Peter Chang

This professor has taught: EDSP652, ENCE201, ENCE453, ENCE454, ENCE455, ENCE610, ENCE689, ENCE799, ENCE899, ENES100, ENES102, ENES220, ENES459

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Peter Chang ENCE201 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 05/17/2024	The class itself would not be as difficult if Chang was not teaching it. His style involves very little explaining and he expects you to read the textbook and the next day be a master on the topic.
Peter Chang ENCE201 Expecting a B- Anonymous 06/27/2023	Chang fully expects you to dedicate as much time as possible to learning the content from the textbook before class. He treats his class like office hours, where the only thing he's good for is answering questions. He doesn't try to flesh out concepts; he'll do one example and ask, "do you get it?" and then not even wait 2 seconds to continue. He lectures more about incompetence than actual Matlab. People are scared to ask questions for fear of his condescending comments. He lacks empathy and thinks negative reinforcement is what will make people succeed (think tiger parent vibes). Advice: try not to care too much about what he says/thinks of you and ask as many questions as you need, even if they're simple or stupid. He will make you feel like the stupidest person on Earth, but if you see him as "I just need to do his exams then dip," you'll save your self-esteem. Get tutoring!
Peter Chang ENCE201 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 10/06/2022	Dr. Chang gets a really bad wrap, and I think a lot of this stems from the fact that the course content of 201 is very difficult to grasp right off the bat (which students then blame on his teaching). Personally, I think that Chang does a great job of providing students will all the resources that they need to pass the class. His exam grading was very fair, his homeworks were graded for completion to encourage you to actually learn the content instead of stressing about grades, the textbook he recommended for the course was fairly useful when you needed extra help, and the notesheets that he made were incredibly useful. The content he taught and the content he assigned in homework and projects was very relevant to what we saw on exams, so if you put in the work to study it, you could do well. He was also very approachable in office hours, and incredibly accommodating. I once showed up 1 hour late to a 1 hour long exam retake session due to traffic troubles, and he still let me take the exam and was willing to sit with me for as much time as I needed (though it should be noted that I gave him advanced notice that I had an appointment scheduled prior to the retake that was an hour away). Though thus far this has been a rather glowing review, I'm not going to sugarcoat the course. ENCE201 will wipe the floor with you if you do not put in a ton of work. You need to really try on the homeworks and talk to him about any questions you have, make sure to write down any code that he write in class (!!!!!!) because you will likely see something similar on the exams, go to every class, and make full use of the notesheets that he makes for each chapter. Practicing old exams is also very useful for this class, but pay close attention to/ask him about the topics that he says will be on the exam because what he says is what you will see. Also, he can be rather negligent about checking his email, so the best way to contact him is to talk to him after class or during office hours.
Peter Chang ENCE201 Expecting a C Anonymous 07/19/2021	Hands down the worst professor in the entire civil engineering department. The class is already difficult enough, but he makes it a million times worse. As another review mentions, he is extremely unapproachable and condescending. He is very difficult to work with as he is skilled in making any student feel like their questions are extremely dumb within the first 60 seconds that you are speaking with him. He is rude and I would highly suggest going with any other teacher if given the opportunity because he will ruin your semester.
Peter Chang ENES220 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/19/2018	Dr. Chang is perhaps the worst professor that I have ever had at the University of Maryland. The one glaring flaw is that he does not care about the joint nature of the keystone classes. The keystone classes, since they represent the baseline of knowledge needed for most engineers were supposed to be a uniform class among all the other instructors. Chang shows this the same level of respect that he shows his students, which is none. He will routinely brake from the shared syllabus, and go against what the other instructors are doing in their class rooms. He would not conform to uniform testing procedures, and furthermore whenever any of these violations were brought up, he would address them in the most disrespectful manner possible. During these periods he would not only disrespect the students, which plenty of other reviews have mentioned, he would disrespect the other instructors. From an academic stand point, he is not utterly hopeless, as it is clear that he is aware of the information. However, he is utterly incapable of teaching this information, never mind teaching it in a respectful manner. Several times during the semester he would embarrass and make fun of students asking legitimate questions, failing to due his basic responsibility as a teacher to educate his students. During lectures, when no one is willing to respond due to the fear of being disrespected by Chang, he would routinely say that if you don't want to listen to me teach, then don't come to class. So naturally students stopped coming to class, as it was not helpful. Chang decided that the syllabus, that only allowed him to have quizzes on Friday's if attendance is lacking, to start issuing them during the Monday and Friday sections. When this violation of the syllabus was brought up he simply refused to address it, and continued to violate the shared syllabus for the class. Do not take Chang even as a last resort. In addition to the issues I talked about above, his grading scheme is inane. Dr. Chang, despite university policy does not believe in giving out plus or minus grades. The simply reason for this was that he found it too difficult to draw the lines, so he just decided to ignore the lines. This too is another symptom of Dr. Chang's horrible lack of respect for his students and anyone who is not Dr. Chang Dr. Chang is not only the worst teacher that I have encountered, he is one of the worst people that I have ever had the displeasure of meeting, let alone being forced to be in a room for over an hour with. IF YOU HAVE THE OPTION TO NOT TAKE ANY CLASS WITH DR. CHANG TAKE IT.
Peter Chang ENCE201 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/11/2016	This is my second semester taking Chang and I am enjoying it. I took ENES220 last semester, and did not go to lecture because the textbook (which everyone must buy access due to pass the class across all professors) was helpful and I did the homeworks with the TF's in Keystone. He posted the solutions for the homeworks which was helpful for the test, but I'm not sure he still does that - so just ask him to if you're in his class. In my class now he posts the answers to the homeworks after they are due, and the answers to optional problems only a few times (I think people specially requested them). Anyway, somehow the classes are both about 20% A's (so far in my current class, ENCE201), which is surprising to me because he curves and this semester gives a lot of partial credit. I really appreciated not having to go to lecture last semester, but this semester he gives in class assignments worth 10% of the grade, so make sure you know which policy he's going to go by with you. In both classes I've been doing well by reading the book. He teaches from it and posts his notes online which is nice, but not necessary. I've heard mixed reviews about going to his office hours (go prepared), but I have not been, because I go to the TA when I need to. Also, when he makes a mistake and somebody catches him or he catches himself, he has this laugh that always makes me smile. He can be a little rough sometimes, and definitely tries to intimidate people to drop his class at the beginning of the semester by giving in class quizzes/assignments. Right before one of them he said "Do you get it? Because you're gonna need to know it. For the quiz! That I'm going to give you! Today!" The whole class was rolling.
Peter Chang ENES220 Expecting a C Anonymous 12/12/2015	STOP. TURN AROUND. RUN. PF Chang the type of dude to throw a child at you to make you catch it so he can steal your wallet. COMPLETE lack of communication regarding project, horrible at answering questions,no curve, teaches you how to do the homework the hour before it's due, not clear about....anything. Ever. That being said, he has one of the best note-taking styles ever, he uses OneNote to take notes that are projected on the screen and immediately uploads all the notes after class. His notes are fairly organized and are the only redeeming quality about this professor. The book SUCKS so don't expect to teach yourself the material, although going to other teachers' lectures is always a viable option since exams and other graded things take place during Friday studio sessions. Unless you are very good at staying on top of everything very well yourself and teaching yourself from the internet or from friends, find another teacher!!
Peter Chang ENCE201 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/24/2015	Peter Chang is an odd man. He can say something and you have not idea if he is joking or serious. He can do a problem, but you miss a fundamental point, not because you were not paying attention but because he never said it. He speaks quietly at the front of the class, but refuses to wear a microphone. He allowed us only one side of a paper for our formula sheet which was not enough, and seemed an arbitrary distinction he made. But he never actually check if we only had one side. He posted the solutions to the homeworks before they were due, but we were never sure if he meant to. He cancelled lecture once every few weeks, unpredictably, because this was a blended learning class and we watched weekly video lectures. That said, between his in class examples, the helpful textbook (buy it!) and recorded Schwartz lectures (you do REALLY have to watch the video lectures) you will learn the material. It is helpful if you have some prior experience programming, but not necessary. He managed to make a large lecture hall (~70 students) feel small enough to ask questions. If you had a question about a video lectures, he will happily do an example problem on them for you an clear it up. His exams seem hard, but he curves them SO much. The first one was terrible, but he was reasonable and did an in-class retake for it. He has the most transparent grading system I have ever seen. After ever midterm (3 of them, 1 final), he released a spreadsheet with all the grades by ID number, with averages and standard deviations like I wish ELMS had. Don't be afraid to take Chang. Watch the videos, go to class (he does graded in class problems), work through the homeworks rather than just typing in the posted answers and you'll be fine.
Peter Chang ENCE201 Anonymous 05/22/2015	By far, the worst professor I've had so far at UMD. He's unapproachable, condescending, overly difficult tests and homework, not much I can say that was good about him. I head rumors about how bad Chang was, and my biggest regret this class was not instantly dropping when saw I got stuck with Chang. There were about 60 people in the class, 40 got C's and 7 got D's. The class itself is difficult but I've seen professors on OurUMD who grade much easier in 201 than Chang. Don't take this class, or any class, with Chang, just wait for a semester where someone easier is teaching it, it'll save your GPA. Overall, the most important thing I learned from this class is to avoid Chang at all costs in the future.
Peter Chang ENES102 Expecting a C ajones 05/11/2015	If you signed up for Peter Chang's section of ENES 102, DROP IT. SAVE YOURSELVES. Hands down the worst class I have ever taken. I made an OurUMD account for the express purpose of warning my peers. However, I in no way blame him for my grade in this class. Here goes nothing.... First, he begins lecture on the hour, without giving any kind of overview about what he will be covering, so check the syllabus before class. His lectures are quiet and confusing. The only phrase he says loudly and articulately is "Do you understand?"; no one in the class answers and he continues to lecture. He gives graded classwork during lecture, despite none of the other 102 Professors doing this. The examples he does in class are in no way indicative of the work you will see on the homework or on exams. Lecture usually goes over by a few minutes. And now, the end of the year group project. The end of the year project is to make truss out of wood and glue. As the lucky little guinea pigs we are, Chang's section created a truss using a CNC machine to eliminate the need for glue and gusset plates. Sounds great right, WRONG. Chang gave little information on how our project specifications would differ from the other sections. He also didn't indicate all of the data we needed to collect from materials testing, leading to skewed calculations. His only redeeming quality is that his lecture notes are online.
Peter Chang ENES102 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/04/2015	I do not like how he teaches. He spends what seems like 95% of class going over the most simple concepts, and then a tiny fraction going over the complex concepts which are what we actually need in order to complete the homework. I also feel like he wastes so much time constantly asking us if we understand, over and over again, but no one ever answers, but he still always does it. He also never responds to emails, and does not always follow up with things he says he will do in class. So if you have a choice, I would suggest not to take him.
Peter Chang ENES220 Gross1 12/25/2013	Okay. I read reviews on Chang prior to taking his class and I thought, "what the heck. He can't be that bad". I was wrong. At first, I thought it seemed alittle strange that Dr. Fourney "sat" in every lecture and watched Chang teach us but I realized after talking to other students later in the semester that Chang was under review because his teaching was so poor. I wish Fourney had saved my class because Chang did not teach it well. Every minute he asks "do you understand?" And I want to say "no" but nobody answers anyway. Chang's idea of extra credit was assigning random problems at the end of lecture that noone rly knew how to complete and out of everyone who turned it in, one person would be picked at random and given credit. In addition, he literally did one practice problem about entire topics that were expected to be on the final exam (pressure vessels and 3D loading). One day I had to approach him because I missed a quiz because my bus to campus broke down and although the story seems fake it was 100% true. I didnt expect him to give me mercy but it was worth a try. He didn't even look me in the eye as I pleaded my case and just said ,"oh well we drop one". (He never dropped it) At the start of the final exam he ordered everyone to sit in alternating rows and in every other seat. It was impossible to do bc the lecture hall wasnt big enough but for 5 minutes he would not budge, making ppl rearrange their seating. All in all, he actually was the worst professor I've ever had and after my entire high school career plus 4.5 years of college (because of transferring and entering the engineering school) I got my first C in his class. That should tell you something about Peter Chang.
Peter Chang ENES102 tiresias 09/03/2013	I don't resent Professor Chang, but I would not recommend taking his class. What follows is a description meant to warn you, not bitter libel. Take it seriously. This is the sort of professor that you only take if you are highly confident in your skill and don't anticipate any difficulty with material. Even then, his teaching style will cripple you. If you do not learn well from the textbook then you are probably in trouble. As others have mentioned, he presents the material in a convoluted fashion. The way he solves problems is different from the other professors and different than what is taught in the book. He also grades harshly. What shocked me most about Professor Chang was his lack of professionalism, which probably stems from a spiteful streak under his overlying impersonal demeanor. I went to turn in a problem set late after class within the first few weeks - it stated in the syllabus that they would be accepted tardy with a point deduction. He looked at me blankly and said I had to give it to the TA. When I asked him where the TA was, he actually told me word for word "You have to go find him." I was taken aback by how petty this was. I think it says a lot about how he looks at his students. Very reprehensible behavior for a supposed professional. If you remain unconvinced, here is my final anecdote. During a discussion one day I was working in a group to solve a problem set. I could not solve the last one of the three, and nobody in my group could either. I asked the TA for help and he made a mistake. I pointed it out and he tried for a few more minutes before saying to ask the professor. When I did so, I presented Professor Chang with the work I had done so far and the answer I had gotten. I told him the answer was clearly wrong (it was far too small, obviously erroneous) and he agreed with me. I asked if he could see the flaw in my work and he said he wasn't sure. Then he just walked off.... No help from the professor or the TA on a graded in-class problem set. Utterly preposterous. I think this may be the only teacher I've had, including ones in high school, that I honestly don't think should even be allowed to teach.
Peter Chang ENES220 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/14/2013	Professor Chang is a downright shitty person and an even shittier professor. I have never been around an individual with less respect for his students. He has as much personality as a spiral notebook and is totally unapproachable. I would ask my eight year old cousin for help before I would ever go to professor Chang. Needless to say, I would give him negative stars if possible. Professor Chang often decides to institute his own methods into the lectures, making it even more difficult to learn. He is the Ratsie's Pizza of professors. He does the absolute bare minimum for his students and goes out of his way to embarrass them and make them feel totally inadequate.
Peter Chang ENES220 Anonymous 01/02/2013	After the first day of my winter class with this professor, I had serious thoughts about dropping it. He did not explain any of the material required for the homework, assigned an absurd amount of homework each night (6+ hours), and expected us to know all the material for next class plus how to do the problem sets before we came in. I'm not sure why I am paying this professor to be honest. Not only does he fail at teaching, he uses a different textbook for his winter class than the required Mechanics textbook during the semester. He failed to mention this not only to his students, but also to the Book Center, till the first day of class. This made the textbook unavailable for another week out of a three week class that meets every day, thus forcing the students to buy it online and pay an extra $15 for overnight shipping. He uses methods I have never seen taught before that are ambiguous and confuse the entire class, making problems much harder than they truly are and does not understand students well at all. I would never recommend this professor to anyone and he should not be teaching.
Peter Chang ENES220 Expecting a C Anonymous 12/21/2012	Professor Chang is the worst engineering professor at Maryland. I literally made this account on ourumd just to warn you not to take him. In my case, I had heard the horror stories about Chang, but took his class anyway due to the lack of flexibility in my schedule. If I could do it again, I would fight tooth and nail NOT to be in his class. Beigel, Bonenberger, any other teacher in for this class will be better than Chang. I'm not trying to blame my score on him, because I really don't like to do that. I admit I could have worked even harder than I did to earn a better grade, but this teacher, without a doubt, hurt whatever chances I had in some way shape or form on every assignment. For homework, he always teaches his way, not the books way. I had to go to office hours to learn how to do the homework at ALL, usually doubling the intended amount of time it takes to finish homework. For tests, if you put down wrong units on ANYTHING, final answer, scratchwork, anything, he'll take 10 points (a full letter grade) off your test. Extra credit was only presented in the form of a "real life scenario" noone in the class could complete. All I ever heard from other classes was "wow why are you doing it like that?" we all answer "Chang" and they instantly know, wow you guys are screwed. Again, I dont like to put the blame on teachers, but the C I got in his class HAS to be a 76-79 raw. He's not the kind of professor to curve in favor of anyone, if he curves at all. I could write all day about how much you SHOULD NOT take him, but I believe I've made my point
Peter Chang ENES102H Expecting an A Anonymous 12/24/2011	Dr. Chang is one of the most frustrating people I have ever met or worked with. He is certainly a good engineer and knows the material, but he makes almost no second effort to teach the material if students don't understand and is not very receptive to questions during lecture.
Peter Chang ENES102H cjholman23 11/01/2011	I have nothing to say that cannot be seen in the other reviews. Chang is a good engineer, but is the absolute worst professor/teacher I have ever had. I would recommend taking any other professor at 4am over him at 11am. (obviously that is not possible, but you get my point). Avoid him at all costs.
Peter Chang ENCE453 Expecting an A Anonymous 08/17/2011	Taking Dr. Chang is a mistake. Unless you plan on neglecting all of your other classes, I would highly advise against it. The man does not know how to teach and this course is taught differently than how the recommended book teaches it, so it cannot be used as a viable resource unless you are willing to completely scrap everything that Chang has "taught" you. If you do end up taking this course, don't do any assignments until you see them in writing, because they are very likely to change and he will take any opportunity available to screw you over. I have also been a teachers assistant for Chang. This is a horrible choice. All of his incompetency as an instructor will fall directly on you. Bottom line is, avoid this man whenever possible.
Peter Chang ENCE453 John Martin 04/26/2011	dr. chang is....interesting. what infuriated most people in the class was that he listed the textbook as being recommended, when in reality it should have been listed as required. he teaches using technology in the class which does allow me to pay attention, but most of the concepts are taught in a very complex and confusing way that only a few students aside from himself are able to understand. overall, his expectations for how much the students should know and be able to do were way too high, particular with MATLAB programming assignments, where very few people were able to complete them. he was also very vague with a lot of things and wasn't really much help with problems. if you can avoid him, by all means do so.
Peter Chang ENES102 Expecting a C Anonymous 02/16/2011	Dr. Chang was awful. He did not take the class seriously yet graded us harshly. He would find a problem during class for our quiz and give us 5 minutes to complete it. Our final review for statics was him saying "sum of all forces equals zero". He didn't teach well at all.
Peter Chang ENES102H Expecting a B Anonymous 12/18/2010	His class is incredibly frustrating- he makes Statics much harder than it needs to be, and when comparing notes with students in the other Statics classes, its clear that his methods of solving problems are often extremely convoluted. He also doesn't like explaining his work, so the class leaves confused on a regular basis.
Peter Chang ENES102H Expecting a B Anonymous 12/15/2010	He is the worst teacher to have ever taught the class. He doesn't prepare you for exams like the other professors do, and the only way you have a chance of passing is if you go to Biegel's review sessions, and learn to teach the material to yourself. Do not take this class with him!
Peter Chang ENES102 Expecting an A mreese 12/12/2010	Chang's lectures were never terribly interesting, and he seemed to enjoy bringing students' grades down with clicker questions immediately following the introduction of a new concept. His method of curving was to grant extra points based on the fourth highest score on individual questions so it would be 20/20. That is to say, there was never a curve because for each question, four people in the class would have managed to get it 100% correct. Dr. Chang was pretty friendly, though, and he had a really corny sense of humor that I enjoyed. He was pretty helpful outside of class and liked to share tricks and new ways of thinking about problems. If I remember correctly, anyone who received an A on the final would get an A in the class regardless of their current grade. He was probably the worst professor teaching statics when I took it, but there isn't too much to learn in this class, so learning the material on your own is not a major time sink.
Peter Chang ENES102 Expecting a B Anonymous 11/25/2010	A quite unapproachable teacher who has his own way of doing things compared to the other teachers of this course. Found myself learning a lot of the material on my own and never wanting to take a class with him again
Peter Chang ENES102H Expecting an A+ vnsach 06/02/2010	He has a very stupid sense of humor. I had to learn everything by myself but it was not a hard course.
Peter Chang ENCE455 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/26/2010	Dr. Chang is ... interesting. He has high expectations, and the exams, though not tricky are difficult; there is also little in the way of curving grades, but he does had a standard (albeit odd) system of doing it. On the other hand, he is a very good teacher and sometimes adds a sense of humor. My biggest complaint is the textbook situation. The required materials for this class (a $100 textbook, a $125+ AISC manual, and a clicker) were announced only the first day of class, which is not only infuriating for trying to find it cheap, but I think is also illegal due to recent textbook laws. I would check my workload before taking another of his classes. It was also awkward and silly to have to buy a clicker for a class of 20.
Peter Chang ENES102H Expecting an A aloo1111 12/11/2009	A good professor and he has a fun sense of humor which makes an otherwise dull and boring class fun to attend. At times he seems to not fully go over the material and he expects you to know something ahead of time, but he has some neat tricks to make problems easier which makes up for it.
Peter Chang ENCE353 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/29/2008	Decent teacher. He usually has some kind of trick to do problems that wont be in the book so its important to go to class. He also gives class problems that are basically open note quizes but another reason not to miss class. Exams are hard but he will give you a practice exam the day before.