Fernand Cohen

School: Drexel University
Department: Engineering
Location:Philadelphia, PA
Overall Rating
rated by 14 students
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Rating Comment
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 Pros: Teacher teachers
exams are like quizzes
I love this guy, he's fantastic
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 Pros: Makes class fun
Makes his best effort to help
Office hours
Huge curve at the end
Cons: WAAAAYYY TOO FAST!
Makes fun of you
Appears condescending
Does things completely different from the book
I would have given him a 1 star. However because he is such a hilarious and awesome personality, I have given him two. However avoid this guy if possible. He teaches wayy to fast. Every class you will feel like as though you were flying on a jet plane, at mach 5000 speeds for no good reason. He does things completely different from the book or from any other professors. He will make fun of you for not understanding things.
However I will admit, midterms, final and quizes are fair. If you are one of the few students who can understand the material somehow you will do well in them. But for most of us, an already hard class is made even harder by a fast condescending professor.
One good thing is he will give you a huge curve at the end. So hang in there if you have him and try your best. But yeah...if possible avoid.
** He is very open for office hour visits and will try to help you as much as possible. But still too fast and too condescending.
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 Pros: Superb at explanations
I had him for a recitation class that's why no exams or quizzes. You can attend his recitations without lectures and get at least a B+
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 Pros: He understands the material.
Cons: Verbally insults students for asking questions and assumes students already know the material. The material covered in class is entirely different from the book.
He understands the material, but in his arrogance decides not to use notes during lecture which causes many mistakes to be made which only makes the material even more difficult to learn. The homework solutions also contained many errors because he did not check the TA's work. He has very interesting views towards education. He stated that it is not his job to teach what is in the book, but to get us to think, and that we must struggle. Most professors go over example problems in recitation, but Cohen just stares at you and asks if you have questions. He also only has one office hour per week right before the quizzes and frequently isn't there. Overall, I learned more (not much though) from the TA than the professor.
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 He is one of the best Professors in Drexel, He knows what he is talking about..seeks for help and I assure you will get it..
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 Pros: Knows material very well
Cons: Very condescending
Expects students to already know material
He seems to expect students to already know the material of this course before they walk in to class. His lectures are not easy to follow, and his mock exams he uses for review are much easier than the actual exams given. Homework problems are difficult, even though they are not graded and only used as a way to prepare for the quizzes each week. The exams are hard and unforgiving. He clearly cares more about the higher level material in signal theory than what is taught in this class, and it shows in his lectures and how he responds to questions. The only saving grace of this class is that it is so difficult, there is often a large curve.
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 Pros: Lectures completely from memory, does not use notes.
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 A very difficult professor to take due to his attitude towards questions taken by students during class. Expect to be mocked for your lack of knowledge. The lecture notes are indecipherable unless you have past experience with systems engineering. The homework is almost entirely unrelated to the lecture notes, solidifying the impossibility of interpretation. Recitation, instead of being a lecture review, becomes a class where people beg for homework solutions.
Given that Drexel's 11-week class structure already puts pressure on people to regurgitate instead of learning, this class's press-hard, press-fast atmosphere certainly does not help if you are looking to expand your knowledge. Enjoy hanging on by your teeth trying to keep up and stay alive. There is no homework or attendance buffer for grades as everything is decided by quizzes and tests.
While total immersion certainly works for foreign languages, it doesn't work so well in complex engineering. This class is a prime example of that.
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 I took professor Cohen for ECES 302: Transform Methods and Filtering. He's a good professor, and knows his stuff really well. His class notes are a great help. His homework problems are a bit tough and not at par with what he teaches in the lectures so make sure to attend his recitations. Attendance is not mandatory. There are no points for homeworks. He gives quizzes from the previous terms so make sure to have previous terms quizzes. The best part is that Prof Cohen gives you mock test for both the mid-term and final and the actual tests are an exact replica of it with the values changed.
Now, the bad part. ECES 302 is a challenging course and requires a lot of hard work. Simply blaming the professor wouldn't help. Prof. Cohen would definitely crack jokes on you, but thats the guys nature. Don't have any hard feelings. He'll always help you with all your doubts. Don't hesitate and go to him for help. He does curve, but its a C - centered course (i.e. the class average is given C). So BEWARE!!!!!!
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 Good Professor. Knows his stuff. I dont think the class was hard. if only he would give a cheat sheet or a sheet of equations it would probably lower the no of people who drop out. i dont think he expects too much. his sarcasm is supposed to be funny not offensive. a lotta people drop out of his class so if u think u are not gonna be working or u arent really smart dont take it
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 Knows most of his stuff. He has high expectations for his students. You won't be able to slide through his class unless your born a genius or you study. Tough love, don't expect any sympathy.
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 He is definitely condescending towards students, and expects students to know the material to an unreasonably deep level with only limited experience. This attitude does not encourage many questions in class. It seems that he is so used to his own 'brilliance' that he doesn't realize that his students don't actually have a PhD in the subject.
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 He elects to explain things as formally as possible. I appreciate his explanations. The only problems most students have is that he expects a level of understanding that might not be reasonable from someone who is just learning the material for the first time.
Another thing is that he teaches probably the most difficult subjects that most people take, and he makes sure that if you have a decent grade in his class you really know the stuff. This will make any professor somewhat disliked.
I have to say that he is probably one of the only professors in Drexel that makes sure that you learn, if you want a good grade. Most other classes are easy to pass with no real understanding.
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 He s Brilliant!

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