Sarah McMains - University of California Berkeley

Professor: Sarah McMains

Department: Engineering

College: University of California Berkeley

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: E27
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

Worst professor ever.

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: E27
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

If you're really studying to be an engineer she's a fine professor. Her standards are high, but this reflects what will be expected in industry or academia anyways.

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: E27
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

Easily the worst class I've taken at Cal. Her lectures are random and the homeworks have absolutely nothing to do with anything she talks about. I struggled with the material even though it's quite simple, and when I went to office hours she just made things even harder to understand. Avoid at all costs.

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: E27
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

Worst professor I've had at Cal. Very unclear grading. Lecture is pointless and confusing yet she makes everyone attend for participation. Assignments take forever and seem irrelevant. Avoid taking her classes.

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: E27
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Are you interested in learning the material? Then you've got the wrong professor. SO much of this class is busy work, with arbitrary homeworks, unrelated labs, and a tedious final project. She turned the coolest material into garbled mess of unorganized, unprofessional garbage. I felt like I was taking the class at a lesser school. SKIP IF YOU CAN.

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: E27
• Grade Received: B
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

I have now had McMains for both e25 an e27 and the classes themselves are not difficult. But McMains can take an easy class and make it terrible. She doesn't have clear teaching or grading procedures, I didnt even remotely know what grade I was expected to get before/after the final because she doesn't grade in time. Avoid, avoid, avoid.

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: E27
• Grade Received: Not sure yet
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

Lectures were confusing much of the time. The exam was more about reading comprehension than anything else. Despite performing well, this has been one of my least favorite classes ever.

Rating # 8

Overview:

• Course: E25
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

Do not buy the textbook, you won't need it at all. Easy tests. The biggest problem with this class is the homework is WAY longer than it should be, it often takes longer than a few hours to complete each assignment. The subject matter is also completely worthless, it's a really stupid intro to meche class. It would be nice to just skip to E26/E27.

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: E25
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

McMains' lectures are a joke; sometimes they tell you exactly what will be tested on, while other times 90% of the lecture will be spent on irrelevant tangents. She grades like a harpy and will take off exorbitant amounts of points for nothing. The group project involved so much unimportant writing. Would have preferred to skip straight to E26/27.

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: E25
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

Sarah McMains is the most picky and critical professor ever. The class E25 is way too much work for a 2 unit class. All of the assignments are super repetitive and so are the labs. The homework is graded with the finest tooth comb that has ever existed. The actual material covered is easy, but the assignments are often vague and way too excessive!

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: E28
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Not well organized and the class is a ton more work than it should be. Ridiculous homework assignments and lab assignments are also assigned. Overall, just not a good professor.

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: E28
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

Assigns a ton of work. Homework can range from 5 to 9 hours a week, and the labs often go over the 3 hours allotted. She will actually give a lab assignment (ie: lab is not time to work on the homework). Project was very unorganized and took a lot of time to sort through. Her assignments are not very clear and its difficult to know what she wants.

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: ENG28
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Her assignments take forever to complete. Really loves taking points off in exams & HWs. Also, spent way too much time discussing minor details and breezed through important stuff. Extremely paranoid and asked too much of stuff to turn in just to prove you had been working on the project every week. Highly recommend avoiding this professor.

Rating # 14

Overview:

• Course: ME101
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

WORST PROFESSOR EVER! Lectures were dry, inconsistent and incomprehensible. She is extremely paranoid, doesn't post hwk solutions online thinking future students will cheat. Only dishonest people like her can doubt others honesty. Extremely anal about everything and has a terrible grading scheme. Stay away from this freak at all costs!

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: E28
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Class was very very hard. Homework takes forever (some assignments took over 10 hours, while most assignments averaged about 5 hours of work). The most painful tests I have ever taken in my life; test averages were all around 50-60%. Prof is okay, but is an extremely hard grader. Wait for another professor. You'll thank me.

Rating # 16

Overview:

• Course: E28
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Lectures were pretty interesting and for the most part useful. HW wasn't too bad, just go to OH if you need help. Midterms were hard. Most of the questions came out of nowhere (definitely not representative of the hw questions). Do the past midterm/finals

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: E28
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

She's OK professor. She's pretty clear and I like her slides, but there were several times that she didn't cover enough materials for our hw assignments which left us confused and frustrated. I tried to use book, but it wasn't helpful.

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: E28
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Darth McMains. Homeworks took way too long. Did not inform us on how to do required material, extremely long midterms. All around poor teacher. Take it with any other professor. She is also extremely stingy when it comes to any kind of grading.

Rating # 19

Overview:

• Course: ME101
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.5
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: N/A
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

These sophomores didn't like her, but if you're really studying to be an engineer or are a grad student, she's fine. she does her best with boring material and she's always there to help you out. And come on! this is Engineering school. who cares if the professor is hot? Jeez

Rating # 20

Overview:

• Course: E28
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: N/A
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Awesome prof.