Yea-Mow Chen

Professor Chen has a very odd style of teaching. He starts off most of his classes talking about the stock market which is fine; however, he spends a lot of time doing so. When he does lecture he often makes errors in his own examples that other students have to point out. In addition, he has a heavy accent which makes it hard to understand what he is saying most of the time. Professor Chen also lectures on many different topics none of which are covered on his exams. He does provide sample exams, but they are truly useless none of the questions are even remotely close what his exams cover. A major problem with the class is that the majority of his lecture material is not covered on the exam, so attending his classes seem to be a total waste of time,however,he gives participation points so most attend to get the points. Im not sure if the administration is aware of how Professor teaches his classes, but I believe they should send someone in one of his classes to observe him. Chen is simply put one of the worst instructors at SFSU he really should not be teaching.

Prof Chen is a nice guy but I had trouble understanding his accented speach during lecture. More seriously, I regularly challenged prof Chen in class on his solutions to problems. He would puzzle and scratch his head and determine that I had the right answer and that what he scrawled on the board was wrong and then he would erase it. Furthermore, during my specific class (finance 350 summer session with 300 students) approximately 20% of the exam questions were solved incorrectly in the exam solution set and we spent entire class sessions correcting him as he tried unsuccessfully to solve our exam questions and then re-graded our exams individually. In my opinion this was a silly waste of my time and not worthy of any institution claiming to provide higher education.

I don't want to repeat the same negative view points from the previous reviewer. Everything that reviewer wrote is absolutely true. But I'll add my own version that the previous review did not include.

Over the summer, my first half of the course was taught by Prof He. Unfortunately, Chen had to take over the 2nd half, and boy...did that sucked... It's amazing on the first day when I notice everyone, including myself, started yawning, and everyone's eyelids became more heavy.

This guy has some problems teaching. Chen should spend a day in each of the other Finance faculties and see how to teach CORRECTLY! Chen has communication problems, and I suggest he take a course in BUS 360. When he says something like "Excise", he means "exercise", so keep that in mind if you are unfortunate to take his course. His powerpoint presentation is just AWFUL!! Some slides would have over 30 lines in 4-6 point fonts. How the hell can students follow that? He'll often skip certain slides because he doesn't know how to follow it.

It is a damn shame he is the chairman of finance. I felt rip-off (just like the other reviewer) from his class. My education for this core finance course was taken away from me. I barely learn anything from him, and his exam is not related from his book and lectures. Luckily, I'll never have to endure him again.

I can't believe someone gave him an "A" review. This idiot must have been either Chen himself or one of his family or friend who typed it.

The reviews previously posted about this professor is not a lie. I took him during the summer and I must say, it was a waste of time going to class. His lectures are totally unorganize, he reads directly from the book and solution manual. When the soultion manual doesn't have the way to do the problem, he would just say "Well Anyway", he said this so many time when he went through a problem he couldn't answer that the class started to laugh out loud. Or he would say "lets come back to it later" but he never does. It was a TOTAL waste of time going to class, you could just miss the whole 5 weeks, go to final and just fill in the multiple choice anyway you want and you would still get a higher or equal chance of passing then those who attended his lecture every other day. The only thing that prevents him from getting a F is that he grades on a big curve, which he must do with his Aw@@@ teaching style. I felt rip off with his teaching style and with Professor He, who taught the first 3 weeks. I normally don't pass classes with this low of grade, but I really felt rip off in this class. Only thing that prevented 90% of the class from failing was that he gave a big curve.

Professor, if you ever read this. I really hate to give you such a low mark, but it reflects your teaching style.

Professor Chen is a good instructor. Finance courses are hard enough but he made it easy for us to learn and prepare for exams. Everyone's got different opinions about everything so I don't think he deserves to have bad reviews. His class is hard but if you read all the assigned readings and pay attention to his lectures, you should be fine. It is, of course, isn't his fault if you don't read all the assigned readings and pay attention to his lectures, or come to class.

I believe Prof. Chen took a hard subject and made it nearly impossible. The major problems is his teaching style. He was totally unable to engage the stidents in the learning process. I was comnpletely surprised to see the number of students who failed the class. Were they all morons are was there some other explanation. I feel the Finance department has a serious problem. The instructors are so intent on showing that they are experts that they fail to teach the students. I have been fairly successful in my finance classes but I think this is a result of perseverance and luck rather than good teaching. As I prepare to leave SFSU I wonder if I really know anything about Finance. I have spent my time trying to figure out exactly what these self centered professors will try to trip me up with next rather than the field of finance. Unfortunately there is no alternative if you are a finance major. Chen is the only 353 instructor. Get his useless reader and the overpriced book and hang on. It's going to be a bumpy ride.

I agree that Prof. Chen has knowledge about finance, but he doesn't know how to teach. I read the book before I went to class, but I was surprised that his lecture didn't come from the book. He talked a lot, but it didn't relate to the chater which I need to know at that day. You will be surpriesed in the exam because nothing come from the lecture or a little from the book. I wonder the exams wanted to show students how hard FIN353 is. I assume the exams want to know how students learn from the professor. I suggest Prof. Chen should go to other finance couse to learn how to teach from other professors.

Professor Chen clearly is a knowledgeabe man regarding finance. However, his teacing style is lousy. He is unprepared in his lectures. He has jumped all over the place. I have read the text according to the syllbus. During his lectures I don't know what chapter he is taling about. I am familiar with his discussion a little bit, but it might be because of something I have read from another finance class. I want him to be more clear about where the lecture are going to go. Also, I want the exams to cover either his lectures or the text much more closely. During our last exam, he told us two weeks before the exam that the test would only cover some of the chapters assigned in the syllabus. The chapters not covered even though assigned in the syllabus just happened to be the first four chapters pertaining. A lot of information was absorbed from those text chapters, however I didnt do well at all on that exam. I was short on time and only at the last moment he shared what was and was'nt relevant to testing our knowledge on the current topics covered. NOT GOOD!

Suggestion: Please be more organized and test us on what is covered and not on the world of finance in general.

Professor Chen has the knowledge of finance, but he doesn't know how to teach. He doesn't know how to organize his lecture. I went to class every time and I read the book many time before I took the exam. I was surprised that nothing came from the lecture and only 30% come from the book. There are 80% of exam multiple choice and 20% of exam essay question. The multiple choices are very hard. The exam is to test how students learn from the professor. The exams only test how hard it is why we come to school everyday because we can study by ourselves. Because nothing came from his lecture, there were only a few students coming his class. I hope the professor can change his style of teaching the rest of semester. If the exams don't have nothing to do his lecture, I don't think people want to go to his class. I don't give him F because he really teaches something knowledge about finance, but nothing is relative to exams. I don't know how I can pass this class. I only can pray to God, so I can guess right answer about multiple choice because if God helps me, I will guess right, so I can pass this class. God bless me to pass this class.

Professor Chen makes this class much harder than it really is. He may have a Ph.D but we all wondered whether or not he really knows what he's talking about. Students would ask him a question and he would either write the answer on the board and erase it before you could write it down or he would tell you to read the book. His lectures are a waste of time and you're better off reading the book during his class. In addition, he missed at least four classes. He was never present during any of our exams. That's a lot of classes to miss considering we met only once a week.

Professor Chen makes this class much harder than it really is. He may have a Ph.D but we all wondered whether or not he really knows what he's talking about. Students would ask him a question and he would either write the answer on the board and erase it before you could write it down or he would tell you to read the book. His lectures are a waste of time and you're better off reading the book during his class. In addition, he missed at least four classes. He was never present during any of our exams. That's a lot of classes to miss considering we met only once a week.