Professor
Richard Wesel
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2020 - **This was during the COVID pandemic, so everything was online; this review might not reflect accurately in the future when classes are back to in-person, whenever that will be...** I was compelled to write this review because I felt that his overall rating doesn't do him justice for how much effort and benevolence he put in this quarter for our class. His lectures were engaging (literally, you would get cold called to go through examples, which kept you on your toes), recorded (nice, I was not frequently able to make 8AM :P), and comprehensive. Added to the pretty easy to understand textbook he goes off of, I believe that anyone who puts in an average amount of commitment for this class will get a good grade and with good mastery of the course material. His office hours were also engaging and fruitful, where he would guide you through HW and concepts step by step, and he asks for your participation as well to see if you understand. The HW and lectures were essential to the weekly quizzes, and the recurring quizzes aided in retaining concepts. I thought that the extra credit project was pretty cool as well, where he exemplified how some of the statistics was applied to his field of research. I guess one "drawback" of Professor would be that if you are a fast learner and/or you already know some of the material in this class, his comprehensive approach in deriving you through the concepts might be a little slow. But, for those people, Zoom's got speed up feature. So overall, if he is going to teach 131A again, I suggest him as one of your top choice professors for this course.
Fall 2020 - **This was during the COVID pandemic, so everything was online; this review might not reflect accurately in the future when classes are back to in-person, whenever that will be...** I was compelled to write this review because I felt that his overall rating doesn't do him justice for how much effort and benevolence he put in this quarter for our class. His lectures were engaging (literally, you would get cold called to go through examples, which kept you on your toes), recorded (nice, I was not frequently able to make 8AM :P), and comprehensive. Added to the pretty easy to understand textbook he goes off of, I believe that anyone who puts in an average amount of commitment for this class will get a good grade and with good mastery of the course material. His office hours were also engaging and fruitful, where he would guide you through HW and concepts step by step, and he asks for your participation as well to see if you understand. The HW and lectures were essential to the weekly quizzes, and the recurring quizzes aided in retaining concepts. I thought that the extra credit project was pretty cool as well, where he exemplified how some of the statistics was applied to his field of research. I guess one "drawback" of Professor would be that if you are a fast learner and/or you already know some of the material in this class, his comprehensive approach in deriving you through the concepts might be a little slow. But, for those people, Zoom's got speed up feature. So overall, if he is going to teach 131A again, I suggest him as one of your top choice professors for this course.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2020 - Prof. Wesel replaced the final+midterm with weekly 2-3 hour quizzes that all took basically the whole time. Don't fall behind on lectures or those quizzes will make you cry, though I heard in 2021 the class was a slightly different format (in person shorter quizzes). The homeworks and were alright, with the TA being willing to walk you through to the answer if you are willing to put in the time. Prof. Wesel himself is very nice and helpful. He handwrites during lecture and calls on people at random. If you don't ask him questions he will probably go too fast. The MATLAB project wasn't too hard. Overall, I would take this class with him again. Also, he has a lot of undergrads in his lab (ask Prof. Wesel for an opportunity!)
Fall 2020 - Prof. Wesel replaced the final+midterm with weekly 2-3 hour quizzes that all took basically the whole time. Don't fall behind on lectures or those quizzes will make you cry, though I heard in 2021 the class was a slightly different format (in person shorter quizzes). The homeworks and were alright, with the TA being willing to walk you through to the answer if you are willing to put in the time. Prof. Wesel himself is very nice and helpful. He handwrites during lecture and calls on people at random. If you don't ask him questions he will probably go too fast. The MATLAB project wasn't too hard. Overall, I would take this class with him again. Also, he has a lot of undergrads in his lab (ask Prof. Wesel for an opportunity!)
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Most Helpful Review
Prof. Wesel is an awesome teacher. He has almost perfect lecture notes that he hands out every class, explains materials very well and is willing to spare time for you. I was amazed to see that he never deferred a single question that was asked to him. I have had some professors who would be like "Lets talk about that after class." But no matter what, Prof. Wesel dug deep into anything and everything until you understood the stuff. Plus he was very friendly and helpful during his office hours. He spared 2 hours for OH every week and they were really useful. His homework is time consuming and will take good effort. But once you can do it, you would have mastered the material. Exams were not hard at all, probably the easiest ones that I have had in grad school. If the opportunity arises then do take him. He is indeed a great teacher.
Prof. Wesel is an awesome teacher. He has almost perfect lecture notes that he hands out every class, explains materials very well and is willing to spare time for you. I was amazed to see that he never deferred a single question that was asked to him. I have had some professors who would be like "Lets talk about that after class." But no matter what, Prof. Wesel dug deep into anything and everything until you understood the stuff. Plus he was very friendly and helpful during his office hours. He spared 2 hours for OH every week and they were really useful. His homework is time consuming and will take good effort. But once you can do it, you would have mastered the material. Exams were not hard at all, probably the easiest ones that I have had in grad school. If the opportunity arises then do take him. He is indeed a great teacher.
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