AOSC431 | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Ning Zeng AOSC431 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/18/2025	I cannot emphasize how much this professor frustrated me. I think people just don't review him because he's the only professor that teaches 431 so you're honestly stuck with him if you are an AOSC major/minor because past students complain about him too. He's terrible at explaining a lot of concepts so I highly recommend you take AOSC400 with/before taking this class because Molina does a better job teaching the same topics (there's a TON of overlap). His saving grace is that you get 6-8 page cheat sheet (lowkey I think he uses that as an excuse to teach you worse). So it's not hard to pass the class he's just frustrating. He is incredibly vague will all of his instructions. I understand in some ways that with projects we are supposed to be creative and we won't always have direct instructions. However, this is incredibly frustrating when he criticizes us for things he never mentioned. For example, he gave us an extra credit assignment to analyze a video of a cloud and explain it using thermodynamics ideas. He mentioned it should only be about a minute and COULD be only one slide. He didn't send us any sort of email about it with any instructions until an hour before class saying it HAS to be only one slide. Also for the final project he just gives group members bonus points depending on how much work he thinks you did. You don't fill about a peer review or anything he just vibes it out. Another thing is the grading. I know the professor has a grader who is mostly to blame for the grading issues but still he technically shouldn't even have a grader because the class is so small but whatever. It's clear the grader rushes and doesn't really pay attention to the assignment. The grader marked me wrong for several questions that I got completely right to the decimal point. While I did put in the a different order than the order in the question, everything was clearly labeled, close together, super legible, and the question wasn't even separated into a b c or anything it was only one part. The professor gave me the points but insinuated it was my fault I got the points off and that is was a "learning experience." On another homework, the grader took off points for optional bonus questions, hurting everyone's grades. Dr. Zeng also has a habit of putting topics we haven't learned yet on homeworks and expecting us to understand them by ourselves. For example, we had not started our convection unit at all when he assigned us an entire homework on it (due at the beginning of class the day we started the unit). While some of the content we were able to grasp using his lecture slides for the next unit, a lot of students got the same questions wrong because there wasn't clear instructions on the slides at all (it was a skew-t question on finding layers of instability/stability). It was very frustrating to have to teach myself content when he could have easily moved the homework back a class or two. This also happened earlier in the semester when he was gone for a week and hadn't taught us how to find wet-bulb temperature. When he came back we asked him if he could move the homework since we hadn't gotten to wet-bulb yet and he proceeded to explain it in the last 3-5 minutes left in class. 3-5 minutes was not enough time to grasp this concept especially when it was due in two days and he wouldn't have office hours until after it was due. Speaking of him leaving for a week, he completely lacked any kind of preparation for his leave of absence. He asked everyone to come in an hour early for a week instead of doing online class or recording lectures or doing anything that required him to do any extra planning. Several people had class before his and either way nobody wanted to have class for two hours straight when other solutions were very possible. In general, he's very bad at considering that students have other classes and obligations other than his class which is very frustrating. He gets upset when we don't have time to do bonus, ungraded assignments between one class period. He gets a little bit sassy when he have other classes during his office hours and can't come during that specific time. He also one time made my friend finish their exam in the classroom while he was teaching (so it was semi loud and hard to focus) because he was late to the scheduled make-up exam before class.
Ning Zeng AOSC431 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/12/2025	Apologies for being the bearer of bad news, but I went in expecting a 5 star experience and came out with...well you can see the rating on the side. This will be a long review so feel free to skip to the end. Pros: 4 page double sided cheat sheet for every exam, lets you print out the "key concepts" webpage off of his website for every exam. Cons: Time Management: Ning routinely struggled to stay within the bounds of the 50 minute lecture time. I had another class immediately after his, and I would routinely end up leaving at 10:50 while he was still discussing a topic. One time I was texted by a friend in the class that he had started going over how to do one of the homework problems we had struggled with AFTER I had left. On a broader scale there seemed to be pacing problems with the curriculum as a whole. We spent 1 day on convection, and a ton of time on various other subjects. I'm not sure how off our pacing was, but me and other students believe that the class was chronically behind. Homework Assignments: The examples presented in class are often far easier than the homework problems given. The homework problems are not a straightforward application of class concepts, but rather a synthesis of physics, chemistry, and class concepts. While I understand the need for simplicity for the sake of illustrating a concept, I can't help but think that if this class was more organized, we would've had better example problems throughout the semester. Instead a combination of YouTube videos and Googling was the main way to teach yourself how to do the homework. On a related note, the first homework required a surface integral, while Calc 3 is not a prerequisite of this class, further speaking to the disorganization of the class. The final part of this is that the TA who was grading for this class would routinely make mistakes that Ning had to go back and correct (assuming we bothered to bring the mistake up at all), or graded in a harsh and petty manner. It's never a great sign when on the last homework the entire class stood outside of his office with various questions about how the homework was graded, and grievances for lost points. Whiteboard management: This is a small but persistent factor in his class. While there are slides on the board (basically just blocks of text that are taken from the book and other sources) Ning also writes on the whiteboard. Unfortunately he does not erase in between concepts, meaning that the whiteboard quickly becomes filled up with various concepts taken from different times throughout the lecture. While a small detail, it is annoying that he could just as easily be more consistent about erasing the board completely, or getting a dry eraser. Again, this could be a small and relatively inconsequential detail, but worth mentioning if you are someone who learns by examples. ADS and Test Date Information: While I have discussed organization in the context of various elements of the class, there were other forms of disorganization that don't fit neatly into those categories. For example, there were no set dates for the midterms up until around 2 weeks before they were expected to happen. This is a problem as I have ADS accommodations and like knowing when my midterms are at the start of the semester so that I can reserve times with ADS. Additionally, we had to stop class and press him for details for several minutes before we came to an agreed upon date. The class had to take the initiative to get information about testing dates. It seemed as though he was just flying by the seat of his pants when it came to testing organization. This sentiment is furthered by the fact that he accommodated my extra time requirement by having me show up 30 minutes early to class and starting my midterm early. While this isn't an issue for me as my testing anxiety generally centers around the time I have, not the space I'm in, there is a reason that there are specified rooms that people with accommodations take their tests in. While I have been able to reserve ADS testing for my final, as that date is designated independent of Ning, I'm honestly a little unsure whether or not he will remember to drop my test off before the day of the test. I don't say that lightly, I say that as the result of a semester of his disorganization. Lack of Rubrics: This was only relevant for two of the assignments (one homework and the final project), but I feel is important to leave here. For these two assignments, Ning gave us a vague rubric to base our assignment off of, and no comments as to why he took off points when the grades for the assignments were released. Or perhaps he had notes, but he did not release them with the assignment itself, you would have to go ask him for the notes. While I did well on both assignments, this is concerning as there is a lack of transparency with the grading process. Not knowing how something worth 20% of your grade was evaluated makes it difficult to improve. TL;DR: Overall I'm not entirely convinced that Ning cares about our success in this class, as it seems he is neglecting the fundamental organization and consistency needed for people to learn. I understand that he is busy, and he is a professor, but he has taught this class several times now. Through his level of disorganization and the stress induced by it, Ning was truly a detriment to my learning in this class. Unfortunately he seems to be the only one teaching this class, so if you can't avoid him I hope that this review helps you mentally prepare for his class.
Ning Zeng AOSC431 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/22/2025	Ning truly cares about his students. If you talk to him he will do his best to help you out. He gives you the ability to get a 6 page cheat sheet off his website, you can print out the front and back of it and get a blank white sheet of paper so it’s 3 pages technically 6 with the 3 blank white papers. Guys I know thermodynamics sounds hard, but, trust me you will do well just show up to class. The skew-T diagram is the hardest part about this class ask Ning for questions, and make sure to go to his office hours for it.
Alexandra Jones AOSC431 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 10/23/2024	Dr. Jones is an excellent teacher and mentor, but don't expect to slack off or underperform and get away with an A. Pay attention in class, ask questions, and go to her office hours when you're not sure what to do. She is always willing to work with students, but you need to speak up! AOSC431 was understandable and approachable with her - the assignments were difficult but fair and she always reviewed material before exams. Dr. Jones also emphasizes homework and comprehension over exams, which I appreciate as someone who learns through example. There were many times I sat in her office and she helped me through an assignment. I'm so grateful she ended up being my 431 teacher.
Alexandra Jones AOSC431 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 10/08/2024	Dr Jones is a great professor. She cares about her students and wants them to succeed. If you put in effort, you will see that reflected. I had some personal issues with the final exam and she was more than happy to work with me and give me the opportunity back. When her office door is open, you can go and ask her questions. She is very helpful. HW assignments were not bad at all. The lecture slides were easy to comprehend and related to the homework. Don't think this class is an easy A though! As I said, put it in the effort, and it will reflect back to you. Not a harsh grader at all. I did better in this class than I expected.

Ning Zeng
AOSC431

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
12/18/2025

I cannot emphasize how much this professor frustrated me. I think people just don't review him because he's the only professor that teaches 431 so you're honestly stuck with him if you are an AOSC major/minor because past students complain about him too. He's terrible at explaining a lot of concepts so I highly recommend you take AOSC400 with/before taking this class because Molina does a better job teaching the same topics (there's a TON of overlap). His saving grace is that you get 6-8 page cheat sheet (lowkey I think he uses that as an excuse to teach you worse). So it's not hard to pass the class he's just frustrating. He is incredibly vague will all of his instructions. I understand in some ways that with projects we are supposed to be creative and we won't always have direct instructions. However, this is incredibly frustrating when he criticizes us for things he never mentioned. For example, he gave us an extra credit assignment to analyze a video of a cloud and explain it using thermodynamics ideas. He mentioned it should only be about a minute and COULD be only one slide. He didn't send us any sort of email about it with any instructions until an hour before class saying it HAS to be only one slide. Also for the final project he just gives group members bonus points depending on how much work he thinks you did. You don't fill about a peer review or anything he just vibes it out. Another thing is the grading. I know the professor has a grader who is mostly to blame for the grading issues but still he technically shouldn't even have a grader because the class is so small but whatever. It's clear the grader rushes and doesn't really pay attention to the assignment. The grader marked me wrong for several questions that I got completely right to the decimal point. While I did put in the a different order than the order in the question, everything was clearly labeled, close together, super legible, and the question wasn't even separated into a b c or anything it was only one part. The professor gave me the points but insinuated it was my fault I got the points off and that is was a "learning experience." On another homework, the grader took off points for optional bonus questions, hurting everyone's grades. Dr. Zeng also has a habit of putting topics we haven't learned yet on homeworks and expecting us to understand them by ourselves. For example, we had not started our convection unit at all when he assigned us an entire homework on it (due at the beginning of class the day we started the unit). While some of the content we were able to grasp using his lecture slides for the next unit, a lot of students got the same questions wrong because there wasn't clear instructions on the slides at all (it was a skew-t question on finding layers of instability/stability). It was very frustrating to have to teach myself content when he could have easily moved the homework back a class or two. This also happened earlier in the semester when he was gone for a week and hadn't taught us how to find wet-bulb temperature. When he came back we asked him if he could move the homework since we hadn't gotten to wet-bulb yet and he proceeded to explain it in the last 3-5 minutes left in class. 3-5 minutes was not enough time to grasp this concept especially when it was due in two days and he wouldn't have office hours until after it was due. Speaking of him leaving for a week, he completely lacked any kind of preparation for his leave of absence. He asked everyone to come in an hour early for a week instead of doing online class or recording lectures or doing anything that required him to do any extra planning. Several people had class before his and either way nobody wanted to have class for two hours straight when other solutions were very possible. In general, he's very bad at considering that students have other classes and obligations other than his class which is very frustrating. He gets upset when we don't have time to do bonus, ungraded assignments between one class period. He gets a little bit sassy when he have other classes during his office hours and can't come during that specific time. He also one time made my friend finish their exam in the classroom while he was teaching (so it was semi loud and hard to focus) because he was late to the scheduled make-up exam before class.

Ning Zeng
AOSC431

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/12/2025

Apologies for being the bearer of bad news, but I went in expecting a 5 star experience and came out with...well you can see the rating on the side. This will be a long review so feel free to skip to the end. Pros: 4 page double sided cheat sheet for every exam, lets you print out the "key concepts" webpage off of his website for every exam. Cons: Time Management: Ning routinely struggled to stay within the bounds of the 50 minute lecture time. I had another class immediately after his, and I would routinely end up leaving at 10:50 while he was still discussing a topic. One time I was texted by a friend in the class that he had started going over how to do one of the homework problems we had struggled with AFTER I had left. On a broader scale there seemed to be pacing problems with the curriculum as a whole. We spent 1 day on convection, and a ton of time on various other subjects. I'm not sure how off our pacing was, but me and other students believe that the class was chronically behind. Homework Assignments: The examples presented in class are often far easier than the homework problems given. The homework problems are not a straightforward application of class concepts, but rather a synthesis of physics, chemistry, and class concepts. While I understand the need for simplicity for the sake of illustrating a concept, I can't help but think that if this class was more organized, we would've had better example problems throughout the semester. Instead a combination of YouTube videos and Googling was the main way to teach yourself how to do the homework. On a related note, the first homework required a surface integral, while Calc 3 is not a prerequisite of this class, further speaking to the disorganization of the class. The final part of this is that the TA who was grading for this class would routinely make mistakes that Ning had to go back and correct (assuming we bothered to bring the mistake up at all), or graded in a harsh and petty manner. It's never a great sign when on the last homework the entire class stood outside of his office with various questions about how the homework was graded, and grievances for lost points. Whiteboard management: This is a small but persistent factor in his class. While there are slides on the board (basically just blocks of text that are taken from the book and other sources) Ning also writes on the whiteboard. Unfortunately he does not erase in between concepts, meaning that the whiteboard quickly becomes filled up with various concepts taken from different times throughout the lecture. While a small detail, it is annoying that he could just as easily be more consistent about erasing the board completely, or getting a dry eraser. Again, this could be a small and relatively inconsequential detail, but worth mentioning if you are someone who learns by examples. ADS and Test Date Information: While I have discussed organization in the context of various elements of the class, there were other forms of disorganization that don't fit neatly into those categories. For example, there were no set dates for the midterms up until around 2 weeks before they were expected to happen. This is a problem as I have ADS accommodations and like knowing when my midterms are at the start of the semester so that I can reserve times with ADS. Additionally, we had to stop class and press him for details for several minutes before we came to an agreed upon date. The class had to take the initiative to get information about testing dates. It seemed as though he was just flying by the seat of his pants when it came to testing organization. This sentiment is furthered by the fact that he accommodated my extra time requirement by having me show up 30 minutes early to class and starting my midterm early. While this isn't an issue for me as my testing anxiety generally centers around the time I have, not the space I'm in, there is a reason that there are specified rooms that people with accommodations take their tests in. While I have been able to reserve ADS testing for my final, as that date is designated independent of Ning, I'm honestly a little unsure whether or not he will remember to drop my test off before the day of the test. I don't say that lightly, I say that as the result of a semester of his disorganization. Lack of Rubrics: This was only relevant for two of the assignments (one homework and the final project), but I feel is important to leave here. For these two assignments, Ning gave us a vague rubric to base our assignment off of, and no comments as to why he took off points when the grades for the assignments were released. Or perhaps he had notes, but he did not release them with the assignment itself, you would have to go ask him for the notes. While I did well on both assignments, this is concerning as there is a lack of transparency with the grading process. Not knowing how something worth 20% of your grade was evaluated makes it difficult to improve. TL;DR: Overall I'm not entirely convinced that Ning cares about our success in this class, as it seems he is neglecting the fundamental organization and consistency needed for people to learn. I understand that he is busy, and he is a professor, but he has taught this class several times now. Through his level of disorganization and the stress induced by it, Ning was truly a detriment to my learning in this class. Unfortunately he seems to be the only one teaching this class, so if you can't avoid him I hope that this review helps you mentally prepare for his class.

Ning Zeng
AOSC431

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
05/22/2025

Ning truly cares about his students. If you talk to him he will do his best to help you out. He gives you the ability to get a 6 page cheat sheet off his website, you can print out the front and back of it and get a blank white sheet of paper so it’s 3 pages technically 6 with the 3 blank white papers. Guys I know thermodynamics sounds hard, but, trust me you will do well just show up to class. The skew-T diagram is the hardest part about this class ask Ning for questions, and make sure to go to his office hours for it.

Alexandra Jones
AOSC431

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
10/23/2024

Dr. Jones is an excellent teacher and mentor, but don't expect to slack off or underperform and get away with an A. Pay attention in class, ask questions, and go to her office hours when you're not sure what to do. She is always willing to work with students, but you need to speak up! AOSC431 was understandable and approachable with her - the assignments were difficult but fair and she always reviewed material before exams. Dr. Jones also emphasizes homework and comprehension over exams, which I appreciate as someone who learns through example. There were many times I sat in her office and she helped me through an assignment. I'm so grateful she ended up being my 431 teacher.

Alexandra Jones
AOSC431

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
10/08/2024

Dr Jones is a great professor. She cares about her students and wants them to succeed. If you put in effort, you will see that reflected. I had some personal issues with the final exam and she was more than happy to work with me and give me the opportunity back. When her office door is open, you can go and ask her questions. She is very helpful. HW assignments were not bad at all. The lecture slides were easy to comprehend and related to the homework. Don't think this class is an easy A though! As I said, put it in the effort, and it will reflect back to you. Not a harsh grader at all. I did better in this class than I expected.

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