Professor Chen was very effective at teaching the finite element method. He went at a good pace and was able to make difficult concepts seem comprehensible. The midterm and final are similar to the homework. For the midterm, there were three problems with a few conceptual parts to each. For the final, there are four questions, similar to the structure of the midterm. Overall, I would highly recommend this class with Professor Chen. However, he is going to be teaching at UCSD after this quarter. But if anyone goes to UCSD for grad school and Professor Chen is teaching finite elements, definitely take him!