SOC 3130

This course is required for soc majors but I am not math person at all! I think Professor Wilcox is very knowledgable about stats but I hated the fact that he would call on students randomly. He does this to check attendance but I think the anxiety made me pay attention less to him and more to my notes from the previous class. The 50 min lectures Mondays and Wednesdays weren't that helpful because I just felt as though he just went over the last lecture again. Lab is where I learned the most. I am BLESSED to have had Kathryn Babineau as my TA. She was funny and very hands-on. Labs are once a week and they are two hours long. I took an 8 am stat lab and I honestly do not regret it because I learned so much and I did very well in stats. In terms of assignments, we had weekly HWs which were about 5 questions long that were due on Mondays at the beginning of lecture. We also had two exams (about 30 questions), a final exam (technically cumulative but it covered mainly the second half of the semester), and a final research paper. If you take research methods first, then the final paper will be an absolute breeze!

The class is nothing out of the ordinary because it's a statistics course required for the major. Wilcox calls on students during lectures so make sure you're in class and paying attention. Labs are mandatory but helpful for practicing concepts learned in class but are 2 hours long, which can make it hard to focus especially at the end of the week.

I had mixed feeling about Wilcox. He is good at explaining the process of statistics problems, but not great at explaining what the purpose / use of a statistical method is. He goes VERY slowly in class -- it's tough to pay attention. Not bad workload at all. Choose TAs carefully -- I don't think most are terrible, but it certainly drags down the class hugely when they are.

It seems like he is sort of a racist conservative! But the TA is great. WIlcox does nto really teach and he talks down to the class.