This course is not very difficult, but I still needed to take notes and study for exams and such. Dr. Roland gives thorough lectures that leave very little room for confusion. Some people complain about her lectures feeling slow, but I found the pace to be very helpful, especially for the more confusing topics. I enjoyed this class as someone with no coding or data science background.

I was so surprised that I ended up really enjoying this class. I went into this class with 0 coding or statistics experience and ended with a 96. Dr Roland seems very scary and intimidating in class (especially at the beginning and then she chills out) but in office hours she is the sweetest! She never judges students for asking questions, even if they're dumb, and she is always so willing to help, and truly loves her students and her job. This class is kind of the opposite of stat 2020, in 1601 you'll learn a lot of functions in R and methods of statistical analysis, but this class requires ZERO interpretation of any of the statistics. Stat 2020 is almost all interpretation. Also in 2020 you are required to use R and the professor doesn't really go over it very well, so if you're planning on taking 2020 I would HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend taking 1601 first, it will set you up very well.

As always with these technical classes, how much you get out of it will differ a lot based on your background and skill level. Some might find this class slow and not very useful, but I can say that for people with no coding experience, this is a good introduction to R and data science in general. Unlike a lot of professors, Dr. Roland goes over the basics at a pace that's easy for anyone to follow, and she's always willing to repeat something or take questions during lectures. You definitely need to pay close attention, but you'll learn something new in every class. The exams are pretty straightforward with a mix of short answer and multiple choice questions, and you're allowed to bring in a sheet of notes as well, so it's nothing to stress about.

I will say that some of the homework assignments were oddly worded and seemed to apply the logic we learned in class in ways that I wasn't prepared for. Even the TAs had trouble explaining some of the material to me during the semester I took it, but Dr. Roland is very responsive through email, and the grading wasn't too harsh overall. Also, some people might find her unlikable, but as long as everyone stays quiet and respectful during lectures, she's not so bad.

I went into this class a little nervous, especially having very little knowledge on coding and basically only taking it because it's required to declare my major. If you're like me, then this is definitely a class you DO NOT want to skip. You'll probably get lost since each unit builds on one another, but thankfully there are office hours and while I never attended them myself, I heard they were helpful! Professor Roland gives many assignments (pro: because you're not only depending on exams for your final grade, con: because you do have to set a couple hours on them, especially, like I said, if you're not knowledgable in coding already lol). However, she gives plenty of time to complete them, with homeworks and "classwork assignements" being weighed about the same. Late work is also accepted with 10 points being deducted every day it's not submitted but some credit is better than none so just turn it in anyways. She did drop our lowest homework AND classwork grade, so if you get them all done throughout the school year and decide not to do them during finals' week, then it really takes a weight off your shoulder. She allows one letter-sized page cheat sheet (back and front) where you can put whatever you want to assist in the exams, so I pretty much set aside a couple hours/2 days max to work on them depending on the unit. Even though it felt like the cheat sheet probably helped with a few questions(;-;) , making them helped in remembering what was taught throughout the unit, so they served their purpose overrall. I ended with an A-, so just stay on top of your assignments and you'll be fine!

The professor is nice and the class isn't too bad. It's taught in R which is important for other stats classes at UVA moving forward. I would say lectures are important because that's when she goes through all of the code. It gets a bit boring sometimes but usually I can get through while she explains the code. Exams were on paper and weren't too bad. Homeworks took a while, I would do them all in one sitting and it would take a few hours but I'm a bit better at coding. The professor is nice and approachable. Easy A.

Great as an introduction to Data science. I personally found the material a little dull because I was only taking this as a prerequisite. Overall, it is a decently interesting class with a pretty high workload ( if coding is not conducive to you.) Go to office hours and talk to her or the TAs, and you will be fine. Honestly, I didn't take it super seriously and still managed to get a B+

This class is a great introduction to data science. It’s really coding heavy and very light on statistics which made it easy to just focus on the actual code instead of figuring out what type of test to run. I came into the class having taken a stats course which made some of the questions easier (quantitative vs qualitative data, types of graphs, measures of center/variability, etc.) but it’s definitely not necessary by any means. Dr R is an amazing professor and you can tell that she is really passionate about the subject. Grading is really straightforward (30% weekly homework, 20% weekly quizzes, 20% class activities, and 30% for the three exams). She drops the lowest homework, quiz, and class activity grade which helps your grade a lot. Lectures can get a bit boring and feel long at times, but she goes over basically everything that you need to know.

The class is relatively doable. We switched from a group project to exams, but you get one cheat sheet. The hardest unit and HW by far was utilizing aggregate function. That HW took over three hours. You don’t need to go to lecture, but it is helpful. There are weekly quizzes, and you can get them averaged. There are many office hours, so help is always there for you to use. This is still a valuable class to learn from. Just know that she is strict with deadlines, so if you miss one, you are out of luck. She drops several of the lowest grades in each category. You can do poorly multiple times and still earn an A because of the grade drops. I am not sure if she is still doing exams next semester, but those are around ten to fifteen multiple choice with two short answer questions.

I LOVED Dr. Roland! She had such a fun and witty personality, which I think made the class all the more fun. She also really knows her stuff, which is something else you'd want in a professor. She was great at explaining things in elementary terms so that you could understand if you had not previously learned any programming languages. Her end-of-unit assessments are almost 100% applying the knowledge you had learned, but luckily you can have a 1-page front and back info sheet alongside you during the test, handwritten OR typed. There was no final either. This was the first programming class I ever took, and it showed me that I had an unknown love for coding!
#tCFS24

This course is definitely a little challenging because this course was changed to have 3 exams in a semester. We also have quiz and homework grades, which weren't too difficult - I went to office hours regularly, so getting mostly 100s on the homework were pretty easy. The quizzes weren't that hard either since they're open note, but some were definitely more challenging than others, so reread all the slides and r scripts! You also get two attempts for each quiz, so it wasn't that hard to get a good grade. The exams were kind of challenging because they are in person, but you get a cheat sheet, so the exams shouldn't be too bad! Professor Roland and the TAs were all very helpful too! Like another review said, it's extremely important to go to class, or it'll be hard to understand the rscript.