Sen, Naresh  

Fuckin terrible

Bad

So gross

T

Bad

Awful

DONT TAKE CLASS WITH HIM

This professor is new to Cal Poly and taught at the University of Toledo —please search for his name on the internet to view his past evaluations. -------------------- Our class on 11/15/2013 convinced me to evaluate this professor. I don't really do this unless something truly stands out about a teacher. -------------------- First though…an accurate, unbiased evaluation of Mr. Sen’s teaching. Most students would agree that in the beginning he was kind, quirky, and pretty funny in class. As time progressed things began to change. In the course syllabus he encourages us to interrupt at any time in class if a concept is not clear. On several of these occasions, Mr. Sen becomes annoyed and tells us to “do the reading” (meaning the textbook). Frequently he rushes through diagrams and says that the book is better at explaining the concepts than he is. During the lab portion, Mr. Sen wanders from table to table to ensure we are learning the material properly and to see if we have any questions. If one group is doing something wrong, he will likely stop the entire class and scold us for not following instructions. More than once I recall him saying, “It’s not that hard, people!” This instructor also utilizes Clickers to ensure learning and to provide a small percentage of extra credit. However, many questions refer to concepts we have not learned yet therefore making it extremely difficult to answer them accurately. -------------------- Now for the reason I'm sharing this. In past years I've had my fair share of average/sub-par instructors, and that is perfectly normal in a college environment. What's not normal, however, is a professor that vents his anger and frustration on his students. Up until now I felt Mr. Sen was acceptable (fair grading, average teaching techniques, etc.). But on this particular day he completely changed my mind. He began by reprimanding us for our laziness and careless mistakes in the lab section without going into further detail or examples. After skimming through the day’s material he then proceeded to complain about how long it takes him to grade our assignments, and that we aren’t showing enough appreciation. He argued that we should already know what to do in labs without having to ask many questions. He stated that we “bombarded” him for three hours and that it’s unacceptable. Mr. Sen then concluded, word for word, that “...never in my six or seven years of teaching have I had a class so irresponsible and sloppy.” -------------------- He later handed back an assignment with noticeably lower grades (D to F range). After telling us he only spent and hour and a half grading hundreds of them, he asked us why we thought the grades were so low. His answer word for word: “This is what real grading feels like.” He then proceeded to warn us that the next midterm will be graded harshly and that this is the only way to get our attention. Why? I quote his fear of students becoming lazy: “I've been very generous so far in my grading, and I think it’s going to cause some of you to ease off and not learn the material.” -------------------- Clearly there’s a disconnection between the students and Mr. Sen, but under no circumstance should a professor punish his students grade-wise for something they didn't even do. This appalls me. On what evidence or basis does he have to make such claims? Several of my peers (including myself) are still wondering why he is so angry with us. It doesn't make sense for a professor to become defensive and harsh simply because he thinks his students might “ease off”. His threat to lower our grades really pushes me over the edge. I find it hard to believe that the Physics Department lives up to their mission statement when somebody like Mr. Sen is hired. On that particular day, several students understandably left before the end of class out of disgust. This issue does not end here. An incident report will be filed, and I plan on taking this to the Physics Department, Dean, and Academic Personnel. I'm absolutely disgusted with this instructor and will be doing everything in my power to make sure he does not return next year (for the sake of future physics students).

Just writing this to back up what the first reviewer said. In my four years here at Cal Poly, I have never even come close to witnessing one of my professors being so unbelievably insulting and condescending to his or her students before. Every chance he got to insult us, he did. It was the last lecture before the midterm and he chose to spend all of 15 minutes going over new material that we needed to know for the exam. Then he continued on his rant. One student even asked for some clarification on the material he presented, and Sen replied that we just went over it and if you are still confused you can look it up in the text book. And then he continued on his rant. Rephrasing all of the points he had gone over two or three times already. Beating a dead horse doesn't even do it justice. At this point I couldn't handle it anymore and walked out of class before I called him one of many names that came to mind. There are two principles he clearly just doesn't understand. 1) As a professor, if your entire class is making the same mistakes or not meeting the standards you are expecting, you are doing something wrong, not the class. 2) If you are easy going on the grading and give out 100% for incomplete work, why on god's green earth would college students spend more of the precious little free time we have on an assignment when we can get away with sub-par work? especially when it's a class that most of us care very little about retaining information beyond what is required to get a good grade. I think he won many of us over early on in the quarter for being down to earth and easy going despite his very mediocre teaching abilities, and now he has lost any and all respect any of us ever had for him.

I have never been so insulted by an instructor. Like the previous reviewers, I am appalled at the behavior of this one. He does not clarify anything. He goes through material much too quickly without pausing to make sure everyone understood. On his syllabus he says questions are always ok, yet he never answers them. If he does answer, he will give vague answers such as "maybe..." or "it COULD be." Also he is completely unfair. He started grading labs very harshly because he assumed people weren't reading his comments before. And when the morning section of the lab displeased him, he took it out on us (the afternoon section) by saying "today I will treat you like kindergartners..." and then proceeding to draw a diagram of all the desks in the room on the board. He then called out on a desk to read a portion of the lab handout. This in itself is acceptable, but his condescending manner and ceaseless (and causeless) frustration are horrifying. When a student asked him to help us instead of refusing to tell us if anything was wrong with our lab setup, he challenged the whole class to give him a bad rating on the evaluation because "all the professors will be on [his] side." He then said that he was not an "answer-giving machine" and would not help us with our lab after that. We asked him again for help and he said "I'm not going to tell you. Cal Poly's motto is Learn By Doing, and you are not willing to do." I am sure he knows the material, but his bedside manner is a huge F on the report card of his teaching skills. Do NOT take this instructor if you can help it. If I could, I would get him banned from teaching at Cal Poly.

Naresh really, truly, pisses me off...he has absolutely no idea how to teach his students. On his syllabus he writes that we should ask him questions in class but whenever we do, he just says to look it up in the book because it's better at explaining than he is. He also gets angry with us in lab if we aren't sure about something and ask him. I'm not even exaggerating --this guy sucks. I'm surprised Cal Poly even hired him, that just makes the school look bad. He also threatened to lower our grades if we evaluated him poorly, which is really not okay..I think that's illegal. According to him, the department will be on "his side" whatever that means. We haven't even done evaluations yet, and haven't gotten out midterm grades back either...so really he's just ranting about nothing. I try not to rip on professors but this guy legitimately angers me..thinking about taking this to the Fairness Board, he's truly that bad. BOTTOM LINE: If you enroll in a class and see that he's the instructor, get out! It's worth waiting for another teacher, this is by far the worst one I can almost promise you that.

This man is the literally the worst professor I've ever experienced. He has no capability to explain material even remotely well, and if you ask him a question, be prepared to not only have no useful answer given to you, but also he will go on and on and on about useless information completely unrelated to the question. I had the excellent luck of originally signing up for a professor with good polyratings, only for them to at the last minute, replace him with this man. Avoid Sen at all costs. I go to every lecture and pay attention, and yet I still leave the room with less knowledge than I had going in. This man will make you hate physics, which I previously loved, and leave you questioning why you even go to class.

I took a priority to take a poly-ratings raved professor, but ended up with Sen after some sort of lecturer shuffle. I was only in the class for a week before I dropped the class. I have never been so irritated by a professor's incompetence and ignorance before. Sen - in a mere one week - somehow drained all the knowledge I had learned from 121. He has the incredible gift of making students walk out of class feeling like they have less knowledge than when they walked in. He'll never answer your questions - "It's in the book people! You should know that!" and spends the majority of his lecture time on ridiculous clicker questions that are worth about 0.005 points each. So coming from someone who did - avoid Sen at all costs. I did, and I kept my sanity.

Naresh Sen is not good at teaching. It's not that he's malicious or mean or condescending...he just seems able to avoid actually passing information on. When asked a question, he answers with a "mmmmm...well, no" and generally doesn't progress beyond that. The class can be incredibly frustrating due to the fact that you get the unshakeable feeling that perhaps the book could have taught you this material in a more clear, organized manner. Lectures feel unplanned, disorganized, and crammed, all while managing to feel empty of a lot of substantial knowledge. The one redeemable thing about class is that you get the equations and clicker questions, which at least force you to apply the knowledge once in a while. The online homework often has many errors, illegible graphs, or problems you have not addressed in class, the book, or in lab. If you don't make this known to him as soon as possible, they will remain present and you will have to resort to google and other universities' lecture slides to solve them. Make it known and he may drop the problem from the homework or at the very least address it in class or lab. Exams are mostly multiple choice (difficult) and around 2 free-response questions that go on for at least two parts each. They may have material that you have not covered in lecture, lab, homework, or in the book. I'm not sure how to prepare yourself for these sorts of things other than seeking out even more practice problems beyond what is expected for the course. This class has frustrated me to no end. That's not because of the material it covered, it's because of the professor. If you can, avoid taking this class so you do not feel the need to count down the days till you can be rid of it. Try to find another professor if possible.

Sen is really terrible, its very hard to get B and I doubt anyone in my class will get an A. I stopped going to lectures early on because of how little they helped my learn anything. He doesn't curve grades either. Lab is worth 15%. Homework is worth 15% two midterm for 22% each. And the remainder is the final. Avoid Sen unless you have no other options, and then maybe avoid him some more.

No.

Not graduating on time cus of this fucker.

Clickers and moody!!!!! Went to office hours and this dude is a condescending piece of crap. Should go back to doing research

please don't take this guy

REALLY REALLY shitty

everyone in my class failed. this dude really sucks, never answers ur questions or gives any effort to help you. lectures are disorganized and crammed and dont help.

stay really really far away from this man

why isn't this dude fired?? the world will never know

Drains your enthusiasm to learn like no other.

needs 2 be fired asap

horrible. doesnt help shit. clicker questions suck

Never again...

Okay so I didn't do the best in his class. I'm no wiz in physics and I have to say that his teaching style did not match with how I learn best BUT he's really not as bad as everyone here is trying to make him out to be. I went to his office hours every week and he's a really nice guy that just wants to see his students succeed. For my second midterm he made a mistake and was happy to fix it. All these comments saying that he is condescending because he pauses and gives brief explanations is because he wants the students to figure stuff out on their own!! Physics is hard and just because you work hard doesn't mean that you are going to be granted an A or even a B. If you do your work and put effort into his class you will pass. If you go beyond that you might get a high grade.

this guy is the homie!

I hear he is leaving poly, so I guess this information has to go to the next people who are trying to hire him. He was easily the worst prof I have ever had. I don't know how he got here with such horrible evaluations at his previous job. He is mean, condescending, and sometimes downright evil. He tried to teach us lessons by intentionally giving us bad grades on assignments. He would call us lazy or stupid, and tell us to read the book. He is someone who doesn't deserve to be here and should never be allowed to teach in the USA ever again.

I walked into this class with more knowledge than I left with. If you like classes where you leave every lecture wondering what why you even went, then this is the class for you. The only redeeming part is the curve.

A failure

wow...i think this is just one person constantly voting down Sen...the class wasn't bad at all.

I don't know why everyone is hating on poor Mr. Sen ! He is truly a great guy! He isn't like most professors who teach, he actually cares about his students by not wasting their time with petty informative lectures. No, instead he redirects us to the BOOK which is the basis of all learning in the universe. Obviously the book can explain material better than a mere mortal human being, because it's a book ! If you feel stupid and confused, NO WORRIES just go back home and stare at the mastering physics homework due every Friday night preventing you from enjoying dangerous activities such as interacting with other humans. Furthermore, his overuse of large shirts is actually a fashion statement that promotes a healthy physics learning environment. His use of clickers also makes the class much more engaging as the average student attendance is around 25 for an almost 50 person lecture. The questions are usually hard but it's okay you have a BOOK !!!! Overall, he is an amazing professor and I would gladly, EVEN FORCEFULLY RECOMMEND him as a Physics teacher. Without him I would have never realized my true love of Physics. P.S get ready to hear AAAAAAAND STOOOP a whole lot!

This guy is absolute trash at teaching. At the beginning, he seemed like a cool guy teacher with a lot of potential. But as the quarter progressed, it became apparent, he could not teach AT ALL. His lectures were of 2 powerpoint slides full of fun facts that he didn't even make. He did plenty of demos that all went horribly awry and wasted a good amount of class time trying to fix. Whenever we asked him questions, he would refer to some equations and never give a direct answer. He would spend 10-15 minutes on an example, only to say that it was completely wrong and just know the equation from the book. However, this teacher is great if you do not want to attend lecture as did half of my class and teach yourself everything. His exams were relatively simple if you studied on your own.

It was a dark and stormy night, I was walking back to my apartment after an average day of classes when suddenly a little bird came down carrying a message from the depths of the large Hadron Collider. In a curious stupor I read the message "Professor Sen is not to be trusted with the Staff of Knowledge." "Strange," I thought to myself "I have never had this professor Sen before, what could make him so undependable?" I set it upon myself to discover the answer I so desperately craved. After a long journey culminating in the scaling of MOUNT OLYMPUS itself I received my answer. I arrived at a convocation of the gods who promptly glared at me with a look that had never been seen by mortal eyes. After which felt like an eternity Almighty Zeus spoke and said "You must have the book for he will not pass on the knowledge of physics himself!" Having fulfilled my quest I quietly returned to my humble abode... So overall after never actually having this professor I'd rate him a solid -3/12 jackrabbits in a hole.

Brace yourself! The hype is real. The first day to first midterm will be going easy for you, then everything after that will be going downfall. He tried his best to teach, but he just can't teach. Midterm averages are D simply because his tests doesn't cover his lecture. If you ask him question, he never gives clear answer. He will always say "ah well, maybe, what do you think" , and always leave you with vague answer. And be prepared to hear a lot of 3,2,1 andddddd stoppppp!

Naresh is an interesting fellow. The majority of each class period consists of periodic clicker questions and Naresh simply not caring. Naresh's teaching style is consistent with most of the physics department in that he simply cannot teach the subject of physics. He is however always very willing to answer student questions and always provides a very thorough answer that relates in no way shape or form to the answer he is expected to respond with. He is indian, but I can assure the reader that his accent will have no toll on your learning experience -- implying learning takes place -- Don't get me wrong though, Naresh is the man and despite his teaching abilities I would still take him again simply for how little he cares.

B

Maybe Professor Naresh is actually a smart man....the world may never know because his god-awful teaching disguises any true grasp of the material. NO order whatsoever in his lectures. NEVER answers questions clearly. I honestly spent more time looking through my year-old AP Physics notes than looking through his lectures. This course was not hard, but Professor Sen did a fantastic job making it sure seem hard. Only take him as a last resort.

his homework is what saves your grade. Doesn't teach well but assigns homework so can teach yourself. I have had way worse teachers here and his tests are not that bad

He makes you hate him. He cannot ever accept that maybe he might be wrong. If you do something wrong, there is no mercy with your grade. He grades 100 question labs out of 10 points (if you get 10 wrong, you fail) One of my friends is gonna give him a 4.0 and write a good review as a goof. This professor has his head so far up his ass. I thought he would be fine the first day but it turns out that he is a total ass hat. If you try to reason to him over why he should give you a point back because Mastering Physics didn't accept K as being equivalent to 1/4pi epsilon naught. He expects you to know the material before you learn it. DO NOT TAKE HIM!

Yo fuck this guy. If you care about school in general just don't take this professor.

Think what you want, but at least for lab, I think Prof. Sen did a satisfactory job. He had no trouble explaining concepts that hadn't been covered in lecture yet and he was always willing to talk with students and help out. He does have a traditional approach on the classroom, so you might need to grow up a bit, but other than that I didn't see any problems with labs. I cannot speak for lectures, but if you are willing to work hard for what you're paying for and willing to a work with his expectations(which are reasonable for lab), don't even worry. Expect to get out early and take the three hours others, but again, you aren't paying for an easy A and a twenty minute lab, you are paying to learn. Keep this in mind and you'll be fine with a relatively guaranteed A.

Sen is usually pretty good in office hours, but a lot of his helpfulness depends on his mood. He is very condescending and makes you feel stupid for asking questions in class. When he actually tries to answer your questions he does a pretty terrible job. Then, when the whole class speaks up about not understanding his explanations, he brushes it all off and says, "Just look it up PEOPLE!" ...as if that is a reasonable thing to say as our TEACHER. Beside my frustration toward him, he seems to understand the material very well, he just picked the ABSOLUTELY wrong profession for himself. DO NOT TAKE SEN unless you do well with barely any help from the professor.

shitty

tell this fucker to gtfo off cal poly

this fucker right here

dropped before he drained any more physics from me

sucks

this fucker right here

nope

what a dick

fuck this guy

One of the most inept teachers I've ever had. I already knew the entire course since my high school physics teacher was so much better than this guy, but if I hadn't I would not have such a good grade. His lab activities are tedious and he tells us exactly what results we expect to get before we even do them. I swear he doesn't even know what Lon capa he assigns to us since it doesn't even line up with what he teaches us. On his tests he makes sure to only test you on that one obscure formula which he mentioned during 1 minute of the last 5 weeks. This is because he is obsessed with making sure his students are strictly paying attention to him for his self-validation and wants to penalize you if you weren't rather than evaluate you based on your understanding of the course material. His lectures are so uninformative that they feel like a joke and then his tests try to rip you a new one. SO glad to wipe my hands clean of this class and hopefully never see him again.

i really hate clickers...

Although Sen has mentioned that he will not be returning to Cal Poly, I felt like the past reviews don't do this guy justice. I will give that the lectures are not the most entertaining; however, I thought that professor Sen was a really great professor. His grading policy was geared towards making sure you actually learn and understand the material. He worked out difficult homework problems and took time to explain complicated concepts. When I looked at the past reviews, I was terrified to take his class, but ended up very pleasantly surprised.

piece of shit

awful

BADDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!! DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS!

Awful

Bad

Terrible

Bad

grossssssssssssssssss

f

BAD