Self, Brian  

Dr. Self was a good professor in class and he calls on you randomly through out class so it makes you really pay attention. He assigned 3 projects that were very time consuming and a complete waste of time. The projects were kinda interesting but they took forever and they took away from actually learning and understanding the basic course material. Dr. Self also gives weekly in class and online quizzes that are good for getting extra points.

Dr. Self is the best engineering instructor I know. He presents the material clearly with plenty of examples and really hammers in the fundamentals of the course. He offers not just office hours but online office hours--perfect when you have questions on the homework or anything else. The homework load isn't bad at all, but it is constant: you will have a team homework assignment due each Monday, an individual assignment due each Friday, an (easy) pop quiz or two per week, and example problems to review for each class period, in addition to the textbook reading. It sounds like a lot, but the constant attention to the material made it much easier for me to learn compared to my Statics class, where I saved all the homework until the night before it was due. On the topic of "constant attention," he will call on you to answer questions each class, which he says he does in order to keep people constantly engaged with the subject matter. These are really helpful to evaluate how much you really know, and there's very little pressure since he doesn't react at all if you're incorrect. And, the projects... the projects are a little time consuming, but Dr. Self lowers the homework load to compensate. The final project was pretty entertaining. One downside people may see is that Dr. Self does not curve the common final, which tends to be brutally difficult. His tests and quizzes are really fair, otherwise. The bottom line: take Dr. Self if you want to master Dynamics and take pride in what you've learned; just don't expect a perfect grade at the end of the quarter.

I really disliked this teacher. His teaching style is a little lazy. He relies HEAVILY on his videos and office hours (online and in person) to teach and does little lecturing during class time, which is a problem if you work or have club meetings during those times. He was also gone for a significant portion of the quarter (3 weeks!) which is unacceptable in a class with a common final. Also, don\'t expect any feedback. We didn\'t get our midterm (taken in week 5) back until week 9 and projects (done in week 3, 5 and 8) weren\'t graded until AFTER the final. I did poorly mostly because I thought I did well on the midterm and when I found out I didn\'t it was too late to get a tutor. Don\'t take Self.

THE teacher to take for dynamics. Nuff said.

I enjoyed Professor Self\'s class. The class is mostly run by power point presentation. He has you print out a handout before each class. This quarter he had about 2-3 homework problems due every class, which I prefer over once a week. He had 1 midterm and a couple quizzes. He had multiple online quizzes that were fairly simple. He is pretty helpful in office hours and is willing to guide you through the problem. He also had online office hours where we mostly went over the homework and was extremely helpful because he can help everyone at one time and not everyone is cramped in his office. He is the only dynamics professor to do projects. The projects are helpful to some extent, but they take quite a bit of time, he makes you write a program on excel and a formal report. I would recommend him as a teacher.

Brian Self is a decent professor at best. He teaches from PowerPoints and rarely does a full example in class. He expects you to learn how to do the material from watching videos at home and his office hours don\'t really help. He is a great teacher when it comes to the theoretical stuff involved in the class, but as far as knowing how to do the dynamics, you basically have to teach yourself. He also will call on you randomly in class which makes you pay attention. He likes to call on the same people though, which kind of defeats the purpose.

Overall, Self is a great teacher. I agree with the other comments about how he never finishes a single example problem during class, but what can you expect? Dynamics is a tough course and meeting 1 hour 3 times a week is not enough time to teach the material. Expect to learn on your own a majority of the time, but by doing so, it will help you in the long run because this is college, and you can't expect to be spoon fed the material anymore. Definitely go to his office hours. That's where you will learn more about dynamics than you ever will during his lectures.

To begin, Brian is the man. He does online office hours to assist students with any questions they may have, whether they be about dynamics or cats. In class he always picks on students who are having trouble with the material, which forces the pickee to know the material eventually. There are quizzes at no specified intervals, but one every week and a half was normal. Every couple quizzes was a group quiz. I don't think the quizzes amounted to much of the grade because I failed every one and did great on the final and got a B+ in the class like a boss. U mad liberal artists? Homework is due every class, which is the only reason I know dynamics as well as I do. Expect to spend 2 hours every other night working with friends on the homework. There is one midterm which is pretty basic, particle dynamics and the like. The rigid body portion of the class is covered on the final. Self prepares you extremely well for the final, it was almost laughable. In all, self was quite unselfish with regard to helping his students and making sure they understand the material. Oh, I should add that there are two projects during the quarter. They both take some time however they hp immensely with understanding the material and it's real life applications. Danger out.

One thing I like is that he provided the class with resources such as the lecture ppt's, HW/Quiz solutions, and extra problems every week, promptly on Polylearn. HW was due frequently every week (3 questions per) with quizzes nearly every week, making it a bit hectic but hey, it's Dynamics. More practice the better. Majority of the class time was just working on example problems step-by-step that somewhat connect to the homework. Class was separated into teams as well that were responsible to do "team assignments" and the team project. The team thing was pretty cool since the class does promote peer studying but the team projects I felt were not fully executed (Needed more details etc.). He answered my uestions going into office hours but asking for the answers to a HW problem straight up won't work. He'll take you step by step which is pretty helpful. He did do online office hours as well, which were convenient. We only had 1 midterm, the questions were fair ,but since there was only

Homework is due Mondays and Fridays, with team homework assignments which forces you to go over an assigned problem with other students. He uses powerpoint lectures but the class is very interactive, always calling on specific students for answers and he focuses a lot on concepts. Online quizzes on Wednesdays which are usually just conceptual or have you work on a topic he hasn't covered yet. In addition to normal office hours he had online office hours where you can ask him questions in a chat room with other students. He is extremely helpful anytime you don't understand something. Overall, I thought he was a great teacher.

Best Dynamics prof at Poly. He posts so many resources on Polylearn (Powerpoint lectures, HW solutions, a bunch of example problems). He has online office hours for people struggling. He makes a tough class pretty easy. Midterms are simple if you know the concepts. I felt like I was more prepared for the final than other prof's students. He makes his students do 2 projects throughout the quarter. They were tough, but I learned a lot from them. Take him if you have the chance!!!

Does not pronounce 'components' correctly.

I really want to do you a favor - Do anything in your power to not take ME 212 with him (for that matter any class). He is so terrible. You will be sorry you took it with him. And when you are sitting there thinking why you took this class with the worst of what CalPoly has to offer, I want you to remember this post! (By the way he gets an F in all categories)

It's almost unfair how much better my friends who took Jane Kennedy were prepared for the final. If you really want to learn the subject take JK. He is just incompetent. He really does not understand the subject and definitely will not answer your questions (he will say he is doing you a favor by allowing you to go through it yourself). Just an unlucky pick this quarter but will definitely do my homework to pick a better professor for Advanced.

What an idiot! The quarter is over and he is still giving us HW. I thought the guy would never go away. He gives you thousand little hw and idiotic projects to work on - you go from peer evaluation to his little stupid concept questions to another little online assessment. He thinks the only class you have to worry about is his class. He will send in his little goons (ghostlike creatures) to do some bullshit demo from which you will learn absolutely nothing. He will say "All's it is is simple dynamics". That's him speaking proper English. He fears making a mistake so much that he will generally not write on the board. He so much as admitted he almost failed his phd exam. I curse the institution that granted this guy a phd and made him our professor (or our boss as he likes to call himself). He is an asshole. He is repulsive. If he actually knew his stuff, I may still have recommended the class. But stay away from bps because he is as lousy as it gets. Lousy would be a complement to this guy.

I'm really annoyed with all the negative reviews on polyratings. I sat through an entire semester of self's dynamics class, and I found nothing wrong with it. If you put effort into the class you will do very well. I actually watched some of the powerpoints before class, I listened to his lectures in class, I did the homework correctly and put effort into it, and I learned a TON about dynamics. If you ask him in online office hours or his actual office hours he will guide you step by step through the problems. If your willing to put the effort in don't be afraid to take his class. Also, his midterm was about as fair as it could possibly be, and the projects aren't that bad, and they are actually about dynamics.

Not your typical prof at Cal Poly. He really can't teach and he is mean to boot. You will get this strange sensation that he is watching your every move. He is more interested in measuring things than actually teaching. I guess he is trying to compensate for his complete lack of ability to teach. His meanness manifests itself in his crude language, unrefined slides and handouts which are usually ridden with errors. His in class slides can be revolting at times. Girls will know what I mean. This man is creepy, and he is sadistic (as manifested by his choice of videos etc.) He is also a bigot and has made snide comments to me which I will be complaining about. This is my third year at Cal Poly and this is the first time I am writing a review. I have been compelled to write this because this was the absolute worst class I took at Cal Poly. We as the students must say something when necessary is the way I feel. This guy is the worst of the worst.

Calling on you at unexpected times to torture you. Check. Giving you a ton of monkey see monkey do problems. Check. Spews out culturally insensitive material. Check. Insincere smile on his face at all times. Check. Keeping you completely in the dark about what will be tested. Check. Nominated for the Distinguished Unteaching Award. Check. Walks around with a pathetic arrow he points in the wrong direction at all times. Check. Unfair grading. Check.

This is an interesting class. Here is the breakdown. You show up for class then you get 5-7 minutes of highlights which talks about SWE or some other stuff which is of no interest to you. It's OK to squander these valuable minutes because he is not about to show you anything of value anyway. He is the "expert". The yoda that will supposedly guide you through this tough material. Well then come the empty slides full of some jumbled formulas. He will make no real connections. Also he will not complete a single problem in class. You will be left with the funny sensation that you are missing something. This is just about the time the quiz rolls around. He will give no information whatsoever what will be tested. The usual comment is "everything's on the quiz". When you do badly in any of these assessments he will not be around to help you out. Most people taking the class felt a strong aversion to him therefore the office hours were not helpful. He in fact complained about how he sat there alone by himself so many times. (He uses technology to distance himself from the students rather than engaging them). I guess he never asked himself the question why his office hours are not well attended. This is an important class that requires a much better instructor to learn it properly. The instructor would need to be confident, really knowledgeable (Not the A.F. half-hearted kind of knowledge. Real knowledge that comes from practicing this subject). You will not get any of these with Mr. Self. (I felt his last name is very apt: selfish, and self-absorbed would be the first two adjectives that come to mind).

A mediocre professor. Class time is worthless with his recycled slides. I had a tutor and went to study sessions. He makes a very interesting class as miserable as possible. You are really on your own if you take it with him.

Professor Self is, hands down, one of the best professors I've had in my 5 years of higher education. He conveys the concepts (which there are a LOT of in Dynamics) very clearly is is always available for help outside of class (though I didn't require that often). He has online office hours once a week, which are very helpful if you live off campus. He releases many guided example problems and powerpoints of notes. He expects you to print out a PDF of noted for each lecture so that you don't get bogged down scribbling random words down. He does a good job of keeping everyone involved in the lectures by calling on students for answers. He does EVERYTHING he can do to make Dynamics as painless as possible. Yes, he does give difficult homework that often is not from the books (so you can't Google the answer, boo hoo), but if you do the homework you'll be well prepared for the quizzes and tests. Expect to spend a lot of time on Dynamics. I am convinced that anyone who rated Self poorly simply doesn't have the work ethic or maturity that they will need to do higher level engineering courses. Suck it up and put in the effort to learn the shit you'll be doing for the rest of your college career (and possibly beyond).

I am convinced that this is one of the worst professors I have ever encountered in the mechanical engineering department. You have to realize that this man is full of himself. Yet at the same time he has no idea how to teach. Steer clear of the selfish Self and you will do well in dynamics.

He is so terrible not just as a person but also as a professor. All the people in the class that I know were terribly disappointed in his teaching - he should simply quit teaching and try to build some dysfunctional devices for paraplegics.

If you would like to do everything on your own then take Self. One of my buddies took another class with him and named the same deficiency: he is not helpful and he is an arrogant sob. So you should remember if there is an alternative don't go with Self. If it is your last quarter before you have to graduate and you have to take a class with him, then and only then should you take Self. Otherwise he will anger you and leave you totally uneducated. Oh and he will spam your mailbox like no other. Just a bad and unworthy individual.

I really enjoyed Self's dynamics class which was surprising to me. Based on what everyone said about dynamics I wasn't sure I would really like the class, but Self made it very interesting. I didn't do as well as I would have liked in the class but that was entirely my fault and not at all Self's. Don't get me wrong the class is very difficult and if I were to guess I'd say that Self's dynamics class is probably more difficult than other professors, but I would also bet that the students in Self's class learned the material better and did better on the common final. In the class you do two projects that I thought were very helpful in my understanding of the principles in the class. They were time consuming projects but I am very glad I got to do them. If you want to really enjoy and understand dynamics I would take Self but be warned it will not be an easy class.

I crashed both Kennedy and Self's dynamics courses for the first week just to get a feel of their teaching styles. I don't regret switching out of Kennedy's class into Self's. I actually really liked how Prof. Self taught Dynamics. Once you get how he wants you to learn the material, you realize that how he teaches is probably one of the best ways to teach anything. Self wants you to read the lecture notes (in powerpoint or PDF form on PolyLearn, sometimes they have audio files attached to them) beforehand, and when you come to class, he can work on clarifying hard concepts and working out the skeleton of the harder problems. You can print the handouts out, which you fill in with important details like equations. You don't have to waste time copying down examples from the board because they are already on your handouts. Self utilizes class time very very efficiently and makes sure the students are thinking about dynamics problems the whole time by calling on students (whether you raise your hand or not) to solve part of a problem. If you don't understand Self's paradigm on learning material, you will not have a good time in his class, like the reviewers below me. I couldn't recommend going to office hours enough. They are extremely helpful. Sometimes, when enough students show up, he will set up a mini lecture in one of the classrooms, except instead of a lecture, it's more like working out a homework problem on the board with him and a couple other students. Even though I got a very mediocre grade, dyanmics felt like one of those classes where I learned a lot of really useful concepts but didn't take home a good grade because I messed up on tests.

Absolutely terrible. I was able to get some insider info on how both professors students fare. All I could say is that the student who wants to learn dynamics and do well should take Kennedy. Professor self is that rare breed of self absorbed and nasty professor who will make you hate the subject. Don't forget the human element is all important and with Self you get absolutely the worst human being. Lousy, incompetent and a hard ass... Great combo right?

Students that severely complain about Dr. Self obviously doesn't complete their homework. People that complain about not completely problems, they are right. He solves them 70% way and the rest is algebra. He gets you through the hard part to focus on the next hard thing. He is always available through email and in office hours. I completely disagree with MANY of these comment. He is by NO means a bad professor. I actually think he is one of the BEST TEACHERS I've had and I just came from a Junior College with great professors there. Students like to blame teachers when they don't get the bad grade they earn. You definitely have to put time into dynamics, its not one of thoughs classes that you can float through in. Dynamics at cal poly is the number one failed class for a reason... it is difficult. Brian does have a unique teaching style compared to other teacher. If you want to learn the main concepts and understand dynamics, Brian is your guy. You provides videos before each lecture to give you an idea of what to expect during lecture. If you dont follow through, you may be lost during lecture but not always. He also has hands on projects that really helped me understand certain concepts. I studied with students in Kennedy's class and felt the approach Brian Self gave prepared me much more than those in Kennedy's class. Brian is a great guy and always has time to answer questions. I can see he may not be so willing if you obviously haven't done your homework, which would be frustrating for me in his shoes. He always has a positive environment in the classroom which helps when the material he tough. I think Brian Self deserves at least 3.5 in my book.

One of the best teachers I've had. I'm assuming he has a low rating because newer students don't know what to expect from dynamics and blame the teacher for their bad habits. SIMPLY AN AMAZING PROFESSOR AND GUY!

Dr. Self is an amazing professor hands down! He genuinely cares about his students and tries to help them understand the difficult concepts of dynamics. He was always so helpful and approachable when ever I needed help with anything or needed a clarification on things. I highly recommend Dr. Self to anybody. He is by far the best professor I've ever had at Cal Poly.

He gives you lots of work for little gain in understanding of dynamics. No interesting lectures whatsoever.

Terrible gents, terrible... Please take him so you can understand what I mean :)

To start off, you pay $250 for a new textbook which Brian Self co-authored, because he requires the Connect portion, then throughout the quarter he always brags about teaching at the air force academy, even though he never served a day in his life, a complete poser, and for the finale, he doesn't curve the common final. You pay for his retirement and listen to his bullshit, and he has the audacity to not curve the common final or the overall class. Some people say the ME professors get bad reviews because dynamics is hard, well dynamics isn't that challenging if you did well in Physics 141. Brian Self deserves a bad review because of the useless excessive work load and his lack of empathy for financially struggling students. This prick professor is exactly what is wrong with the college system, choosing the pay check over educating students. And these fuckers might go on strike for not getting a raise. Fuck You Brian Self and Fuck You Cal Poly.

He writes reviews on here to make him seem better, very obvious.

If you want to truly learn dynamics, then take Self's class. He knows the material well and does a good job teaching. First time taking dynamics and I ended up getting a D mainly because of my carelessness in the first half of the quarter. Not a class you can put off and think you can cram for the midterm the night before. Just keep up with it and you'll do fine. Oh and common finals are never fun.

wow, BPS!! this guy is amazing. frankly, i do not see how he could receive a <2 PolyRating. he is very kind, approachable, and understanding. overall, a great guy and smart professor. a few things to note: this class is a TON of work. 3 dynamics problem a day, and 2 huge group projects. however, i believe this amount of work is necessary to do well in this class bc there are just so many concepts to know. Self loves putting material online for you to review before and after class, so make sure to do that. 10/10 would recommend for the best guy to prepare you for the common final. BUT NOT AN EASY CLASS AT ALL.

Great professor for dynamics. Very clear in lectures and good about answering questions. Self likes to show lots of videos and give real examples of each of the topics we were covering which was very helpful. Not an easy class, but you should be fine if you do the hw consistently and don't fall behind. He will prepare you well for the final if you do your part. The two projects are a decent amount of work, but doable if you have a good group. I would definitely take Self again.

Every single positive comment that you see on here must be written by Self, himself. Not one person in my class has had a single positive thing to say about him, so others I'm guessing are the same. He thinks he is the greatest teacher ever, cockiest person I've ever met. You have to teach the class to yourself. I am not saying this because I don't like his teaching style, you literally are expected to learn the material before you go to class for the day since you just talk about pointless stuff and maybe one example problem during class. It is in the syllabus to teach it to yourself. Sounds like I am joking right? No. I have no clue how Cal Poly has not gotten rid of him yet. By far the worst teacher I have had at Poly.

Brian is the boi. I took him for the dynamics online-hybrid course and was really happy with that decision, and not just because we didn’t have Friday class. You have to be good about keeping up with online lectures and practice problem on your own, and if you actually do the hw you can get a lot of out of the class bc he allows a good amount of time for questions at the start of class. His office hours are super helpful too and he’s pretty good about making himself available. His lectures are clear and easy to follow, but even if you are confused he posts videos of him working through problems as well to help you review. His tests & quizzes are very fair and he’ll help you out with the projects. He really wants you to succeed in the class and cares about how you’re doing, but he’s not going to be coming up to you if you’re struggling, you have to make iniative yourself. Also just a cool guy to talk to. Would really recommend taking him. Definitely wouldn’t say it’s an “easy class” but everyone told me Dynamics would be one of the worst classes I have to take and with Brian it seemed to be on par with the rest of my courses.

When I had Dr. Self, it was partly online. There were quite a lot of online hw assignments which were just really difficult to do, and hard to keep track of what was due and what wasn't. That being said, Dr. Self is one of the best professors I have had at Cal Poly so far. Dynamics is a hard subject, so it was not easy, but he really cares about the students learning. Before each class, we were required to fill out an evaluation of what we understood from the last topic and if we had any questions. He always went over those questions at the beginning of class. He was really friendly, and the only professor in ME so far that I feel I could actually be friends with. He seems like a normal guy who just wants us to understand the material. Overall loved him and his teaching method, although some of the online stuff was weird.

this guy wrote the book, he knows how to teach. good amount of homework, but it's a hard class whoever you take, his students also do better on the final. best teacher i've had at cal poly so far, i actually looked forward to the lecture as we did activities as well.

He is a 'ok' professor in terms of teaching. But his attitude needs to be changed. His True emotions are always covered by his facial "smile", which makes him "fake!". Some of his labs, he just left the students in the "air" without providing much help! He didn't even mention that he is not going to show up for the final in his last class(partial might be because the last class is for teacher evaluation, and he is a new prof.....), so students can't go to him for questions before the exam!!!

I enjoyed Self's class. The number one thing I enjoyed about his class was his attention to student needs. Many professors will put students "on the spot" during lecture, and most see this as a way to badger students. Self takes these as teaching opportunities, so if you have no idea what he's asking, he'll rephrase his question, and if you don't know the answer he'll kind of lead you toward it. Also, about halfway through the quarter he asked us for feedback about his lectures, and he started giving us more example problems in class, since we all wanted that. I would definitely take him again. He doesn't give solutions for tests though, so if you want to see what you did wrong, you have to go to office hours.

� Very enthusiastic and really cares about teaching � Can be very vague in his instructions on hw, quiz, and test instructions. He does this on purpose as it is more like the real world, but just be forewarned, it can be frustrating at times. � Likes to keep you on your toes by giving quizzes while you are learning something. He does not wait until after the hw is turned in, which means your really have to know the material even before you turn in your hw if you want to do good on quizzes. This could be frustrating, but the quizzes aren�t waited terribly heavy and he gives a lot. � Midterms and final were definitely appropriate. They were really long, but if you paid attention in class and did the hw, you should be good. Lots of conceptual and multiple choice questions though. It isn�t just a matter of solving problems. � Helpful at office hours. � Matlab projects were the most time consuming part of the class, but they were definitely interesting and enjoyable. Self is pretty clear about what he want with the projects and if you fallow the instructions, you should be fine.

This guy was fucking asshole. His homework is excessive and far too long. He never can finish a problem in class. Lectures are bunch of jumbled crap. And the lab portion of this class is crazy. He says he will ease you into it. But basically if you dont know matlab you are FUCKED. AVOID AT ALL COSTS for intermediate dynamics unless you want to drive yourself to suicide.

I do not understand why people give Self such a bad rep. He is actually a very good lecturer for Intermediate Dynamics. He is capable of conveying the concepts well and if the student pays attention, it really is an easy lecture. Unfortunately, he collaborates on the tests with Rossman, and she is way harder than self on grading. If you put in the time in class and focus, you should have no trouble understanding the course. Make sure you do good on the lab section and do your homework and you should pass the class. Self is also a great person to talk to in office hours. He is nice and welcoming with any topic of conversation.

He's pretty average at conveying material, but I hated his lectures, because we never did any/finished example problems. The lab and homework took forever. We had a couple of quizzes. Self, however, is a super approachable guy, so ask questions/go to his office hours. Honestly, intermediate isn't that bad though, but do expect to put in work.

Not a fan of his "active learning" style. As soon as he learns your name expect to get called on three times a class to answer questions. Talk about stressful! Nice guy but could not convey the subject matter that well.

I had Self for intermediate dynamics, and I felt he was a bit too stringent when it came to assigning course grades. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I got an A in 402. I'm not sure whether he grades more gently on tech elecs, but I'm happy with my grade.

This is guy is useless. Had him for several classes and never really understood what were even learning in the class. No direction. Reads from powerpoints. Examples are weak. Ask questions and doesn't answer them. I understand the point of trying to figure things out on our own, but there is still a motivation the teacher needs to provide to allow the student to understand how to develop his own design decisions. Overall, I just think Self is lazy.

Completely self absorbed loser. Unable to communicate concepts and will not respond to questions. Cannot even relay the basic info other than reading a PowerPoint. Not challenging, how could a dildo such as this achieved a PhD.