Rastad, Mahdi  

The work load for this class is redic. Quizzes (usually take around an hour to complete) due before every class period about the new material, 2 midterms, a final, and an INSANE final project. START EARLY AND DO NOT PROCRASTINATE on the project or you will not finish. The problem, though, is that it is not always clear what he is asking for so it ends up taking longer than you think it will. The tests are hard but generously curved. Study the labs and read the chapters and you will probably do okay on the exams. Unfortunately, you will probably be stuck with Rastad for 438, so just try to take an easier course load when you do!

Not too bad of a class if you actually put some time into it. I think this was his first quarter, so I'm sure he'll fix up a few things with the class for next quarter. The exams are pretty tough, but the quizzes are straight from the book. The project is really time consuming but if you get started early it shouldn't be that bad. IF YOU NEED THE TEXTBOOK for 438 send me a text, I have the loose-leaf version. 949 309 7252. Mar 18, 2013

All posts below this one are false, grades were not even given at the time they posted. The guy directly below this is Ryan Perez, don't take his book, it has herpes... Its midnight before the final right now, and we all don't know what grade we are getting because Rastad's grading policy is somewhat difficult to understand. 15% online quizzes (3 attempts, not always multiple choice, top score accepted, very easy to get 100% for all of them) 15% Final project (this is a rough version of the gorman 431 project without the depreciation schedule, it is quite easy to BS and most of us in the class have no idea why we put 50 hours into this project when its graded on a "best effort" basis...)2 midterms for 20% which are curved so 80% is an A, and 1 final for 30% which I have yet to take and which probably wont be much harder than midterms which are roughly 50% MC 50% answer questions. subject to change at no particular moment, we have filled in endless extra credit assignments both during class and for the project, which could very well push some people above the 100% mark for the class despite the huge curve. IF YOU NEED A TEXTBOOK, email me at OBJECTATLAS@GMAIL.COM (I have the hookups for cheap_). P.s. who the fuck gives themself an A in the course without taking the midterms or final? Post on March 8=Attention whore.

Do the long ass project (which IMO is just way to much for this class) as he assigns them. Leave it to the last minute and get fucked. It's worth 15% of the grade, and the it isn't clear how he grades it. If you don't understand how to do it, keep going to his office hours, its the only way. His exams are pretty tough, he curves them though. He will hand out past exams, and if you know how to do those, you still aren't prepared, don't just memorize the past exams and how they are solved, you MUST know the intuition behind the examples. Over all if you slack, this isn't the class for you because shit piles up. It isn't a difficult class if you stay on top of things. Over all hes a good professor and is very helpful and friendly. His teaching skill is up there and he is very good at answering student questions. Definitely a fine addition to the finance department. I wish he would take over for Roche, that guy needs to go.

The class isnt too hard, he gives you a whole sheet of notes for each exam and the material is pretty easy. Do the project as he assigns it. Most people waited til the end and were stressing out, while I did a little bit each weekend and breezed; I highly recommend doing that. Otherwise, Rastad did a good job and the material was presented easily. I recommend him.

PAY ATTENTION TO MY REVIEW I'LL SUM UP RASTAD FOR YOU: He is an incredible finance professor, I'll give him that. I had him for 439 bonds and learned SO much. Now I have him for advanced corporate finance and I'm learning equally as much...however: He assigns a TON of work. If you really want to learn finance, he's your guy. You can't skate by in his classes - that's not a thing. You have weekly/biweekly quizzes for grades submitted on PolyLearn. There are weekly 'Labs' (in class examples) that prepare you for his midterms, but there are like 12 of them so it's a ton of material. Class averages for midterms are dismal, but he curves based on overall performance. THE VALUATION PROJECT IS BRUTAL however you learn a ton!! It's an 8 part excel valuation of a US publicly traded company. Like I said, I've learned A LOT but you have to work A TON. Doable, but you have to be committed. Not as bad as Gorman's classes but he's no Bing.

The person below me is a retard. If you enjoy finance DO NOT TAKE MAHDI RASTAD. Everything you learned about time value of money, statistics, and algebra... just throw that shit away. It won't help you in this class. He will proceed to teach how to do everything wrong way and swear it is right. YOU WILL LEARN NOTHING IN MAHDI RASTADS CLASS. The project is laid online. Just copy the answers. The midterm has nothing to do with what he teaches. Nor is it spelled correctly. You will spend all quarter hating your life NOT BECAUSE IT'S A LOT OF WORK. It is not a lot of work at all relative to other courses. IT IS A LOT OF BULLSHIT WORK. He fails to teach you anything or answer questions.

God I hate this guy. Fuck him. I have never disliked a professor this much. If you take Gorman, this class is all review. Take Durham instead for 438

If you want to learn a lot about finance from a teacher who cares about teaching, take this professor. Mahdi works hard to teach material and if you listen to him and do the work he assigns you will learn a lot. I think he is one of the best finance professors because he is a good mix between Gorman (who thinks his class is your full life) and just an easy A where you learn nothing. If you take his class seriously and do the work assigned, you definitely can get an A. Overall I definitely recommend him.

Take Durham for 438, and honestly take Durham for just about anything else he offers. Rastad is hard, but I'm sure if you pay attention, read and take notes on the material, and get used to Rastad's midterm styles, you can pass it. I did none of the above, which correlates to the grade I got. But you should take Durham if you want an easier time.

Rastad is one of the nicest and most understanding professors you can have. He makes the class difficult, and you may think you're failing for parts of it, but he gives so much extra credit that it evens out, and if you do well on the final, it decreases the weight that the midterms have on your grade - so regardless of how bad you do on the midterms, you can still bump yourself up at the end. Rastad includes some topics in this class related to other classes like M&A, and he has a few things that he tried out and added to the curriculum for us, so there is a lot of material to cover. If you want your money's worth from Cal Poly, and you want to learn as much as possible, take this class. I imagine he's a much nicer person than Ayash as well - I've heard less than nice things. Go to his office hours if you can, I unfortunately couldn't make it due to schedule conflicts, but that will be the most helpful for you if you have questions. Also try studying with others and go over the pre- and post- class quizzes with other people, and don't freak out too much like I did if you fail a test, it's definitely manageable.

Rastad is a chiller, nice guy and generally seems like he is down to help his students. His class is hard though and from what my roommate tells me, his 439 teacher made the class way easier( not saying this is a good or bad thing just difficulty comparison) I actually like the difficulty because it makes me more interested in the topic. Keys to do better than a B in this class, do the quizzes the night before, you get three tries so make sure to get an A on them, i didn't care, come to class prepared, he almost does the whole project and labs he assigns in class, i just wasn't prepared to follow most days so it didn't help me and is a pretty hard project, go to his office hours, i imagine they are packed but i never went and can imagine they were incredibly helpful with how helpful madhi can be in class

One of the best professor's I've ever had at cal poly. Learned so much in this course. He does warn you at the beginning of the course that he assigns a TON of work. Be prepared to dedicate most of your time and effort towards this course. There are 3 very tough exams, 6 excel projects and quizzes/reading due before every class. That being said, I recommend this class to anyone who works hard and actually wants to have a deep understanding of major concepts in finance.

Dr. Rastad is an awesome professor. He's extremely helpful in class and explains the lecture material amazingly. There is a lot of engagement in this class and Rastad is very open to feedback/suggestions from his students. That being said, this class is a ton of work and will require a pretty substantial amount of time and energy. Completing all of the work, including the practice midterms, is absolutely essential. If you're serious about finance then I would absolutely recommend taking 439 with this professor.

Literally never written a review for a teacher before but Rastad is the man. His online quizzes are a little time consuming but easy (unlimited time and 3 attempts) and a total grade booster. He has workshops which are also time consuming but teaches you some about excel and he gives you walkthrough videos so you can't mess it up but don't wait until the last day though to touch them up (he gives multiple grading periods: first on completion and second on accuracy). His tests aren't easy but if you read and do his practice tests/labs you will get a good grade.

Rastad's class is overall pretty stressful. I'm not sure why he has such high poly ratings. He often jumps all over the place in class and makes mistakes on the board quite often. The practice midterms and finals he gives out are helpful but there are SO many typos/mistakes in the solutions that it is confusing. He expects a lot from his students, but doesn't teach much of anything. You will have to learn a lot of the material on your own. He is somewhat helpful in office hours and cares about his students, but struggles communicating the material.

Wow....what to say about Mahdi. He was HORRIBLE, and I'm being fair. I managed to squeak by with a B- not because of him, but in spite of him. Mahdi was not an effective instructor--he assigned 6 extremely time-consuming Excel projects, which I wouldn't have minded had he explained any of them. On top of that, he would pass out practice exams with answer keys, however the answer keys were wrong. Then he had to post a corrections document for the corrections because those were wrong too. Furthermore, there were errors on the actual exams. And, finally, even in lecture he seemed to be uncertain of the material himself. WHAT A MESS this class was. There were days when I wondered how he became an instructor at all. RUN, do not walk, away from this class!!

I think that Professor Rastad really cares about his students. He wants them to learn and be truly successful in life, which is always great to see in a professor. The class has 2 midterms and a final, where he lets you have 3 full-size cheat sheets. There are also several workshops related to bonds and fixed income markets that are actually very interesting and sometimes centered around real world data and valuation. Don't get me wrong, they require a significant amount of work, but I think it's well worth it if you are looking for a career in Finance. I think Rastad is more skilled in teaching this course as opposed to 438, which I am taking with him now, but of the available instructors for 439, I think Rastad is your best bet.

He is a horrible teacher.

Unable to organize and guide the course in manner that fosters learning for the students. Mistakes are constant in class and leads to confusion for all. Good intentions, terrible experience.

Don't do it. Look for another professor. The guy means well but the class is a horror-movie in real life. -Unorganized lectures ridden with mistakes -Answers to quizzes and lab work are frequently incorrect -Extremely time consuming projects -Class has no direction is floats away into the twilight zone as the professor looks for where he made his mistake (he will... every class.) Do yourself a huge favor and look for any professor other than him. Rough....

Very unorganized and constantly makes mistakes. He hardly follows the lecture slides and skips over a lot of conceptual stuff that ends up on the exams. Exams are quite hard. There's not much homework. There are 6 excel workshops that are worth 20% of your grade, it's an easy A if you check your work with the solution videos he provides. There's also a quiz on every chapter that you take before class, you can easily take the quiz without reading the chapter if you skim through the chapter while you take the quiz. Overall, it's a passable class but not without lots of frustrations.

Rastad is a really bad professor and I don’t recommend taking him for this class. This was the first ever C I’ve ever gotten in my academic career. I studied countless of hours due to his inability to teach the subject well and resulted in D grades for both midterms and probably the final. He always threw in questions that were kind of similar to the labs but at the same time asked difficult questions that were never gone over in class which would only be understood by fully understanding the concepts behind them. His labs are over simplified. I’d recommend studying by using the labs as the test questions are kind of similar but not entirely, study guides, and a little bit of lecture notes. He recommended to study from the book (which wasnt worth the time and effort to read hundreds of pages to only obtain 3 main ideas from) and from this CFA workbook which also didn’t help. Be aware that he makes a lot of mistakes during lectures and is very very hard to follow along due to his horrible organization. There are 2 weekly chapter quizzes from the book that I got through by just using the ctrl+f to find the answer, 7 workshops but only graded 6 that he posts tutorials on YouTube that are supposedly wrong but everyone still followed, 2 midterms and a cumulative final. My classmates were able to get better grades than I did by strictly studying the labs and study guides as I spent too much time trying to read the book and lecture notes he posted. Don’t make the same mistake.

Rastad’s class could be so much easier if he wasn’t so lazy. Answer keys to practice tests and labs have numerous mistakes so don’t follow the numbers too closely... typically the answers are correct but the work is not. He isn’t fazed by the mistakes and didn’t seem to realize we all studied problems that were incorrect. Go to office hours and make him explain whatever you don’t understand, understand the practice tests, and make sure you know all of the labs. His tests are difficult and poorly phrased, and you must know the intuition behind a problem because he will use similar formatted questions but with more complexity. You will do poorly on exams but he curves the class at the end based off performance and overall improvement. It kind of sucks because he is a super chill guy and you can tell he wants you to succeed, but he is one of the main reasons you will struggle.

The book was incredibly dry and I fell asleep trying to read it, but the good news is that it doesn't help a whole lot anyway. The professor has a lot of mistakes in his problems, but I think that's because he uses different ones for each class rather than reusing them, so there are always new mistakes - but I don't blame him because people at this school get answers however they can. Exams were a combination of multiple choice and calculations and usually the multiple choice are the ones I failed. Overall, tests are pretty hard. The workshops are a pain sometimes, but he gives you videos to go over them. He helps a lot if you go to his office hours, and if you see a mistake, he'll fix it no problem. Lots of extra credit, but some of it I didn't bother with because it was like calculus proofs for some really nasty equations. He honestly cares for his students more than most professors I know, and he even took a class picture at the end of the quarter. A lot of people are really brutal with their comments, but he means well and is willing to help you if you go to his office. I would say it's kind of like Gorman's class, but hard in a different way.

Chill dude, and assigns real world assignments but his labs take ages and he makes his test really hard. The multiple choice problems are ridiculous. He means well he just doesn't recognize that we have other classes.

Students do really poorly in his class for some reason. Seriously, it isn't that hard if you pay attention and learn the intuition behind concepts, the students who complain didn't try very hard. Classic business students. If you're Econ you'll be fine, the workload is much crazier than what you're used to.