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Alciatore, David | |||
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MECH 307 Junior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 11:13 am, Jan 18, 2009 |
1 of 1 people found the following evaluation helpful: Overall, Dr. Dave is a frustrating teacher to learn from. Although he wrote a pretty good book for the class he pretty much teaches straight out of it, so if you don't understand the book he won't be able to clarify. The biggest problem I had with Dr Dave is that he is a totally different person outside the classroom. He is enthusiastic about teaching the course but does not want to deal with you outside of class or in lab (the TA's are invaluable in this respect). For some reason he has everyone do all the homework in groups, which means that if you can't get together or your group members are slackers you get screwed. Ditto with the project which, lets be honest, is the focus of this class and only thing Dr Dave really cares about. As far as how difficult the project is...its in the luck of the draw. Get in a group with someone who knows what they are doing or else you might spend hours upon hours trying to figure things out. He does do a good job telling you what topics will be on the tests, but all the questions are trying to trick you and nothing is straightforward. Was this rating helpful to you? |
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MECH 307 Junior Grade Earned: C Required (Major) 11:22 am, Dec 24, 2008 |
Dr. Dave is by far the worst instructor I've ever had. This was the third course that I was forced to have him for and I hated every minute of it. He's terribly hard to understand when he lectures. His notes that he puts on the board are ALL OVER the place and really unorganized. When you later try to study his notes you have no idea what he was doing. He absolutely hates helping students outside of class. It irritates him that he is forced to have office hours and when you show up he treats you like "What do you want and why are you bothering me?" Definitely stick with the TA's on asking questions. Don't be scammed into being in a two-man project group like I was when he says "Oh we'll definitely take it into account when we grade you" because he DOESN'T! He blatantly lied to us on that one. His tests are the most unstraightforward tests that I've ever taken. He does not test you on what you should know, but rather almost every question is a trick. He tries to trick students on purpose and it's very discouraging as you are taking the test, realizing that he's doing this. It's very sad that he is the way he is and everyone should BEWARE upon taking any course from him.
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MECH 307 Junior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 10:06 pm, Dec 23, 2008 |
Dr Dave is hands down by far the best teacher I've had at CSU. His lectures convey the information in a straightforward and clear way. You have to earn your grade in this class. Do not expect sympathy if you slack a little and don't get the grade you want, course expectations are very clear from the beginning. Don't waste time on a fancy dancy project, just meet the requirements as completely as possible.
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MECH 102 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 7:37 pm, Nov 15, 2008 |
Dr Dave was horrible, he presents topics which no freshman should be learning unless they've taken at least calc 2. He's pretty bad in office hours as well, so go to his TAs cause they're the only ones that'll help you out.
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MECH 102 Senior Grade Earned: C Required (Major) 11:52 am, May 30, 2008 |
Dr. Dave (as he typically called) is one very hard professor for Mechanical Engineering. He teaches a variety of topics in this class and he asks obscure questions about the material taught. Things that you would only know if you dove so deep into the material that you could teach the class your self. Furthermore, I was told by friends in another class that Dr. Dave purposely made our test brutal and its rumored that he is doing this to weed more student out of engineering.
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MECH 102 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 1:09 pm, May 14, 2008 |
This class is extremely easy and he presents whatever material you need to know. The homeworks may seem a little long but that kind of is how all eng classes are. If you take the notes during class you never need to read the book and you'll do fine.
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MECH 324 Junior Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 11:37 am, Apr 11, 2008 |
Dr Dave is a horrible professor. I can't believe they still let him behind the podium. It is CRYSTAL clear that he doesn't care AT ALL about his students, he only teaches to show you how smart he is, and what all books he has written and that you need to check them out. He is egotistical and refuses to help you unless you are a female and show some skin. I would NEVER take a course from him again.
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ME 307 Junior Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 8:51 pm, Dec 12, 2006 |
I gotta say, my opinion of Dr. Dave just kept dropping as the class progressed. I liked him a lot in the beginning and was excited to take the class. But then the project came around, and his egotistical side started to really show. He has a very high opinion of himself, and will not take a hint of criticism. He also seems a bit sexist, as the few girls in the class seemed to have it harder than the guys, especially when it came to project presentations. My project was pretty bad, but he invited it into class, while a group of 2 girls and a guy that had a working and really good project were pretty much just brushed aside. He is also not willing to work with anyone when it comes to groups. I was placed in one that I knew right away would be a problem, but he made no effort to help. And, as was said before, though I did a majority of the project work, I got the same grade as everyone in my group, regardless of what went on my evaluation.
Now to the project. Get a good group, or you're in trouble. It's not just a project group, it's also a lab and homework group. I ended up doing roughly half the homework and almost all of the labs because of a bad group assignment. Then the project came, and I did all of the non-programming stuff, as well as the report, which took a long freakin time. I'd say I did at least 1/3 of the work in a group of 4, but like I said, nobody got a better or worse grade.
I'll end on a high note. I never understood any electrical theory until this class. The basics, yeah, I could get them, but a lot of the higher level stuff that eluded me in EE204 was clarified in here. Dr. Dave is pretty good at explaining things, I'll give him that.
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ME 307 Senior Grade Earned: C Required (Major) 8:17 pm, Dec 12, 2006 |
As the semester was going on, I thought Dr. Dave was a great guy. Always seemed happy, lectures were ok... and then the project came. Just so you guys know- in ME307, if your group screws up, it goes against you. Those group evaluations don't do ANYTHING. Just look at the grades from last semester if you don't believe me. Dr. Dave was very uninterested in the my welldoing, and seems to think he is god. I think the group homework most of all is crap. Too bad if you have to take this class from him.
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ME 324 Junior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 2:48 pm, Jan 13, 2006 |
Dr. Dave is great!
He is definately the most organized prof that I've taken a class from. He has tons of stuff on his website for the class.
Like any engineering class, if you do the work you'll be fine.
It you bitch and moan and don't show up then you will fail.
Dr. Dave's tests are easier than his HW assignments. If you do the HW you will ace the tests.
I'd take any class with Dr. Dave.
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ME 307 Senior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 5:45 pm, Jan 2, 2006 |
Dr. Dave is a very organized professor, and as long as you go to class, he will tell you everything you need to know in order to succeed. He does expect his students to work hard and figure some things out on your own, but in an engineering course you should expect a few long nights. If you go in to his office, he isn't going to be too helpful unless you have at least gotten started on your own and have an idea of what exactly you need help with. If you want to be lazy, you are going to hate Dr. Dave, and you will probably do poorly in the class. If you put in the effort, you will learn a lot from Dr. Dave. As for the comment that you have to spend a lot of money to do well on the project, it is not necessarily true. Projects that are more technically difficult tend to cost more, simply due to complexity. However, you can do it pretty cheap if you look around. Some companies will donate or give you deals if you ask, and you can get free samples from microchip if you require more pics. Also, there is a 5-point bonus in the grading system for making an inexpensive project, so it is something to try to do.
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ME 307 Junior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 2:09 am, Dec 23, 2004 |
I don’t see how people can say Dr Dave is a bad prof, he’s awesome. I didn’t know an amp from a tesla walking into ME307 but now I am considering taking up electronics as a small hobby. We learned some very awesome things in this class and Dr Dave KNEW what he was talking about. If you had a question he could answer it. If you ran into a problem he would try and help as best as he could. This is my first time with Dr Dave and it was great. Dave is the man, he expects you to work hard and know the material, we’re engineers not liberals arts majors, there are no “well-you-almost-did-something-productive” points. Cowboy up and learn the material if you don’t you’ll be FUBAR’d out of your mind. As for the model student comment, we all know EXACTLY who you are talking about and I think even Dr Dave thinks he's a tool.
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ME 307 Senior Grade Earned: C Required (Major) 8:51 pm, Dec 11, 2004 |
Dr. Dave is a horrible teacher, the only way you will do good in his class is if you a "MODEL STUDENT", by this I mean you are a kiss ass and attend every class with fourteen questions ready to ask from the assigned readings in which you are two chapters ahead. About the final projects that are assigned. I found this to be very disorganized, the TA's are never around to lock in scores or help for that matter. I also found the TA's to be slightly under-educated in the subject matter. About Dr. Daves tests they are very unfair, I found there are three ways to pass a Dr. Dave exam: 1-Kiss ass, brown nose etc. 2-Study for a week straight and sacrafice all other classes in exchange for his 3-Be blessed with a photographic memory. I would avoid Dr. Dave if at all possible. He is a Horrible teacher!!!
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ME 307 Senior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 9:10 pm, Aug 26, 2004 |
Dr. Alcitore is an excellent teacher. I have taken both ME250 and ME307 from him and would gladly take another one of his courses. However, he is a very difficult teacher which explains his why some student bash him. He holds you to very high expectations and requires that you meet these goals in order to pass his course. Don't expect to BS your way through his course. Do expect to leave his course with a feeling that you have really increased your knowledge.
His test are very difficult and contain very detailed questions about the material. His questions require you to do more than memorize but actually understand the principles. HINT: Any test questions he reviews post-test are guaranteed to be on the next test or final.
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ME 307 Junior Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 8:30 am, Dec 19, 2003 |
This is an actual excerpt from an email he sent to the class:
"...Several people have e-mailed and stopped by my office because they are disappointed with their project grades. If you are disappointed, I am sorry. I can try to help you feel better about the grades you got..."
Thanks Dr dave, I need to feel better about being screwed over!
Dr dave is unwilling to listen to student concerns and will not help you if you go to him during office hours. If anything is mentioned to question his ability to teach he comes up with some lame excuse as to why it's the student's fault. He says that he will grade one way when you talk to him during office hours and then when it comes time to grade you he surprisingly forgets that you had that conversation. Bad, Bad, Bad teacher. Avoid him at all costs!!
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ME 307 Junior Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 2:02 pm, Dec 12, 2003 |
Dr. Dave comes across as being a cool guy, but I found him to be a rather bad teacher. Any time a student would ask him for help he would give them the run-around. He must have stock in MathCAD because he never stops advertising it in class. In the end, I found that the mechatronics projects that he considered the best and gave the best grades were the people who spent the most money. Some of us do not have money to spend freely and therefore got docked on our grades. In this way he tends to be discriminatory. So if you want a good grade, be rich. He writes scan-tron tests, which is ridiculous in a junior level engineering course. It goes to show that he really doesn't care about teaching and he's just too lazy to grade papers.
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ME 324 Junior Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 11:54 pm, Nov 12, 2003 |
The course was organized very effectively. The lectures were direct and to the point, the homework assignments were difficult but achievable and enhanced the learning of the class. Dr. Dave is always willing to help if you need it. I recommend taking any course from Dr. Dave.
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ME 101 Graduate Student Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 1:14 pm, Sep 25, 2002 |
Dr. Dave is the man. He is willing to help students whenever and is very clear about what he is looking for. He is good at identifying problems and correcting them. I would reccomend him to anyone.
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