Reviews For James Dahlin

Bad Teacher If You Don't CAD
First off, Dahlin is never on time to class. He's always at least 10-15 minutes late. When he is teaching in class, he just reads off slides. He is not very knowledgeable at all about the subject that he teaches.

The books that he suggests you need in this class are pointless because you never use the book about drawing and you only need the optional book if you have never taken CAD before.

The first part of the class is drawings, which he grades harshly. If you are not an artist, beware.

The second part of the class is CAD drawings, which he never specifies what he wants you to do. He brings it up after you turn in the assignment.

Dahlin is pretty much the worst teacher I've ever had and if you can avoid this class, do it.

Overall		Knowledge		Speech		Availability
Tangents		Homework		Exams		Grade Recieved	No Response
Class Taken Spring 2007

Dahlin is an architect teaching an engineering class, and it shows.

The first part of the class consists of drawings done by hand. He never gives out full points because he insists no one is perfect. The second part of the class is CAD. If you've never used CAD before, I suggest learning it before you come to class. Dahlin doesn't teach CAD. He knows a few things, and if your knowledge is really lacking you can learn something, but he doesn't know enough to show you how to do his homework.

Another thing to expect is very ambiguous guidelines. He never actually tells you what the specifics of your projects are, he just gives you a general idea and then takes points off for not getting his idea.

There is one quiz and it's fairly difficult. It's worth 30 points in the scope of 300 for the semester, so do what you can do memorize the slides the information comes from. And memorize ALL of it because the questions he asks are obscure and pointless.

The final is a project he gives you to do in CAD. It's not terribly difficult, but he doesn't give you many guidelines to go from. He does give a lot more than usual, and I suspect he does it based on previous experience.

If you come in expecting an A, chances are you'll get a B. There aren't many points in the class and he keeps quite a few to himself as a default, so getting an A is extremely difficult. It can be done though. Just settle in because if you're taking this class, I bet it's required.

Overall		Knowledge		Speech		Availability
Tangents		Homework		Exams		Grade Recieved	A
Class Taken Spring 2007

Horrible Professor, no clue what he is doing, bad and inconsistent grader. Always 15 minutes late. Labs aren't required, you never need to go, he doesn't even go to them. Homework is easy to do, but time consuming, and he very vague on the assignments and downgrades you when you don't give him exactly what he wants, or even when you make changes that he tells you to do. You have to learn how to use AUTO CAD on your own/friends. 1 test that you have to study for, 1 big project at the end.

Overall		Knowledge		Speech		Availability
Tangents		Homework		Exams		Grade Recieved	A
Class Taken Spring 2007

AE 2400 review
Dahlin knows his stuff and has plenty of slide shows but doesn't give out enough assignments for you to get a better learning experience.

Overall		Knowledge		Speech		Availability
Tangents		Homework		Exams		Grade Recieved	No Response
Class Taken Fall 2007