Rahim, Ashraf  

Professor Rahim is an ex-Caltrans guy, and as nice as he is, it doesn\'t make him any easier to understand during his lectures. You get used to his accent after about a week, but that isn\'t the problem. He just isn\'t good at explaining things. His quizzes are easy because they come straight from the assigned homework problems (which he gives the answers to once he\'s collected it). There\'s one midterm and no final. The final is a group project which is actually pretty interesting. Also, pay extra attention when he teaches about finding moments along beams because there\'s a slight learning curve and, as I said before, he isn\'t clear when he explains it. Also, he\'s not good at answering questions and usually ends up talking about something else unrelated, so be very careful as to how you word your questions if you actually want a substantial answer.

Rahim is a good teacher who knows his stuff. His tests are pretty easy the only hard part of the class are the projects. You will spend a lot of time on both mostly because each project requires about a 10 page paper. He also has a strong accent but you\'ll get used to it after a while. If you\'re unsure about what you heard ask him to repeat it or ask a few other people to make sure you heard right.

Ashraf is a nice and friendly guy. He's really passionate about the material and I was usually excited to go to class. I especially liked it because there was no final (only a final project). Sometimes, if someone would ask a question, he would not understand what the question was or how to answer it, but overall I enjoyed the class.

Rahim is passionate about teaching and you can tell he loves the subject, but that doesn't make him good at clearly presenting the material. He struggles to give answers to questions that students come up with in class, but overall, his class is doable. Not very much homework, average test difficulty, and no final, just a final project. He's a nice guy, and he treats you fairly.

Ashraf is a pretty good teacher. Don't take notes on the power points because they're all posted on Polylearn but make sure you write down everything he writes on the board because they're useful examples and are often on homework/quizzes. There are two projects during the quarter and he grades them pretty easily. Just study the notes and the reading material online for the midterm and quizzes because those will determine your grade.

Professor Rahim is a very nice professor. If you ever need any help, he will respond to his emails within a day or two. He also has office hours which he will gladly help you at. The quizzes and midterms usually reflect the lectures he gives during each class. They are similar to the homework assignments he gives out too. His graders are strict when it comes to the homework though. Be very clear in your answers. You get homework assignments every week and they are usually to answer about five questions reflecting the PowerPoint and the lecture. It is not a lot of work. There is no finals but a project/presentation in which you work with a group of four to write a 10-15 page report and do an 8 minute presentation in front of the class. You only get one midterm (about ten-fifteen questions) and it makes up 25% of your grade. Study well for it because it makes a huge impact on your grade.

I went into this class thinking it was an easy A, but ended up getting rocked by some of the assignments. Rahim is very straight forward, and his lectures are not too boring. It's a general informative class about Civil Engineering, but definitely put some effort outside of class. He gives absolutely no partial credit, so make sure you are answering the homework questions correctly. Power points posted, but some of his questions come from what he says in lecture, so I wouldn't skip. Overall, this is an average professor.

While this class may not seem so difficult, you actually need to put more effort into studying for the Midterm because it is a lot more detailed than you would think. I was pretty sure I was going to get an A in this course, but his technicality on homeworks and midterms and such put me to a B+. Don't underestimate this guy.

Dr. Rahim was a pretty good professor. CE 112, by nature, is a very broad class which doesn't go very in depth to any single topic, so I found many lectures uninteresting. However, some were interesting and there were also some guest speakers. There were some good nuggets of information and the midterms were just like the homework, which wasn't hard at all. It's really easy to get 4/5 points on homeworks, and those add up, so always try and be detailed in your homework responses whenever possible. No final, except for a group project and for the project, you pick your own groups. Try to pick in advance with friends so you don't get stuck with a motley crew.

Rahim's class isn't very hard as long as you put in some effort. The information is straightforward but if you don't study there are a lot of fine points that are easy to miss. Mostly straightforward lecture/ taking notes but there were 4 guest speakers throughout the quarter that were interesting. The class deals somewhat with engineering ethics, and a lot of the students (including myself) felt that the ethics questions on the homework, quizzes, and midterm had multiple answers that could be justified but he just said "There are multiple possible answers but this one is the best" without any more explanation. No final exam instead theres a final group project. Its a 10 page paper and 10 minute powerpoint so choose your group well.

I thought Rahim was an above average professor. The material is all pretty easy because it is an introductory course, just some basic concepts and plug and chug equations. But you do need to study for the quizzes and midterm, as well as go to class every time because Rahim will cover many things that are not on the powerpoint slides. There is no final, but instead a group research project which isn't too bad, but try and make friends so you can get a decent group. Overall, Rahim was a nice guy and always smiling and willing to help. Put in some effort and it's an easy A.

Professor Rahim is a very knowledgeable instructor. He is well versed in the variety of topics covered in the intro level class and presents them well. The homework load was not heavy, but most of the questions were similar to exam questions. The final group project was a great way to meet new people and to delve into one of the specific aspects of civil engineering that interested us. Professor Rahim covered the material very thoroughly and I am looking forward to taking his other courses in the next few years.

Professor Rahim is so cool. This was my favorite class during the quarter. He worked for Cal Trans for a long time and really knows his stuff. His lectures are easy to follow, he clarifies any confusion very well, and gives you formulas on quizzes and tests. There is little homework that is pretty easy. He's a fair grader. The quizzes and tests were easy if you studied. There's also a final project that you do in a group with a large report and presentation, but he does not grade harshly on it and it's a fun project. Looking forward to upper division classes with Prof Rahim

It's clear that Dr. Rahim understands the subject matter. While it may not always be the most exciting class, as most of the course is simply taking notes from his lecture, I learned a great amount about civil engineering. Dr. Rahim is able to present the material clearly and in a way that I am able to understand. Beyond that, grading for quizzes and midterms are a bit risky as they are only out of 10 or 15 points. When grading homework, he looks for very specific words in order to earn credit. It can be tough to earn full points on homework. Still, I would still highly recommend Dr. Rahim to anyone who wants to get a taste of what civil engineering is about.

Dr. Rahim was a very straightforward lecturer, with class made up of powerpoint lectures, explaining and solving problems, and sometimes guest lecturers. HW assigned each week, 2 quizzes, 1 midterm, and a final group research paper/presentation, really wasn't too bad. Make sure you take good notes during the lecture, as they are all that you will really have to study from for detailed problems. Dr. Rahim is good at explaining concepts clearly and shows each step as he goes along. He has a minor accent and will occasionally have some spelling mistakes (earthquack), but it didn't affect the course for me at all. Just go to class, don't forget about the homework and it's an easy A/B.

He is very knowledgeable about all the material because of his Caltrans experience. An interesting class overall; the final group project is fun. One midterm. Quizzes are based off of the homework. If you do the homework and listen to his lecture, you'll be good.

I don't know why Rahim was allowed to teach this class. Going to lecture was extremely pointless, the class materials presented everthing better than he did. Our final project was a joke and he had no idea what was going on. If you want to get anyting our of this class, don't take it if Rahim is taking it.

this class is not very difficult. The midterm is open note open book. There is a final group project where you design a living complex for aliens in 2D. Thermal Engineer is the most difficult task.

All i can say is A++. Take him to learn about engineering.

Rahim is a very nice guy and a very helpful teacher. English may not be his first language, but when it comes to civil engineering he knows his stuff and can teach it well. His accent may be difficult to understand at first, but you'll get used to it. He does not assign much homework and his quizzes are pretty easy. There is no final exam; instead there is a project where you design a house for a fictional 2D world. I really enjoyed Rahim's CE 114 class, and I am taking him again this fall for CE 221. I strongly recommend him.

Dr. Rahim is overall a very good instructor. He gives alot of examples with some theory in the begining of each lecture. His tests and quizzes are very fair. Always a problem that you have seen, be in lecture or in you homework. Overall I would strongly reccomend him. Homework is also part of your grade, so you can use that to boost your grade in the class. I would reccomend him for this class and I am going to try to take him whenever possible.

Rahim is a very good teacher. He was a little sketchy at first, but turned out to be incredibly helpful. He is also very approachable. Tests are fair, usually there is homework (not too much), and office hours were convenient for me. I'd recommend him: he's a solid professor.

The thing that I didn't like about him was that I couldn't understand him. He must have learned english as a second language or something. He is a nice guy, though, and I would recommend him. He's really leaniant on the homework because he really wants to make sure you understand the material, which is good. It was pretty much a low-stress class, which I loved.

If you want a good grade for a fair amount of work this is your guy!!! His tests are straight forward, and come from hw and lecture examples. He is very helpful in his office and is in it all the time. He likes to help students and will go out of his way to help you. His lectures are very organized, with his notes prepared ahead of time so that they are not laden with mistakes. Take him whenever you can, but regular attendance will help you.

The class is horribly boring. Luckily, it's not very difficult. He basically teaches you a bunch of strange equations for road work calculations. He seems like a very nice guy, just doesn't communicate too well with the class all the time. Not really his fault, but his accent makes it difficult at times. I have the feeling this class would have been boring for me no matter who taught it. The homework is pretty easy, due once a week. The quizzes are pretty easy, with the exams a little more tricky. The tests are open book, but you have to know what and where to look for in the book. All in all, I would recommend him.

Rahim's classes are a no brainer. Show up, and do the homework, and the rest is history. The breakdown for his 221 class was this: 30% homework, 40% quizzes, and 30% midterm. He drops your lowest quiz scor and there is no final! Thanks Rahim.

This is an easy class. It is a little difficult to understand him sometimes, but the material isn't that bad. Tests and quizes are open book, highlight and mark the pages with the formulas and you are golden.

*accent* "theee stooppinng siight diiistance..." haha yeah he was a really good teacher, I would recommend him to anyone. All the tests are open book, so theres not too much studying to do. Just do your homework and know how to use the examples in the book and you'll be fine, oh by the way, i've discovered that he uses the same tests every year so if u get ahold of them then you'll ace the class... too bad i didnt know about that until after i took the class...

Dr Rahim is one of the nicest teachers. And he is very very smart. His tests are easy, as long as you do the hw and go to class. He tries really hard to make the class interesting and he is ALWAYS available for students in his office. Go to his office! And take him if you can.

Really nice guy but not the best teacher out there.

He's very fair. Although his accent is difficult to understand the first few meetings, you'll get used to it. He seems to know the material very well, since that's what his job is. Homework is very nice, usually only 1 or 2 problems due each meeting. At the end of the class, there were few homeworks even assigned. The homework is very straightforward, he does some example problems exactly of the homework in class, so if you pay attention, the homework shouldn't take more than 20 minutes. The midterms are open book, but closed notes. A great teacher!

He was aight, his accent was a little hard to understand. But the material was easy anyways, so the class wasn't hard. Plus the tests are open book, and no final!! that was sweet.

He can teach very well. he definately knows his stuff about civil engineering. open book tests with no final. his tests are pretty sraightforward.

Didn't teach. Just assigned massive papers due within a week. He actually stopped teaching our class halfway through the quarter and was replaced by another teacher. Don't take him!

Rahim was alright...the labs were all pretty easy, it was just the frequent 5-10 page write ups every week that took time. What you should figure out sooner rather than later is that you will get a B on everything you turn in, regardless of whether the paper was half-assed or you put a lot of effort into it. Literally everyone gets 17/20 for 85% unless you do a phenomenal job. He does thoroughly read everything you write (so pay close attention to grammar and spelling) but it doesn\'t really make a difference in the end.

Lab was easy, but Rahim is a pretty bad teacher. He has an accent and is terrible at presenting the material before the labs. Pretty much everyone gets a B+ no matter how much work you put in. Make sure not to make spelling and format errors. Class is pretty easy. He skipped one of the last labs where you get to do traffic speed analysis as well which I thought was lame. Overall, pretty easy A.

Bad thing with having the lecture and lab class split up in two different classes: heavier workload and different teacher. The communication with professor Mastako who held the lecture might not has been so good because we did not follow what we did on the lectures, which I think was a bad thing. You want to go to the lab class and apply what you learned in the lecture. However, he is a nice guy and knows a lot about transpo.

Rahim is great! Straightforward in the lab, kept things interesting, and class almost never took the full three hours. Final had a couple challenging parts but it is open book so plan accordingly and know some of everything from each lab.

Great professor. I had Dr. Rahim for CE 112 and although that class was not very challenging, I still appreciated him very much. I would not classify this course as difficult by any stretch, but it definitely will require a good amount of hours per week dedicated to it. A lot of lab reports requiring outside research, and one final. I barely prepared for the final but ended up doing really well. It was fair if you payed attention in class and understood the material throughout the quarter. Dr. Rahim is one of, if not my favorite professor at Cal Poly.

Rahim is the best!

This guy is the worst teacher at poly and I've had some bad one like elghandour and denatale, but this guy takes the cake. No organization, lectures straight out of the textbook, he reads while you go to sleep, and worst of all has nothing to do but rip apart your homework quizes and midterms to maximize the points he can take away, avoid him at all costs.

This class was very interesting and not very difficult. There were 2 tests and a few quizzes (lowest score was dropped. There was no final. As long as you do the hw and go to class, you'll be fine. The tests were not very hard and they were open book. He is nice and very helpful in office hours. Take him if you can.

Some of the reviews below are misleading details. I took the CE-523 course thinking the class is a simple mixing of asphalt mixes and understanding cross-sections, a few exams of typical homework-level difficulty, nothing brutal or inordinately time consuming, based primarily on Poly Rating reviews. All of that is false. The quarter began with 14 students, by the end of the quarter there were 8 of us, all perched in the front row. Most dropped the first week as after he handed out the syllabus, he dives right into the deep end. Also in the first week, we composed a 15-page research paper. First week, smack in the deep-end. The homework is from the book, which is a lot of mechanics of materials. Do yourself a favor, dig out your mechanics book and re-read the sections on principal stresses, strains and other mechanics properties. The text for the class is pretty informative, the examples are well done and it’s a pretty simple read. Very intuitive read. Do yourself a favor, start FLAGGING the book sections/equations/tables with POST-ITS from the start of the class. You need to mark the textbook pages that you’ll be using right away. You will use the text for quizzes and exams. That does not mean that the exams or quizzes are easy, it just helps you not waste time looking up equations. Seriously, flag pages immediately. The homework assignments are time consuming and heavy with multiple-pages of mathematics. Fortunately, by the end of the quarter, you're working with nomographs, look-up tables and other exhibits to figure out equation variables. Some of the equations are MASSIVE, I remember there was one equation, the longest I've ever seen in any of my physics/engineering classes, two-solid lines long, then of course the problem asks for you to figure out some imbedded variable, which takes a ton of algebra. It's just so time consuming. The quizzes are predictably well measured, testing you on problems you've previously worked in the homework (values changed). The midterm was okay. Do yourself a HUGE favor, STUDY CONCEPTS AS MUCH AS THE MATHEMATICS. Take copious notes during lecture about all concepts he explores, don't just study the math. We all got caught with our pants down when the midterm came about and it was two parts: conceptual (30 min) and then problem solving (1 hr). The final is a nightmare. It will take THE ENTIRE THREE HOUR PERIOD. The conceptual portion balloons to 5-pages of short answer (not simply multiple choice, mind you) (1 hr). Then you have to problem solve (2 hrs). Everyone took the entire three hours, most people asked for more time even after that. The problems in the final, NONE OF THEM ARE FROM THE HOMEWORK. NONE. ZERO. The problems in the final are from lecture examples, which you don’t practice since they aren’t assigned as homework. Also, as some people didn't do this and were dead in the water on the final, BRING ALL HANDOUTS HE GIVES YOU DURING LECTURE TO THE EXAMS. Some people didn't bring their handouts and simply COULD NOT do the problems on the final because they didn't have access to the necessary look-up tables. ALWAYS BRING HIS HANDOUTS. ALWAYS. We were all pretty jaded after that final exam. I had reworked EVERY homework problem in triplicate, I spent an easy 40 to 50 hours studying for the final and it was damn frustrating to discover that none of the homework problems were tested. People who were not at the lectures during the times he explored certain problems were left dead in the water when those lecture examples (not practiced in homework) appeared on an exam. The labs are really fun once you are outside the computer lab. The computer problems are time consuming and lack intuition, but are totally do-able. He is very thorough. He KNOWS his discipline through and through. Frankly, I felt lucky to be in the class, because Dr. Rahim knows so much about the material and he really wants to convey his knowledge to his students. In that regard he's an excellent educator. He’s definitely an authority in the asphalt world. Going into the materials lab you get exposed to the Superpave mix design, you mix aggregates, all sorts of great hands-on stuff. You get exposed to more ASTM testing methods, compose lab reports, all good stuff. You will do a substantial amount of writing for the lab reports, also. Two research papers, at least one mathematics assignment every week, occasionally two per week. You will be working your ass off. In the end, I have a tremendous knowledge of the material; I only wish the examination aspect was not so brutal. Study the concepts in GREAT DETAIL. Do every homework assignment. Find a good partner and you'll be fine. You will work for that A, but you will be rewarded with a great body of knowledge.