Anu Aggarwal
Electrical & Computer Engineering - University Of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign
4.0
Quality2.2
Difficulty77%
Would Retake121
Reviews77%
Would Retake
121
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
87
4
2
3
2
2
2
1
28
What Students Say
“Reads straight off the lecture slides”
ECE425 - 2.0 rating“If you came to UIUC to learn, do not take a course from here”
ECE425 - 1.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
35%
Textbook Required
0%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Improving
+2.19 avg changeRatings by Course
ECE482
5.0
(7)ECE462
4.4
(43)ECE120
3.8
(31)ECE425
3.5
(30)ECE398AA
3.0
(10)Difficulty by Course
ECE398AA
3.1
ECE120
2.4
ECE425
2.3
ECE462
1.9
ECE482
1.6
Reviews (121)
Reads straight off the lecture slides. Lectures 3 days a week could just simply be read at home. Does not really add insight into the topics covered. When going over material, she insists that "we should know this" and continues on without explaining information well.
If you came to UIUC to learn, do not take a course from here. She just reads straight off the slides not contributing anything worthwhile. If you have a question, there is a 90% chance she will respond with "you should know this" and move on which makes no sense to me because the point of going to class is to learn new material, right?
Dr Aggarwal is new to the university but is teaching 400 level course. This course material is actually 3 courses packed into one. Yet she covers everything in class. She is very helpful, answers all questions and v friendly. She grades very fairly. She has designed several Vlsi chips n has worked at intel - knows what is expected in industry.
Prof Aggarwal is v kind, helpful and knows the subject. She helps us a lot in class by asking specific questions that help us think carefully through the problem. This helped me understand the other wise difficult course v well.
Prof. Aggarwal is new to giving lectures, but she handles ECE 120 well. She presents the information on the slides and usually adds on to them. She gives a lot of examples as well. She is incredibly patient and has no problem staying after a class to answer your questions.
She never cares if the student understands the lecture, but only if she can finish the lecture on time. Totally a slide reader and does not know anything happening in the department.
For a 2 credit hour ECE course, this Professor is completely oblivious to the amount of work it entails. She is very disorganized and is making updates to the lab requirements midway through them. She also doesn't make project requirements clear and expects all students to do extra credit of making encasing for the project. Made my semester hell.
Professor Aggarwal spends the entire semester just reading off lecture slides. When it comes time for the final presentation, students that have done everything that is needed according to the rubric will get points docked because she wanted it done a certain way and if you question it she will say you should've asked earlier and that you messed up
Imagine your run of the mill 5th grade presenter: Reads every bullet point verbatim and adds almost no additional value to the presentation. Class itself isn't very hard, but I just couldn't stand her lectures.
Reads off the slides and information is not well presented. Lectures do not contribute to understanding. Does not set expectations clear. Most groups did not understand what she wanted because the assignment was phrased poorly. She then proceeded to blame the groups. Had a very condescending attitude.
The Professor and her teaching methods are backwards and she repeatedly asked for feedback but never acknowledged or improved anything. Reads off of Prof. Chens slides, with none of her input, never went over solved examples in class. When asked a question in lecture, says, "You should know this". Also very condescending to students. Take 482/483.
Very Bad experience on this course. She was always reading her slide's notes. Cannot answer lots of questions. You should choose this course when she is not the instructor.
Professor simply reads the slides during lectures. By read, I mean quite literally read the slide. She doesn't add value or anything. What's even more annoying is that the slides were made by Lumetta, not her.
She isn't very good at lecturing. Take this class when someone else is teaching. Can be rude and condescending too. She speaks over you when you are asking questions and doesn't let you finish. Her lectures can be inconsistent with the posted practice exam solutions and the book.
Was really interested in the material but she's honestly not a good teacher. Just read slides (prepared by other professors from past semesters) in lectures, and she does no explanation at all. Unfair grading and her syllabus for the course is not clear. I wouldn't recommend taking 462 or 425 with her, even if you're interested in the material
Clueless, does not know how to operate a projector. Gave terrible lectures and talked incredibly slow. Better than gray noise for taking a nap.
Horrible Lecturer, horrible with technology, and does not understand when she is wrong about simple concepts. Couldn't even explain how extra credit works in the class. The only good thing about this professor was that her lectures were so bad I stopped showing up to class very early and started watching the recorded lectures from Lummetta instead.
It is ironic that someone who is teaching a class called "Introduction to Computing" does not know how to use a computer Lectures are beyond useless, do not bother attending them as you will not learn anything. Just read the online notes and go to office hours as much as possible if you want to do well in this class.
Professor Aggarwal was a terrible professor. She only read straight off the slides, not explaining anything. She skipped over some of the coding slides, saying, "You should already know this" when many of the students in the class didn't even know basic programming. Watch the Lumetta videos if you want to pass, there are no good ECE 120 professors.
Prof. Aggarwal basically just read the PPT made by Prof. Lumetta for her lecture. After finishing her lecture, we still could not figure out how to do the homework, so the office hours were always full of students. If you are not very good at ECE, you should never go to Prof. Aggarwal's lectures. Lumetta's notes and lecture videos will help.
Professor Aggarwal was the most abysmal professor I have had the misfortune of having in the ECE department. She was not able to clearly explain concepts, was disinterested in the course material, and was not approachable. While I have no doubt that she knows the course material very well, she was not able convey this to her students.
I would bet if you give ask her why are we using polysilicon as the gate material instead of metal, she would be dumb founded. She would say something like "Its out of the scope of this class" because she actually doesn't know the answer.
This professor need some fundamentals in regards to how to deliver concepts to students. She doesn't respect/care about student learning materials. I don't know how she got a job at ECE Illinois.
She needs to learn how to teach and also learn the difference between order and chaos. She is very disorganized!
She is good at teaching the material of 462, can't speak for the other classes. She was very caring about making sure everyone learns.
Lectures were good
pretty cool. good teacher, very nice, very nice. respect, respect
Liked group projects
Like extra credit opportunities
She is v caring, liked group projects
Great lectures
Very approachable . Always responds to emailed queries
Lots of extra credit opportunities!
She makes the material easy to understand. Material and lecture recordings are available after the class which is great!
Lot of ways to earn points. Learned a lot with in class quizzes.
She has improved the class so much - created in class problems and also a new project!
She explains even the difficult concepts very easily.
Her in class problems helped me prepare well for the class.
She made sure that we learned by assigning in class problems, going over them in class and reviewing the topics that we did not understand properly based on our solutions.
Her lectures were amazing. She helped me when my grade was being messed up by the course coordinator.
She created a new project using industry standard tools. She created lots of practice problems.
I liked her teaching style.
She is very good.
Best professor for ECE 120. She is very caring too!
She is really good in every course that I have taken with her.
She is the best professor for ECE 120. I wonder when she will be back to teaching it again.
Loved her teaching. I don't know why she is not teaching again? She was the best VLSI person who even helped me with industry interviews!
This course was very interesting and the instructor very good. I wonder when the course will be offered again?
She was very helpful, patient and listened to students. I really like her teaching style.
She inspires us so much especially female students- being a doctor and engineer at the same time!!
She cares that we learn rather than dumping material on us!!
She shares all course material with students. She is the best for the course
She explained the concepts well and was always available to answer questions.
This course was so useful for hands on learning. Not sure why it is not offered anymore.
She has developed a project in SIS and ABC, the 2 softwares that were not used for the course earlier. The project is very useful even though it is extra credit.
She is very good instructor for VLSI. Even with little experience as compared to Prof Rosenbaum, she taught as well as her. Was always well prepared for the lecture. Designed the course project which was amazing.
She cares for you to learn. She is amazing.
She was very new to UIUC still she did an amazing job in teaching a difficult VLSI course as 425. She was the best as compared to all other instructors teaching this course.
She is very caring for students, makes lectures interesting by involving students in problem solving.
She makes sure you learn in class by going over all the problems. Assigns a lot of problems which she goes over in class as well - learn by doing!! Lots of fun while learning.
Her lectures are amazing. I love the way in class problems help us learn better.
She is the best instructor for ECE 120. When is she coming back to teach it?
I like her lectures and office hours. She really helped me learn and like VLSI circuits.
She ensures you learn in her class and your grade does not suffer!
V hands on course. Useful as a 300 level lab, learned a lot which I used for my 445.
She will go over a concept for as long as everyone in class understands. She is the most amazing!!
The course is a must have for all VLSI design students. The instructor is the best.
She is the most engaging and the best professor for this course.
I will definitely enroll in her section if I were to take this course again.
The instructor is the best of all the VLSI instructors I have attended class with.
She is such a caring professor. Rare to find in Illinois. She makes sure students learn.
She is the best amongst all instructors for the course, especially with the LC3.
I learned so much from her lectures and office hours.
She helped me so much with industry interviews. She is an amazing instructor for the course.
Lots of extra credit opportunity. The course is offered in summer and Spring. So, scheduling flexibility. Loved the course because of the instructor.
Best for the course. She is very caring for the students.
This is a very useful lab course in the department. I wonder when will it be offered again.
Lots of extra credit helped me catch up. Really appreciate that.
If you are looking for an instructor with clarity of concepts and who teaches very well this rather difficult course, go for her. She is the best.
The new project designed for the course was amazing. I really liked it a lot.
Her teaching style is very good. She believes in student learning without stress for exam grades. You will learn a lot in this class especially if you are interested in VLSI architecture.
She is simply the best instructor. She knows how to help students learn without stressing them for grades.
The course is in no way easy but she teaches in such a manner that you learn a lot by working through problems in class with her, with peers and get instant feedback on it. She is very careful of not messing up student grades.
In class problems in every lecture help me quickly check if I got some concepts incorrect. It is a lot of work for the instructor but are really good learning tool for the students.
She is the best instructor for the course. It is a difficult course but she does a good job teaching it.
Best instructor for the course. I learnt a lot only due to her.
Best instructor for the course.
V caring prof. Definitely recommend her course for VLSI .
She is the best instructor for the course.
She is v caring, makes sure you learn and your grade is not adversely affected.
Her lectures are amazing
Amazing course and professor.
The prof was awesome!
She is v knowledgeable and helpful.
She is a good and helpful instructor
She helped us learn the material and get good grades by going over tougher hw and exam questions in class. It was very helpful!
Liked her teaching and help for industry interviews.
She is the best instructor for the course. Why is she not teaching it anymore?
Love her lectures and in class problems which helped me learn a lot.
She is the best for the course- know a lot and shares all course materials with students.
There are probably more reviews for this prof than students she's had. By the pigeonhole principle, many of these reviews are fake.
She is the best prof for this course. Only people who are failing the course provide negative reviews. She helped me a lot for industry interviews, I learned a lot from her. I wonder why people think only positive reviews are fake. Here, any one reviewing negatively can also add multiple negative reviews without checks!!
I like the extra credit opportunities she provides. This is very helpful. You still have to put in work but there are more ways in which you could do so.
She helped save my grades when I was incorrectly graded down. So, love the feedback she provides. She knows, helps students immensely and is the best for the course. Only people who themselves cannot get a good grade post against her.
She created a project for the course. It was very useful. Her lectures were very engaging. I really liked her office hours. There was so much to learn from the office hours!
She cares about students. Wish she was teaching 425 again - will take with her.
Love the in class problems which helped learn a lot!
I like the fairness in grading.
Possibly the best professor I have ever had in my entire life. This course is also amazing, and might be the best course I have ever taken not only here at UIUC, but also during my times at MIT, Stanford, and Caltech. Thank you Professor Aggarwal.
Best professor ever, under her guidance I won so much that I got tired of winning Hence I have to give her a 1 star rating
I loved taking EEE 425 at ASU under her! Unfortunately she is only listed as a UIUC professor so I have to give her a one star rating
There was no midterm by ordeal so unfortunately I have to give her 1/5
I don't even know what this class is so I guess it's an automatic one star review...
I LOST MIDTERM BY ORDEAL AND GOT A C
Incredibly smart professor, incredibly good lecturer, but there's too much extra credit so the class sucks
Rating below was meant for 462, not 398AA...my mistake
Lecture was too good it was unfair, had to give one star
Decent instructor, I think it was her first semester teaching when I took her class.
Took ECE 425 with her, MPs took some time
I took ECE 462 a few semesters back with her. She did a good job teaching ECE 462. Her homework problems were similar to exam problems. Exams weren't too difficult.
The professor left the university a couple weeks into the semester after repeatedly canceling in person lectures and making us watch old videos instead. Incredibly disorganized and a complete disservice to the students who paid good money to register for her class. Stay very far away.
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
35%
Textbook Required
0%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Improving
+2.19 avg changeRatings by Course
ECE482
5.0
(7)ECE462
4.4
(43)ECE120
3.8
(31)ECE425
3.5
(30)ECE398AA
3.0
(10)Difficulty by Course
ECE398AA
3.1
ECE120
2.4
ECE425
2.3
ECE462
1.9
ECE482
1.6