Professor profile for Cesar Ocampo
Student reviews of Cesar Ocampo
Review from a student who took ASE 366k
Dr. Ocampo is a nice guy: he's very approachable, takes time to let you stretch in the middle of a 1.5 hour lecture, and brings in proud pictures of his two twin daughters. That being said, the theme of this class is: LOST. The lectures are mostly proofs, while the homework is mostly applications. The tests are graded with no partial credit, as are the homeworks, so the class average sits in the mid 40s. While we were told there would be a curve, at not point are you told what kind of a curve, and so most of the semseter is spent trying to figure out why you do poorly even when you think you get it. The smaller, more inexpensive book is incredibly useful, BUY IT. The other book, we only used for one homework, and it is stated in the intro to it that it's intended for grad students. Most people just bought it from the co-op to do the one assignment, and then sold it back. That last homework is the crux of the final, though. The tests are painful, but you are allowed 1, 2, and 3, 4x6 notecards on the first midterm, second midterm, and final, repsectively. It's decently obvious that Dr. Ocampo is used to teaching grad students (this is his only undergrad class). He's only on campus for office hours once a week, and defers most questions to the TAs. Luckily our TAs were very good, but these things can change from semester to semester. Be prepared for a lot of frustration if you take this professor.
Dr. Ocampo is a nice guy: he's very approachable, takes time to let you stretch in the middle of a 1.5 hour lecture, and brings in proud pictures of his two twin daughters. That being said, the theme of this class is: LOST. The lectures are mostly proofs, while the homework is mostly applications. The tests are graded with no partial credit, as are the homeworks, so the class average sits in the mid 40s. While we were told there would be a curve, at not point are you told what kind of a curve, and so most of the semseter is spent trying to figure out why you do poorly even when you think you get it. The smaller, more inexpensive book is incredibly useful, BUY IT. The other book, we only used for one homework, and it is stated in the intro to it that it's intended for grad students. Most people just bought it from the co-op to do the one assignment, and then sold it back. That last homework is the crux of the final, though. The tests are painful, but you are allowed 1, 2, and 3, 4x6 notecards on the first midterm, second midterm, and final, repsectively. It's decently obvious that Dr. Ocampo is used to teaching grad students (this is his only undergrad class). He's only on campus for office hours once a week, and defers most questions to the TAs. Luckily our TAs were very good, but these things can change from semester to semester. Be prepared for a lot of frustration if you take this professor.
Review from a student who took Fall 2005
The final is tomorrow and I should be studying instead of writing this review. Dr. Ocampo is a pretty cool guy and doesn't make you feel uncomfortable about asking questions in class. He trys to make the lectures more interesting by showing slides and videos of orbits in class, this works for a while but can get old. He also does card tricks. He uses matrices in a lot of his derivations and this can be confusing sometimes, unless you are into that stuff. Home Work is long but a huge percentage of the final grade depends on it. I heard stories from past students of test averages in the 20s, but our midterm avg was like 60 or so. I found the class interesting since I was finally learning about what I entered into Aerospace Engineering for however, the class gets complicated somewhere in the middle of the semester. Start the HW early and don't skip any to get a good grade.
The final is tomorrow and I should be studying instead of writing this review. Dr. Ocampo is a pretty cool guy and doesn't make you feel uncomfortable about asking questions in class. He trys to make the lectures more interesting by showing slides and videos of orbits in class, this works for a while but can get old. He also does card tricks. He uses matrices in a lot of his derivations and this can be confusing sometimes, unless you are into that stuff. Home Work is long but a huge percentage of the final grade depends on it. I heard stories from past students of test averages in the 20s, but our midterm avg was like 60 or so. I found the class interesting since I was finally learning about what I entered into Aerospace Engineering for however, the class gets complicated somewhere in the middle of the semester. Start the HW early and don't skip any to get a good grade.