can. maybe it was crazy hard before but it was pretty straight forward when i took it. personality wise, she is like a little girl(in a nice way). that really help the tension of a hard class. homework: do them honestly or at least know how to get the answer if you use the solutions. quizzes are easy-ish. early on they are mostly conceptual. read the section of the lectures before the quiz and that part of the quiz should be easy. her problems with actually numbers in them are subpar book problems so should be no problem there. the project is crazy long. you should get a great boost from it but just dont wait till the morning it due(like i did) to do it, that is bad for your skin. spend some time coming up with creative examples a couple of days before it is due, and then take a full day and a half to actually do it. last the final: study the last two chapter becuase they cover four chapters i believe, also there is a problem from chapter 2. hard class but she will do a lot of things to make it a lil bit easier. i did not know how nice and good of a prof she is at least for this class till i actually pass the damn class. have fun.

Professor Keller is not as horrible as people say she is. Don

Honestly, if you're ***RETAKING DYNAMICS...take her***!!!! :) She definitely presents a lot of practice problems which was extremely helpful vs derivations/theoretical junk! She's not very approachable in office hours so I suggest you attend a study session. Overall, the term project really helped me out..I got an A!

By far the worst teacher I've had at Cal Poly. She fails to present material correctly, even sometimes teaching us INCORRECT methods of solving problems. She likes to assign quizzes on material she hasn't actually taught the class yet, but if ask her a question, she'll look at you like you're an idiot for not understanding the material. She also missed TWO WEEKS of material because she was "sick," except she was still lecturing her fluids class while she told us she wasn't around! Not only that, but of the 6 class days she missed, we only had a substitute for 2 days! The crazy thing, though, is that we learned more in those two days than entire WEEKS of lectures with her! Don't take my A in this course to mean she's an easy teacher, because she isn't even close. Dynamics will already be one of the hardest classes you take at Cal Poly, but Keller only serves to make it even more painful for students. I had to work to get a good grade - I usually spent about 3-4 hours per homework assignment, and she assigned 3 per week. That came on top of normal studying, reviewing notes, etc. I can't stress enough how bad of a teacher Keller is. I thought John Yang was bad (IME 314 anyone?) but at least he helped you out if you were struggling! To top it all off, I spent a full day making my note sheet to use on the final, but because I didn't put my name on it, she wouldn't let me have me back (even snidely remarking about how I'll just have to make a new one). Keep in mind, she gave us no warning she would collect it.

Do not take this professor. She makes it seem as if her class will be fairly easy: participation, homework, and quizzes where you can earn back points you missed make up the majority of your grade. Students work really hard to get 100% in these sections and still fail the class. I did make up points so I had literally every single point into the class going into the midterm and final and worked for hours and hours to do so. I still managed to fail the midterm and final and ultimately the class. On top of this, Keller provides unclear examples and makes students ask useless questions to earn "Dinobucks" which get you participation points. Also, she is incredibly rude and sarcastic to her students, both in emails and in person. After missing class due to being sick she made it very difficult for me to turn in my homework and get caught up in the class despite me going to office hours multiple times to do so. When I asked her to help me understand how I could pass the class next time she gave me a rude answer and told me not to register for her class again, even though there was literally no other section of the class that would work with my current schedule. Overall, this class and this professor in particular have greatly diminished my chance at graduating in 4 years and greatly increased my stress levels. I am dreading taking this class again in the fall, but will most certainly not be taking it with Professor Keller again.

Bro, this low poly rating is absolute BULL. She is by far the best professor I have had at cal poly. Ignore all past comments, that was when she was just developing as a teacher. She is amazing and understanding as a professor. She lets you decide where you want your grade to weigh the most. For example if you don't want to do the homework or quizzes you can choose for them to not affect your grade and just have a higher weight on midterms and finals. However, homework and quizzes are easy points, she even has opportunities to MAKE UP ALL Lost points on HW and quizzes. Fantastic teacher, very caring, very understanding.

If you need Thermo for a pre-requisite (in other words you need to actually learn something) DO NOT TAKE KELLER!!!!!!! But, she is sufficient for anyone who just needs it as a support class. Melinda is one of the worst teachers I have had, but the grading follows along with all horrible lectures, so it all balances out in the end. It is possoble to fail evereything, not really understand thermodynamics, and still get a C in the class.

I enjoyed the class and thought she did a good job of presenting the material clearly. Here tests were straightforward and fairly easy. Only main probem is she has a bad habit of teach the material of the last couple of homework problems the day the homework is due. and there is a lot of homework.

Keller in two words. Raging Thundercunt. One of the worst professors i have ever had here at cal poly. she cant convey any information whatsoever without getting confused herself. She teaches to the board and rarely explains what she is doing while she is working out a solution. Her graders are usually ass kissers and grade the homework like it has to be the exact same as the solution or its wrong. bunch of retards in my opinion. Anyways she also makes you do a term project which turns out to be the biggest waste of time you will ever experience in your life. Avoid her if you can, unless you like shitty teaching styles like hers.

Keller is a horrible professor! First of all, she is extremely condescending toward students who ask questions during class. Many times she loudly scoffs or laughs at the question being asked. I haven't heard any positive comments made about her from anyone in my class other than the few pets she has in the class. Which brings me to the second problem, she does not grade fairly, I have seen a clear differential in the way assignments get graded. Lastly, compared to the other classes, we have covered far less material and have not covered the material to the same degree. It seems she skims over the material at a slow rate, then wastes time in class deriving everything. When she finally gets to an example problem, she quickly works through it, making sure no one knows what she did or how she did it. Finally someone asks a question then she laughs at them for not knowing the material she just failed to teach. Sorry, the one below is mine as well, but I mistakenly typed 303 instead of 302.

Keller collects hw and offers a course "project" involving a memo and trip to the Poly Canyon Village boiler rooms. It's annoying but otherwise easy. All her tests follow a similar format: one large steady state system and its components, and minimal information regarding the fluids at each state. You need to be able to think backwards and extract data from tables. They are tough exams if you have only been working off homework problems... luckily she provides past exams before each midterm. STUDY THEM WELL!! Her exams aren't so bad once you know what's coming. Lectures are average... difficulty is average... but I guess I wouldn't mind taking Keller for a poor rotation.

Keller is literally the best professor I've had at Poly. She is so efficient at teaching the class how to solve problems and doesn't get hung up on derivations. If you're about to take thermo, take her.

What a biased, rude bitch. DONT TAKE HER IF YOU ARE FEMALE. She has something against us. If you are unfortunate enough to have to have her as a teacher, make sure to put a lot of effort into following all of her rules and doing everything "her way". Forget to put a section number on a quiz? ZERO Write in pen instead of pencil for a written quiz? ZERO. So frustrating. This material is hard enough without her ridiculously unfair grading style. BITCH BITCH BITCH BITCHHHHHHHHHH

Pantsuits.

Those pantsuits doe... Really from what I can tell so far, she is very friendly and works really hard to present the material in a clear and concise way. She is more focused on teaching the concepts than examples so working out the homework can be a bit tough. HOWEVER, she has a lot of open office hours, you can schedule extra office hours, AND you can text her questions. Her tests are hard, but that's irrelevant. If its hard for you its most likely hard for everyone else as long as you study. The point of hard tests is to tell who is doing really well and really bad, then they curve it later in order to keep the grades fair. whether or not you do well on her tests doesn't matter as much as doing better than everyone else. Its a class that actually requires you to study a little bit, in engineering that's not blasphemy, if you want a major where you don't have to work then you're in the wrong field.

I couldn't believe how this class was run. I've had teachers curve things before, but this was just ridiculous. If you have to take Thermo, take this class. First off, I should mention that you should take note of EVERYTHING she writes on the board during lecture. I'm saying this because she told us a lot of secret tricks, short-cuts, and equations that were super helpful for some of our homework problems. There are weekly quizzes, but a lot of them are group quizzes and almost all of them are open book, notes, homework, etc. As I mentioned earlier, she curves everything a ton, so don't get too worked up about how bad you do on the first midterm (everyone does bad on that one). There is a term project for this class, but if you put a good amount of effort into it, you will get a good grade. I knew a lot of people in my class that got 110% on that project. As for her accessibility to students, you can't get more personal than Keller does. She actually gives out her number to everyone in the class and you can text her your questions directly, which is super helpful. Overall, pretty reasonable class with a teacher that does a lot to communicate with her students.

Keller is probably one of the worst professors I've ever had. There was so much unnecessary work(term project, quizzes that you don't learn from..) and I felt like if I had a professor who would cut the crap and just teach instead of wasting my time then I would have learned a lot more. There's not enough time to do the tests so basically all you have time for is setting up each problem. She is disorganized in lecture and skips out on important concepts that I had to learn on my own. I ended up with a decent grade because I failed better than everyone else. She seems like a cool person but she is definitely not a good teacher.

When running through example problems, she failed on explaining why we were doing a certain step. I was lost many times on what to do next in a problem. She has an extra credit assignment where students make a decision tree flowchart, but people have little to no idea on how to do it because she doesn't teach it. She has a test philosophy of complete as many problems as you can in a short period of time in order to make you work your hardest. Test averages for both midterms were in the 25% to 35% ranges. This is because there is no time to finish the tests (and probably her teaching style). This philosophy is just plain ineffective and may be unfair to some. Students who have the same knowledge level may work at different speeds. This makes people who are knowledgeable, but slower workers do extremely poor in her class. They want to show her that they know the material, but the current test philosophy doesn't allow them to. Also for her quiz absences, even if they are excused, she does not allow quiz retakes. You have to do 10 conceptual homework problems in order to make up the entire quiz grade. This is aggravating because doing homework problems can take hours, where one of her quizzes takes 15 to 20 minutes. Thermodynamics should be taught in a way that makes it easy, Keller teaches it in a way that makes it difficult.

If Thermo were a middle school class, Keller would be the perfect teacher. It\'s not though. She is totally unfit for an elite engineering school. She doesn\'t seem to have that good of a grasp on the material. One example would be, when describing gas power cycles \"gasoline engines usually have a compression ratio less than 8 to 1, and diesels less than 20 to 1\". This shows that either she received her engineering education in the 1930s (doubtful) or she just pulls stuff out of her ass (almost certain). On my midterm, she docked me a point because she couldn\'t figure out a character I wrote, which was both obvious by its shape, and also obvious by the equations it was used in. As far as the idea that she used to design rollercoasters...sure she did. Upsides of the class are that it\'s not that hard (my B was with 11% on overall homework and 31% on the project).

Keller is a horrible professor! First of all, she is extremely condescending toward students who ask questions during class. Many times she loudly scoffs or laughs at the question being asked. I haven't heard any positive comments made about her from anyone in my class other than the few pets she has in the class. Which brings me to the second problem, she does not grade fairly, I have seen a clear differential in the way assignments get graded. Lastly, compared to the other classes, we have covered far less material and have not covered the material to the same degree. It seems she skims over the material at a slow rate, then wastes time in class deriving everything. When she finally gets to an example problem, she quickly works through it, making sure no one knows what she did or how she did it. Finally someone asks a question then she laughs at them for not knowing the material she just failed to teach.

Why did they pick Keller to teach an Aero class? She might be OK in ME (I don't know, I didn't have her) but she can't teach Aero for shit. With Dr. Tso in the wind tunnel lab, I got consistent A's on lab reports. This quarter, with Keller, I've gotten mid 20's to upper 50's (yes, percent.) She's picky to the point of absurdity. Avoid her in Aero labs at all costs.

You know there's trouble if even the lab instructor can't tell the difference between a function generator and an oscilloscope. I usually don't mind if the instructor is unfamiliar with the lab equipment, but not to admit it and try to pretend to know it is something else. Keller graded pretty harshly on the labs and wasn't very helpful. The only saving grace was a grad student who knew vibes inside and out. Bottom line: run away.

Keller is one of the best teachers I've ever had, and I've had some of the best (Mueller (math), Hesslegrave (math), Kennedy (dynamics), Rahim (CE 221), Sullivan (CE 114 & CE 222). She presents material VERY clearly, doesn't try and trick you on tests, which are very very easy by the way. However the tests can be a bit rushed, but they are open everything. This was her first time teaching Fluids I, and honestly, I don't know if anyone could have taught it better. Great in office hours (yes you CAN ask homework questions in her OH), overall just a great professor. Take her if you can. Just a warning though, overall, she is tougher on her statics students than her fluids students, but in 211 you gotta work hard for your grade, and it is your first TRUE engineering class.

Took over summer school for fluid dynamics 1, she was constantly messing up in class and had to rewrite her explanations, everyday i spent probably 3 hours our of class learning the material and trying to do her difficult problems, every test i thoguht i bombed but ended up being boosted well with the curve, lesson of the day, it makes you study so much out of class you become a boss at the end, oh she gave us an impossible project..which literally she couldnt even do herself and changed all of the requirements the day before the project and told only a group full of students...in otherwords shes a bitch

When I took Fluids it was one of the first times she was teaching the class. She was pretty good at presenting the material, homework was pretty difficult. I did poorly on the first test, fantastic on the 2nd... had around a B in the class, and then totally screwed up on the project and the final wasn't the best it could have been (it was summer, i was ready to shoot myself lol), and ended up with a C+. (Kind of infuriating because the REASON why I messed up on the project was purely formatting. She could have been more understanding about that and had me re-submit things or something. Parts of my project she didn't even bother grading and just gave me 1/2 credit instead.) She was also very unclear about the project. She told us about it, gave us a week or so... (due on a tuesday) and most kids tried to do it the weekend before it was due.. but then on Monday, she re-explained the project and almost EVERYONE had to start over. I'd say at least 12 people were in the lab in engr13 pulling an all nighter. I'm sure by now she has a bunch of bugs worked out... but the usual should be known about Keller: FORMATTING FORMATTING FORMATTING. She's good at presenting material and teaching you so you learn it. Overall, I like the idea of the project and would recommend her.

Keller presents material very clear, but she contradicts herself on formatting. I was reading other ratings that mention that keller is all about formatting, and they are correct. I took a test the way I would have taken a dynamics test and got a terrible grade because she doesn't care about your thinking process, she only cares about formatting. I lost a lot of points on the first test, and talked to her to try to get the points back and she wouldn't give them back to me. She is not understanding and doesn't care about the student's thinking path, she only cares about how thoughts are organized. Overall, don't take her, you'll hate her voice and end up hating her even more. Liked her at the beginning of the quarter though.

Keller is a good professor but she bases most of her lessons on how to solve each problem instead of teaching more theoretical information which applies to more problems. She grades everything on a curve which was helpful for me but otherwise this class was not to bad.

This class was alright. Keller's strength in lecture is example problems; the theoretical stuff was weaker and required a lot more individual review. The tests are pretty hard (mostly because of the lack of time), but I would definitely recommend them over the project if you have a choice. The final wasn't too bad either. Speaking of, she let us choose our grade breakdown, which was kind of cool. Also you can make up homework so definitely do that. Tea time is interesting… I'd recommend you go one to see what's up.

TL;DR If you can take a professor like Hans, Kean, or Westphal, take them instead of Keller, even if they’re going to be more difficult. You’ll have a much better experience. But if it’s between a prof like Patton vs. taking Keller, then take Keller. You’ll learn it better than you would with Patton. If you want more details - Pros: She used some good analogies/examples to explain tough fluid concepts. Albeit she may have used non-fluid terminology a bit freely, some of the analogies were very helpful in understanding difficult fluids concepts. She gave challenging homework, wasn’t just a walk in the park and really made you think. Keller also held often and varied office hours so students could more likely attend them within the constraints their class schedule. Cons: The two midterm exams basically test who’s brain works the fastest, not who really knows the material. People who know the material don’t always score in correlation to their level of understanding the material. Keller's lectures are not organized enough. Often, she would last minute decide what to talk about and what to save for the next class period. Sometimes, it seemed like she was winging it. The feeling of lack of organization and control on her part affected the class negatively. Also, sometimes, the tone/manner in which she addressed students felt pretcondescending/judgmental. It also felt like she had favorites, and I am pretty sure these people got higher grades because of it. She has a weird way of grading exams where if you do some analysis or mention a thought that she likes she’ll give you points (kinda like “bonus” points) for that even if she isn’t necessarily looking for that on everyone’s exam. And if she likes you, you’ll be more likely to get that. This isn’t the right way to grade exams in my opinion. Grade everyone by the same standard/answer key. One of the worst things was that she divided us up into teams in ways that felt like a middle or high school class. We had team problems or challenges assigned and then earned points. She had a cup for each team and would add colored glass beads to each cup as teams won points. The winning teams got various rewards throughout the quarter. This whole thing just felt immature and not at the college level of teaching. She did say that she might not be doing it in further quarters but who knows. As far as her personality goes, if you like her, you’ll probably really like her, and she will probably feel the same to you. If you don’t like her, you will really not like her and be on her not so good side. There’s not much in between, so if you don’t like her, it can be pretty frustrating. One of the cool elements of Cal Poly is developing a personal connection to your professor, and Keller’s attitude can and will get in the way of that (I speak from experience). This really doesn’t help when you’re trying to ask her questions in office hours.

During this entire quarter all I could think about was how this professor reminded me of that small little dog that runs through the back of scene 23 in The Incredibles by Pixar. Seriously, if you look it up you will only be able to see it...

This lady tried to teach the lab portion of the class, but failed miserably. She would tell us one thing then have the lecture prof tell us we couldn't do it. Then she tells us we are whining about it when we complain that this is not the way you teach a class. Furthermore, she hold major grudges, so beware of this lady, and avoid her like the plague.

I do not see how someone who is teaching a lab section on rockets seemingly knows absolutely nothing on the topic. So, here us students go, with no guidance on what we are doing to do a project. Then we get graded down for not doing it her way, which is the wrong way. Upon confronting her there is an excuse for everything, half of which are lies. Don't ever take a class with this prof. She doesn't care about anything but saving her own face. She should care about teaching which she does not seem to know how to do.

Most unprofessional professer I have ever dealt with at Cal Poly. Her make-believe schedule, which is simply whatever she seems to want at the time can not be followed, as it changes weekly depending on what she feels like that week. I learned nothing from her, and I do not think I could.

She didn't have a clue about anything she was supposed to be teaching. All she did was fill up space and make us turn in schedules that were a waste of time. Even though the project was due June 1, she counted things as late that weren't turned in before that, even though the final report was on time. She knows nothing about the subject matter. She was supposed to help us build and conduct rocket experiements, but she was useless. There was not a single area of the project that she was helpful with, in fact she made things more difficult. Even though were were ready to fire our rockets so that we could complete the project on time, she wouldn't let us because she couldn't be there, and then blamed us when the analysis was a day late. Useless!!!