Kamalu, Ngozi  

Mechanical Engineering

1.21/4.00

33 evaluations


ME 211


Sophomore
D
Required (Major)
Sep 2005
The only reason our class showed up every day for class was becuase homework was collected for 15% of our grade and also he gave quizzes (15%)every time too. All of his lectures were stright from the book, I mean he would photo copy the pictures and put them on the overhead. The main thing that made me not like this teacher was his lack of office hours. He had two for an hour each. He was not willing to meet any other time or stay a little longer in his office to help students. I did great on the tests, but horrible on the homework, and average on the quizzes. So if you can get your hands on the answer book for the homework, which I didn't have, the class will be easy, but learning will be limited.

ME 212


Sophomore
A
Required (Major)
Dec 2003
I am only a second yaer, but this is seriously the worst teacher I have ever had. Tests arent too bad, but the home work is really hard. The only reason I did good in the class was because I had the solutions manual to the book. One time a student asked him to explain how he got an answer and he said "well, its a matter of simple geometry" and refused to do anythign else. Every solution he presented us with in class was STRAIGHT OUT of the solutions manual. I don't think he really understood any of the concepts.


Sophomore
B
Required (Support)
Jan 2004
Kamalu is lazy, but if you can figure out how to squeeze enough example problems onto your note paper for tests, you can pass. He just took problems from the book to test on. If you're more interested in getting a good grade than actually learning the material, I'd recommend him (if you know how to adapt to different teacher's different styles). *shrug* He's an awful teacher but hey I got a B in dynamics and I still barely even know what the word dynamis means~

ME 302


Junior
B
Required (Major)
Aug 2003
Anybody who likes Kamalu is as crazy as he is. He is without a doubt the laziest professor I've had at poly. Get his notes at the beginning of class and walk straight out because his lecture is basically reading his notes for you in a condescending manner anyway. He was late to most of his classes and he was one hour and 10 minutes late to the final. Fortunately his tests are easy and from what I've heard don't change at all from quarter to quarter or even year to year. Can anybody spell T-E-N-U-R-E?


Junior
B
Required (Major)
Aug 2003
Taking Kamalu for any class will be the biggest mistake you can make. He was more than 1 HOUR late for the final and was consistently late to class. After arriving at class late he still wastes more time telling stories that have nothing to do with Thermodynamics or walks out of class to take a call on his cell phone in the middle of the lecture. He was also too lazy to teach how to use data tables and diagrams that are necessary to pass the class. Kamalu obviously doesn't care about his job or how students do in his classes. His performance as an instructor is absolutely unacceptable. Oh yeah, did I mention he is LAZY?


Junior
A
Required (Support)
Aug 2003
This teacher is the worst teacher in the ME department, if not the entire school. He has a thick accenct that I couldn't understand. Don't even think about asking questions during office hours. I learned all the matirial on my own, because he is such a bad teacher. He is lazy, and always late to class. In a fifty minute class, he will lecture about 35 minutes, half of which are his lame stories that have nothing to do with thermo. We didn't even have class on the the last two lectures because he made us watch this lame PBS movie. AND to top it off,,, he was 1 hour late to our final. (I was pissed because I had to wake up at 6 to get to this 7 o'clock final that he was late for.) Do not take him.


Junior
N/A
Required (Major)
Mar 2006
Hands down the worst teacher I've ever had. Kamalu tried to teach thermodynamics by putting problems on the over head and talking about them. I stopped taking notes about three weeks into the quarter because it was worthless. The guy talks about the slides then takes them down, if by the odd chance you weren't asleep and taking notes theres no way you could have copied everything down. He's terrible in his office hours and had none during finals week. His test are fair but its nearly imposible to learn the material, especially if you don't have the solutions manual.

ME 341


Sophomore
A
Required (Support)
Apr 2000
Dr. Kamalu is boring. He has a thick accent that makes it difficult to understand what he is saying. He wastes a lot of time in class talking about things not related to the course at all. His examples in class are weak, and the homework problems he assigns are difficult. He was not very helpful in office hours. If you ask him a question in his office he will solve the whole problem for you even if you asked him a simple question. He knows fluids well, but I would recommend you take someone else.


Junior
A
Required (Support)
Jan 2001
Kamalu does have a thick accent and is pretty hard to understand in class. The first 2 weeks I had him for fluids I was hating life. But then I started going to his office hours and that really helped. If you go to an office hour, he'll explain an entire problem out to you. This obviously made the homework pretty easy. Just go in and ask him about problems you don't understand throughout the week and by the time you need to turn it in it'll all be done. And the test are based mainly on the homework and there are so many other previous tests floating around that his tests really aren't that hard.


Junior
B
Required (Major)
Jan 2002
Kamalu is great. At first his accent is difficult to understand. But he hands out the notes so you don't have to write hardly anything. And every once in a while he tells hilarious stories about Scott of the Antarctic and Schleiman of Troy. And if your lucky he will tell you about the size of his slide rule!!!


Junior
A
Required (Support)
Dec 2002
pretty cool. tells funny stories. not funny ha ha, but funny weird. makes the stuff pretty easy. gives you all kinds of information for the exams. the class will seem hard at first but it gets better.


Junior
A
Required (Major)
Jan 2003
Well Kamalu's accent is a bit hard to get used to but you will. He tries to keep classes interesting with these little uninteresting and boring stories but at least he tries. The key to his class is to study the homework before tests and sample problems from his lecture notes. He will give identical problems with the numbers changed. He is also very helpful in his office so dont hesitate to see him there. He grades on a curve and is very fair when he grades. You will learn fluids if you take him.


Junior
B
Required (Major)
Jan 2003
Kamalu is the ultimate lazy professor. every lecture he handed out a packet of the lecture, then proceeded to read straight from the packet he just handed out. the only time he wrote on the board was when the copy machine broke down or he wasn't able to get the packet copied. he maybe did 3 examples total the whole quarter, rarely did he do an example like the homework. as such, homework was nearly impossible to do without his help. if you visit his office hours he will work out the whole problem for you, and he posts solutions at his office. the key is understanding the homework, so i suggest doing this to get a decent grade. you have to teach yourself because kamalu sure wont.


Junior
A
Required (Major)
Apr 2003
Ngozi is a great guy. Jolly as can be, he kept me awake during fluids. Some say they don't learn much in his class, but I feel like I know all I need to from fluid mechanics. He tells jokes now and then and even lectures on some explorer sometimes. He gives awsome handouts and formula sheets also. I would definetly suggest Kamalu for ME 341 or ME 302.


Junior
A
Required (Major)
Aug 2003
I have the most mixed feeling about this professor. He writes excellent lecture notes that are very thorough. His tests are very straight forward and his breakdown (2 exams 25% each, hw 10% and final %40) i believe to be very fair. On the contrary, he rarely ever started class before 20 past the hour. He actually stopped mid-sentence during his lecture to answer his cell phone, twice! One test he gave was identical from a previous quarter, which is cool if you have it but totally not fair and shows complete laziness. And his accent is extremely hard to get used to at least for me (thank god for the lecture notes). But bottom line, if i had the chance to take kamalu again, i would.


Junior
C
Required (Support)
Dec 2003
Prof. Kamalu is by far the worst professor I have taken at Cal Poly. The only reason why I took him was becuase I needed the class and he was the only professor. If you do not have to take him, do not. His thick accent makes it extremly difficult to understand. He hands out lecture notes but they are extremly fragmented. He shows up to class five to ten minutes late. Homework gets handed back weeks after it was due. Make copies of your homework so you have it to study. Tests are easy if you can get ahold of previous tests. The homework is far more difficult to understand given his inability to teach students.


Junior
B
Required (Major)
Nov 2004
If I was to describe Kamalu in one word...LAZY. He comes late to class. He leaves class early. He took three full weeks to grade our midterm. He passes out lecture notes and then reads them to us. If you ask a question he'll make you feel stupid. He is hard to understand (thick accent). Try to avoid him.


Sophomore
N/A
Required (Support)
May 2005
Absolutely horrible. He has no business being a professor.


Junior
N/A
Required (Major)
Jun 2005
i dont know why people complain in this class. i have a solid A in the class and feel like i am learning the material. if you take the time to read the book before the lecture then you will probably get the material very well. i plan to take him for the fluids lab. if you are doing bad in the course you should think about switching majors, or getting smarter.


Junior
D
Required (Support)
Aug 2005
This is the only D I have ever gotten. Kamalu's accent, along with his inability to help during office hours and his lethargic paperwork, somehow gave me the message that his tests would be easy. I have never been so wrong. It seems as if Kamalu was increasing the difficulty of his exams to see if his teaching was improving; we all learned that it was not. Take a different instructor if you can.


Junior
C
Required (Major)
Dec 2005
Ngozi Kamalu is the laziest human on earth. He should be used for fertilizer.


Senior
A
Required (Major)
Dec 2006
I took Fluid 1 (ME 341) a year ago. I agree that he is among of the worst teacher in ME department. He is extremely lazy. However, this will be an easy class if you know someone who have a stack of old exams (my friend gave me about 50 problems of pratice exams). All I did was praticed those problems and eventually he will put the same problem again. You won't learn anything much from him, but you will get a good grade if you have a copy of old exams. Then again, he will retire soon, so I'm not sure that a good or bad news.


Junior
C
Required (Support)
Jul 2007
I passed the class, but no thanks to Kamalu. I actually stopped going to class and just hunkered down and taught myself from the book (which also royally sucks). Kamalu even fell asleep during one of out midterms and started SNORING. Completely useless. Rumor has it hes leaving. Thank god.


5th Year Senior
N/A
Required (Support)
Oct 2007
Kamalu showed up around 10 minutes late every class, lectured the material in a way that assumed you already knew all the material, and then gave tests that were only representative of a few of the concepts. In my 5 years at cal poly I have never felt that a professor cared so little about teaching. His laziness is quite apparent in his extreme obesity and subpar hygiene.

ME 345


5th Year Senior
N/A
Required (Major)
Nov 2002
Only take him for fluids if you have to, especially the lab. He will never ever be there on time for a 8am lab, ever, and will keep you there till 11 for no damn reason. Every lab report is exactly the same as previous quarters, so if you don't want to, you don't have to do anything. A waste of 30 hours of your life. I had him for 341 also, and could not ever get used to his teaching style. He lectures off of handouts, so you dont learn anything because you fall asleep listening to his stories about grad school and Scott of the Antarctic.


5th Year Senior
A
Required (Major)
Feb 2005
When friends told me the stories of his laziness, I thought they were exagerating a bit. But no, they are pretty much true. The first day of lab he gives this watered-down summary of each experiment and the things you need to do, like its supposed to make sense since we havent read any of the future labs? After this first week, i guess he feels his job is done and does absolutely nothing! This guy walks in late every time and dissapeares midway through lab. One day, he walked in with a tri-tip sandwich in his hand, sat down in front of class and ate it while we sat there waiting for some type of instruction. He walks with with a slow slug-like patience everywhere. The first two weeks, we sat there in the beginning of lab waiting for some instruction or hints. But nope, he just sat there and surfed the internet on his laptop. Just looking at him makes me sleepy. He offers absolutely no help of any kind. You dont get labs back period. SO you dont know if your doing the labs right or what? I cant imagine taking a lecture and actually having to learn from this poor excuse of a professor. But hey, i would still recommend him for the labs because you can learn them on your own and leave early every time. Kamalu, is by far the LAZIEST professor i have ever taken period.

ME 346


Sophomore
A
Required (Support)
Aug 1999
Brush aside the thick accent, and you have a really decent professor. Kamalu is very organized with his lecture notes, uses clear examples in class, and is a truly friendly guy. It's important to him that you learn the material. He takes time with students.

ME 347


Senior
A
Required (Major)
Jul 2005
I was in ME 347 LAB with Kamalu. This was a bad experience. He isn't horrible for lecture (I had him for ME 341) because the notes he makes for class are good, but when you actually need to talk to him and need feedback on whats going on--not good. He finally gave the first lab report back in like the eighth week of the quarter. That was the only one anybody ever recieved. The guy is just soooo lazy. Don't take him if you get the option.


Senior
N/A
Required (Major)
Dec 2006
Basically a really bad professor... considering that it is the last day of lab, we have no experiment to do, yet we are sitting here in lab and he hasn't said anything yet...


Senior
N/A
Required (Major)
Dec 2006
Kamalu is a fat, lazy man who has figured out a way to make money doing nothing. I had him for lab, and the only day he actually told us anything about the labs was the first day of class. This consisted of him lumbering around the room and rambling incoherently about medusa and other meaningless tangents. One of our labs needed a thermometer before we could start, but of course Kamalu was off wandering for an hour before he comes back and unlocks a cabinet for us. Most of the time when he disappears, he comes back with a big sack of greasy fast food to help satiate his enormous belly. Any time you try to ask him a question about a lab, he just looks at you blankly for 10 seconds and says it's in our textbook. We didn't get any labs back until about the 8th week of class, and I don't believe he actually reads more than 10% of them. At least we got make fun of him as he sat at his desk sleeping after a 9 am orange chicken feast. The lab wasn't that hard and apparently there's no lab final or anything, it's just amazing to see such a worthless professor in action.


Junior
N/A
Required (Major)
Jun 2007
na na na, na.....na na na, na.....hey hey hey.....goodbye. Him leaving is the best thing to happen to the ME department. Ever.


Junior
N/A
Required (Major)
Jun 2007
It's true. Kamalu is really an oversized chocolate-colored bowling pin. The only thing we needed Kamalu for was to have him open the fluids lab for us. It's such a shame he didn't leave years ago. His departure from Cal Poly is auspicious.

CD 758


Freshman
C
Required (Major)
Nov 2016
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