Michael Adams - University of Victoria

Professor: Michael Adams

Department: TBD

College: University of Victoria

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: ECE260
• Grade Received: Not sure yet
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Dude. This class.... Adams is great, and he's doing the best a person can at teaching this beast of a course. He gives every opportunity he can for success including offering a 90% Final and taking whichever route gives you a better grade. Good luck though. Wears cool t-shirts. Posts Dilbert comics.

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: SENG475
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Amazing instructor. This course provided me with more value than any other I've taken at UVic. The amount of effort he puts into his documentation (videos of lectures, slide deck, assignment specs) is incredible. If you take this course, be prepared to put in a lot of effort on the assignments, but that is where most of the learning happens.

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: SENG475
• Grade Received: INC
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Textbook is written by him is THE BEST, and entirely free.

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: ELEC260
• Grade Received: B+
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Great prof. Really likes the material and shows it. Won't be an easy class to pass but he'll do what he can to get you to understand the info and specifically sells the textbook he wrote for cheap.

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: ECE260
• Grade Received: B
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Dr. Adams does his best to stay upbeat and tries to keep the class engaged about the class material, which was generally quite complex and demanding. However, Dr. Adams really shines when it comes to his own personal textbook, which gives full solutions on how to do course problems. The best part was it was relatively cheap for a student wallet.

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: ELEC260
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

The fact that he wrote an entire textbook for a course he isn't particularly fond of and didn't publish it to save money for his student, says a lot about his character. Read his textbook, its stellar. I did poorly on the midterms mostly due to time, but he offers a 90% final, that's fair, and you have a lot of time.

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: ELEC260
• Grade Received: B
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Great prof, cares, is very clear at with his teaching and explanations of concepts. Always willing to answer pertinent questions and help you understand. Office hours were not usually very busy. The course itself is very difficult, but he makes it manageable.

Rating # 8

Overview:

• Course: ECE260
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

One of the best profs I have ever had. He is clear, concise, and very caring. Yes, the course is tough, but Adams does a great job teaching it; the rest is up to you. He has written is own textbook, which is excellent and is everything you need for the course.

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: ELEC260
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Super nice and reasonable!! He's one of the few profs I have who actually cares about his students and will pause lectures to make sure he's answered all the questions. Very accomodating during office hours and explains everything really thoroughly and slowly! Definitely don't skip lectures because they are super super helpful

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: ELEC260
• Grade Received: C+
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Rubbish teacher. Course is stupid as well

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: ELEC260
• Grade Received: A+
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Dr. Adams makes an otherwise difficult and dry class engaging and doable. It certainly isn't easy, but everything he teaches in class is well-documented in his textbook and the tutorials are not half-bad for relevant solved problems. Only complaint is the in-class teaching experience, as both the tutorial and lecture were ridiculously fast-paced.

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: ELEC260
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

His course is good. But I would recommend you to be his TA. He doesn't check marker TAs' marking job. Also, he just simply tell students to meet markers if they have any marking issues, and TAs MUST meet them, even though they don't have office hours. This policy really bothers marker TAs. It opens the door for cheating on exams.

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: ELEC260
• Grade Received: A+
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

His lectures are pretty straightforward, he usually just reads off some of his slides and does some examples from his textbook. For this reason, I wouldn't say lectures are mandatory, but just remember to read the textbook and the lecture slides. The material is tough, but don't worry if you do bad on a midterm, as he usually offers a 90% final.

Rating # 14

Overview:

• Course: ELEC260
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

A very talented professor. I looked up his CV and found he is an excellent student during undergraduate and graduate study. He wrote the textbook for students, and it is free. He talks too fast for students for catch up, but if you pay enough attention to his lecture, you will find that he explains concepts clearly and reasonably.

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: ELEC260
• Grade Received: A+
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Michael Adams is a great professor. He does everything he can to make his students succeed in his courses. He prepared a free textbook and posted it online for all of the students to use. He is very clear about what is expected of students in the class. He also tells funny little stories and often starts the class with corning engineering jokes

Rating # 16

Overview:

• Course: ELEC260
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Spoke so fast in lectures it was hard to follow along. Used his own textbook. In lecture examples were all already completed and straight from the text, so utterly useless. Crazy long assignments. Examples in the textbook: basic. Test questions: hard. You would have more luck learning the material by yourself and skipping lectures altogether.

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: ELEC260
• Grade Received: D
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Worst descriptive lectures ever. The contents of actual class information was about 10 minutes every day, the rest is repeat. He enjoys telling you what not to do, not how to do. Did the course 3 times, all three times the final was scaled to 90% because no one completed the midterms. ever. Highest mark in the class 25/30 Reconsider a new degree

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: ELEC260
• Grade Received: F
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

He has only 1 office hour/week and is unwilling to accommodate students who can't attend because he's more interested in his "research". The midterms are marked really harshly and it's not uncommon to get below 50% even after scaling. Also, having failed the course the first time, I can tell you that he always gives the option for a 90% final

Rating # 19

Overview:

• Course: ELEC260
• Grade Received: F
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

The content is so hard to understand! The lecture slides are literally just his entire textbook put into bullet points. There are so many stupid symbols and variables used throughout the course and to top it all off, there's Matlab thrown in with absolutely no lectures about it. You're just supposed to read the section in the textbook.

Rating # 20

Overview:

• Course: ELEC260
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Tough grader, never went to class because he talks too fast and he just skims over examples which isn't too useful. Get past midterms from people and practice ALL of them multiple times and complete ALL assignments and review them once or twice over. I got an A by doing this. The grading is extremely strict so make sure there's no room for errors.