Widmann, James  

I highly suggest you dont take his class if you are taking a huge unit load because he assigns ALOT of work. The projects are useless and they are worth alot of points. The one thing I really liked was his power point examples he uploaded to BlackBoard. I learned more going to a study group and studying the online examples.

He is definitely a very hard professor. Homework is due every Friday (usually 5 problems max), quiz every Wednesday, Powerpoint slides to review after every lecture, example problems on Blackboard to review before class, Team Homework assignments every Monday, and 2 projects. What a workload! Be prepared to spend a lot of time studying for this class, because he makes this class seem as if it's the only class you have. He's not a bad professor, just the amount of work given sometimes gets overwhelming. I dislike his lecture methods. Barely explains how to apply the equations and rather explains the theory behind the equations instead. We rarely finished the Powerpoint slides and doesn't really go over many examples with us. However, he really cares about our success and wants us to put a lot of effort to learn the material. If you really want to learn and understand the concepts, take Widman. Don't take him if you have a busy schedule.

Really cool guy, laid back and it's almost a guarantee you will get along with him. However, this class will consume you. You will have homework due every day of class and a quiz at least once a week. Surprisingly, there was only one midterm, but it wasn't exactly easy. In terms of homework, the workload is big, but it's completely understandable as Dynamics is a difficult subject. There is one thing to fear however: Projects. The projects themselves aren't hard to understand; in fact they hardly reinforce or teach the materials. The problem is you will spend so much time trying to get these done that not only will you fall behind on other classes, you will fall behind on Dynamics. Quizzes are pretty fair and are only on the material most recently covered in class. Widmann's a nice guy and he is very willing to help, but I'm not sure he understands the amount of work being forced on us. Plan the rest of your schedule to be light if you are taking this or you are in for some rough times.

Let me start off by saying dynamics is a hard class. No matter what teacher you take you're going to have to put in a lot of work if you want to do well. Widmann is an awesome guy. Really funny and super helpful in office hours. Homework is due every class and it's usually 3 problems. There's often one or two really hard ones so go to office hours to get help. Not only will you learn better and meet people, but he'll see that you're putting in more effort. That's really the key to this class. There are two projects that are really annoying and involve a lot of busy work that isn't dynamics related. The midterm is very hard so be prepared. Widmann's class is a ton of work, but if you will learn if you put the time in. Don't take a heavy class load because dynamics will consume over half of your time. I would definitely take Widmann again.

I haven't received my final grade yet but regardless of what I got my review of Dr. Widmann would be the same. Widmann is the man! I had heard so many bad things about dynamics, but it was my favorite class so far at Cal Poly. Widmann made the topic interesting and understandable. He is very knowledgeable on the topic. In addition to this he is also an extremely nice guy and very easy to get along with. His homework load is heavy (2 projects, HW due every class), but his tests and quizzes are fair. He goes the extra mile to help his students out. I would highly recommend him to anybody!

Widmann really knows his stuff and his lectures are very in depth. The homework is hard but it prepares you for his tests. Grades based mainly on final, midterms, and lab grade. Don't blow off the lab final, its worth alot.

He requires a ton of time in the lab and class. He never works out any examples, just throws them up on blackboard and expects you do listen to his droning voice. I admit I did not have enough time for this class, but he really doesn\'t teach and expects you to learn on your own. The midterm avg of 42 with a 25 point upgrade wasn\'t enough to help. Take him if you want to \"learn by yourself\"