STAT 6190

Breakdown of grade: 40% HW, 20% Midterm, 40% Final

Overall, Professor Zhou was great for this course. He comes prepared to lecture with slides that cover both the theoretical topics relating to probability theory, supplemented both with proofs and examples throughout. The homeworks (we had 6 of them this semester) built off the examples we do during lecture, but tend to be a little more difficult/ longer on average. However, you get around a week to finish each of them, so if you start early enough there shouldn't be much of an issue with them. I only went to office hours once for the last homework, but he was very responsive and helped me figure out my problem very quickly. The midterm was pretty difficult: the median was a 67%. However, he went over the entire exam after he finished grading and our 4th HW assignment was simply corrections to the midterm that he basically gave everyone a 100 on. The final exam was pretty fair in my opinion. One of the questions (there were only 4) was basically an entire proof he had worked out during one of the lectures. I found the final was much easier to study for because we had many more example problems from the 6 homeworks, midterm, and practice final to look over and study. Also, you get 1 sheet front and back for the midterm and 2 for theh final exam you can use as a cheat sheet. He did not release grades for the final, but I ended up with an A in the course after doing somewhat poorly on the midterm, so I am assuming he curves the class by a fair amount: don't be distraught if you do poorly on the midterm! Since this class is a requirement, there really isn't a way around not taking it if you're a masters/ phd student, but if you take it with Zhou you'll learn a good amount and most likely end up with a fine grade in the class. My best advice to study for the final is to look over the HW solutions he releases and study your midterm/ practice final as the final exam questions will be extremely similar to these.