Moazzami, Sara  

This is a great teacher. She is WELL prepared for class and gives lectures so thouroug and clear and concise there is little room for confusion. Her tests resemble homework; they are very fair. Excellent teacher

Dr. Moazzami is by far one of the most clear and organized professors alive. she doesn't really involve her students much, but i've never seena professor convey a concept more clearly than her ever. she's not all that fun and she stares off into space when she speaks, but her examples are so well presented and she is always well organized and rpepared for class. she thouroughly presents the material so well. i've never had a question once, and most of the class never has either. her homework is worth 30% of the grade, but its excellent test prep, an amazingly reasonable load (ALWAYS 4 problems per WEEK), and pretty easy to do if you follow her lectures / notes. she will answer questions on the HW on monday, its always due wednesday. she is wonderful in office hour and will do all the homework for you if you are struggling that much. her tests are probably the fairest i've encountered as she makes them directly related to the concept assigned in the homework. they are not the same problems, but are similar and fairly simple if uou've done the homework. she even gave us a practice exam from a previous year to give us an example of the difficulty we should prepare for. overall an AWESOME professor that i will definately try to get for 205 and any other course i take in the CE department. take moazzami if you want a fair chance at an A and a great understanding of the material!!!

I think she's a great teacher. She is very well prepared for lecture. She is ready to answer any questions, and she moves very quickly. She is maticulous in her diagrams, making sure it is clear to everyone. Homework is due once a week, and is straight forward. She has one midterm and a Final, which is great for me. I was well prepared for her exams, and enjoyed her lectures. I would recommend her to anyone. I hope to have her again.

Moazzami is one of the best teachers I've had. Her teaching style was the best from any teacher i've had. She explains things in a way that makes the really complicated things seems easy to understand. Whenever I thought to my self "How did she get that from that?"....she would go on to answer the exact question i asked myself almost every time. The only thing wrong with her is that she won't look at her students so if you raise your hand she won't ever see you. She looks at the back wall a lot. But her midterm and final were not harder than the homework. The homework was worth 30% and it wasn't too bad. Only 4 problems per week. This is a good damper if somehow you do bad on a test because the homework should fill up most of the points and are very easy to get full credit on. Take her if you can!

What an OUTSTANDING professor. The clarity and simplicity with which she conveys the material is unmatched. Its so bloody easy to get with her, because her examples are so thourough. Granted, students are not involved much, and it is VERY repetitive, but when you get to her exams, you will know how to do them easily and will likely get a great grade in the class if you do your homework (30%) its 3-4 problems a WEEK and will take you just over an hour, so its totally fair. she will prepare you better than anyone, and she is definately the prof to take.

This teacher was horrible at lecturing, she never looks at the class leaving people with questions raising their hands for hours, draws tons of pointless diagrams that are useless for the homework and tests, and is incredibly boring on top of it all. I would avoid this teacher if you\'re taking 204.

Moazzami is a decent lecturer, she spends a lot of time on conceptual applications of the problems, meaning she\'ll spend 50% of the time drawing diagrams of what is going on in a problem, kinda of helpful, but not really...Her exams aren\'t bad, but she is ruthless when it comes to giving partial credit, basically if you don\'t get the right answer you grade will get destroyed, she doesn\'t really get the student\'s difficulties but instead always just says that everything she does is extremely easy and that we are idiots if we don\'t get it,,alright time to go study for the final, multiple choice-no partial credit, how fair!

Terrible, terrible professor. Ruthless grader, doesn\'t keep office hours, doesn\'t respond to emails and is incredibly boring during lecture. The homework load isn\'t too bad, but I would not take Moazzami.

She\'s a great teacher, she just doesn\'t have any sympathy for her students. She told us we were all going to fail regularly unless we tried harder. However, I thought she did a good job, even though the final was a nightmare compared to her tests. Oh and 1. What was she staring at on the wall 2. Where is her accent from 3. She never looks at the students.

Moazzami does not give easy tests. No Partial Credit What-so-ever. Homework is collected but is practically worthless when it comes to helping your grade. Her accent makes her hard to understand in lectures. She does not have sympathy for mistakes in office hours. You may pass the class but it will be a difficult quarter. Avoid this teacher if you can.

I don't know why everyone says that she is so bad, but I think that Professor Moazzami is a pretty damn good teacher. She really likes to explain everything in great detail and make sure that you are getting the true reasons why everything is going down in a problem, which I believe really helps you to LEARN and COMPREHEND the mechanics... not just remember some BS for a short enough time to pass a test or whatever. And everything that she writes is in a pretty clear manner which helps when you need to review your notes. So I believe that she has a really good approach to teaching. However, in my opinion she can move a little fast through the lectures which doesn't give her time to look up and see if students have questions. So you kind of have to just speak up and interrupt her to get her attention, but then she will be more than happy to clearly answer your question. She is a smart teacher who portrays the material extremely clearly - take her

Moazzami is very hard to understand. She speaks horrible english making her impossible to pay attention to. I dont think i know what her face looks like because she never looks at the class. Has kind of a masculine voice which is weird. If you want to spend the whole lecture trying to translate her horrible english, go for it. If you want to learn the material, take someone else

Professor Moazzami gives a lot of MANDATORY, excess, as some of the other students liked to call it, "bullshit" work that didn't really help the students understand the material. She also did a poor job preparing us for the common final. Throughout the quarter, she gave us a false sense of security assuring us that she was preparing us for the final, but when the final's day came, a lot of us from moazammi's class just looked at each other agreeing that none of us were prepared for the test. if you have another teacher to take 204 with, TAKE THAT PERSON, and not moazzami

how did she get a job?

Good luck staying focused as she goes on about one problem for an hour and doesn't stop talking...just keeps adding shit and adding shit until youre lost. Dont ask her where shes from or she'll get pissed...sketchy. Accents pretty hard to understand. Brutal grader, hopefully she curves well after the final as i did better than everyone i talked to when i got in the 50s on the first test!

Definitely not a teacher I would recommend. The first two weeks of this class make it seem like a breeze, then you hit statically indeterminate problems and all sense of knowledge flies out the window. It doesn't quite help that Moazzami wont help you get the foothold you need in the lecture. The grading policy was a "I wont curve, but I'll shift the grades around". For example, nearly the entire class failed the first exam, so all of its points were redirected to the Final and Exam 2 (which had to be made take-home). Grades were based on the final solution, not on process (which is a stance that she stated the entire CE department had decided on), so don't expect any partial credit. Homework was once a week, and generally a manageable amount. She also drops the lowest homework grade. Her class examples would run for about 45 minutes and involve a lot of repeatedly drawn diagrams of whats happening from a different angle. You'd start out feeling like you knew what was going on, then progressively each example got more confusing. Usually this was because she would randomly throw in an extra question or measurement you were previously unaware of. Ultimately, I would say this was one of the most stressful classes to take a test in, and I'd strongly urge you to take a different teacher for 204.

Sara Moazzami is a robot. If there wasn't a single person in the class, she would still teach the same 50 minute class that she planned for that day. She comes in, begins lecturing on theory and less applied information, and then leaves at the end of the class. She will answer your question if you yell out her name, but other than that she doesn't make eye contact with the class. I don't usually skip class, but I missed about two weeks worth because she was incredibly boring and I learned more from chegg then I did her. Also, at the end of the quarter she wished a good luck on the common final and that was it. I was lucky to find that the other professor (Elghandour) was holding three study sessions for his students to help prepare. I went to all three and learned more in those three study sessions then I did all quarter with Moazzami. Because of that I rocked the common final and got an A- in the class, so I would definitely recommend taking somebody else if you can. The structure of this class is: Weekly homework, two midterms, and then a common final. The midterms are not that tough, and the homework is not that tough, so it is easy to cruise into the final with a good grade. Just make sure you understand all the material, Moazzami will not be able to teach it to you.

The key to taking Moazzami is to do well on the midterms. They are really similar to the homework problems so if you know all of the homework problems well, you should do fine. Everyone fails the final so your grade is basically determined by the midterms. Try to take a different teacher if possible because even though I got an A i really didn't learn that much.

Don't go to class, super boring and awful teacher. Understand homework and do well on two midterms. Final is impossible, so expect to fail. I received the A cause i went to a study session. Make sure you learn CH 8 for final. Avoid if possible but don' fear this class if you end up getting her.

I am confident that the only reason I got an A in this class is because I attended two study session before the final with Elghandhour. Moral of the story is learn the chapter 8 stuff, because about 50% of the points on the final were from those problems. Also do not take this professor if you cannot self teach, she does not effectively teach you the concepts, especially statically indeterminate, I still don't know that and need to learn/relearn it for 207

holy shit... maybe one of the worst teachers i've had at cal poly. she doesn't engage the class at all. Instead she just runs through example problems the entire class, never checking if students understand the material. get her the fuck out of here please

Professor Moazzami is not very good at reaching out to her students. Every lecture I ever went to when I had her for 204 consisted of her staring straight at the chalkboard the whole time doing example problems. I pretty much did all my homework by looking at example problems in the book and didn't really understand the concepts behind the problems. As a result, I got a B in this class because she curves a shit ton, but I ended up failing 207 because I didn't understand a damn thing. Bottom line: take her if you want a good grade and you don't give a shit about learning the subject, don't take her if you're gonna have to take 207 because your next teacher will not be as lenient.

I agree that Moazzami's lectures aren't very good at clarifying or explaining concepts. As a result, the homework is overwhelming for many. However, I have gone to her office hours and she is very helpful during these. She will go through a homework problem step by step and will stop if you have any trouble understanding the concepts. Her grading is very fair and her midterms test you on the important basics. She doesn't throw curve balls at you on the tests and homework is worth a decent amount of your grade. If you don't do well on the final, she will make the final worth 10% of your grade. Bottom line: if you get stuck with her, go to her office hours and you will not have a bad time.

First thing first, if you want a good grade, take her. The homework is worth 30% of your grade, and then the other 60 comes from the two midterms. That leaves only 10% for the final, which is a beast of a final (but not actually that bad!). So just be sure to study for those midterms and you'll be golden. As for her teaching, it honestly isn't that bad. I fell I understand the basics of 204 pretty well, and I did learn a lot this quarter. Do I feel prepared for 207? ha! No way! But I got an easy A in an otherwise difficult class

Of all the professors I've had the ratings for Moazzami confuse me the most. Everyone says she did not to a good job at preparing them for future classes, however, I don't see this to be the case at all. Her class is basically an easy A because of how she grades and the fact that she will make the final worth only 10% of your grade if it is lower than one of your midterms which it most certainly will be. She also offers an assignment at the end of the quarter that replaces your lowest section of your grade, either a midterm or all of your homework. However, besides being very easy to get an A in her class you also learn everything you need to know from the class. Talking to people with other professors I felt I had learned much more about the subject than they had. I think this is because Moazzami believes that she is there to teach the subject matter and not focus on making you recall math from Calc 2. Most people I talked to in other classes were more concerned with being able to do difficult mass moment of inertia problems instead focusing on understanding what was actually taught in the class. Moazzami says this is why she makes the final only worth 10%, because the person who writes it likes to put problems in with very difficult math that don't really test to see if you understand what you were taught in the class but rather what you remember from other classes. The final will be more difficult than the rest of the class but Moazzami does go over the types of problems that will be on the final the last couple of weeks and when I took the final I thought it was relatively easy. Overall if you want to learn the material and get an easy A Moazzami is definitely the best professor to take.

A lot of people don't think she explains the material clearly, but it is honestly a matter of what teaching styles you learn best from. I personally loved Moazzami's teaching style: clear, to the point and she doesn't waste your time. Moderate homework, two midterms, and a common final. She gives so much review before the finals (I also took her for 207), plus you are guaranteed a good grade. I had a really hard quarter and couldn't make any of her office hours, but she set aside a couple hours a week, when I needed it, to help me with any homework problems I didn't get. She really cares about her students if they put in the time when they get lost. Some people just get mechanics of materials and others don't, so that could be a factor for these bad ratings too.

Presents material clearly, and in detail. If you pay attention, you will get a lot from her class. She can be a little difficult sometimes, by making small mistakes in examples or not understanding the difficulty you are having when you ask a question, but overall Moazzami is a good professor. Homework is graded, and I usually did poorly on it (I tend to learn material after attempting it, but didn't do homework twice), but I breezed through the midterms and final.

Heard she left suddenly... sorry to hear. Molasses sweet but hard to understand. Easy exams and final was 10% of grade. Total blow off class.

Although this teacher seemed to lack an ability for involving her students with the lecture, she is so well organized and straight forward in presenting class material. It was a real joy finally having a proffessor that wrote clearly and neatly on the board. She was so thorough on her lectures, I seldom had a question. Her tests were very fair and adequately tested the material we practiced in homework. I would highly recomend this professor to anyone!!!

Her lectures are very scattered and hard to follow. She doesnt get to the point of what she is explaining until the end. avoid this teacher if you can.

Moazzami knows her shit, thats for damn sure. She gives everything you need for the common final, works out EVERY problem from start to end ..including pointless steps (which is sometimes a waste of time). She doesn't mind explaining old CE204 concepts that i'm sure most of us've forgotten when you see her in office hours. If you ask her a question on any problem, she ignores it and just does the whole problem. She does suck at time management, though. When someone asks her to solve a hwk problem in lecture, she spends 30 minutes on it in a 50 minute class. Then blasts through the new material with whats left. Majority of the problems in lecture are questions from past finals, she LOVES to talk to the board, and NEVER looks at the class. Get used to the back of her head. Grading scale: HWK @ 15%, 2exams at 25%, and common final 35%. Curved at the end and will weigh 2exams/final more/less depending on which one you did better on. By how much? Nobody knows.

She is a good person and she tries hard for her students. But the final is difficult.

She rarely stops to see if people understand what's going on. If you ask a question she gets really defensive and its difficult to get an answer. She didn't seem like a generally nice person. I hated every minute of her class. She only graded the long answer on final exam which I was thankful for but didn't seem to fair to the other class seeing as it was a common final for a reason. Tricky accent too. "Tickness" and "angil teta" instead of "thickness" and "angle theta."

She is a terrible teacher, BUT has a fantastic curve! Listen to this strategic approach, if you are capable of teaching yourself by reading the book than take Moazzami. If you take other teachers you will learn a lot but will most likely get a bad grade because they are such hard graders, with Moazzami you will learn what you are capable of teaching yourself and get a good grade! Her midterms are easy and she curves big on the final, think about it.

I typically do not write bad evaluations on here... But in Moazzami's case, I had to make an exception. Let me just help all you poor hopeless souls. You're screwed. Find someone who teaches themselves and have them teach you. Don't bother going to class. As a third year I had never ditched a single class at Poly until this one. I would walk in, turn in my HW, and walk right back out. You can try and go and listen, but you can't understand what she is saying. And if you do understand her, then you'll have to try and understand the concepts she's explaining. Avoid her if you can.... (She usually teaches the larger lectures, so if PASS says STAFF, stay clear of the larger ones.)

Moazzami is one of the worst CE professors to take. People get good grades in the class because she curves it like a madman. Honestly, I would rather have just not taken her class, waited for a better professor, and graduated later. You will not be prepared for any class that needs a pre-rec that Moazzami teaches. My A was a waste of time because I was not prepared for higher level classes with my "knowledge" of 351.

Do not take Moazzami if you want to learn anything in the Civil Engineering field. She will not prepare you for future classes nor will she explain the material in a clear or understandable way. I wish I could chalk it up to misunderstanding or a language barrier (her thick accent makes it difficult to hear what she is saying) but she simply cannot teach the material. Many people pass the class with high grades because she makes the tests exactly the same as problems she does in class. While that may be enticing to many, you'll absolutely hate learning from her and you will be screwed in future CE classes.

She is clear...very clear...to the point where you are BORED TO DEATH. She's the only prof I've ever had that I can fall asleep for a few minutes in class and not miss anything. She WILL repeat herself at least 3 times over. Every class feels ridiculously unproductive. But nonetheless, she covers what she needs to and you can't help but learn it becuase she's soooo repetitive. I swear she is on crack or something, though, because she keeps looking at something in the corner of the room that is definitely NOT the clock like I initially thought. She mixed up tests and stuff all the time. Overall, she can teach any entry level class, but any classes more complicated than this one would be impossible for her.

This woman is nice and she does know the material, but she is a horrible teacher. But, she is an easy grader. If you're not interested in the class, but you have to take it and want a good grade, take her. But if you want to understand the material, take somebody else. She is also very annoying and can get on your nerves easy. But I know people who went to class maybe once a week and got A's and B's.

What exactly is she looking at on the wall? I didn

This teacher sucked. It was an extremely easy class so if that is what your lookin for then your golden. It was not challenging at all and felt like a joke compared to 351. I felt like I learned nothing. And yes, she looks at the wall the whole lecture.

If you can get another teacher for steel do it because the only thing you will learn in this class is how to take a lot of notes during class and copy exactly what you took notes on for the lab. Moazzami knows her stuff, but is terrible at explaining it. Also the class was too easy. If you want an easy class, take it, but if you want to actually learn and retaininformation, try as hard as you can to take someone else.

Moazzami is not a great teacher, but not terrible either. When lecturing, she does not engage the class but merely speaks and writes notes on the board. She often repeats herself multiple times and repeatedly explains the concepts. This can become quite old by the end of the quarter for simple concepts but is very useful when covering more challenging topics. She is a very easy grader and gives a take home midterm and permits that you work with other students in the class. Overall, this class is very easy and stress free when taken with Moazzami.

Overall, she does a fair job lecturing in class. Her tests are exactly or easier than the homework. She lacks the ability to challenge her students. Also, what the hell is she looking at when she talks?

For those of you who mock Moazzami for her relative simplicity in 356, keep in mind that this is a "survey course" for steel design. It is not intended for structural students only. There are water and geotech students who have to go through this class and never have to worry about wide flange beams again. So if you want to learn more about steel, take 454. You will design every member of a 5 story building including composite elements under vertical and lateral loading conditions. Her 454 class is broken into 5 weeks of designing a steel building and 5 weeks of designing a 5 story concrete building. If you don't stay on top of your work, you will fall behind and be challenged. Projects are 70%, Final Exam is 30%.

This was such an easy class. In lab and lecture she goes over everything you need to know. In fact, she tells you the exact steps for you to complete for your design project each day the class meets and is such a huge help with the design projects. There are no midterms and no homework other than the projects. The grading breakdown is this: 2 projects, 1- 5 week steel project, 1-concrete project, each worth 37.5% and a take-home final, which is one small portion of your design project, worth 25%. Even, if you\'re not big on structures, if you\'re looking for an ATE to fill your schedule, take this class. Just keep up with your projects.

This is the first C I have recieved in my entire life. I hope that says something to all of you out there watching their GPA. Do not take him--this class was a nightmare!