Kachlakev, Damian  

I learned that if I were to take up hunting, I should shoot deer, not bears, because a bear will hunt me back if I successfully wound it. Fascinating! I didnt know that the key to production and operations management was so brutally simple!

if you've heard NOT to take kachlakev for a lower division class... you were completely misinformed!! kachlakev is really awesome! i just took the final and i had no problems with it. if you have problems on the homework (which you will), go into his office hours and he'll help you figure it out. he's got the GREATEST professor's manual!!! take kachlakev, he's a great guy and is a really good professor!!!

When you come to class, be prepared to think fast. He was quick in the summer quarter. He makes a lot of sense if you can keep up with him. I think, though, he should slow down and come better prepared to lecture. If it were up to me I'd fire 90% of college teachers today for being lazy. (or just liberal idiots)

Is this thing on? Oh...Hi there. I just had CE 205 with Dr. Kachlakev and I think that he did a great job teaching the class! It wasn't particularly a very interesting subject, but that wasn't his fault. He is a very nice person all around, a fair grader, and very helpful to his students. He's definitely a person you could easily picture in a bond film. He's got a really cool Russian accent and just a Bond character demeanor. To make the class a little more interesting you could picture yourself as being taught the material so you could thwart or help Bond...take your pick..........or not! :) But on a more serious note...one of the only things he lacked was order on the board. It would be really nice if he wrote 1 column then another then another...and not just scattered about the chalkboard. Sometimes I got very behind in copying the notes and example problems so I almost stopped taking notes.

this guy has the most confusing lectures. his thoughts as well as his scriblings on the board were very scattered.this caused myself to lose focus and patience for this bastard who often had to correct himself on previous example solutions sometimes from past lectures. i did most of the homework(missed 1 assignment), passed the midterm(C+) and i thought i did well on the final(which was much harder than the homework and example problems) but i still got a shitty grade. be prepared to spend a lot of time on this 2 unit class.

Dr. K is a really nice guy and a very good instructor. I've had Devaney for 204 and was worried about taking anyone else, but was plesantly surprised. Very fair and understading, as well as being a good teacher. Definately recomended.

He knows his stuff, but he is very fast when he is lecturing. You are either trying to keep up with notetaking or you have fallen asleep because you have lost him. His accent is a little hard to understand, but you get used to it. His tests are very dueable and the homework load is reasonable. Make sure you do the homework, it can help you out alot in the end. He is not to helpful during office hours, but an overall ok teacher.

Dr. Kachlakev is an awesome professor to take for CE 259, which is mostly a lab class. His lectures were pretty boring, but he only lectures several times during the quarter and when he does he makes his notes available so you don't have to write everything by hand. He is very helpful with any questions you ask him about the various labs and he is good at explaining things. There are reports to write for each lab, but they don't take that long and he doesn't grade them too strictly. Also, we almost always got out of lab 1.5 hours early! You will learn a lot in his class, but he doesn't make you do too much work. His two exams are also straightforward. Take him for CE 259 for a fun lab class.

Doesn't give a damn about the student, knows it and let's you discover this on a regularly basis: shows up late, sometimes never, takes off early, fails to answer your questions directly, peaces out on exam days, blasts through his "lectures" which consist of him rapid firing off a million important points (which he downplays as “basic, easy stuff”) and says he's going to email you lecture overheads (never sends emails, then when he claims to send emails he blames the students for not receiving his email—in my case, the entire class got blamed). I know this sounds like I'm simply relaying stories of things that pissed me off (me alone) like I was personally slighted, but know that I take my criticisms very objectively. I give credit where it's due (many glowing reviews) and balance with warranted criticism. I honestly have no idea why Damien is a professor; he seriously doesn't care about his students. Actions exemplifying this: he walks away when asked questions related to labs, misleads and misrepresents what's on exams (also, he just hands out the exams, then bails, a habit he also performs during labs). God help you if you don't take copious notes on his (terrible, difficult to read, image/formula heavy) slides and have to take one of these exams. Also, side note, know how to mix concrete going into the final, know the complete 16-step process, be able to perform the full calculations for the final and always (ALWAYS) keep a booklet of the formulas related to the 16-steps handy, because when his email doesn't reach anyone in the classes inbox telling everyone to bring a copy, "That's your problem, not mine" is his response, and I promise you that it doesn’t feel awesome hearing those words come from a professors mouth. Also, be prepared to write a bunch of reports (no big deal if you pick your group mates wisely, I suggest pairing with a bunch of guys—and this is sexist, but an equally important observation—avoid women in the class, less they show obvious interest in the subject, I heard only complaints about female group mates not pulling their weight—also, they failed to get dirty when batching the concrete) know how to write properly and follow the report guidelines COMPLETELY found in the syllabus and answer the questions that are asked in each specific lab. Do not deviate. DO NOT DEVIATE.

I found Professor Kachlakev to be a good professor. He didn't give you all the theory bullshit and we just got straight to the labs. This class is one of my favorite classes! I would recommend him.

tl;dr, he's chill and nice and a very easy A. fun guy to get advice from for later years as well I don't know why there are so many negative comments, Kachlakev is a genuinely chill dude. I had horrible expectations coming into this class. But, he only lectures like four times the whole quarter. Every other time is a lab, where you get out like at least an hour early. He's helpful in answering questions and will often give you the answer if he likes you. Every lab group in my class helped each other out, although there was a good amount of competition to get the best data.

Pretty easy class your grade is 60 percent labs which everyone basically gets 10/10 on as long as you dont mess up. He is really laid back my class was from 8-11 am but he told us not to show up until 9 and most days we left by 10. Not at all a 3 hour class. Only thing I didnt like was you really dotn know what to expect from him on the midterms and final he only spent like 4 days the whole year lecturing and to study for them he just said go over lecture notes and labs. Other then that super chill dude and if you joke around with him and he likes you should be an easy class

My man Damian is chillest dude that ever lived on this planet. Labs are super straightforward and simple, and usually only take an hour. Just follow the procedures in the book and whatever comments Kachlakev adds on. Btw to save money, you really only need one book per group. He only lectures 3 times the entire quarter, they are kinda boring but important because they are tested on the midterm and final. Overall he is very nice, helpful, and teaches in a concise manner. Easy A, take him if you can!

what the hell???!!!! why are there good ratings for this guy? ill get a pretty easy A and i dont know jack! people will die as a result of a lack of understanding that CE\'s have after leaving this class. students openly laugh at this joke of a prof during class.dont take this man because you will put a lot of effort in learning nothing. im straight up pissed that this guys ratings are so high! talk to any ce you know and they\'ll tell you the truth. maybe his mother posts good ratings so she doesnt get as many phone calls of him crying about his pathetic teaching ability!

Easy A no doubt, but if you won\'t learn much from this teacher. All he does is check the homework to see if you did it, he doesn\'t even grade one problem. And it was like pulling teeth to get him to give us the solutions to know if we did them right.

This guy is a joke. If you care even the slightest bit about learning anything about reinforced concrete do not take him. If you want to be frustrated for 10 weeks because you can\'t figure out what the fuck he\'s trying to teach you but get a decent grade, then he\'s your guy.

It seems these day the term "jagoff" is thrown around far to often. The problem is most of the people this term is applied to are not true jagoffs, some are asswipes, or pricks or dickheads, but when it comes down to it, few people are fortunate enough to have spent any considerable amount of time in the presence of a genuine jagoff. For this reason I feel truly fortunate to have taken Katchelkev for both concrete and steel. I may not have learned a single thing about the subjects that were taught, but I did learn what the term jagoff truly meant, and that bit of knowledge is something you just can’t put a price on.

Kachlakev is a terrible teacher. I got an A in the class, but feel like I got jipped in concrete because we only learned the absolute basics. He did not go into any rebar detailing and did not cover the material he should have and the class was way too easy. If do not care about knowing how to design anything in concrete take him, but if you do then take someone else. He doesn't care about what the students take away from the class and is a joke teacher. He leaves exams for the entire class so it is basically open notes and classmates. Also he grades everything ridiculously easy so even if you do something wrong, you can still get an A in the class. DO NOT take Kachlakev if you want to leave the class feeling confident in your concrete knowledge.

One of the worst professors I've had at Cal Poly. If you want to learn absolutely nothing and don't really care about reinforced concrete, by all means take him. If you're serious about this class, please take someone else. He is very disorganized. He takes off during exams, so they are pretty much open notes, since he doesn't give a shit if we cheat during an exam. He also disappears during lab, leaving us so confused about where in the fuck he went and how to mix/mold the concrete. This guy is nice (only good thing about him), but is an absolute shit professor. I recommend that you stay away from this guy. Unless you're alright about stressing over this class and wondering what in the hell you're learning. Considering that I am going for structural engineering, I feel ripped off and cheated by this guy.

This is the worst teacher I've ever experienced. His lecture consists of him scribbling some illegible examples on the board that make no sense. The homework is nothing like anything that is done in class and most of the time you have to figure it out yourself from Google. The only instruction he gives on the labs is on a piece of paper and refuses to clarify anything. He will never reconsider a grade on anything and if you make a request that requires some sort of electronic knowledge, do not expect anything. I do not know anything about reinforced concrete and would never take a class with him.

Absolutely do not take Damian for any class at Cal Poly. You will have wasted your time, money, and brain cells trying to teach yourself because he has no idea what he is doing in front of a classroom. Everyone in the class got an A or B, but no one is prepared for senior project with what they learned from his Concrete class.

Worst teacher at calpoly, do everything in your power to avoid him. Literally doesn't care or know anything about teaching

Terrible lecturer. Difficult to understand his accent. His handwriting is horrible. He goes so fast on the white board that you struggle to just keep up copying the notes down whilst deciphering his hieroglyphs. His course material is unorganized. Requires you to buy the code, which is absolutely useless except to look up rebar diameter, which you can look up online. Plus, he uses a different version of the code and references that so you don't know where he's getting the information from. His communication with students suck. For Thanksgiving week only 4 students showed up to class because everyone else believed he canceled it. He doesn't use polylearn and only sends emails so you end up with a pile of emails that may or may not be important for future reference. On the plus side, we usually didn't do anything for lab so you just go in and he lectures for like an hour and you get to leave.

This teacher is easy, but is horrible at teaching the material. He cant understand if you ask a question, and has no way to answer it. If you do the homework, and quizzes, you will get an easy A, you just wont know the material at the end of the quarter.

doesnt really relay the information the greatest but he makes the stuff pretty easy. with his notes, lecture examples, and book examples; its a good deal all the way around

Not done with the class yet.....but infromative and great prof.

Kachlakev is a pretty good professor overall. His lectures are a bit dry, but are clear and his notes are very helpful. He's really laid back about homework...you can turn it in late if you want...but he grades it pretty tough. Overall, a good professor.

Take him to gain perspective. I had no idea teachers could be this bad. If you're thinking about taking a class with him I urge you, don't take my word for it. Track down every CE you know, if you can find one person who has anything good to say about him, then go for it. Most people can't keep a straight face after hearing his name.

This guy is the man. Most professors are worried about arbitrary things, like assignments being a day late. he just wants you to learn your shit, and you can basically do it at your own pace. take him for every class possible, a genuine person who has real life experience.

Kachlakev is the most professional teacher I have had. He realizes that it is more important to learn the method of design instead of simply the theory behind it. In the real world, you are rewarded for results, not an understanding of the field. Kachlakev assigns only 2 hw problems a week and requires a summary page of a relevant civil engineering article to further enhance your understanding of the field. The course breakdown is as follows: 15% HW 10% Weekly Article Summaries 15% Lab Assignment 10% Oral Presentation (on one of the articles) 25% Midterm 25% Final

He is like an a really really really really really reallyreally really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really dumb and shitty prof.

Had him for 355 and was not impressed. He sounded exasperated if someone asked a simple question, and just in general didn't seem to care. But if you kept up you learned what was necessary. Cracking moment stuff never quite sank in but I learned the material and got a good grade. I wanted to take FRP concrete the next quarter but he was teaching it. So I was a little hesitant to take it, but I talked some other 355 students into taking it with me. Dr. K specialized in FRP and even own an FRP rebar conpany at one point. He helped right the FRP code book. So he is interested in this stuff and that came across in the class. Rather than sound frustrated if you asked a question he was excited and would cover the question and then more. But it is a higher level specialty class so in general there are students that are interested in the material rather than non structural people that don't care about 355 and want to blame the teacher. I'm not saying he was good in 355 but he wasn't the worst I've had and I didn't need to learn the material all over again before taking the nexy class like 204 with Moazzami.

Aside from bouncing around and not really knowing where in the text the material he was lecturing on he was a pretty good professor. The notes he wrote on the board were scattered as well. He got confused easily but made an effort to understand what we needed. I would stay away from him if you have trouble with forgein accents, or just sit close to the front.