Alejandra Mercado

This professor has taught: BIOI603, DATA603, EDSP652, ENEE222, ENEE322, ENTS622, ENTS659M, ENTS669D, ENTS669K, ENTS689W, ENTS759B, MSML603, MSQC603
Information Review
Alejandra Mercado
ENEE222

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/31/2023
This semester was Mercado's first time teaching 222. She followed Papa's curriculum very closely, providing all the same resources and assigning the same labs and homework assignments. This was a good call because Papa is goated with the sauce. Notably, they did not co-teach and Mercado's exams tended to emphasize different aspects of the material. Her lecture style is very engaging and I feel like I learned a lot in her class. Overall, I found Mercado to be very invested in the success of her students. She frequently checked in with the class to ensure that material was being paced well and calculated final grades by creating five different category weightings at the end of the semester. Her philosophy is that students who understand all the material should earn As, even if they don't perform equally well on all types of assignments. Lecture quizzes acted as a free 10% of your grade in the default weighting as well. I am not leaving a perfect review for three reasons: 1. It was very difficult to determine what your grade in the class was at any point in the semester, as Mercado locked ELMS grade calculations and the weightings were unclear anyway. 2. Exams had a very long turnaround time for grading. 3. Although I appreciated how Mercado highlighted aspects of the course that she felt were more important for practical understanding, this unfortunately led to her exams being different from the homework in the framing of some concepts. As somebody who learns from practice, I felt that there was no good way to prepare for these differences. More could have been done to reconcile Papa's course materials with Mercado's flair.
Alejandra Mercado
ENEE222

Anonymous
05/01/2023
Professor Mercado's ENEE222 was pretty good. Lectures were clear, tests and labs were well organized. My only complaint was that the homeworks were unnecessarily hard, especially compared to test problems.
Alejandra Mercado
ENEE322

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
12/22/2022
Although this class had me on my nerves for the longest because of my poor performances on midterms, I would definitely say that I recommend you take Prof. Mercado because she is a great professor for the reasons mentioned below. The only thing I would warn you about is that, although her exams are short and simple, they are insanely easy to make stupid mistakes on and lose a large portion of your grade. So be aware about that. Other than that, I appreciate this class, and definitely would recommend it to other students
Alejandra Mercado
ENEE322

Anonymous
06/21/2022
She is incredibly nice. The lectures are clear and generally follow Papamarcou's lecture notes, although Prof Mercado likes to emphasize practical applications as well. As others have said the exams are easy and she gives way more than enough time.
Alejandra Mercado
ENEE322

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
01/19/2021
This review is slightly old - I actually took the class with her in Spring 2020. Professor Mercado is fantastic. I cannot emphasize enough that she is now my favorite teacher in the ECE department. She gives very clear lectures with wonderful illustrations and visualizations of concepts - something that is INCREDIBLY important in 322 and any signals class (but often not stressed enough by professors!). I took Papamarcou for 222 and Mercado for 322 and I can definitively say that I learned more effectively from Mercado, though I absolutely have a lot of respect for Papamarcou, who is also a great. Perhaps one issue for some would be the style of Mercado's tests - they are EASY and SHORT. This means that if you miss even one problem in its entirety you will not get an A and probably something more like a B or a C on the test. Mercado is good at emphasizing what needs to be known before these tests, but if you are an anxious test taker this might not be the style for you since everything is worth so much. I didn't have a problem with it but I figured I'd document it in case that would be a concern for anyone else. I would 11/10 recommend taking any class with Mercado
Alejandra Mercado
ENEE322

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/13/2020
Amazing professor. She explains things very well and her exams are extremely fair. She isn’t trying to trick you and as your best interest. I really learned a lot about signals without having to stress that much. Papamarcou is also a good choice but I think she is better.
Alejandra Mercado
ENEE322

Expecting an A
Anonymous
04/17/2019
When I originally registered for this class, I was apprehensive that I had not been able to get into the section taught by Papamarcou. Now that I know both professors and their styles of teaching, I'm glad to say that I'm much more satisfied with Dr. Mercado, and would elect to take the class with her over Papa if I was somehow given the option. Professor Mercado teaches very thoroughly, and always answers questions in an easy-to-understand manner that demonstrates why certain equations or mathematical concepts work as they do. Further, Mercado always relates the concepts we have in class to actual practical (employment) applications. In my experience, this helps me to remain much more interested in the topic at hand. Exams are fair and test you on your understanding of concepts and properties, rather than your ability to perform complex calculations and algebra. She always provided ample study material, and it never felt as if we were tested on something we hadn't already covered in-depth. I definitely recommend Mercado over any other professor for ENEE322.