2.9
Quality3.7
Difficulty45%
Would Retake96
Reviews45%
Would Retake
96
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
26
4
22
3
6
2
12
1
30
What Students Say
“Exams are hard yet teaching is poor and ineffective”
BFIN241 - 2.0 rating“He has a HEAVY Chinese accent”
BFIN353 - 1.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
54%
Textbook Required
83%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.57 avg changeRatings by Course
BMGT101
5.0
(1)BFIN411
5.0
(1)BFIN441
5.0
(1)BADM101
4.0
(4)FINANCEFORMAN
4.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
241
5.0
350
5.0
BFIN81
5.0
BFIN353
5.0
NABU340
5.0
Reviews (96)
Very polite, very patient, a good teacher
he is a nice teacher
Always willing to work with you if you are having difficulty.
great math skills, not always clear, recomend anyway
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No Comments
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I love Allen! If it wasnt for him I would have never enjoyed Quant's as much as I did. He is funny, helpful and genuinely cares for his students. Take any class you can with him!
kind of unclear but always willing to help you out
Good teacher always willing to help students. Not very clear with his english but still a great tacher...
Cool guy
He is a very nice teacher although you do understand him better as the term goes on. He reacts to students comments and always tries to help them, even when it comes to the final. He is very big on the textbook so make sure you know the definitions.
Awesome guy! He is a lot of fun. Hard to understand sometimes, make sure you ask questions if you didn't follow. He is very personable and willing to help. I would reccomend him - as long as you are okay with strong accents.
Allen is a really nice guy. Though his accent is a bit strong, his character covers it. He may be even too nice to some noisy students in my opinion.
I had no idea what Allen was talking about for the entire term. Refers to chapters in your Quants text & expects you to know what he's talking about - "remember chapter 6 page 248?" Actually Allen, no, no one remembers that. Useless instructor. Avoid.
Incompetent Clown. Needs to learn English
omg, i can't believe Allen teaches bus241! anyway, he's nice, helpful, and caring. he's a great guy, but i didn't really learn anything from him u know. he couldn't make it clear although he tried very hard though. i feel sorry for saying this, but for badm102, i would prefer Deborah to Allen.
Wow what a useless instructor. I had him before for BADM 102 and I don't remember it being this bad. He is completely disorganized. The "pageout" website is a joke, he doesn't keep it up. Mispronunciation gets confusing. Doesn't help students who are stuck, just tells them to read the book (even though you already have). Will NEVER take him again!!
The only reason that people rate Allen bad is he teaches a hard class, and they get mad because they are failing. It has nothing to do with his teaching abilities he is very good. Although he has a strong accent so dont take him if you find that hard to understand.
Yes, he does have a thick accent. Yes, he is a hard marker. Yes, he is a poor teacher. He definately knows what he's talking about, but that doesn't mean he's any good at helping us understand it.
Tough course though Zhu understands whats going on. If you need help he's there to clarify any topic. If you don't understand something, go talk to him...and if you don't, don't **** when you fail!
Took a night class w/ him...nice guy but expects much of his student. He seems to know his stuff...marks tuff.
DO NOT TAKE CLASS W / HIM!!!!!! HE SHOULD GO FIRST AND TAKE SOME ESL CLASS. THE WORST TEACHER EVER
Great teacher. Has a passion for teaching, and cares about how you do. He puts a ton of time and effort in his material. He teaches tough courses, but he really makes sure you comprehend the material. Classes are enjoyable.
Knows his material, and is very willing to offer assistance - I highly recommend him!
He knows his stuff but just cannot relay it back to the class, which is what teaching is all about, his accent is quite strong...I wouldn't recommend this teacher...sorry!
He is so cute! I love him. He tries really hard to get the point across, and although sometimes his accent gets confusing, if you tell him you don't understand he will clarify. READ THE BOOK! If you have any questions, talk to him. He will help you in any way that he can,whenever he can. Hard subject,show up to class, study everyday, do hmwk q's.
If you are planning to take his class/es then arrange a private tutor as well. If possible avoid him like plague. Once you are in his class, you are COMPLETELY on your own. Absolutely incomprehensible and ain't worth a spit.
Extremely nice person and he deffinately knows what he is talking about, BUT HE'S THE ONLY ONE! Did not understand a word that came out of that man's mouth! HE SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO TEACH! I had him for math and that's my strongest subject but he confused me SO MUCH I was forced to drop it!
He was very difficult to understand at times because of his accent. That was the most challenging part of the course. Assignments could also be explained a lot better. He is a nice person but I wouldnt take a class with him again strictly because of how hard he can be to understand.
Funny teacher, he is super smart and very helpful. He makes himself available to students. It is a hard course, DO YOUR HOMEWORK or you will repeat the course... like me. See you next semester :)
The most worst teacher I have ever had in my life. Extremely hard to understand, poor writing which is hard to decipher. AVOID him if you can. Capilano please find a more professional replacement, who actually possesses some teaching skills.
Could not understand a thing he said. explanations of material were very confusing, even ended up confusing himself sometimes. also at the end of the semester forgot what he taught in a previous class and taught the same stuff the next class. i do not recommend taking accounting with him.
Great teacher, the classes he teaches are difficult first and second year classes. You must keep up with the work and study, regardless of the teacher. He is not difficult to understand, you just need to listen, and he is extremely helpfull. He has postponed all of our class assignments and midterms! He is always willing to help!!!
Allen Zhu is very intelligent and knows his material very well. HOWEVER, when it comes to communicating ideas effectively, he fails miserably. He makes jokes and is quite upbeat, but due to insufficient English skills, his messages to the class are very jumbled. His analogies are irrelevant and rather confuse his ideas. Avoid his accounting class.
Allen is a nice and funny guy. You won't get bored in his class. He is willing to help students out as much as he can.
Allen jokes and makes his classes fun. He talks about tricks to save your money in real life. He is a little hard to understand at first, and is *not* helpful at all if you need help with a homework problem. He is disorganized and made many mistakes. 1/3 of the exam is definitions!
Horrible
Nice teacher, but really difficult to understand. Sort of uses textbook. but includes ALOT of information off book, and doesn't make any sense of it. Language barrier is a definite problem.
Worst teacher I've had. I can?t believe someone so disorganized and incompetent is a faculty member of a university. Commits innumerable mistakes during his class. Us students correct him constantly. He is not well prepared for any of his classes. Allen Zhu knows about accounting, but sure he does NOT know how to teach it.
Allen is a very smart individual, if you approach him kindly and show respect he will respect you in return. for those who say he does not help you, try studying in school and listening to the teacher. he has helped me through so many homework problems and i have spent countless hours bothering him in his office. Even when he is busy he helps!!!
I like him. He is really funny and jokes around alot in class. Eventhough there is a bit of a language barrier he still makes perfect sense to me. If people just shut up and listened to himn you would see that he makes sense and is very knowledgable.
Allen is a great teacher. He's got tons of patients even for the dumbest of student who ask him stupid questions. I would've blown up several time at some of you idiots. If you're taking finance with Allen make sure you brush up on quants and financial statements or you'll be in trouble. He expects you to know it and won't go into details.
Allen is a good teacher who tries to get the message across. You need to self study lots to do well, but he gives as much as he can. If you want to be spoon fed every answer without putting in any work, you will not like Allen. But if you take his advice and study hard, you will do well.
allen is a really funny guy, even though his english is not that great but you know hes trying to teach you. he wants to give you all he has and a good grade to you if you deserve it.
Allen is an OK teacher, he knows his stuff but tends to rush through examples and makes mistakes, which confuses many students and holds the class up.
His teaching is a mixture of in-class practice, objectives, and current events. It seems that there is so much to cover in finace, but he makes it easy to understand.
Great teacher, very knowledgeable in his field. There is no language barrier, he just has an accent. Paying attention in this class and reading the textbook occasionally garnered me a B+ in the "hardest course in the BBA"
Allen is an extremely intelligent teacher and is as helpful as possible to his students. Allen provides students with all the tools and concepts necessary to do exceptionally well in his classes. You will need to try though, the material Allen teaches is difficult and requires effort.
Poor language skills
Although Allen has a chinese accent, he tried his best to explain everything clearly to class.There is a 20% group report for this course it's all about making company's statements and analyze them in financial perspective. However, midterms were not easy if you don't study same as final. Work and study hard is the best way to pass this course.
He has a HEAVY Chinese accent. He doesn't know the subject that he is teaching. If you ask question he either ignore you or want to answer that question later that he got the answer for. He is the worse prof I have ever had in my life.
If you can take this course somewhere else take it. You won't learn anything in his class. I have a 3.8 GPA and great with math, I got A+ in 241 and I passed this one with C-. He is really unclear in class, his notes and numbers in class don't match the notes posted on moodle. His exams are really hard, specially the final exam.
Very clear cut rubric. Passionate teacher who is extremely smart and will go out of his way to help you learn under the condition that you put in effort. Not a easy a. He is a high quality professor with high standards. It is privlage to have him at Capilano. Best way to pass exams is to do the text book homework.
Allen is extremely knowledgable. Although he has a thick accent, you can ask him to repeat himself and he will do so without hesitation. Work load is very heavy with 2 midterms, a massive term project with a presentation and a final exam. Notes are somewhat unclear and exams are very difficult. Unlike connect and textbook work.
Very nice guy, and very knowledgeable He is a bit confusing sometime but he wants his students to succeed so he is always ready to help. Read the book, do the questions and you will be just fine This is a useful class even for non accounting students
I haven't learned anything since the beginning of the semester. Exams are hard yet teaching is poor and ineffective. Lecture Organization is poor since day 1. Did not feel like there was a proper introduction. Its pretty much self directed study. Class average is 60% . Connect and final project is a mark boost. Fair with all students which is good.
Nice teacher and very passionate about finance. Not the easiest teacher but he's alright if your a finance student. The language barrier makes it hard for students but he tries his best and its only fair that students do the same. Group project will consume a lot of time so make sure you get in a good group.
He just throw everything to the class and doesn't care if the students learn. He doesn't teach and the exam is done at home to everybody pass. Several students just copy from others or from the Internet. He also require that you pay the connect if you wanna have the grade for participation which is about 20%. He can't be considered a professor!
Allen is a nice person. I really struggled with his accent and pretty much got nothing out of his lectures. Luckily everything can be learned from the textbook.... practice, a lot. I had trouble remembering which formulas to use during exams. The group project is massive and a pain!
He sucks. That's the only word I want to say to him after suffering from him a whole semester. He did't understand my question and gave me the wrong info and blame me for the consequence. Dude, you are the one who spoke Chinese during your lecture!
I didn't understand anything from his lectures for this whole semester, and didn't learn anything about finance. Normally finance is what I am passionate about but he just made me hate it. Nothing personal, he might be a good guy but he is definitely NOT a good communicator. Even nowhere near!!!
I've heard mixed reviews about Allen. However, I find him to be extremely clear even through his accent. Read the textbook, and ask him questions when needed and you should be fine. The midterms can be heavy, up to 8 chapters. It is on you.
Good luck getting past his accent, if you do it won't help much. You basically have to learn the material yourself, since he will say, "you learn this before so we won't go over it". Then comes the midterm and wow the material we did not touch was there. His marking methods are confusing since he can not explain why he gave that mark.
I'm sure Allen knows what he's talking about but unfortunately, he doesn't teach the material in a way that students understand. I ended up teaching myself out of the textbook instead. He's a nice person but not a great prof. Hard marker, His accent is hard to understand, and when I had problems with group members he didn't help at all.
Allen is the best instructor I ever had. Inspirational and with a truly sense of caring for his students. Always available with tutorials to help the students which were facing difficulties with the course. He will help you understand finance management, will give great tips for your personal life and will give you references for your job! Amazing
Great professor who really knows the material inside out. If you learn things his way it can be very beneficial. Awesome guy who helped out me out greatly, owe him a lot. Just try to understand things from his perspective it will provide usual knowledge and short-cuts to the textbook content.
BFIN 350 is a very difficult class. Allen knows the material inside and out and is very passionate about helping his students. Keeping up with weekly readings/homework is strongly recommended as this is not a course you want to be learning 2-3 days before the exam!
BFIN 350 is a really difficult course to begin with, the gap between it and BFIN 241 is about equal to that of the Grand Canyon. With that in mind, read the chapters BEFORE class as things move quickly. Because of the sheer amount of material, Allen cannot cover every topic in great detail. If you fall behind in the chapter readings, good luck!
One of my favorite professors at Cap. Always tries to make sure that the students understand the material, and is usually easy to get the hold off if you need any clarification. Tests and exams can be difficult, cannot tell if it's the material, or not enough homework to practice. Highly recommend taking a class with Allen Zhu.
If there was an award for worst instructor at Capilano , Allen would win by far . I don't even know if he can be called an instructor since he doesn't really teach The quizzes are done before going through chapters , his explanations in class are in relevance to other classes so get ready to hear " you should know this from " with no explanation
Allen Zhu is a well-respected professor, with major experience, and is incredibly intelligent. I am an A-/B+ student, but this is a really had class and has a high fail rate. Read the book, and go to class, and start studying for the final 2 weeks in advance. You need time to review. Wish there was 2 midterms instead of 1 to break up the material!
Allen is one of my favorite professors to date. He will always be remembered by me for his patience and understanding. He knows the material well and listens regardless of occasional bad mannerisms in presentation. He is a good example of good academia and higher learning. Hopefully, I make it big so I can so something big for this guy
Said before and I'll say it again one of the few professors that I will remember forever. Great Guy anyone rating him low is just hating. Allen is awesome and great teach if you listen to him you will do well in the class.
Good guy Allen. Very knowledgeable about his field and uses his experience in his teachings. Have heard a number of profs recommend him in other classes. Lectures can get a bit dry but he realizes this and tries to keep everyone engaged. Definitely recommend.
One of the most knowledgeable and experienced professors at CapU. Took BFIN 286 and BFIN 441 with Allen and both courses had practical applications to the real World. He also takes a personal interest in his students success both in and out of CapU. He personally helped me get into a Masters programme in finance and economics. Defs recommend!
If you are into Finance, this is the class to attend! It is tough: read the textbook, prepare for class regularly and study hard! There is a lot of input in little time. But Allen supports you whenever he can and his explanations are very good, even though he makes some mistakes here and then. But you can learn a lot if you are willing to do so.
Allen is tough teacher, and the subject is complicated, he clearly cares about students,. he seems very knowledable.
Reaaaally good teacher!! He will make sure everyone got the material or else he will explain until you get it! His office hours were great as well! Rlly good teacher, straight forward and lovely person
In Class he acts like a really nice guy but when you have a problem or ask him for help he is abrasive and pushy. His niceness is an act! He goes over very little in class you basically have to teach yourself through the textbook.
He is very hard to understand due to his strong accent. This wouldn't be much of an issue if it wasn't for the fact that his notes are very messy and confusing. He made many mistakes working out problems during class, which made it more confusing. He was often rude when responding to questions.
Allen has been teaching for many years, however, his English speaking ability is incomprehensible. You can't understand him. His writing is chicken scratch, and his notes are confusing, he assumes you know everything already. Avoid him at all costs. Doesn't update the grades so you have no idea what your grade is sitting at.
Nightmare! I could not sleep due to anxiety of failing this course. You need to understand his accent first before the course that's a challenge itself. The man never updates grades. He didn't submit the final grade even on the fee payment deadline. Doesn't care about students. Never responds to emails. Worst prof I ever had.
Main important aspects: - it is important to attend the lectures because he does many questions In class. if you follow them and learn how to solve the questions you are ready for your exams. - practice a bunch on the connect practice homework (not for marks) - participate in the class, he will notice you and help he will help you a lot
I do not recommend his class. His class notes were messy and hard for students to understand.
He feels everyone is already a doctorate in Finance and he can straight away go to calculations. He could discuss some basic concepts of Finance that everybody can understand, but he never does that. He is only interested in financial problems. Rude and non-supportive. Take this course with him only if you have a previous background of finance.
Great teacher, he just has very difficult exams. However he offers many extra learning times and can help. Would recommend in any finance class at Capilano University.
I am livid, i can't understand a work he says in class and if i can understand it has nothing to do with what we need to know for the tests or exam. If you take this class with him your are telling yourself that you have no self worth as I am telling you right now that YOU WILL NOT UNDERSTAND HIS ENGLISH.
Not very upto date with some financial aspects. Will make you buy a online platform Connect but you can get refund after course end. Open book exams though. No attendance mandatory. No stupid assignments or presentations. Overall easy to clear and good teacher. Never had any trouble understanding what he said desping popular beliefs. Recommended.
This is the worst professor I haven't seen in my entire program Although he pretends that he is caring towards students but in reality, cruel towards students and you might sometimes feel like he is discriminating with you Please I would advise don't choose his class or else you will end up by regretting the entire semester. Not even reply to mails
My worst mistake in this semester is choosing this prof. He should not be in university as he doesn't think of anyone except himself, if these kind of professor stay in uni for teaching I am sad to say that university are choosing bad professors and playing with students life. Uni should think again of having prof with these kind of behaviour
Hilarious professor Not giving f.uck to any of the student query and just sitting and shouting to students in his own english which only he could understand and everytime be frustrate from students resulting in shouting awful words to students
Gives no feedback nothing was graded until the semester was over didn't know what was going on very hard to understand his English
Hard to understand, you'll basically teach yourself. Avoid completely. Take another professor.
do not take
man, Allen wa not your typical Asian teacher. as an Asian myself, i found his class tough and hard to understand. The good thing is that if you go to him he will patiently explain to you untill you understand. but still i would not take his class again.
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
54%
Textbook Required
83%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.57 avg changeRatings by Course
BMGT101
5.0
(1)BFIN411
5.0
(1)BFIN441
5.0
(1)BADM101
4.0
(4)FINANCEFORMAN
4.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
241
5.0
350
5.0
BFIN81
5.0
BFIN353
5.0
NABU340
5.0