Pal, Nirupam  

sucks

Dr. Pal is a very articulate, knowledgeable man. The only thing keeping him out of the upper echelon of professors is his shortcomings with the English language. As soon as he learns how to annunciate more clearly, he will be a rock start among the mere mortals. He knows the material very well, and he explains things in a concise, up-front manner. Were it not for the language difficulties, I would have given him all As.

Nice guy, but presented pure theory with a heavy emphasis on mathematics without clarifying the meaning of variables and why the equations work. Lecture slides we're tedious and put students to sleep. He needs to work on intermingling the math with real life examples AND explanations of how (insert topic here) fits into the bigger picture. He can't load up on math then do 1 slide on how it fits. He also needs to clarify the variables he uses on every slide (i.e; explain what each variable is, what it does, and how it fits in). Overall, this professor is not worth the time. If in ENGR 213, take the quiz then leave. Don't even waste your time listening to this guy.

Absolutely terrible. He was a guest lecturer for this course and did a stupendously crappy job. It's amazing how he made such a bad impression after only 3 1/2 hours of having him for lecture, but he certainly did. He lectured on absolutely nothing pertinent to the course or what he planned on testing on until the last 5 minutes of class. He threw up some half-life formulas, and tried to explain them. Unfortunately, his accent was so bad no one could understand him, and when he was asked to clarify what he had just said, he just mumbled it again, and moved. It turned out EVERY SINGLE QUESTION on his part of the midterm and final dealt with those last 3 equations that he put up in a rush...absolutely terrible

Well I was willing to overlook him brushing off student questions and not covering any of the stuff that was in the homework that was assigned... but when he marked me off 20 points on a 70 point hw assignment for not writing the original equation and the givens that were listed in the problem right above all of the work I neatly, clearly, and 100% correctly presented something needs to be said. Don't bother going to the lectures with him for 213, the homework covers the formulae listed at the end of the powerpoint he never finished. Make sure you write them on the worksheet as well as all the stuff in the problem because even though no where does he say a thing about that, it's worth about 30% of your grade.

My favorite prof. He rocked! His lectures were good. When he made mistakes he always laughed it off. I found out his grading on neatness. Don't make the text too small, but don't make it HUGE either. He also checks how much you erased. If you erase 10 times then obviously you won't get a very high score in neatness. To get a A, you have to be super attentive. Besides that, don't be afraid to ask questions. He's a really great guy. And we keep in touch all the time. He helped me ace evry exam. Really he's willing to help but only if you help him find out your difficulties. He's the nicest guy ever and if you are smart then chances are he'll help you as much as he can. I had him for a lot of classes so I would know. Take his classes. Seriously!

Potentially good class and course material. Horrible professor. Textbook was worse than him. Don't expect to learn anything. For the take-home final a group of 14 students studied together for 6 hours and nobody could get problem 3. Heresay choice quote: "Don't worry about getting the right answer, you won't get full credit anyway." (!)

First off this is CHEMICAL PROCESS THERMODYNAMICS the subject is confusing, but the teaching and the book doesn\'t help. You WILL NOT BE SPOON FED ANSWERS and get this YOU WILL HAVE TO PUT EFFORT INTO FIGURING OUT CONCEPTS AND HOW TO APPLY SAID CONCEPTS. Like most engineering classes, homework counts for nothing. Midterms and Final are worth quite a lot.

Being in Pal\'s class is a strange situation. He is a very nice person and very friendly, however his classes are insanity. He doesn\'t take the time to provide clear information for students, or even grade and test students fairly because his tests are from another planet. It is a game of luck taking his tests. His class is not worth the amount of stress you will feel during the quarter you have a class with him. =/

It's too bad he's kinda a nice guy (personally) because as a teacher, he is the biggest piece of shit ever. He's frazzled, unorganized, unclear, confused, borderline retarded, often wrong, and always hectic. ENVE's like me are forced to take a bunch of classes with him, so this review isn't for kids in this major. If you are thinking of taking Nirupam when it's not required, listen to me and don't make that mistake. I loath the man deeply, but I tried to keep that out of this review and make my point without the rant.

Pal is the best!

two bs tests, weekly hw thats graded way too strictly, hardest take home final ive ever encountered, least favorite teacher i have so far atleast thatchers grading makes sense. if youre a girl just laugh at his stupid ass jokes and youll be ok, if youre a guy try to have a convo with him but make sure to have a translator. cant even imagine how this class is gonna be when he actually has to teach thermo AND the shit we "learned" this quarter

lacks the ability to explain even the simplest of problems, bullshit is saying it in the nicest of ways

Dr. Pal is the worst professor I've had at Cal Poly. He is by far the most oblivious and disorganized professor I have ever seen, and he teaches the hardest ENVE course. ENVE-304 was a disaster, Dr. Pal breezed through extremely difficult concepts without properly explaining them and then he would get mad when people asked him about his impossible tests and homework assignments. I learned nothing from him. Luckily, Dr. Nelson taught 304 for the last week and I was able to gain some knowledge about the subject. Dr. Pal will make no effort to ensure that you succeed in his class: he barely uploads things on polylearn (when he does they are incomplete, illegible, or filled with mistakes), his PowerPoints are impossible to read and filled with mistakes(he puts black text on black slides and skips steps when doing example problems), he never replies to e-mails, his office hours just make things more confusing (when he is actually there and not on the phone), he never works out problems before assigning them (you will get several exam and homework problems that are physically impossible or do not make any sense), his grading is wildly subjective and shows clear signs of favoritism towards people he knows (you can get the same answer as someone but get different grades) , he made no attempt to change his syllabus after the ME-302 was dropped as a prereq for the course (he assumes you already know thermo) and he blames any shortcomings in the class on the students and not himself. This class added so much stress to my quarter because Dr. Pal does not acknowledge how difficult of a concept thermodynamics is and because there is absolutely no organization or effort put into the class This class will make your quarter and your life miserable. I have no idea what grade to expect in this class because Dr. Pal's grading and organization make no sense.

I could go into many of the reasons why Dr. Pal is the worst teacher at Cal Poly. I could also try to explain that it is not that he is a mean person, but that he just cant teach. But really the important thing to know is that, for now he is the only one who teaches 304 and that is a terrible thing. For 304 you are just going to have to suffer through it, but for all other classes AVOID PAL LIKE THE PLAGUE and you will enjoy every ENVE class at Cal Poly except 304.

Pal is just bad.

If you're reading this for a 304 review your kinda fucked cause you're gonna have to take it anyways if you're in ENVE. The man just cannot teach and blames the students for not understanding while Pal cannot present the information. You're gonna be real confused the entire quarter, learn zero thermo, and your butthole is gonna be real loose. I heard someone say his grading system consists of a dartboard and a blindfold which is probably a pretty accurate assumption. You're gonna think you're failing the whole quarter but'll probably end up getting a C. Have fun.

I had Pal for 304 in Spring 2013. It seems like the recent reviews of Pal's 304 (Thermo) class is from people who aren't smart enough to take the initiative to learn the material on their own time. It's true, he doesn't present the material very clearly. I too didn't learn much from his lectures, it's tough material and you can't expect to understand it right off the bat. However, when you read the book before lecture they make way more sense. I, and many friends, just read the book to learn the material and we did well in the class. These people who wrote reviews below are just stupid, lazy students. If you can't learn from the book and adapt to tough situations, good luck in the real world. Guarantee those students stating they didn't learn any thermo won't excel in the engineering business. This is coming from a student with a normal 3.0 GPA. Just take the initiative to learn the material on your own.

This class is very confusing, disorganized and actually pretty pathetic that its supposed to be a 300 level engineering class. I could tell by going to office hours that Pal is actually a nice and very intelligent guy that wants to help his students but he has no idea how to convey complex material. The homework is difficult but also all on chegg and his tests are hard but no one does well so that doesn't mean much. I wish there were multiple professors teaching this class.

Go to office hours, even if you get the questions on homework or exams wrong, as long as you know him he will give you extra points just for asking questions. The exams were difficult to understand since dr. pal's english skills could use some work. if you are taking thermo, he LOVES the phrase CpdT he's got a sense of humor and the class is pretty laid back. He had us work in partners for homework since he was too lazy to grade all twenty assignments . . . there were four exams and no final . . . overall I didn't learn much, take ME 302 if you really want to learn thermodynamics

the most frustrating bs ive had to encounter. imagine taking a class whose sole purpose is to waste your time. thats what enve is with pal. i think he strategically constructs his class to make it as confusing as possible. there was absolutely NOTHING that i did not understand in this class. hella easy nut brained concepts. he just picky about random bullshit that you need to know from class notes. hw doesnt help but it is collected (asshole) and going to lecture (didnt miss a single one) doesnt help much because youre entire effort is spent trying to stay awake!!! this class is meant for the simple minded who enjoy wasting their time on petty details. im ASHAMED that this is tied into the civil curriculum. Ive heard its much better with the other prof so maybe i should generalize so much.AVOID!!!! AVOID! HELL AWAITS YOU!!!

Pal was an overall bad professor. He did try to teach the class, but he is so unorganized that he confused almost everyone by going through an example. His tests are pretty hard but they're open book so it helps a little. The last two weeks we rushed through about 5 weeks of materials which made it even more confusing. After taking the FE Exam I can say he did almost nothing to properly prepare us for the Environmental section of the test.

This class would be easy if it wasn't for how terrible Pal is at teaching. His lectures are disorganized and extremely boring. He has a thick accent which makes it difficult to even hear what he is saying. His midterms/quizzes have a bunch of typos and students are asking clarification questions the entire time. The homework doesn't help much and the solutions he provides are basically incoherent. Definitely take a different professor for this class if you don't want to teach yourself all the material.

Dr. Pal is indeed, like many have said, a nice and personable guy with a good sense of humor. HOWEVER, he doesn't know how to teach very well. I'm still taking the course, but I can already tell that 90% of the class is hoping for a nice curve, which I'm sure he'll do. He has two, actually, three main problems: 1. He has horrible examples that he comes up with on the spot. The problem with this is that he doesn't know the answer and doesn't have the solution and thus can't tell you for sure whether you've done it right. 2. His tests / quizzes are questionable. For instance, our first midterm's first question wasn't really a question, and thus nobody could do it. It might be the language barrier or it might be ineptness. Hard to say. 3. The text REALLY sucks. I've taken classes with bad teachers, but I've managed to pull through by teaching myself from the text. Not really possible with this text. Tons of very obvious typos, long-winded with no emphasis on important parts, and examples and HW problems that have major errors. I have a feeling I'll walk away with a B, but only because of a curve, and I won't have learned anything. If you're a CE who's just taking it as a support course, then I guess I would say go for it, since it probably won't be that important to you. If not, I'd suggest avoiding him.

Pal sucked as a prof. He was a really nice guy, but his lectures were so disorganized. Half the class was either confused or falling asleep. Only a few people knew what was going on, most likely because they learned the material from somewhere else. But, I left the class with close to the same knowledge that I walked in with. I learned from the homework, but his quizzes, midterm, and final were only from his crappy lectures, so I did shitty on those. But, somehow, he granted me a B+ (most likely because I made an effort to try and he noticed). I was so confused about my grade throughout the whole quarter, since my quizzes didn't reflect my grade (65%, 55%, 80%). Don't take this guy if you want to actually learn!

Very good teacher. He kept me awake during the 7-9 am class for the entire qtr by being enthusiastic and engaging.

People who got C,D, and F's are idiotic. He presented everything in a funny way but made you understand.

Wow. this class was amazing. pal pretty much went over EVERYTHING that was on the test and placed emphasis on it. he let's you use your notes on the tests... which is pretty awesome if you take good notes. some people in my class didn't and were screwed cuz some of his questions on tests are almost word for word the problems we do in class. the homework only helped enforce the concepts we were learning... nothing from homework was really on the test. but STUDY THE EXAMPLES HE DOES ON THE BOARD. and when it comes towards the end of the quarter (waste water stuff) write down almost everything he says cuz they're all pictures. oh yeah, i forgot about that, he gives out his notes in powerpoint form and has you print them out before class. VERY EASY. personally, he was hilarious for having the class at 7 in the morning. his stories may sometimes take up a whole half hour but they're a good break from all the stuff he has to teach. overall, a great professor who's funny, really wants his students to do well and is very helpful in office hours. would definitely recommend. come on, any teacher that tells you exactly what's going to be on a test is hard to come by.

Whoever said he was a decent teacher below and easy must have had a completely different teacher. THICK THICK accent very difficult to understand. HARD grader class average on the first 2 quizzes were in the 40 percent range. same with average on midterm. HW due once a week not too bad. Quizzes and tests were very difficult. he wanted you to know your stuff inside and out and think outside the box. i didnt really get it but oh well. 7-9 AM tough to stay awake!! But i always did cuz i worked my tail off to try to pass.

this teacher makes you work hard for your grade even though he tries to come off as super easy the first day. he knows who does the work and who doesnt. he makes it so that youre super unsure of your grade going into the final, but if you worked hard youll get a good grade. and hes kinda funny, just dont take him too seriously

On the first day of class he makes it seem like it will be a walk in the park. Open note quizzes and tests and a small amount of HW due every or every other week. However, this class proved to be a lot harder. His accent is super thick and he is not very patient to help students in class. He frequently made mistakes in his lectures and made learning the material confusing. Make sure he thinks you are "trying" and go to his office hours and he will help you out at the end. Also, always look over your test and exam gradings because each one of mine was misgraded by about 15 points. All in all he is kind of a funny guy who can be nice at times but I would NOT recommend him. His powerpoint lectures are hard to follow.

hes a cool guy--keeps himself available during office hours. he can't read your mind if you're having trouble with the concepts, but if you ask him about it, hes willing to explain and give examples and stuff. tough grader, but the grade you get is the grade you deserve.

Pal's lectures are very hard to follow. I highly recommend not taking him for any class

Pal is a cool guy, but most people won't like how he teaches. I didn't mind him. You just have to pay attention, don't be lazy, and the class will be manageable.

He's a nice guy and made it fairly easy to pass his class. However, I can't say I really learned too much. First of all, the class curriculum is just a brief dabble in a bunch of topics in civil/envi. engineering, so we just skimmed over a lot of stuff. Second, Dr. Pal does not present the information too clearly and often muddles the class (and himself) in confusion...nothing too serious though. His grading is nice but random...I chose not to take the final and keep my B...but I ended up with an A! Bottom line is Dr. Pal is a really smart Engineer who probably leads whatever field he's in....he's just not meant to teach really basic stuff to students

I just don\'t feel like I learned much from him. His grading is totally inconsistent which can be very frustrating. I don\'t recommend him.

Pal is a great guy, but he could be a clearer teacher. The grade breakdown went as follows: Home work 15 %, Quiz 10 %, Midterm I 20%, Midterm II 25%, and Final 30 %. He shows you your grade before the final and then you can decide whether or not you\'d like to take it at the risk that your grade will change for better or worse. People have written about him curving on here, but I don\'t know of anyone who had their grade bumped up and I know a lot of people who were very close to a B-. He has students pair up to do homework. For tests, be sure to study the examples he does in class, ask for practice exams, ask for the answers to the practice exam, and do the practice exams as early as possible, so you can go to office hours for clarification. His grading on tests is inconsistent and often feels random, but your best bet is to do the practice exam really well and learn how to do those problems quickly. My biggest piece of advice would be to tell him when he is not being clear enough. Just raise your hand in class, point out the problem, and tell him what you need to understand him better. He doesn\'t notice when students are having difficulty in his class, but if you tell him what is wrong or confusing for you, he will try to explain it better. Don\'t let him get away with not explain things. I don\'t think the accent is a problem. The textbook is not very useful. He gives you the opportunity to use the old edition and the new edition is in the library. He posts powerpoints on blackboard.

Dr. Pal is a very nice professor who cares a lot about his students; he had open note and open book, Exams, and 1 quiz that was way too long. His grading seemed relatively fair. He was nice in office hours, and very helpful. His lectures seemed very quick, but he would always stop if anyone had any questions and clarify the difficulties, before preceding. All around Dr. Pal is a very good professor for any ENVE Courses.

He was the most unorganized teacher I have ever had. Most of his lectures consisted of 3 or 4 different power point lectures stolen from other professors crudely jammed into one. His homework wasn\'t too hard, but again, was unorganized.

im still taking the class which is why it is N/A. SUCKS!!!! usually when a professor sucks they make up for it by grading easy. nope. hes a douche. dont take this class if you value youre sanity. posts incomplete Bb slides, cant understand his english,list goes on forever. the hw is easy but doesnt reflect the tests so it is completely a waste of time

I took Pal because he was the only one teaching. In retrospect I should have waited to take the class. The essence of the class is learning how to calculate pollutants in a river and things of that nature. For every process you must go through to solve for a certain variable, he does ONE example that must be copied down entirely, step by step and word for word, in class, which you will then have to copy out of your notes on the exams, which are open note and book. Nowhere in the book, however, is anything close to the problems he teaches, so you can\'t learn any real course material from it. Miss the beginning of an example in lecture and you can\'t solve one of the two or three problems on an exam or hour-long quiz. The humor and happiness with which he teaches are extremely misleading. Avoid.

First, you cant understand a thing he says. but lets not be racist we can get around that. However, despite that, his lectures were completely unorganized and very boring, with absolutely NO relation to the tests. He might do an example problem in class with terrible handwriting and very quickly and then use specific value gotten from that example problem on a midterm. you are actually expected to know the answer to solve a problem on your midterm. his office is a clutter of papers, when he grades your tests, if you got a problem wrong, theres a big x through it, with no help whatsoever. Whatever you do, WAIT to take this class. dont take him

Basically...ENVE 331 is CHEM 124 and 125 all over again, just with environmental and civil applications. If you did well on them the first time, this class should be no trouble for you. If you struggled...you may want to review and brush up beforehand. The good thing is all his midterm and two \"quizzes\" (essentially midterms) are open book, open notes, open computer (powerpoints only, no internet allowed), and almost every question on his tests have been asked before in another form. So you can almost always look at your previous examples and find one that uses the same series of steps to get to the answer. There is little to no partial credit though, even on the long problems. So you could get 9 out of 10 right and still get 83% on the test if you messed up on the wrong problem. Other than tests, there is very little studying of work required outside of class, maybe an hour or two a week for the homework. The book problems suck (and I am convinced some of their answers are wrong) but oh well... easy if you get Chem, make sure you study if you don\'t.

gave terrible lectures with helpful information randomly spliced into his terribly formated powerpoint slides. examples and exam/quiz/homework questions given lacked necessary givens 90% of the time so looking at his solutions was only moderately helpful when trying to study for the final or midterm. if you don't learn just from conceptual equations you should not take this class with him instructing. i learn from doing and seeing examples in class which is nearly impossible with Pal.

gave terrible lectures with helpful information randomly spliced into his terribly formated powerpoint slides. examples and exam/quiz/homework questions given lacked necessary givens 90% of the time so looking at his solutions was only moderately helpful when trying to study for the final or midterm. if you don't learn just from conceptual equations you should not take this class with him instructing. i learn from doing and seeing examples in class which is nearly impossible with Pal.

First off, his class is doable, but the things that you have to put up with in his class is just not worth it. Basically, he lectures by doing example problems, and 2 midterms and a quiz, no final if you do well on all three. The problem with this class are the 2 hour midterms and a quiz that you have to take, he jams as much material as he could into the test, expects you to have written down most of the information needed to do the problem, (everything is open book and notes), so if you can't find the information you need in your pile of notes, you're screwed since he doesn't give partial credit unless you show him an answer that he likes. Also, his grading could go all over the place, he gives points for things you don't even know why you would get points for, and takes off points for small mistakes. Well, good luck to whoever needs to take this class with Pal.

Pal is extremely difficult to follow in lecture, he rushes through slides and examples and you have to try and pay attention to this for two hours while getting every part of the examples down because he may pull part of it out on one of the quizzes, two midterms or prefinal. His grading is impossible to understand you could have the same work as someone and get different amounts of points. The homework doesn't always relate back to class and didn't really help for the tests. The final is optional if you do well enough on the midterms, quizzes and prefinal, but he told us multiple times that last time he taught the class only two people had to take the final and they both failed, so try and do well enough on the other tests to avoid that. Avoid him if possible.

Not too bad, but presents material in a confusing manner in this class. Great person and cares a lot about his students.

Pal is EXTREMELY unorganized in lecture and very hard to follow. His grading is pretty brutal...almost no partial credit, doesn't matter if the problem takes you a page or two...one minor mistake and its all over. Course material isn't too difficult but Pal is a confusing guy. Would recommend looking at other professors for this course.

Possibly the worst teacher I've had here at Cal Poly. This may not concern you since you can just learn from the book. Well The book is awful. Now you may be thinking that you can just manage to teach yourself through Google and other tools. Well the tests are obscure, random, and demand random aspects never discussed before. Do not rush to take Pal, especially if this is not a prerequisite for another class. Just wait for a better teacher.

Cool guy, just cannot present the material well at all. Homework was not very representative of the tests and the powerpoints were awful. Lectures were very rushed and his grading is impossible to figure out. Pretty much no partial credit and his solutions are pretty difficult to understand. If you can wait to take this class, wait and take another professor.

Avoid this teacher at all costs. His lectures are all powerpoints and while he says he puts them online, he only puts the questions in his powerpoints and not the answers. He has a super fatty accent too which is just another reason not to take him. Honestly he is one of the worst professors I've had and would never recommend him to anyone. I reiterate AVOID AT ALL COSTS

When asked why he wasn't going to give us partial credit on our quizzes he said, "most of you are civil engineering students. If you build a bridge that isn't perfect, people will die." If you take his class, you will die.

Lectures that make no sense and are given at an absurd pace. Example problems non-existent on PowerPoint slides and expects you to complete understand them after he does half of the work. Completely awful tests. You will learn nothing, except maybe that you hate environmental engineering. You will struggle to tread water in this class. Take somebody else. Horrible, horrible, horrible professor.

If you're like every other engineer who is used to dealing with the incredible incompetence of typical support course professors, Pal is a breath of fresh air. Having just taken Dr Pal I was astounded (gobsmacked, even) to see so many people here dismissing him as incompetent or untalented because HE IS A BOSS. He knows the material thoroughly, which in effect is a double edged sword. He explains things quickly in class, however he does so articulately (if you don;t mind the accent, which is present but not overbearing to the extent of some other professors) and expects students to pay attention, rightly so. I'm not one to throw the charge of racism around loosely, but I'm convinced that most students don't really try to understand him (sit closer to the front of the class next time) and dismiss him because he's Indian. His tests can be tough, in that he's an exacting grader, but they are ALL OPEN BOOK AND NOTE and you can often go into his office and get back some points for a problem done differently than he was expecting. No excuse not to fair reasonably well. He also cracks some subtle jokes that are mad funny, but most people don't catch, and there is a HUGE curve at the end of the course. Ignore the low rating and take him if you can talk and listen to non-anglos comfortably (and if you arent then take him anyway you closet racist!).

This is an Intro class, but it sure doesn't seem like it. Dr. Pal isn't the worst teacher, but he expects way more than he should for such a basic class, we pretty much only got into the stuff we were supposed to learn in the last 3 weeks of class (drinking water, waste water, air pollution), whereas the first few weeks were spent learning complex and non-essential calculations. For the first exam or "quiz" as he called it, the average was around 70, median around 60. For the actual midterm/exam I think the average was around 65, but a lot of the people I knew in the class got in the range of 20-60. Everyone did so terrible on the exam that he gave us the entire midterm again as a "take-home make-up exam". The 5 problems he had originally given us 1.5 hours to do in class, took many of us over 5 hours to redo outside of class, and some of them were still not correct, even after he had tweaked some of the problems to make them easier. Dr. Pal wasn't the most steady grader either, on both my quiz and midterm, after going back I got almost 10 pts. back on each. On the hw even if you went to office hours and worked out the problem with him, you would often get the question marked wrong anyways, and we often went back to get points in those instances as well. If I hadn't gone back to talk about points several times I probably would've ended up with a low B or C in the class. Now you may think it's petty to ask for points, so did I, but here's an example where I would ask for points. It's a 15pt. question, I did all of the steps correctly but there's a math error somewhere or my steps don't match his exactly, he'd dock all 15 pts. someone in the class even got a 10pt. question docked 13 pts. This being said, he can be quite generous when giving points back, I just don't think we should have to correct the corrections made to exams. The book hw that he assigns is NOT representative of his exam questions at all, while you may be able to fit 3 book questions to a page of work, one of his questions may take 2 pages of work. Overall Dr. Pal isn't a terrible teacher, but he is definitely one of the more difficult professors. This quarter he gave, out of a class of about 60, about 8 A's, 42 B's 5 C's 4 D's and 1 F (this is just what I vaguely remember, not exact numbers) the high number of B's is because he ended up changing the B range to about 75-90 after a curve which adjusted the grades by about 8% I realize this is long but hang with me. The quiz, midterm, and (pre)final are all open book/open note, but this does not mean you will have time to use these resources as effectively as you could. Also on top of the Midterm and Quiz, he has a 1.5 hr Pre-final the week before dead week, you find out your grade during dead week, and then you decide whether you want to take the 3 hr final or not, but once you make the choice you cannot choose between the two grades, if you take the final that is the grade used, this quarter no one took the final.

Dr. Pal is by far the worst teacher at Cal Poly. He is incredibly unorganized, it's a shock to me he ever got his PHD. On top of that, he grades infuriatingly inconsistent. One person will lose ten points the other, having done the exact same mistake, will lose five. Never seen anything so unprofessional at Cal Poly. It's embarrassing really. Makes me ashamed to be associated with the ENVE department here. Avoid Dr. Pal at all costs

Professor Pal's enve 331 class can be a little daunting. He is pretty effective at teaching the material. However his midterm is wayy more challenging than any of the quizzes or the final so be prepared for it. He likes questions that are kind of tricky. However there is not very much homework and an A in the class is very doable with a totally reasonable time investment into the class.

Professor Pal... I went into this class with the intention of sliding through and giving the minimum amount of effort possible. Boy did I play this one wrong. The material is tough, especially if you struggle with chemistry. Professor Pal is difficult to understand at times and is not a pushover when it comes to grading. Aside from the bad things I want to make something very clear. Professor Pal is by far the most approachable professor I have ever had. I loved asking this guy questions. If you want to succeed in this class follow suit. That means going to his office hours as well! He wants to see that you care about the class, and likewise care for the environment. Make the effort to see him in office hours and you will thank yourself. Just going to lecture doesn't quite cut it. I was honestly worried about failing this class halfway through and was contemplating withdrawing, but as you can see from my grade I did a 180. You get out what you put in.

I really love Pal as a person, but its clear that he doesn't care about the class and will only care about you if you consistently work hard and participate in class. Sitting in the front of the class ensures that you make a good impression. The entire class's grades were determined by homework assignments that are easy if you know what youre doing, a quiz, two midterms, and an optional final. The quiz and the first midterm were open note, but were really fucking hard, so STUDY ANYWAYS. A lot of people that didn't prepare got terrible grades on the quiz. However, if you did bad on the quiz, but he sees that you are improving, he raises the quiz score. If you did well on the quiz, you don't have to take the final, as your quiz grade replaces your final grade. All in all, show up to class, STUDY THE POWERPOINTS, and study the examples he gives in class(almost word for word what are on the tests.)

yo this guy sucks

WORST PROFESSOR I HAVE EVER TAKEN! Class was based on three quizzes, two midterms, homework, and an optional final. Quizzes and midterms are open note but were hard! Let's talk about his office hours: this professor was always late. WHY? PARKING. That was always his excuse. Don't expect him to clarify anything. He will simply say, "its easy, ask someone else." Now, grading. His grading scale makes absolutely no sense. All he wants is for you to get the right answer. If you have the process right but are a couple decimals off, or rounded incorrectly. He takes 10 point off. (this is out of a 20 point quiz). On his midterms, it the same thing. Points off for no reason. Now the final, he told one of the students in the class that those students who took the final were dumb. Why? because in his deffence his class is so easy no student should take the final.

Pal honestly does not deserve half of the hate he gets. After taking this class I saw first-hand why he gets a bad rap. Many people did not bother to try and understand the material, got frustrated, and took it out on Pal. He is not the clearest person, I can say that for sure, but the material in this class does not require much to understand; it is basically chemistry, but half the difficulty. He will sometimes offer an example with good intentions, but it gets lost in translation. I had to make personal notes for myself when he gave weak examples, but that is part of being a student. You need to be on guard for professors that do not communicate information as well as others. Homework, in my opinion, was simple. I did not need the book for the entirety of the quarter, but should you want it, go right ahead and buy it. His questions are a mix of other textbooks and his own problems. So chegg may come in handy if you get truly stumped. His office hours are semi-helpful. Sometimes he will give you the answer and sometimes he will dance around the question. Quizzes consisted of a simple one to two questions. Here is where you should truly make sure you understand the material. They are basically free points if you do, since acing the quizzes will preclude you from having to take the final. Keep in mind that he does not announce when quizzes will be held. he expects you to be constantly up to date, so make sure you are. The exams were pretty chill as well. The first one had an average of 81%, which is pretty telling. A couple of the questions were literally the exact same as in-class examples, so make sure you take your own notes. He says to print out the powerpoints and write on them, but I did not want to be lulled into a false sense of security. Your own writing will serve you better. The second exam was worse for me, since he included a closed book conceptual portion. I got duped by a few questions, with a couple of them not being explicitly stated in the powerpoints; this is why you need to take your own notes and write down everything he says. Keep a lookout for questions that he asks a random member of the class during lecture, to reiterate a point. Those ones are highly likely to be on the exam. In summary, Pal isn't the best professor, but he is a good guy. In fact, he can be pretty funny at times. Don't be offended by things he says about how easy things are, since there is a cultural difference at play. This class really isn't hard if you try even a little.

God damn the hype is FUCKING real with this one. He is literally the worst professor I had in the ce/enve department. I am writing this review to warn all you CE's out there to AVOID this class. Seriously, push ENVE 331 off until someone else teaches it. (I don't think enve's can push off this class) I swear to god my roommate warned me about pal but I still took his class. He is VERY unreasonable with grading and his midterms and quizzes are A LOT harder than the material covered in class. I struggled with chemistry so I am literally dying in this class compared to my peers. Seriously, do yourself a favor and avoid Pal if you value your life to some degree.

If you are looking at your flowchart and thinking intro to ENVE cant be that bad think again. I took this class knowing Pal was a scramble minded fuck but i figured ive had bad profeasors before, i should be ok. Biggest mistake of my college career. Do not take Pal under any circumstance unless you absolutely have to. I know people in other sections without Pal that loved there 331 class. Im a grown ass adult man and this class put me on the verge of tears. I havent cried in like 8 years and i really am a patiant and happy individual, but i can say without bias Pal is the worst instructor ive ever had. Just a few examples of a terrible quarter: 1. He once tried to set his computer up for 45 full minutes in lecture 2.His quizes made a few people cry in class and i dont blame them 3. He forgot about a midterm but during week 10 someone reminded him about it so he tried to schedule it in until the class convinced him not too. Other people might say hes not that bad once you get used to him and that hes a nice guy, which i can agree with but he has no business teaching at a university fuck this guy seriously, im not just a butthurt student he is universaly awful

Enve 331 in a nutshell: asdl;kfdf; asf;kadsf alsjdk;lskdaf kl;df ; FUCK... THAT MIDTERM ASDFKLADF;A SF;LKASAX.,xmnvzxkl;jad;lsfjas;difjsad;lfjasdkzxc/vxcnm,.vxkfjads; WHY IS THE QUIZ SO HARD asdfkljasdjfkxd,as/.dmf,asrjweqi;adfjskl IT'S FINALLY OVER.

This dude's class was an absolutely horrific experience, I've literally never had a worse teacher. The grading criteria seems like it changes every quarter based on previous reviews for this class but mine was 50% Midterm 1, 30% Midterm 2, 10% hw (4 total assignments), 10% optional final. There are just an insane amount of formulas scattered throughout his slides that he leaves on the projector for like 5 seconds and barely explains any of the variables, and when working out problems he only refers to the variables as letters and never actually states what they stand for. He told us the first midterm was open notes, but the only day of class I missed was the day before that test where he told us we could use our laptops as long as we didn't just google things. Not knowing this all I had was my notebook while the rest of the class all had their laptops and had literally nothing besides their moral compass stopping them from just going on chegg and finding worked solutions for every test question. I figured I'd be fine, since I would just bring my laptop for the second test, but nope, he tells us the class before that test that it's entirely closed notes. Avoid taking this absolute joke of a professor at all costs, but since he's frequently the only option for 331 here's my suggestion if you get stuck with him: Bite the bullet and get a chegg subscription, literally every hw problem is on there. Just sit in the back and google every question on the first test and get yourself like a 90, then just do the best you can on the second test and it doesn't really matter if you fail. Take your C in the class write a strongly worded email the department head letting them know how much of an embarrassment this guy is as a tenured professor at Cal Poly.

This class ruled. Pal has a great sense of humor and doesn't take himself too seriously. I'm a CE and took this class as a tech elec, and now I kind of envy the Enve's (hah...). This class is impossible to get an A in but impossible to get lower than a B in. Don't forget to bring your soduko's to class though. He just goes over powerpoints which he has posted on blackboard. Tests are open note so just print those out and you're golden. Honestly, Pal is super-personable. Everyone bitches about his accent but it's really no big deal when you think about how down to earth the guy is..

Pal just doesn't care about the students. He's here for his grant money: He'll try to get you out of his office as quick as possible. HIS LECTURES ARE ALMOST COMPLETELY UNPREPARED. AVOID AT ALL COSTS.

He's not a bad guy, but he is a TERRIBLE teacher. First off, he has a horrible accent that you need to get over, which actually isn't that bad. But mostly, he doesn't even know what he's talking about. Half of the stuff he says in class people have to correct him on. In addition, he is terrible at any sort of math. For the majority of our math based problems, he failed to give us certain information that was key, and only when somebody mentioned this did he somewhat realize it. I don't understand how he has an engineering degree. Any one in our class has more math experience than he does. His lectures are BORING! Reads directly from his slides, doesn't add anything creative. He asks rediculous questions on his tests that you would never need to know. His tests don't evaluate your understanding, but evaluate whether you remember a certain piece of bullshit information that will never come in useful. All in all, a horrible teacher. Never take this guy! You won't learn anything and will to poorly on his tests, which he doesn't even know the right answers to.

Here\'s the deal with Dr. Pal - he is extremely cool. He\'s the coolest Indian dude ever and he\'s hilarious. I love him as a person. As a teacher, however, he is not so good. His tests are an assortment of random questions that he grades extremely subjectively. Countless times while taking his classes my friends and I have all put the same answer for things and gotten all different grades. I\'m starting to think that if he likes you he gives you less points off for things.

Pal in 455 was still his normal self or unclear and difficult problems poorly written, but having him for 331 helps in this class. The first half is him talking about how he basically has the worst luck in work place safety. Then everyone in the class will give a presentation on a topic of their choice starting around week 7. The midterm was a risk calculation (just like 331) fit a scenario into a theory and some short answer. The final are questions on the presentations (usu 5 points each group)and some venilation qusetions. He tells you what to expect. Just do his practice problems and then go to him or a friend to make sure you know how to get teh right answer. The finals was open book, open internet, basically anything goes but talking. He is a nice guy and wants you to do well, but he still kinda sucks. But I'm warming up to him.

Nirupam Pal is absolutely the most dreadful teacher I have had the displeasure to experience. He presents the material in the most scatter-brained organization scheme that I didnt even realize was possible. Upon attempting to receive help in his office hours, his only response consisted of: 'it is in your class notes, I cannot help you.... ask your classmates for the notes.....' but wait, 1/3 of the class is in office hours with me currently asking the same questions. MAYBE NO ONE HAS THE RELEVANT NOTES BECAUSE YOUR ORGANIZATION/LOGIC IS NONEXISTANT!!! I highly advise against taking this professor due to unneeded stress, wasted time, and lack of gained knowledge.

With no textbook for reference we had to solely rely on him for the subject matter. Unfortunately his handouts didn't really follow any order and he burdened us with a lot of them. Then he would lecture about half the stuff in them and not explain the rest at all. He was always late to class and we had a lab too that he was always late for, and never prepared us for what we would be doing next week, often nothing it turned out. If you don't do your report or presentation just how he wants it, he doesn't tell you what he wants, he will Rip on you but not offer any helpful criticism. Basically he is a slacker, promises to do things and then never comes through. His test questions are all fucked up. He mixes units, he leaves things you need out, and he never covered the material adequately for you to wrangle with his confusing questions. Avoid at all costs!!!! PS A is 85 or above and so on, might make up for it but he is so bad.

Fuck this guy. Id like to stick my tounge up his ass.