Ugarte, Vincent  

People are being way over dramatic. Cons: Ugarte is a little awkward at first but he genuinely cares about his students performance and he is very smart. His teaching style takes some getting used to. I assume it's because he is a new professor. Pros: Homework is 30%. Mastering physics. UNLIMITED GUESS. The first midterm you can turn in test corrections that can bump your grade as much as a letter and a half. He has a ton of office hours and answers email really fast. All of his tests were very fair if not on the easy side (for those of you who have ever taken Demsetz.) He curves the entire class in the end. People need to cut him a break. There is no way he deserves below a 2.00. Overall, take the guy. He is nice, helpful, and wants to help you pass.

He subbed for one of my lab classes and did the worst job possible. When people asked him questions, he would find ways to avoid the question on hand. Horrible.

Completely worthless as a professor. Has no structure to his lectures – he used to ask the class what he was talking about yesterday, then start writing things on the board. His grading rubric in nonexistent. After everyone starting failing the quizzes he changed around the grade weightings on the syllabus until quizzees didn't even count at all. He asks you to do reading before class, and therefore assumes you know everything about the subject already. This means he will not explain anything before going straight into an example. He once gave a quiz where he made up all the numbers in the problem. Except when you do that, you get answers like -5 ohms which don't make any sense. Of course I got that answer and was convinced I made a mistake, so I redid the quiz and got it wrong. Don't take this professor. Ever.

This professor was nowhere near as bad as all these imbeciles say he is. Ugarte has one homework assignment due online every Sunday night and he regularly gives extensions so you can turn them in late. He works through many problems in class until the students feel comfortable with the material. Before every test he gives out a review set of problems (not collected) and those problems make up 70-80% of the test. The other 20-30% are problems he has done in class. There are never any surprises with his tests.

Frankly, this guy simply cannot teach. He does not know how to convey information to students and makes things far harder than they should be. He kind of assumes that everyone knows stuff when some people may not. He hardly ever even knows what is going on in lab so really can't really help you there either. He does apparently curve his tests a lot, because they are quite difficult. Do not take him unless you want to put in a lot of effort trying to learn from solely the book and mastering physics.

Oh boy, Ugarte obviously knows what he is talking about, I have a feeling that he is an absolute genius when it comes to Physics. But, he has borderline zero ability to transfer any of this knowledge to his students. He can't teach, it is that simple. The class doesn't end up being all that hard, with MasteringPhysics, classwork, and lab constituting 50% of your final grade. But if you have a choice, don't take this class. Please. For your sanity and well-being, especially if you have to know this kind of stuff later in your major. Just stay away from Ugarte's class.

Worst professor I've ever had in my life. He does not know anything about physics or how to teach it. DO NOT take this class if you have to take physics 132. DO NOT take this class if you want to pass with any sort of ease. DO NOT take this class if you want to actually learn something..

This is the worst "teacher" I have ever had in my life. He never goes by his supposed "lesson plan" that he shows at the beginning of PowerPoints, and he doesn't even follow his syllabus in terms of material covered, how stuff is due and graded, etc. The worst part about him is that he makes it seem like the class should be teaching HIM physics, since he always makes mistakes while working out problems and it looks like he's making this stuff up as he goes along. One class he spent the entire time going over a single example, and then at the end he forgot a huge portion of the problem (forgot an entire force) and then just said, "Heh, well don't pay attention to me doesn't really matter." HE'S THE TEACHER FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! Plus he tries to make jokes (which aren't even close to being funny) about the problems while he's doing them to just waste more time to get even less stuff done, not like it matters since it wouldn't make a difference anyway. If this guy ends up being your only choice for ANY class, I'd recommend taking the class another quarter and taking ANY OTHER teacher. So, what do YOU think, Ugarte? What do YOU think?

This guy needs to find another profession. He is the WORST teacher at Cal Poly. He stands in front of the class and literally spews out a bunch of BS and makes shit up as he goes. DO NOT TAKE UGARTE!!! Vincent if you read this, please go teach somewhere else, actually just quit teaching all together. The Cal Poly student body does not want you here

This douchebag gave us a midterm and in the middle of the test he said we wouldn't need to come to class the next day. Then he sends out emails to everyone saying that we all need to go to class the next day to REDO THE LONGEST PART OF THE MIDTERM! Since when can a teacher force all his students to re-take a midterm, and not even give a valid reason why? That's absolute bullshit, almost as much bullshit as his "teaching," which is almost as much bullshit as his class. I hope you're reading this Ugarte, you have a LOT to learn.

I regret taking physics this quarter, his class was the only class left. The homework is the basic online homework and workbook work. The quizzes are horrible, I study ahead of time and end up barely progressing. I visited the professor during office hours, I don't get much help on my situation. His teaching is boring and doesn't give much depth on why he does each step. All I end up with is more fear that I won't be able to pass the class. I highly recommend not taking his class. If his class is the only physics class left, avoid it like the plague.

As of right now, I have an A in Professor Ugarte's class, but that does NOT mean that I approve of him as a teacher. His class is absolute bullshit. He changed half of our midterm five minutes before the end of class and then emailed us super late that night to come in the next day to retake it when we weren't even supposed to have class. Not to mention he hardly teaches us anything. My fellow classmates and I have to correct him on simple concepts all the time. Mastering physics is nearly impossible unless you already know the concepts. He changes things around so sporadically, like homework due dates, and I'm not sure he's too clear on what he's actually supposed to be teaching us. His examples in class are irrelevant to homework and the tests. Ugarte is by far the worst teacher I have ever had. I'm still not sure whether this class is for real or just a sick psych experiment. Avoid at all costs.

I've gotten high B's and A's on all of the work in this class (from short workbook assignments to midterms) without having to study all that much. How is this possible? Because Ugarte is a straight-up moron. I don't care what kind education and teaching credentials he may have, this guy can not teach, and doesn't understand how a college curriculum is supposed to work. He doesn't abide by his syllabus at all, making it impossible to tell when assignments are or aren't due, changes the due dates of MasteringPhysics all the time to the point where you could be late by 3 days and then end up getting full points on the assignment, and bases the majority of his tests on extremely long problems that we've gone over in class that barely anybody can stay awake through. The key to getting through this idiot's class is to copy down EVERYTHING he writes down and to actually read through his powerpoints (which are available on his blackboard). Both of the midterms had problems worth pretty much half the test that were pretty much 95% similar to something we had done in the class before, to the point where there wasn't even a point in taking the midterm. Tests are supposed to challenge your understanding of concepts and how well you learned material. If you want an easy A or B, take Ugarte and bear through his nonsense lectures that ramble off into different directions; copy down all his notes, spend 5 minutes the night before memorizing things that took an entire week to get through, and don't even bother reading the book. If you want a real teacher and want to actually learn some physics, stay away from Ugarte. I came to this school to learn and apply things, not to be spoon-fed a bunch of formulas and methods without learning the full concepts behind them. I almost want to re-take 141 regardless of my high grades in the class because of how much of a waste of time this was.

Plain and simple, Ugarte isn't a good teacher. He doesn't explain things thoroughly and if he does, it's in a confusing way. He'll try to explain an example problem step-by-step on the board yet skip crucial parts that we need to visually see to follow along and he doesn't fix this. It was easier to understand him when he started using presentation slides but now he resorts back to the chalk board and it's just like, I don't understand this, "Well Fuck..."

I can agree with everyone that Ugarte hasn't done the best job in class and has messed up on the midterms, but he isn't as bad as everyone is saying if you actually take the time to go to office hours. It's college and you don't get everything handed to you in class. It is true that his curriculum isn't the best but it appears to me that he is a somewhat new professor and is not used to teaching people. Bottom line he is a really nice guy once you get to know him and he is always helping me out. He even set aside 2 or 3 hours to do a study session with anyone who wanted help for the midterm because everyone was freaking out about it and of course only 5 of us showed up. It seems to me that a lot of people find it easier to complain then to put out the extra effort sometimes. Once again i do agree that he is not the best teacher but his class is passable if you put out some effort and go to office hours and he is actually a very nice person just new to teaching.

By far the worst teacher I have ever had. Doesn't explain things whatsoever and expects you to know formulas after he "teaches" them to you in about 15 minutes. His office hours are also extremely unhelpful. I went in to ask him for help and he told me to just do problems out of the book and he always wouldn't walk me through some problems that were on the midterm. I learned absolutely nothing in his class. Whatever you do, do not take Ugarte.

I'm going to have to disagree with most people here by saying that Ugarte really is not all that bad. I'm not sure if he is new to teaching or just new to cal poly, but he got off to a rough start, that's for sure, and I think that is why there is so much hatred against him. But over the last couple of weeks I think he has begun to pull himself together into a mediocre but solid teacher. I've come to a couple office hours and he is very approachable and helpful, and will even crack a joke or two with you. Also, I can tell that he cares about the students' understanding because he will always answer any questions whenever he sees a hand raised. This cannot be said about all professors. He also brings in demonstration materials to relate the topics to potential problems on homework assignments. I can't say that I can compare him to any other physics professors, but overall he certainly does not deserve a .36 gpa here.

I am probably biased in writing this because I took a decent amount of physics in high school , but Ugarte is not what I consider a "terrible" teacher. Yes he sucked at the begging of the year, but as the quarter has progressed I fell that his lectures do make sense and have helped me on the hw and midterms. If I had not taken physics before I would have had problems, but if you had physics in high school before, Ugarte is a relatively easy choice.

Avoid this guy like AIDS.

poor teacher, plain and simple.

THE BAD: This man can't teach, plain and simple. He answers questions, but doesn't clarify issues when he does. His examples in class are messy, confusing, and consistently inaccurate. He is obviously intimidated by teaching students. He does not prepare you to tackle the homework. He does not teach you physics, 95% of all learning will be from MasteringPhysics, the book, or from the internet. Do not even consider taking this class if you want to learn anything. THE GOOD: He wants to be better. He knows he's not that great of a teacher and struggles to improve (which he did, slightly). Unlimited guess on MasteringPhysics, which is something like 25% of your grade. Most points are not on tests. The test free-response questions are almost always exactly what he did in class. This class is super easy to get an A in if you've had AP physics before. NOT RECOMMENDED FOR ANYONE WHO WANTS TO LEARN PHYSICS.

This guy is horrible. Here's the short version: Don't take this guy unless you want to teach yourself Physics from the textbook for the quarter, because you sure as hell aren't going to learn a single thing from his "lectures." Here's the long version: There is absolutely no organization in his class; he goes through huge problems that sometimes take multiple classes to go through and because he can't explain anything there's no point in going through the problems since you'll have no idea what he's talking about or what's going on. He seems like a nice guy giving tons of office hours and always offering to help more at his office hours, but if you go to his office to help he basically recites the same bullshit that he went through in lecture and has no idea how to help students understand anything. He simply can't teach. He starts out with a syllabus that gives exactly what problems are due when, what topics are covered during what weeks, and how much everything is worth for your grade. As the quarter progressed, the syllabus basically became garbage; he stopped collecting homework after week 3, we went entirely out of order from what he said in the syllabus and ended up not even going over some chapters, and he said he would change around the grading since a lot of people failed the first midterm. Instead of doing better as a teacher so that people wouldn't fail, he decided to make the grades different so that homework was worth more. The reason I got a C was because I didn't study for the final at all and because I didn't actually learn any of his bullshit methods of getting through his stupid, redundant problems, I bombed the final and barely passed, even after getting high B's on the midterms. He always gives the same exact problems he went through in class on his tests, so any monkey could copy what he writes in lecture on the board then paste it back down on the midterms/final without actually learning anything. I'm considering re-taking 141 so that I properly learn the material since this was a waste of a quarter and a waste of my money for being at this school. This teacher is just plain awful and is a disgrace to the faculty of Cal Poly. It's truly a shame that this guy is teaching at what's supposed to be a good engineering school. Never sign up for this guy, even if he's the only teacher left for a physics course. Maybe then they'll fire him. I have no doubt in his intelligence as someone with a physics degree, but he is NOT a professor and can't teach.

I initially gave him the benefit of the doubt, he always tried to entertain the students and keep them active and tried his best to teach the material, although not well unfortunately. He tries his best to help the students but as soon as the problem is not from the book or just not within his range he will not help you. Can be childish and not even respond to your emails. I got a C because i didnt do all the homework assgnments because i did not have access to his online homework for a really long time. i got an A and 2 B+ on the midterms and final, but i had prior physics classes. you cannot expect to learn everything you need from him.

The only plus is that his 1st 2 midterms weren't terribly difficult, the final killed most people though. Make sure you get a 100% on all the mastering physics, it'll really help your grade in the end.

Ugarte is a terrible teacher... which is a shame because he's a lovable nerd. He wears bright sweatshirts over collared shirts to class. Why did I notice this? Because his lecture style is such that your brain, like an opposing magnet, is repulsed and focuses on anything but the lecture. I don't always space out, but when I do, it's in Ugarte's class. He does try very hard to get better though, and there was definite improvement throughout the quarter. He talks to the students to try and get feedback and gives generous curves on his tests, which are pretty basic to start with, but he is completely unclear when trying to explain any question you might have. When he runs out of planned lecture material he makes up hilarious example problems on the spot, a highlight of class.

Ugarte is probably the worst teacher at Cal Poly. He has no idea how to teach the subject matter, and people generally went to class just to make sure they got credit on all the assignments. He never made sure that we understood what he was doing in a problem, and he always did WAY too many theoretical examples. When explaining a problem, he would always write the entire equation he derived up, which oftentimes, took about 2 lines and was much more confusing than just explaining what he did. On the last day of class, he decided that he would do a problem similar to that of a free response question on the final. It took him 45 minutes to do part A! When asked whether he expected us to be able to do such a monstrosity, he said "well, I was going to make a question similar to this one of the easier ones". You read that right. He took 45 minutes to do an EASY question! All in all, his class was awful, and everyone should do their best to avoid this guy. You will not learn anything from him.

Ugarte is a super nice guy and really wants his students to understand but just fails in trying to teach them. He's about as clear as the teacher in Charlie Brown, all you here is waaawaawaa whenever he lectures. I had never taken a hard physics class and I know a lot of kids in my class had already taken this in high school so didn't struggle as much. However, they did feel like they were "unlearning" the material by being in this class. It's just so bad. Avoid it at all costs. I think I deserved a B because of the endless hours I put in trying to teach myself this class but probably didn't even deserve it.

There is a very good reason he doesn't teach here anymore.