Hall, Garrett  

BOYCOTT!!!

Dr. Hall is one of those teachers everyone should have at some point. Probably the first thing you will notice is that he will say some crazy things to lighten up the class. I don't think I could do him justice by saying them here, so I will leave it to you to take his class and see. At first, to be honest, I didn't really like him. As the quarter went by I realized that he is actually an excellent professor. Sometimes he will spend time teaching you way of doings things that you won't need until later classes, but thats fine because he is able to still explain the topics that we do cover. His tests seem to vary in difficulty, but they are all probably some of the harder ones for this class. Dr. Hall truely does care about this students though, and wants them to learn the material. Don't bother going to ask him a question if you haven't attempted the problem on your own, because he wants to see you have done some effort. I would definetly recommend Dr. Hall to someone who wants to master the material and work hard. For the people who just want to get by, you may want to take another professor, but in the long run you will regret it.

Great teacher. Really wants you to understand the basics and takes the time to make sure you understand. If you have questions ask because he'll clarify anyhing. He speaks english, really knows his stuff, and can teach... what else do you want? 3 midterms, 1 final, and hw... all graded fairly and straightforward.

I think Hall was a pretty darn good professor. Some people don't like the way he comes across in lecture but it never really bothered me. He's definitely got a sense of humor that takes a little getting used to. He does have a habit of showing up late once in a while but will lecture anyway so STAY PUT. Very helpful during office hours, fair (if difficult) grader. Learned a lot.

Hall is a douche.

Dr. Hall was in my opinion, an all right teacher. He goes very fast, but he answers your questions clearly. The class is set up so that 50% of your grade are the quizzes that you have once a week, and the other 50% is the common final. Don't be fooled by thinking that if you've done ok on all the quizzes that you understand everything. If you don't do a lot of problems outside of class on your own, the final will destroy you. Go to Hall's office hours, he's very helpful. The textbook was never referred to by Hall in class ever, and it contains way too much information. I can't think of a better way to study for this class other than to do tons of problems. To sum up, Hall is ok, class is hard unless you're an ubergeek that has wanted to be an engineer since you've been in the womb.

I took this class in fall 08 with a fill-in teacher for moazzami because she apparently left for the quarter. Anyways I failed the class with this teacher because the material was just so difficult or so I thought until I took Hall. Hall explains the material so well and made a somewhat difficult and boring class into an interesting and easy class. His lectures are very straight forward and gives good example problems. He is very friendly and helpful during office hours. I would recommend him to anyone. The only reason I didn't get an A in this class was because the final was RIDICULOUS! 20 question multiple choice with over 15 responses for each question. Other than that though the class is not that difficult. Just stay on top of the homework that he assigns and pay attention during his lectures and you will be fine.

Here\'s the facts on this course: Quiz every week, graded by 0, 1/2, 1 (3 possible grades) - 40% Homework every week - 10% FINAL - 50%, multiple choice My \"beef\" with Hall is that he lectures way too quickly, and I personally think he does a poor job making the material \"stick\". You\'re required to get a book for the course, but Hall does not teach from the book AT ALL. So using the book as a reference is sadly not very good. The final in this class is just stupid. All or nothing multiple choice. 12 questions, 3 hours. If you don\'t pass the final you don\'t pass the class - simple as that. Take a marginal teacher, pair him with a horrendously difficult final, and you\'ve got yourself a shitty situation.

Hall has a good time teaching lectures and is pretty laid back in his teaching style. He does a lot of examples so you get a good feel for the types of problems. There is weekly homework and weekly quizzes which are graded on either getting 0, 1/2, or a 1. However 1/2 was actually a B not an F or something like that. He never tells you your grade until after the final since he wants you to learn the material. Final is all multiple choice so its all or nothing on each problem. Hall is a very funny guy and I highly recommend him.

Probably one of the smartest professors I\'ve had, this guy knows his shit. He does plenty of examples in class while clearly explaining without too much detail the theory behind certain topics. The homework assigned is due every week but only graded on if you did it. His examples in class, and the homework problems assigned as well as the examples in the book are all very similar to the quizzes he gives you every week (no surprises). basically if you pay attention, attempt the homework, and scan the book you\'ll do fine. Also he reminds me of Matt Damon from Good Will Hunting...

Hall was a pretty good professor for CE 204. He goes through a lot of examples in class which is hard to follow but is good since you see a lot of problems. His homework is reasonable and not a waste of time, plus he grades on effort only. He has weekly quizzes which are reasonable and are just different problems from the book. If you study for an hour or so you\'ll do fine. He sets up the class so 10% is hw, 40% is quizzes and 50% is the final. 50% is pretty easy to get, the 50% for the final is really up to you.

He presents the material in such a manner that is easy to understand. If you do the homework, study before quizzes, and try problems from the book you will do well in his class. All of the quiz problems he gave were from the book and they were reasonable problems for the 30 minutes he allowed. He is able to answer questions after class and during office hours. He is a good teacher and worth taking.

Quizzes every week. I had about an average of 7/10 at the end of the quarter, expect to not do so great on them. There is no midterm and homework is due once a week. Hall is a pretty good teacher, he goes through a lot of example problems, sometimes very quickly. I feel like my class was curved a ton, I thought I was for sure gonna get a C and ended up with an A-. Study Hard.

Hall is an amazing professor! He does a lot of example problems, explains them without going too far into the theory behind the problem, and is very helpful in office hours. Homework was online and the problems were very similar to what he goes over in lecture. The quizzes are very straightforward and if you pay attention in class, go over the lecture notes, do plenty of examples from the books, and visit him in office hours, you will succeed in this course. I definitely recommend Hall!

He really teaches the information so you understand it and don't just plug numbers into equations. He has a lot of great insight to how to become a good engineer. The quizzes are very hard and you will get lots of .5s and lower and think you are doing horrible in the class. The homework took forever, and was due on saturday nights at 11:00PM which will fuck your night over if you wait until saturday because they take a very long time. Hopefully next quarter they will settle on an online homework service and make it a little easier. If you understand everything you learned you will do well on the final even if you think you failed it. I had absolutely no expectation of an A in the class (I was thinking C), so it came as a huge relief.

Dr. Hall is a solid professor. His lectures are example-based (which is really the best way to learn) and he really communicated material clearly. And how can you not love a professor who suits up for every lecture? Absolutely one of the better prof's I've had, highly recommend him for CE 204 if you can!

I went threw the whole quarter with an F in the class, I failed all but 2 quizes. I thought I was screwed since I was actualy trying but still failing I did the hw, studied hard, and never missed a lecture. But when I talked to Hall he said I could still get an A as long as I Ace the final. I busted my ass and I guess I aced it. Overall Hall is a good teacher, he might skip over some steps in his solutions but it's nothing too major and he is quite helpful in office hour. If you do the reading and attempt all of the hw plus as many practice problems as you can then you will have no problem getting a B or A.

Homework is 10%, quizzes are 40%, and the final is 50%...

He is an easy teacher but you have to put in the effort to do the homework and understand the material. Other than the common final there are no major exams, just a quiz every week on the material covered the previous week. The quiz problems are reasonable and sometimes extremely easy if you're doing the homework. Make sure you pay attention to the combined loading part at the end of the quarter because some professors don't cover that and it is absolutely included in the final (it's worth a lot of points). He is very easy going and and funny, you will learn a lot if you take him.

Hall is a boss and hilarious. 7 Am was never so fun.

Hall is the man! Just prepare and study for the quizzes that are worth basically half your grade and go to the lectures even if they're at 7am. He's super articulate when it comes to conveying material, and you'll learn lots. If you close your eyes while he's talking (which you will b/c it's 7am), he sounds like Robert Downey Jr. hahah.

This class is not structured well in my opinion. Quarter of the class is repeating it and most were struggling when asking around thought the quarter. Weekly quizzes out of 4 pt that is 50% of your grade. The smallest slip up on the quizzes brings you down to 75% grade. If he gives you the old final exam as a review, be very worried and expect to fail the final.

7 am 4 days a week was tough and I ended up knocking off a few times within the giant lecture hall. I do admit the lectures were worthy to go, since he covered most typical problems with emphasis on how to approaches. He tried to make funny jokes to shake us up a bit. The activity section was helpful if you have done all the homework without straight out copying from the answer he posted. The activity section was kinda the repeat of what was covered in class(it did help to reinforce of what's learned in class); however, I've seen people going to the activity section only and ended up in the Alice's wonderland having no idea of what's going on. Of course, ask tons of clarifying questions in the activity section. Sometimes, the instructor of the activity section had some tricks and shortcuts to offer. For the weekly quizzes, they were straight out of the weekly homework. I did poorly for the first three week. I did well on the last seven with most 3 and sometimes 2. (The maximum point you can get is 3.) The final had seven questions, and they were not impossible to crack down. I felt like the grade was based on the score from the quizzes rather than the final. He curved at the end.

This class took some getting used to. The first few weeks, Hall seemed to zip through powerpoint slides like cars on the 101, but after that you realize the theory may be interesting and all, but the example problems (the "practical" section of the lecture) is what you really need to know. The activity section really helps for that too, since it's just 2 hours of example problems including a 30-minute quiz. Also, watch out for the last third of the class: the shear and normal stress units are deceptively difficult. The homework is harder than the quizzes and the final, and sometimes requires annoying integrals or kinematics tricks that you don't really need to know for the rest of the class. Hall was pretty open to answering questions during the lecture, but asking a dumb question runs the risk of a sarcastic jab as he answers that question for the third time that lecture.

Professor Hall, from what I've gathered, just runs through the motions of the class. I didn't show up to half of the classes because everything you ever need to know is learned in the activities. Pretty easy if you follow along and pay close attention, MAKE SURE to get a good activity leader that you like. Hall generally gives everything straightforward but can tend to show off his knowledge on the subject by always talking about his company and his clients and what engineers do in the "real world"....He cracks jokes sometimes and laughs even though none of the students laugh.

First of all, I took the class at 9 AM in a amphitheater which in itself was already dumb. Second, Hall went through all of his slides stupid fast and it sucks because it was hard to keep up and then he never used actual numbers, only variables. When it came to the homework, his notes did not help at all. The only place you will learn is the activity session which sucks. He's a nice guy, but I believe he is ineffective at lecturing such a huge amount of students. If he were lecturing a smaller class size, he would probably be a better teacher. Try and take the class at cuesta. Their equivalent is called "strength of materials" and I hope you learn it better than I did here.

Hall is a quality professor. He teaches in a practical way since he came from industry. He really understands the material, and he can answer most questions to get you to a better understanding than you probably even wanted. There's not a lot to say. I had no qualms with his teaching style and overall thought he taught effectively.

If you want a professor that won't teach you anything because he teaches at a level that requires you to ALREADY have learned that course's material, sign up for him! He lectured twice a week for 50 minutes and just flies through examples, doesn't use numbers - just variables - and only half solves the problem. His homework is usually 10 questions and every question is very different from the next so you spend most of your time looking at the solutions he provided trying to figure out what the heck he did to get to the answer. His weekly quizzes can be tricky or straight forward, it's entirely luck of the draw. The activity sections are useless because they can't even get through three problems in the 2 hours allotted. I've heard Cuesta has an easier online version of this class so take it there. Garrett doesn't really seem to care about his students because "in industry..." despite the STUDENTS not being in industry right now. We're just trying to learn so we have a foundation for when we go into industry. Hopefully he gets bored of teaching this class and they find a new professor that actually would teach the content, not just dump a hundred entirely different examples on you to basically memorize.

Okay so, to start, I believe Hall is an amazing person who values education, and wants his students to learn. That being said, the structure of CE 204 is not really set up in an ideal manner, and a lot of your success or failure in the class is based on 1. your statics background and 2. your activity teacher. The two hour lecture once a week is crammed of slides that don't really help much, but if you are brave enough to ask a question in the large 200 person lecture, Hall does a good job of answering it. There are weekly quizzes which occur in your activity section, and HW is due once a week then too. I was able to do fairly well on the class because of a solid statics background and the fact that the material isn't THAT difficult. Overall, I think Hall is great but the class structure is not.

Professor Hall definitely understands this material very well, but he sometimes struggles with how to present it. The first class he jumps right in and goes so in-depth that everyone is completely lost, but by the end of the class you finally understand what he was talking about. Often, you learn the material more from doing the homework and from the discussion section than from Hall's lecture. The best way to learn from him is to ask questions because he really can help you understand by answering your questions. Also, he tries all quarter to teach you how to become a better student. I would recommend Hall, but having a good discussion TA is the most important thing (I had Mark Berger and he was great).

great guy...always helpful in office hours and understands where the class is. he presents the material very well and wants everybody to learn it. deffinetly try to take him whenever you can

whaaaat a jackass

Great guy that really wants students to succeed. Definitely learned a lot from him that I didn't in 204..and I got an A in 204. Only little mishap is that the syllabus is pretty useless because he doesn't follow it much at all so listen in class when things are being said!

CE 207 is not a very fun class, but this teacher makes it much better. I had an awful CE 204 teacher, and came into this class with very little prior knowledge. Professor Hall gave good examples and fair tests that made 207 much more bearable. The grade is based pretty much off quizzes and the final, there was no midterm. The quiz problem was usually taken from the homework (which he gives the solutions for). Overall, expect to study, but not too much. This is a doable class with a good professor.

The first day of class he re-taught 204 because most of us had Moazzami for 204 the quarter before and didn't know what we needed in order to start 207. He got an ovation at the end of class that day. Not easy but damn this guy is smart. Ask a question, and he'll stare at the board for a minute and then give you the answer. Then if you ask how he got it he'll go throught the 5 minutes of work it took to get the answer that he did in his head.

Prof. Hall is a great teacher for 351, unfortunatly, he rushes things too quickly in 251. I'm sitting in lab right now and there are about 6 standing around him and his computer right now trying to figure out the solution to some of the inordinatly difficult and convoluted lab assignments (this is typical). I was once a CSC, and this class would really be better off being taught by a CSC prof. Hall doesnt go over much of the grammer and vocab of Scilab, and while its similar to unix/c/java, the difficulty comes in the sheer amount of work Hall assigns per assignment and the amount of theory involved. My advice to anyone taking this class is to not work more than 4 hrs per week out of class on his labs. If you dont get it in 4 hrs, you are just wasting time you could be spending on other classes that are more than 4 units. Hall is a great guy, but this course is poorly designed. It's also heavily biased on structural related topics which is boring to those going into transportation, water, and geotech.

I could ramble on about this prof..but one word pretty much sums it up "TOOL"

He's a good teacher and knows his stuff. I think it was the first year this class was offered, and it was pretty good. In the beginning, it was difficult, only because the entire class was learning. The first midterms average was only a 40/100. I got an 87 and 93 on the two midterms, which are worth 25% of your grade. The rest of your grade is determined on the lab part of the class. This is a lab/lecture class. Both must be taken at the same time for any of it to actually make sense. The midterms were a bit tricky, as he made us compute loops by hand (which is usually what the computer does). It was pretty easy.

If you dont know much about computer programming you will struggle in this class. This class requires way too much work for a 2 unit class. The lectures don't help all that much in terms of helping you do the lab. Professor Hall is a cool guy. He let us turn in labs late without penalty until the 5 week of the quarter. I remember sitting there for 3 hours in tha lab and have almost nothing done. There would always be a long line of students waiting for help. About maybe 2 or 3 people knew how to do it and everyone else was loss. The grade is 50% lab 50% midterms. There was no way to prepare for the first midterm. He ask you to solve problems cmputers do. Granted once you understand it, it is very easy but he never did anything like that in class and never went over the answer. Professor Hall seems cool its just CE 251 that sucks. I though I was going to fail but I someone come through on the lab final and the 2nd midterm and got a C. Not a fun class, I heard he is easier teh nKasper though. Good Luck

He is very passionate about concrete and rocks. He can talk for hours about rocks. I did learn but he would bore me at times. For some reason he did not like me. He never returned any of the homework or quizzes so you really don't know where you are standing until a week away from finals. However everyone passes the class. Do put some effort and you should not get anything lower than a B.

TAKE HALL FOR ANY CE CLASS YOU CAN!!!!!!!!!!! This guy is new to cal poly, and it shows. He is the first professor in the CE department that can actually relate to the students. He's not old and he doesn't speak "hard to understand" broken english. I heard bad stories about other professors for this class, but I actually kicked ass in the class. Do the homework and you'll be fine. Exams are where this guy really shines. He tests you on the fundamental material, what all instructors should do, and he doesn't try to trick you. He is more interested in finding out if you understand rather than trying to kill you with questions that would take him an hour. Basically, if I could take him for every class here at cal poly, I would. So, I strongly urge you to take this guy if you have the chance.

halls class was pretty amusing. he is very clear on what you need to learn. hes young, and new to poly, which shows in his teaching style. i aced the midterm and final (im talking aced, with over 100% on the midterm) and still got a b in the class because hw is worth a ridiculous 30% of your grade (i did well on every hw except one). go to his office hrs and if you can make the review sessions take advantage of them. this will allow you to do will on the hw. hes a good teacher and his tests are the easiest exams ive taken in my student career so far.

Hall is an awsome teacher. Only take a class with him if your willing to work hard.

CE 351 is the hardest class for CE students. It moves fast; so keep up every-single-day. Expect no life. Hall is a beginner in teaching the quarter system classes. He is figuring out what works and what doesn't work for his classes: grading system, speed in teaching class material. He doesn't like the textbook; so you basically have no testbook at all since his notes have different notations from the book. As a result, you depend on his lectures to learn- which are not the best. He skips around all over the chalkboard, and go over matrices for computer programs- completely irrelevent to class homework. I would not recommend taking Hall since you will need and depend on a textbook, or at least coursenotes which Hall does not provide. And if you go into his office hours too much (assuming you are prepared), he gets irritated. Take Kasper, Goel, or Somayaji (if they're teaching or just wait for them).

Prof Hall definitely knows his stuff. He never used a textbook which I think is nice. This means you have to go to all of the lectures to learn the material. He really gets you to learn the material. He took a couple of days where all he did was go over random questions and just do problems. The tests are fairly hard, but he knows that and doesn't expect everyone to get an A.

Dr. Hall is really good teacher. CE 351 represents the hardest course for CE's as well as the cornerstone class for anyone going into structures. Dr. Hall expects alot, but he teaches very clearly. He also listens to his students and is genuinely concerned with student progress in the class. He wont spoonfeed you the course material, but he'll put it on a plate in front of you. Do the homework, spend some time thinking about whats going on, and dont get discouraged by a C.

Great proffesor. He made 351 duable for me, even tough the midterms took 3 hours to do, i think if you spend time doing the hw you'll do fine.. take him, if you want to go into structures or if you really want to get your moneys worth it...

I haven

This professor takes pride in not teaching. Go to the library and read about the material he says. Everyone is doing poorly in this class. Hey prick, how about coming to class on time. How about grading us on the material and not giving points away for writing your name correctly. It would make sense to me that you ought to go over the exams, if the average is a 51, 65, 50...but instead he just carries on with the material from his homemade and poorly photocopied lecture notes. By the way, I am passing this class, so I am not just ripping on Garrett because I failed. What else is there to say about this guy, oh yeah, he comes to class habitually 20 min. late.

I had Hall for 251, 351, and 407. I would take him for everything if I could! He is a little tough but definitely knows his stuff and is enthusiastic about it.

He's the best. No doubt. Dr. Hall always has worthwhile and interesting lectures. He's also very good at explaining complex things in simple terms. If you want to "know your stuff" then take Hall.

Excellent teacher, and even better during office hours. The subject itself is difficult. Hall made the classes interesting enough to keep me awake for such an early class. HOWEVER, the grading can be harsh, and by harsh I mean it is possible to work out an entire problem and still get a zero on it. Homework is not difficult, but VERY time consuming (do not procrastinate). Grading is “weighted,” but it all comes down to the final. Hall does not care how your progress is throughout the quarter, he just cares that you have learned it by the end of the quarter. I know because I failed EVERY quiz (less than %50) and did well on the final and got a C- .

Hall is a really nice guy and he really cares about students succeeding in his class and in general. I found him very helpful in office hours and after class. The material is hard but if you do the homework and spend the hours you'll do fine. Everything is based on the final so you have plenty of time to make sure you understand things. My only complaint is the lab, it is long, boring and not helpful in the slightest. The lab professor and Hall have different methods and it gets confusing.

After hearing all the complaints about Hall in the past about CE 204/207 being to hard and his grading policy being ridiculous, I must say that he was AWESOME in Structural Analysis. I came in scared of the class but as it comes to an end, he made Structural Analysis very interesting, fun, and easy. Grading policy: 10% Homework (This is yours!), 10% Lab (TOUGH LABS but DO IT!), 80% Quiz/Tests. Do the HW and Labs before the quizzes and you\'ll go through it like CAKE! There was always a handful of people who got perfects on all the quizzes which means that his tests were fair. Do good in the class before the Final and he will surprise you with a NEW policy! Take Hall if you want to WORK and Learn! GOOD LUCK!

I can not say enough good things about Dr. Hall. I did more work in this class than any other class just because there is a ton of HW and the Labs take forever, but never struggled conceptually. The class is 70% statics and the first third of the class will be dedicated solely to relearning statics more thoroughly. My advice: take Hall if possible, do the homework and labs and make sure you understand the easy and medium difficulty problems, ace the \"quizzes\" (tests that are very fair), and enjoy your hard work during finals week when you are rewarded by his grading system.

Hall\'s the SHIT. CE 351 is not a fun class. It sucks. It took up most of my time and was extremely frustrating, but Hall is super helpful in office hours and wants students to do well. As long as he sees your effort and that you are trying you can do well in the class.

Dr. Hall is AWESOME. He's the best. CE 351 is an incredibly shitty class; it takes up a lot of time and it's not easy. Luckily, Dr. Hall is super available during office hours and very helpful in lab. He know the material isn't the easiest and will take time to go over it with you. He made the final optional as long as you had taken all the midterms and were happy with your grade, and if you totally bombed it he would only look at your midterm grades. If you end up in his class I recommend going to office hours every once in a while and showing him the effort that you're making.

FALL 2012 Review. HOMEWORK is weekly, requires full time and complete attention (preferably with a group of your classmates to bounce ideas off of each other). First few weeks is STATICS/207 review, then you take all those Shear and Moment diagrams and use other methods to find them (determinate vs indeterminate has different methods; strain energy, virtual forces, slope-deflection, moment distribution...just to name a few). TESTS were easier than expected, but still hard. Meaning we expected super difficult tests, but he really isn't out there to get you. Hall wants you to get the stuff, and you really just need to ASK him about a topic if you don't get it. His TESTS were not as hard as the homework, you just need to make sure you do it right, and KNOW how to do it right, because sometimes the solutions he gives isn't up to par with what is actually right (sucks, I know). Structures Horror Stories are abundant, so just know that this is can be a time intensive class. BUT with Hall, it isn't as hard if you really work at it (starting as early as possible) by really knowing Statics and Shear and Moment Diagrams. I shouldn't have to say go to class, cuz you should be going to class anyways. LAB PORTION. I preferred Bing's Lab style in which he would go over examples rather than Hall's where he just "allowed" us to work on homework in LAB...but it didn't help me because I NEED to see these structures problems worked out beforehand so I have an idea of the thought process.

Hall was a great teacher in this class. He knows the stuff well and can help you with any problem. His notes are good and his reference material and website help a lot as well. This class required a lot of practice, and he helps you get that practice in lab.

Hall gives you a lot of homework and makes you work hard. He presents a lot of material upfront so nobody knows whats going on at first, but then there is plenty of time to practice and learn it. The difficulty of his tests varies a lot, so be prepared for them to be hard. Our first midterm was easy and then everyone got destroyed by the second one. He says he doesn't curve and is fine with the class average being an A or a C. This class is basically a more advanced statics/204/207. It is very theoretical and isn't design like 355 or 356. At the end you write code to solve trusses of any size, which is pretty cool. Prior coding/MATLAB experience will help you here but it's pretty easy to learn otherwise.

Hall is a hard but good teacher. He focuses strongly on theory and makes somewhat simple ideas difficult through his word choice and technical definitions. I had a hard time getting through the class, and feel that I should have gotten a lower grade for what I knew. (Although I cant complain.) As an individual I really respect his opinion about engineering and life in general. He is very approachable (while I haven

Dr. Hall is a badass, plain and simple. He\'s knowledgeable and willing to answer questions. I thought I was going to fail 501 big time, but put the time in and got a lot out of the class.