Reviews for Hsing-Hen Chen
Average Rating:| Anonymous Course: PHYS121 Grade Expected: B+ May 23, 2011, 12:14 pm | Only Take if you have a Private Tutor! Professor Chen does not hold office hours, he does not respond to email, he does not offer any help outside of class. The TA that I had was often last minute and disorganized. I do think that Professor Chen does a pretty decent job on lectures but he is kind of boring. His exams are very similar to the homework problems he assigns. If you take this class I strongly suggest getting a tutor who will help you get a strong foundation in the basics...if you manage to do that, you can get a B or an A in the course. If you expect to learn directly from the professor & TA and get to see the professor & TA during office hours DO NOT TAKE PHYS 121 with professor Chen. Also the lab is very poorly organized and the TA doesn't really help at all, with the lab that is. Also you may have to learn the last couple of chapters on your own sense he tends to run behind schedule. |
| Anonymous Course: PHYS121 Grade Expected: C May 18, 2011, 12:42 am | Avoid. Professor Chen does not communicate with his TAs nor his students. Too often did Professor Chen change the syllabus on us students at the last minute, causing mass panic and confusion. It is impossible to reach Professor Chen but at least his TAs tried their best to help their students (James). Tests were absurd and often included 'surprise material'. Labs were chaotic and poorly organized. Lectures were also poorly organized and hardly helpful. PHYS121 with Professor Chen is the best class for students enjoy learning things on their own. They will be given this opportunity nearly every week as Professor Chen surely won't teach them anything. |
| jahs389 Course: PHYS260 Grade Expected: A March 3, 2010, 1:58 pm | He's pretty boring but not unreasonable professor. I wish he would add some demonstrations. His test are pretty easy though because he gives a great deal of information on them and they are pretty straight forward. But, without my amazing TA this course would be harder and less interesting. Edit - He didn't have time to cover the last two chapters so our class was in rough shape for the final as it was the same for all sections. I ended up with a A-. |
| Anonymous Course: PHYS260 Grade Expected: A June 17, 2009, 11:28 am | This dude is the bomb!! I didn't go to lecture and just did the homework and studied a little bit for the exam, and breezed through the course. It was also PHYS260, which isn't that difficult. But I attribute it being that easy to Chen, so as I said, he's the bomb. He also seems to hate teaching; I guess because no one really goes to lecture/discussion and he has to go teach for the 3 people who do. Also, he has awesome handwriting on the board, I thought that was cool. |
| fiddlerkrt Course: PHYS270 Grade Expected: A January 21, 2009, 11:32 pm | I did not enjoy physics very much with professor Chen. We were always way behind schedule so we spent the last few weeks of class cramming in the last few chapters of the course. The tests aren't too hard as long as you go to lecture and do the homework problems. If you have the chance, take Wallace instead of Chen for PHYS270. I heard he is much better than Chen. If you end up with Chen, hopefully you will get a decent TA. |
| a778999 Course: PHYS270 Grade Expected: A+ January 18, 2009, 10:40 pm | He wasn't that bad. Lectures were extremely boring and hard to understand, but as long as you copy the formulas from the textbook on your cheat sheet, you'll be fine on the tests. We're really behind the other lecturer so we're screwed for the final though. |
| Anonymous Course: PHYS260 Grade Expected: C December 23, 2008, 11:31 pm | I did better than I expected but I still got a C+. I suck at physics so I was happy. Anyway as everyone else has been saying avoid Chen. His was the only lecture that fit into my schedule. I only went on Mondays to get the assigned homework and Wednesdays if I had nothing better to do. 12 people go on Fridays. Never miss discussion though. I had a great TA so that sort of helped but if physics isn't your forte don't expect to fall in love with it under him. |
| c14husky Course: PHYS270 Grade Expected: B- December 23, 2008, 7:27 am | Considering i had no idea what my hw grade was, never went to discussion, rarely went to lecture, and never studied and still got a B, i think i didn't mind Chen being the most boring teacher ever. |
| rangerguy Course: PHYS260 Grade Expected: December 16, 2008, 9:50 pm | does not teach. gives equations with no hint as to use them in the real world. also very hard to understand him considering he has a heavy accent and always forgets to use his microphone. terrible teacher. can't forget that he covered up to chapter 29 in class, then threw in chapters 30, 31, and 32 all in the last week without even putting them on the syllabus because he found out the common final had all 3. please spare yourself and don't take his class |
| Anonymous Course: PHYS260 Grade Expected: December 15, 2008, 3:49 pm | This is by far the worst professor I've had in this School. He handed out a syllabus in the beginning of the year stating we were to complete chapter 14-30. It turns out that the final included 31, 32. To make matters worse, we didn't finish the original set of chapters we had planned to complete and he didn't even tell us until 2 weeks before the final. So basically, I had to read and learn chapters 29,30,31,32 myself a week before the final. He doesn't care about the students at all. Outside of class, it is impossible to reach him. Going to Lectures is useless because he only brushes the surface of the topics and never works examples. To sum it all; You will learn nothing from this man |
| Anonymous Course: PHYS260 Grade Expected: December 13, 2008, 6:51 am | Save yourself. If you take this course, don't expect to actually learn much. I spent the entire course learning from the book, as all Chen does is derive equations during class and doesn't do any example problems. Everybody I know stopped going to class about a month in. If you get a good TA, you'd be lucky and you might survive. Just pick anybody but him. |
| Anonymous Course: PHYS270 Grade Expected: A August 5, 2008, 11:26 am | Not that great of a teacher. Very boring, lectures are hard to stay awake for. No teaching assistants this semester which made even harder since we never went over examples. I would probably try to avoid Chen if you are taking physics in the future. |
| Anonymous Course: PHYS260H Grade Expected: A July 3, 2008, 7:44 pm | Some things you need to know about professor chen: He is Extremely smart there is no doubt about it. However, he does NOT have office hours and I guarantee you he will not answer any of your emails. He is extremely hard to reach for ANYTHING. His exams are easy if you know physics, but dont expect to actually learn what you need from lecture. If you take a class with chen be ready to either read your book or get someone else to teach you. He is very quiet and talks slow and very boring. |
| apalmer Course: PHYS121 Grade Expected: May 12, 2008, 11:54 am | One of the worst professors I have ever had. He refused to use a microphone the whole year and blatantly stated that he expected most of us to stop coming to lecture. He was largely inaudible, unorganized, and generally unprofessional. Avoid taking classes with Chen at all costs. |
| reysa Course: PHYS121 Grade Expected: B May 8, 2008, 8:58 pm | I spent so much time in this class, and I would consider myself reasonably strong in physics. But he does not teach, flat out, no lie. He writes randomness on the bored and mumbles, dont try to reason with him, he wont wear a mic. The tests werent too hard if you could figure out what to expect for the tests, it was tough but possible. DONT TAKE HIM!!! He doesnt care about his students, he doesnt even communicate with the TA's. Without my TA i would have failed. |
| bbaker2 Course: PHYS270 Grade Expected: B November 12, 2007, 1:31 pm | Professor Chen is awful. Im writing this review from the class as we speak hoping to save a few people from the miserable experience known as PHYS270 with professor H. Chen. Avoid this class. Take it with another professor. In this particular semester we did NOT have a teaching assistant. He grades 1 homework problem of the 8 we submit. We did not use WebAssign or Mastering Physics. All homework was hand written. He has not been in his office ONCE since the semester started, so he does not have office hours. In lecture he only explains theory and does not go over any example problems. So far we have taken two exams as I write this review. The average on the first exam was a 25/75=33% the second exam he said he graded leniently so the average went up to a 65/90=72%, but as we wait here (all 20 of us) no one in the class believes they did that well. Avoid Professor Chen at all costs. |