Hovel Babikian

School: Cal Poly Pomona
Department: Engineering
Location:Pomona, CA
Overall Rating
rated by 20 students
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 Pros: His name is Hovel
Cons: Everything else
This guy is just here for a paycheck. I have had three classes with this scumbag, and he has shown up late to every final. When I say late....I mean like an hour late. No integrity whatsoever. He will talk to the class for 10 minutes, and then set you free. It's great to get out early every once in a while...but every class session?!? The only thing you will learn from his classes are how bad off the California School System truly is.
You will be forced to take him as an ETC student, so just go with flow.
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 Class is easy if you know how to deal with him, basically just accept hes going to be teaching it no what you do. Really simple subject to begin with, and he really doesn't go in depth. Basically to get bye in this class just do the homework but don't over-think them, chances are he'll give everyone the same grade or will grade depending on criteria or if you did every part, so try not to over exert yourself. The test were base basically completely on the dumb book, the final was more essay format but was simply based on certain subjects so whatever he says just look at those and learn what goes on in them. THe midterms was 100% from the book and the final was probably 85%, so really not that hard just no where to look. The only grade you'll most likely see is some of the homework's so ya. Grade Received B
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 Class is simple, it really is basic Website creation. Its nothing complicated. Just do the homework which primarily making a webpage using Microsoft Word or Frontpage. Using ciiteria he explains in class. Don't go out of your way to make it super fancy just make sure its got all the parts asked for as he'll just look at it for a second and not even really fully check it. Midterm and Final are straightforward and short, based on the past homeworks so anything that was actual questions make sure to have printouts of the articles cause will be useful for the test. For the final you do need the stupid book even if you used it like for 1-2 weeks. Ask around for the book cause chances are someone has it because you can't sell it back. The final again was just basically asking about what he talked about after the second half as well as just previous stuff that you learned, if you have the book and articles its even easier and can just copy word for word. Grade Recieved A
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 Class with him like his others is simple, he teaches somewhat some classes, though he missed like 4 weeks on ours so basically cause once a week class we barley did much. Honestly do read cause the stuff the material he does give you is informational, in all honestly dont blame him for not really trying with this subject as its kinda repetitive of most the other class he or others have taught before this. Class is simple he assigns a homework every class except before midterm and final. There easy, just answer questions from the reading, just do everything and youll get full credit regardless if the answer is right or not, that includes the dumb activity's, hell take points off if you got nothing for it. We didn't end up having a midterm because of alot of things, but if we did would have been open note and book and would have been simple. Final was closed book and note however, though questions were pretty straight forward, if you did any of the reading or have paid attention ion other classes you'll be fine. Really the questions bassicaly were the major points from most the chapters.So reading will help ya. Grade Recieved A-
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 I took ETC 130/130L in the winter 2009 session. It's a drafting class that is completely self-taught. He takes you to various sites on campus and expects you to draw them to scale without any instruction from him, the professor, who gets paid to teach. You could be doing something wrong in your drawings but would never know it and have no way of trying to recover your grade. My class got their graded drawings (all five of them) back on the day of the final, after your have already turned your final in. How is that for efficient? The lowest grade I received was an 88 and my final was strong but I still only received a C+ in the class. Go figure. Too bad I didn't play like I wanted to be his best friend, maybe I could have got the grade I deserved. I hate the comments that say other students negativity is because they are lazy or didn't do the work required. I did every assignment and I did them well to no avail. Seriously the worst teacher on the cal poly campus and I think his life goal is to drain students of as much of their cash as possible. Grade Received: C+
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 I took this class in fall of 2008. Babikian challenges my comments every time I post, because I post the truth and nothing else. I did every assignment to his exact specifications. You get graded material back about 6 weeks later but have no idea what grade you received because there is just a number, no 15 out of 20 or 40 out of 50 just a random number. The work load for the class is heavy. You cannot purchase a used book, and they run about $150, written by him so he profits from your purchase. You cannot photocopy the quizzes needed for the class because that would cheat him out of money through copy write infringement. He has managed to create a complete monopoly to profit off of struggling college students. He absolutely plays favorites, they are never female. He disapproves of women in the construction industry and talks down to them like they are below males; period. I am a 3.6 GPA and received a C. Grade Received: C
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 Babikian is a straight up guy and as long as you do what he says and follow directions carefully you'll do just fine. This class sucks because the whole class is hand drafting. I took in Winter 2008. We never even touched a computer. It takes a lot of time but if you put the time in you can pull A's on the drawings. Only problem is the final you have to draft a smaller area on a half size paper in 2 HOURS and normally these drawings take anywhere from 10 to 40 hours to complete. I had a high A with grade 96,98,93, 97 and so on until the final. But if you learn to draft quickly and efficiently you'll be fine. Grade Received: B+
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 This class is a complete waste of time. You draw landscaping such as THE ROSE GARDEN. I talked to many people who received A's on their hand drafts, no one got a A in the class. He grades using a bell curve. So you better be better than everyone if you want to get an A in the course. I received an 82% in the class, but relative to the class, i got a C+... You will be highly disappointed. Class is about 15 minutes, if even that long. He is regularly late. Even on finals day. You'll probably learn more taking this class at a C.C.
How to succeed in this class? You better be damn sure you're the cream of the crop. Do things that are "special" Be "perfect". You gotta be things that are never asked of you in any other class to actually get a decent grade... Grade Received: C+
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 Here's the thing about Babikian. With him there are such things as stupid questions, so if you ask him descent questions he will spend time with you and answer them. If your not prepared hell call you on it, and if you don't do what he asks, you'll regret it. He skips through a lot of the BS stuff in the class because that's all it is BS. He's a good teacher as long as you dont complain, you do your work. If your not sure about what to study for in his class go up to him after class and ask him. He is very straight foward about this info. BESIDES HES THE ONLY PROFESSOR THAT ACTUALLY ADDS ALL THE STUDENTS, especially now that the CET department is going down the drain.
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 He makes you do drafts by hand and by Microstation, NOT Auto CAD - which was misleading, by the course description. There were 5 or so hand drawings assigned which were pretty tedious to do. If you got something wrong on your drawing, you'd never know about it until weeks later (meanwhile you've already turned in 2 other drawings with the same mistakes because he doesn't grade and return the drawings to let you know what you're doing wrong. After that, there isn't much time to recover your grade.) I was going to complain about it. But that'd be like yelling into a chasm. For the final, he makes you do a hand drawing of a plot in 1 hour and then the Microstation drawing for it in 1 more hour. Which is a bit unreasonable, since he'd normally give us a week to do a hand drawing. Anyway, he's still a bad teacher - nothing new. Oh, and he made everyone buy his self-written (surprise, surprise) book for Microstation. It was.. 60 bucks? Try getting it online: Beginning Microstation for Civil Engineers: Learning the Basics of Two-Dimensional Design 5th Ed. Grade Received: C+
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 Took Babikian for ETC250/L. The class itself is not that difficult, it is basically making web pages using MS FrontPage2003. That being said, it was kind of strange taking this class because Babikian was teaching in one classroom, and had a speaker system set-up so we could hear it over in the next room. With the class structure the way it was, all the people that weren't in the room with Babikian were online the whole time. Not that it matters, because you can find everything in the book, but still...this is supposed to be a friggin' college level programming class...not a high school web page seminar! I feel that the best thing a student can do to pass this class is get yourself a copy MS FrontPage2003, that way, for the really big projects, you can spend some extra time with it while at home. One other thing, put a little time in when studying for the mid-term and final, because they are A LOT trickier than one might think. Grade Received: B-
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 Professsor Babikian is a very good guy. The reason you see some bad reviews about him is because there are those guys that come up with smart alek remarks during class to try to be funny, but they mostly fail. It also doesn't help to talk bad about him when you know you want to do good in class. Of course there is a ton of work sometimes, but just do it without complaining and you'll be just fine. Challenging does not mean bad... it's ok to try harder and learn something from it! I'm going to be taking this professor for many more ETC classes and I have nothing bad to say about him. However, it would help if he gave students a little more time during a conversation. Good Luck! Grade Received: A-
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 This guy is completely off his rocker. I'm a Civil Engineering major and wanted to change to Engineering Technology and I heard he was the guy to talk to. I tried to ask simple questions, but he'd either ignore them, throw them back at me, or be as vague as humanly possible. He started getting rude, so I tried my best to just joke with him and get the answers I needed. He tried inappropriately to joke back, so I just said "wow... thats a bit evil". Apparently I had just told him The Aristocrats, as he became belligerent and shouting that he has NEVER in his ENTIRE LIFE been called an evil person, and that EVIL MEANS SATANIC! Geez, leave the cross at home, buddy. I dropped all my classes before I even had to sit one day with him. This guy and his insane antics is the sole reason I'm still a Civil Engineer.
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 This class was probably one of the most challenging management classes I've taken for the Construction Engineering core courses, but I mean that in the best way. Prof. Babikian is a great teacher, highly knowledgeable about the construction industry, good at presenting difficult subject matter and pretty funny as well. This class was great because because it touched on the basics of earthwork and excavation,and construction equipment and job layout selection which gets you ready for the courses in estimating, scheduling and cost control. I really enjoyed this class because the questions that Babkian gives you for homework and on the exams make you analyze construction problems from many different angles and not just from a "here's the problem, here's the answer" point-of-view. *Highly recommended....but be prepared to work!* Grade Received: B
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 I must say I respect Prof. Babikian a lot. He is very knowledgeable in the area of construction. He is great at explaining ideas in a humorous way. He can be funny, but also inappropriate when making jokes. I feel he is too busy to be an adequite professor. A lot of times his lectures last 10-20 minutes, then he gives a 6 hour homework assignment. He never calls his students back, and he may take a month to reply to an email. He likes to through curve balls on every test. He thinks he is being challenging by giving his students a 2 hour test but only an hour to complete it. I do not feel he gives adequite feedback on tests or homework.
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 This guy is a prick, he thinks he is God's gift to students. He wears shirts 2 sizes too small to try to show off his muscles. He knows his construction stuff, but his tests are all open book, just 8 pages of copying. Somehow, with just copying, he finds a way to give people D's (he marks correct answers wrong, so check very carefully or you will get screwed out of points, I got 16 points added to a test because i checked). He rips you off on the books, he gives a pity story about being a poor teacher who works hard and needs our $60 for a book he says he copyrighted, which is actually just a compilation of photocopies from real books (thus he is actually violating copyright laws). In reality, he is rich, lives in a huge house apparently in Pasadena, and drives a Benz. Pay attention to the lectures, he does know his stuff, but make sure he doesnt know who you are and you will get by ok. Grade Received: B+
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 This guy is beyond stuck on himself. All he does is talk about his great family and how he went to CalTech taking loads of 25 units a quarter while playing baseball. He puts down students in the middle of class saying 'How do you expect to be a engineer when you can't even follow my directions?' Then to top it off he insults everyone by making you buy his book which is nothing more then a bunch of copied pages punched together for almost $50! Overall his class is nothing but basic knowledge of the CAD system(which he does not even make interesting) but he blows it into a 20+ page final which carries the entire weight of the class.
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 If the CE department does not realize it by now, Mr. Babikian has to be, if not the best, one of the best professors the department has. Since attending college I've never been as enthusiastic about a class as I am with Microstation. Mr. Babikian is very knowledgable in the subject and I believe that he could handle any problem that arises. Do no think that this class is easy, because it is not. There is a lot of work involved and a lot of time and energy needed to get a good grade. But he is fair and teaches students the essentials of not only the subject material, but also teaches students the essentials at succeeding in the job market.
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 I enjoyed this class very much, eventhough it was lots of work, it was fun and a good learning experience. I especially liked and appreciate the fact that the Prof. cares about the students future such as grad school & job related materials. Unlike other professors, he was friendly when asked questions and somehow he made students feel comfortable which I think is very important. Well, he was friendlier than other professsors. Overall this class was one of the most enjoyable class. I learned a lot of things that could be used outside of this class. Not only Cad but also how to deal with other professionals.
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 I believe that Mr. Babikian is extremely knowledgeable about the subject matter and, in particular, his practical applications in 'real world' situations. In passing this on to his students, he is doing them a great service. Furthermore, it is clearly evident that he cares about the material and his students. He does not merely go through the motions of presenting material, but has a genuine concern about each and every student understanding the material. He expects and demands a great deal from his students, but the students that put forth the necessary effor are greatly rewarded in the broadening of their own indicidual knowledge base.

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