ENAE301 | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Kleio Baxevani ENAE301 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/27/2025	this was her first semester teaching, so take this with a grain of salt as I found prof. Baxevani to have already improved between the midterm and final exam. I found her lecture to not be very useful, as it felt like I did not learn anything during it. I learned everything in ENAE301 through the homework or TA office hours. The practice problems she gave before the midterm were borderline useless, but the grading on the midterm was extremely generous. the practice problems she gave for the final exam however were very good and the final exam felt a lot more fair as I had a much better idea of what would be on it going in. there was a pretty decent curve as well, as least 4% for our semester though I do not know what the curve was specifically. ENAE301 is a challenging class, but I would say prof. Baxevani did not make it more challenging than it needed to be aside from the poor usefulness of the lectures.
Kleio Baxevani ENAE301 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 12/24/2025	Dr. Baxevani has been less than impressive in every aspect of her performance as a professor. Her lectures are unorganized and typically don't follow any logical path as she provides information without context and spends a significant portion of her time fixing her continuous mistakes. For this reason, a very large portion of the class unanimously decided to stop attending her lecture as it was a better use of everyone's time to teach themselves. Additionally, a very significant portion of review material for the exams were hard to follow or flat out wrong. The office hour notes covering homework assignments disagree with the posted solutions, and the discussion sections (at least from the one I was in) are run poorly. Dr. Baxevani is a kind person, but she is known to get into arguments with students when they point out her mistakes and is unwilling to admit that she was wrong until the very last minute. For this reason, she also would not make her blunders public so everyone would suffer as a result of her not posting the many mistakes on solution manuals and review materials. There were even several instances of this on the final exam. This was Dr. Baxevani's first semester teaching (Fall 2025) and she is clearly not ready to handle being a professor, let alone for one of the most fundamental courses in the Aerospace Engineering lecture series. If you're taking her class in the future, the best I can offer you is to study on your own, double check the solution manuals for accuracy, and hope for Dr. Paley comes back.
Kleio Baxevani ENAE301 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 12/23/2025	I think she was a nice person but she’s not very lenient about grades. I was like 0.2% away from a B- and she didn’t even consider rounding it up. Also, she really struggles making the content easier for us to understand (especially those first few weeks so definitely read the textbook and look at the examples) but is receptive to feedback.
Kleio Baxevani ENAE301 Expecting a B- Anonymous 12/19/2025	Baxevani is a wonderful woman who clearly wants her students to succeed. That being said, her teaching is subpar. I don't want to be too harsh, as it is her first time teaching a class like this. However, her lectures are hard to follow, and she often makes mistakes that need to be corrected by students. She offers a Zoom option for lectures, but if you happen to log on after the last time she checks (which may be before lecture starts), you will be left in the waiting room the entire lecture and miss it entirely. After the class average was lower than she expected on our midterm (~70%), she essentially blamed the students for "overcomplicating" the questions. Additionally, she provides an "equation sheet" for the exams and says that "they will be all you need for the exam". However, you are expected to derive or memorize certain equations not on the sheet, despite her assurance otherwise, with no guidance on what should be memorized. Homeworks, despite being weekly, were not graded until a week before the final exam. If you want to succeed in this class, you are better off skipping lecture and just reading the textbook. After seeing how good the reviews are for Paley, I am disappointed to have had this 301 experience instead. She may improve in the future, although I hope the department does not continue on with her when Paley returns. Another note about the course itself: despite being separate from ENES221 and being named "Dynamics for Aerospace Systems", there is virtually no content centered on aerospace. From what I can tell, it is essentially identical to ENES221 in content.
Derek Paley ENAE301 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/20/2024	great instructor; his in-class demonstrations help you "see" what you're learning and he's a great explainer. he also uploads helpful office hour notes and offers one-week extensions for assignments, no question asked (but don't rely on them or else you'll fall behind). only downside is that there's only one midterm and final (with the final being worth 40%) but he curved our class pretty heavily so i wouldn't worry too much as long as you put in the effort that this class deserves.
Derek Paley ENAE301 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/12/2024	Top-tier lecturer. Posts lecture notes, records the lectures, and goes over many examples. Very helpful in office hours, and posts the notes for them as well. The Justin (iykyk) of the Aero department, take him whenever you can.
Derek Paley ENAE301 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/27/2023	Paley is an extremely good lecturer. Probably the best one I've had in college. His lectures are very though out and he answers any student questions very well. If every professor taught their lectures like him the whole program would be much better off. ENAE301 is a very difficult class but he simplifies it very well. You have weekly homework that can be extended a week if needed. The homework can be difficult but it does a good job at making sure you understand the material and prepares you well for the exams. His exams are difficult but fair, as expected for a 300 level aero course. The only scary part about this course is that the final is 40% of your grade which means you bomb it and you fail. But the exam was very fair as the average was about an 83 for my semester. The average in the class ended up being like a 85, yet he still curved about 3%. Highly recommend taking his class he makes lecture quite interesting and does a great job with the class.
Derek Paley ENAE301 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/26/2023	Very good teacher. Makes a fairly complicated course very easy to understand. Do not expect a heavy curve, as midterm and final averages were usually around a B. As long as you understand what you are doing in the homework, you will be fine.
Derek Paley ENAE301 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/23/2023	He's such a king. Go to class and his office hours, and you will do well in this class. He explains the material very well but goes fast at times, so be sure to stay on top of it! He cares very much about his students and the class, which is rare in professors nowadays.
Derek Paley ENAE301 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/20/2023	BEST. CLASS. EVER!!!!!!!!!!! CHALLENGING HOMEWORKS AND SLIGHTLY LESS CHALLENGING EXAMS!!!!! STRAIGHTFORWARD LECTURING STYLE!!!!!~~~~
Derek Paley ENAE301 Expecting a B terpman24 12/24/2021	Dr. Paley's lectures are very thorough and does a tremendous job keeping students engaged with what they are learning. Always tries to point you in the right direction (especially during office hours) and will attempt to make sure no one is left behind. This is a VERY challenging class and should be taken seriously, especially in the beginning. He tries to warn you that everything used in the first half gets built upon very fast in the second half of the course. Make sure to do your homework and attend office hours as these are good places to prepare yourself for the exam. Exams are graded very generously and fairly and it is clear Dr. Paley wants you to succeed in his class and the future.
Derek Paley ENAE301 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 11/03/2021	Dr Paley’s examples were extremely thorough and he was an excellent lecturer. Very fair and also a decently challenging course. Memorable teaching style and will give you the majority of the dynamics you need for later classes.
Derek Paley ENAE301 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/10/2018	Dr. Paley is a cool professor. He uses lots of examples, videos, and in class demonstrations to show concepts. The weekly homework can be difficult, but as many people have said it helps a lot to go to office hours. Dr. Paley makes an effort to learn everyone's name in office hours even though a ton of kids go. He does expect you to participate and work along with the examples in class. However, he is very easy to talk to and will go to great lengths to help you understand a problem/concept. This class is still pretty difficult and stressful but Paley makes the best possible effort to make everyone in the class understand. I'm far from one of the smartest kids in aerospace but I've done pretty well in this class thanks to his help. Also, shoutout to our T.A. Austin for his help.
Derek Paley ENAE301 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 01/02/2018	Dr. Paley is a pretty good professor. His lectures and demos are interesting, but they do not prepare you for the homework very well. However, he is very willing to discuss HW problems in his office hours and does a much better job at explaining concepts there. They were also held right before class, which was very helpful. Seriously, go to office hours. I learned that way too late. Paley also will give nearly infinite extensions on HW. The first week is no questions asked, but after that you need a valid excuse. The midterm exam was okay. It was pretty fair, but was not like the problems done on class or on the homework. The average was around 75%. The final was similar to the midterm, but was more difficult due to the content in later chapters. The average on the final wasn't great (60%), so the class was curved about 7-9%. Overall, Paley is really understanding and tries to make an extremely difficult class doable.
Derek Paley ENAE301 Expecting an A Molasses 01/09/2015	Paley is a pretty smart man, and I think he enjoys showing that off in class. While he explains the concepts well, he is not great at showing their application. The book is semi-helpful but most examples are either way too simple or way too involved. homework questions can be vague and seem unrelated to the concepts of the chapter or even to dynamics in general. However, Paley really does try hard to make Dynamics understandable and doable. He is helpful to a fault in office hours, often taking 30 minutes to explain a simple error and leaving other students unanswered. Still, its undeniable that he is a pretty good teacher and probably one of the best Dynamics teachers at the University. Use office hours and really understand each chapters main concepts and you will be fine. reminds me of Dennis Reynolds from IASIP
Derek Paley ENAE301 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 01/03/2012	Dr. Paley is a good professor. He is enthusiastic and very patient. This class is hard though. The other review discounts the homework... Don't. Do it and understand it. We also did not get practice exams so we went into the midterm and final blind. And they were much, much more difficult than anything we saw in class or on homeworks. Class was curved about 10% because the grades on the final were so terrible.
Derek Paley ENAE301 Expecting an A fiddlerkrt 12/21/2010	The other post is pretty accurate about this class. The lectures are clear and helpful; however, the homeworks are very difficult and time consuming. I strongly encourage anyone taking this class to do the homeworks in groups since many of the problems are pretty difficult. The exams are easier so you don't really need to study for them if you work hard on the homeworks. I worked very hard in this class so I was really happy when an A showed up on my transcript!
Derek Paley ENAE301 Expecting an A a778999 12/25/2009	His lectures are easy to follow but unfortunately they don't prepare you to do the homework well. The problems are vague and consume a lot of time. Luckily each problem set ends up being only about 3% of your grade so if you screw up on a few of them it's OK. Tests were straightforward and included only the most basic concepts. He gives out last year's tests for practice and if you can do the problems there then you're good. He curves a lot so it's not hard to do well. Don't waste too much time doing the homework.

Kleio Baxevani
ENAE301

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/27/2025

this was her first semester teaching, so take this with a grain of salt as I found prof. Baxevani to have already improved between the midterm and final exam. I found her lecture to not be very useful, as it felt like I did not learn anything during it. I learned everything in ENAE301 through the homework or TA office hours. The practice problems she gave before the midterm were borderline useless, but the grading on the midterm was extremely generous. the practice problems she gave for the final exam however were very good and the final exam felt a lot more fair as I had a much better idea of what would be on it going in. there was a pretty decent curve as well, as least 4% for our semester though I do not know what the curve was specifically. ENAE301 is a challenging class, but I would say prof. Baxevani did not make it more challenging than it needed to be aside from the poor usefulness of the lectures.

Kleio Baxevani
ENAE301

Expecting a C+
Anonymous
12/24/2025

Dr. Baxevani has been less than impressive in every aspect of her performance as a professor. Her lectures are unorganized and typically don't follow any logical path as she provides information without context and spends a significant portion of her time fixing her continuous mistakes. For this reason, a very large portion of the class unanimously decided to stop attending her lecture as it was a better use of everyone's time to teach themselves. Additionally, a very significant portion of review material for the exams were hard to follow or flat out wrong. The office hour notes covering homework assignments disagree with the posted solutions, and the discussion sections (at least from the one I was in) are run poorly. Dr. Baxevani is a kind person, but she is known to get into arguments with students when they point out her mistakes and is unwilling to admit that she was wrong until the very last minute. For this reason, she also would not make her blunders public so everyone would suffer as a result of her not posting the many mistakes on solution manuals and review materials. There were even several instances of this on the final exam. This was Dr. Baxevani's first semester teaching (Fall 2025) and she is clearly not ready to handle being a professor, let alone for one of the most fundamental courses in the Aerospace Engineering lecture series. If you're taking her class in the future, the best I can offer you is to study on your own, double check the solution manuals for accuracy, and hope for Dr. Paley comes back.

Kleio Baxevani
ENAE301

Expecting a C+
Anonymous
12/23/2025

I think she was a nice person but she’s not very lenient about grades. I was like 0.2% away from a B- and she didn’t even consider rounding it up. Also, she really struggles making the content easier for us to understand (especially those first few weeks so definitely read the textbook and look at the examples) but is receptive to feedback.

Kleio Baxevani
ENAE301

Expecting a B-
Anonymous
12/19/2025

Baxevani is a wonderful woman who clearly wants her students to succeed. That being said, her teaching is subpar. I don't want to be too harsh, as it is her first time teaching a class like this. However, her lectures are hard to follow, and she often makes mistakes that need to be corrected by students. She offers a Zoom option for lectures, but if you happen to log on after the last time she checks (which may be before lecture starts), you will be left in the waiting room the entire lecture and miss it entirely. After the class average was lower than she expected on our midterm (~70%), she essentially blamed the students for "overcomplicating" the questions. Additionally, she provides an "equation sheet" for the exams and says that "they will be all you need for the exam". However, you are expected to derive or memorize certain equations not on the sheet, despite her assurance otherwise, with no guidance on what should be memorized. Homeworks, despite being weekly, were not graded until a week before the final exam. If you want to succeed in this class, you are better off skipping lecture and just reading the textbook. After seeing how good the reviews are for Paley, I am disappointed to have had this 301 experience instead. She may improve in the future, although I hope the department does not continue on with her when Paley returns. Another note about the course itself: despite being separate from ENES221 and being named "Dynamics for Aerospace Systems", there is virtually no content centered on aerospace. From what I can tell, it is essentially identical to ENES221 in content.

Derek Paley
ENAE301

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/20/2024

great instructor; his in-class demonstrations help you "see" what you're learning and he's a great explainer. he also uploads helpful office hour notes and offers one-week extensions for assignments, no question asked (but don't rely on them or else you'll fall behind). only downside is that there's only one midterm and final (with the final being worth 40%) but he curved our class pretty heavily so i wouldn't worry too much as long as you put in the effort that this class deserves.

Derek Paley
ENAE301

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
12/12/2024

Top-tier lecturer. Posts lecture notes, records the lectures, and goes over many examples. Very helpful in office hours, and posts the notes for them as well. The Justin (iykyk) of the Aero department, take him whenever you can.

Derek Paley
ENAE301

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/27/2023

Paley is an extremely good lecturer. Probably the best one I've had in college. His lectures are very though out and he answers any student questions very well. If every professor taught their lectures like him the whole program would be much better off. ENAE301 is a very difficult class but he simplifies it very well. You have weekly homework that can be extended a week if needed. The homework can be difficult but it does a good job at making sure you understand the material and prepares you well for the exams. His exams are difficult but fair, as expected for a 300 level aero course. The only scary part about this course is that the final is 40% of your grade which means you bomb it and you fail. But the exam was very fair as the average was about an 83 for my semester. The average in the class ended up being like a 85, yet he still curved about 3%. Highly recommend taking his class he makes lecture quite interesting and does a great job with the class.

Derek Paley
ENAE301

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/26/2023

Very good teacher. Makes a fairly complicated course very easy to understand. Do not expect a heavy curve, as midterm and final averages were usually around a B. As long as you understand what you are doing in the homework, you will be fine.

Derek Paley
ENAE301

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/23/2023

He's such a king. Go to class and his office hours, and you will do well in this class. He explains the material very well but goes fast at times, so be sure to stay on top of it! He cares very much about his students and the class, which is rare in professors nowadays.

Derek Paley
ENAE301

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/20/2023

BEST. CLASS. EVER!!!!!!!!!!! CHALLENGING HOMEWORKS AND SLIGHTLY LESS CHALLENGING EXAMS!!!!! STRAIGHTFORWARD LECTURING STYLE!!!!!~~~~

Derek Paley
ENAE301

Expecting a B
terpman24
12/24/2021

Dr. Paley's lectures are very thorough and does a tremendous job keeping students engaged with what they are learning. Always tries to point you in the right direction (especially during office hours) and will attempt to make sure no one is left behind. This is a VERY challenging class and should be taken seriously, especially in the beginning. He tries to warn you that everything used in the first half gets built upon very fast in the second half of the course. Make sure to do your homework and attend office hours as these are good places to prepare yourself for the exam. Exams are graded very generously and fairly and it is clear Dr. Paley wants you to succeed in his class and the future.

Derek Paley
ENAE301

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
11/03/2021

Dr Paley’s examples were extremely thorough and he was an excellent lecturer. Very fair and also a decently challenging course. Memorable teaching style and will give you the majority of the dynamics you need for later classes.

Derek Paley
ENAE301

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/10/2018

Dr. Paley is a cool professor. He uses lots of examples, videos, and in class demonstrations to show concepts. The weekly homework can be difficult, but as many people have said it helps a lot to go to office hours. Dr. Paley makes an effort to learn everyone's name in office hours even though a ton of kids go. He does expect you to participate and work along with the examples in class. However, he is very easy to talk to and will go to great lengths to help you understand a problem/concept. This class is still pretty difficult and stressful but Paley makes the best possible effort to make everyone in the class understand. I'm far from one of the smartest kids in aerospace but I've done pretty well in this class thanks to his help. Also, shoutout to our T.A. Austin for his help.

Derek Paley
ENAE301

Expecting a C+
Anonymous
01/02/2018

Dr. Paley is a pretty good professor. His lectures and demos are interesting, but they do not prepare you for the homework very well. However, he is very willing to discuss HW problems in his office hours and does a much better job at explaining concepts there. They were also held right before class, which was very helpful. Seriously, go to office hours. I learned that way too late. Paley also will give nearly infinite extensions on HW. The first week is no questions asked, but after that you need a valid excuse. The midterm exam was okay. It was pretty fair, but was not like the problems done on class or on the homework. The average was around 75%. The final was similar to the midterm, but was more difficult due to the content in later chapters. The average on the final wasn't great (60%), so the class was curved about 7-9%. Overall, Paley is really understanding and tries to make an extremely difficult class doable.

Derek Paley
ENAE301

Expecting an A
Molasses
01/09/2015

Paley is a pretty smart man, and I think he enjoys showing that off in class. While he explains the concepts well, he is not great at showing their application. The book is semi-helpful but most examples are either way too simple or way too involved. homework questions can be vague and seem unrelated to the concepts of the chapter or even to dynamics in general. However, Paley really does try hard to make Dynamics understandable and doable. He is helpful to a fault in office hours, often taking 30 minutes to explain a simple error and leaving other students unanswered. Still, its undeniable that he is a pretty good teacher and probably one of the best Dynamics teachers at the University. Use office hours and really understand each chapters main concepts and you will be fine. reminds me of Dennis Reynolds from IASIP

Derek Paley
ENAE301

Expecting a C+
Anonymous
01/03/2012

Dr. Paley is a good professor. He is enthusiastic and very patient. This class is hard though. The other review discounts the homework... Don't. Do it and understand it. We also did not get practice exams so we went into the midterm and final blind. And they were much, much more difficult than anything we saw in class or on homeworks. Class was curved about 10% because the grades on the final were so terrible.

Derek Paley
ENAE301

Expecting an A
fiddlerkrt
12/21/2010

The other post is pretty accurate about this class. The lectures are clear and helpful; however, the homeworks are very difficult and time consuming. I strongly encourage anyone taking this class to do the homeworks in groups since many of the problems are pretty difficult. The exams are easier so you don't really need to study for them if you work hard on the homeworks. I worked very hard in this class so I was really happy when an A showed up on my transcript!

Derek Paley
ENAE301

Expecting an A
a778999
12/25/2009

His lectures are easy to follow but unfortunately they don't prepare you to do the homework well. The problems are vague and consume a lot of time. Luckily each problem set ends up being only about 3% of your grade so if you screw up on a few of them it's OK. Tests were straightforward and included only the most basic concepts. He gives out last year's tests for practice and if you can do the problems there then you're good. He curves a lot so it's not hard to do well. Don't waste too much time doing the homework.

Reviews for ENAE301