STAT 2120

Took this course over the Summer to avoid the horror stories I heard about the class during the semester only to find myself in one of those same situations. The course was fast-paced and different from the semester but was not graded as such with 70% of your average composed of 80 trick multiple-choice questions. Furthermore the disjointed nature of class materials made learning time consuming and redundant. I would recommend taking this course with Spitzner only if you really enjoy math and learning on your own.

NEVER TAKE STAT 2120 IF YOU CAN, IT WILL RUIN YOUR GPA

If you're going to take a statistics class, please take my advice an DO NOT take it with Spitzner. He is so bad at teaching statistics. Also, I sat in the front of the lecture and could barely hear a word he said. He teaches off of power points that explain absolutely nothing. He never does any inclass examples on the board to walk you through a problem, its entirely taught from his voice and lawer pointer. I've taken biostatistics and even statistics during high school however, his tests are legit impossible. This is class is designed as a weed-out class for people who are pre-comm so the tests are basically entirely theoretical. I miraculously passed with B, probably because the gTA I had for the lab was mad chill with the grading. But most gTA's for the labs aren't easy graders. PAUL DIVER is the best TA, just sayinggg

Summary: if you don't have to take stat 2120 for pre-comm or for your major, stay away from this class as a whole. Im a cog sci major and God knows why I took it. It was awful.

Spitzner is not THAT awful, but probably one of the least engaging lecturers I've had. Requires a lot of self-studying and studying outside of required work to do well. The course escalates very quickly from basic principles to more complex problems. A lot of hours of work between webwork and labs throughout the week. Don't take this class unless you absolutely have to.

Don't take the class with Spitzner. He's so boring and not a good teacher at all. I never went to class.

If you're looking for an amazing TA, definitely take the class with PAUL DIVER. He is an amazing TA and definitely was a million times more helpful than Spitzner. I survived the class solely due to him.

Spitzner is a mess. Don't take this class with him.

The material was challenging, but definitely doable. If I had a better professor, I'm sure I would have done better in this class.

While it is very clear that Professor Spitzner knows what he is talking about, his ability in communicating his knowledge to his students is severely limited. His lectures consist almost entirely of him reading a powerpoint word for word without supplementing the presentation in a meaningful way, so going to lecture was a waste of time. When he isn't reading off of a powerpoint he is playing around with excel, which isn't helpful when exam time comes around. His lab assignments are very time consuming and aren't very clear as to how they relate to the subject matter, more often than not. His exams are worded specifically to trick you semantically as opposed to testing your statistic knowledge. If you are able to teach yourself from a textbook you should do fine in this class and learn the necessary skills and base knowledge to progress further, but I would recommend taking this class with another professor if possible.

I was very disappointed, this class was worth neither my time nor my tuition money.

His lectures consist of him reading off of the powerpoint slides, which contain pictures and examples from the textbook and are posted on Collab from the beginning of the course. Thus, most people stopped coming to class after the second week (I was one of the few who did not skip, hoping that he might actually say something useful. My hopes were dashed). All of the mid-terms and final (which amounted to 70% of our final grade) were all multiple choice, so there was no opportunity for partial credit.

Do not take STAT 2120 (or any class with Spitzner) unless you need it as a major pre-req. If you need a math credit, just take Calculus. If you have to take the class with Spitzner, read the textbook (seriously, I regret not doing this more), go to HelpLab, and get a tutor the first week of class because you won't really learn anything form Spitzner himself. He is very awkward and has poor face-to-face communication skills.

Spitzner is an awful professor. He has no communication skills, and he focuses his lectures on some useless excel files he made in his free time. The tests are super tricky and your score will never accurately reflect what you have learned in class. The labs are pointless because you just plug numbers into excel files and write down the answers. My TA stopped reading our answers and gave everyone 10/10 for the last half of the course. The lab does, however, give you the opportunity to communicate with other students and explain things to each other. The homework is perhaps the only thing I agreed with because it's pretty easy if you read the book and notes. Statistics is one of the most important and applicable maths, so I do recommend this course, but with another professor. If you do have Spitzner, just make class average on the tests (around 70%) and you will pull a B. Also, buy a TI 89 if you want to breeze through the homework.

Definitely a critical subject to learn, but the assessments are definitely designed to trick you rather than to allow you to demonstrate your knowledge.

This class sucks. Spitzner is a nice enough guy and extremely intelligent. However, he is so above everyone in his knowledge that he goes on meaningless tangents and does not communicate what really needs to be learned. He is a typical math guy- no communication skills. That said, you have to teach yourself and, with a textbook that is about as meaningful as the Voynich Manuscript, and notes from a prof. who struggles to communicate, it is no easy feat. Tests are also very hard, many questions reflect the communication barrier between Spitzner's knowledge and the students' lack of it. You can expect about a 5% curve on every test. I ended up with a B.

This is the least intimate class I've taken so far at the university, you really do have to teach yourself unless you try to go to the help labs. Topics are extremely relevant in today's world, but although Spitzner is very intelligent and tries his best to make the material interesting, he simply fails. However, if one is disciplined, making a good grade is not overly difficult with the curves that come with the exams.

Spitzner is a nice guy, but I would recommend taking stat with another professor or in the summer. Especially if you've never taken stats before. Homework is easy, labs are relatively easy, and these will both more than likely boost your grade. Exams, however, are almost nothing like his lectures, homework, textbook, or labs. I took stat in high school and still found it hard to do well on his exams. This class will definitely take some attention if you're set on acing it. Lectures become useless after a while because you can just as easily read off of his power points online and it'll make just as much sense as hearing him lecture it. Avoid spitz at all costs, but if you can't, godspeed.

Prof Spitzner is not a great professor at all. I had to teach all of the material to myself via the book. Old exams dont correlate too much with new ones, they did however for the first midterm. Lab and homework are the big cushion which is nice. Overall I would suggest not going to any of the lectures because they are absolutely worthless but do go to the help labs! In your schedule I would completely remove the lecture and replace it with the help lab which is run by the GAs. Its a tough course but he does curve.

Overall Professor Spitzner isn't really a professor, more of an administrator in my eyes. As students it should be concerning to know that our tuition goes to professors who dont teach but read off of slides as quickly as they can. No offense to Spitzner. I'm sure he is a brilliant man who knows statistics inside and out but that doesn't mean you are capable of teaching it to others.

I can't say much for Spitzner himself because I stopped going to the lectures after the first month- they were very boring and I chose to sleep more instead. He posts his powerpoints from lecture, though I found them hard to understand and ended up googling how to do most of the homework. You'll probably have to teach yourself most of the material. The tests aren't bad. If you can do the material on the homework and the labs, you can definitely do well on the exams.

DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS. Spitzner is a brilliant guy, but he has horrible communication skills - and that comes through in his test questions (meaning you could get 5 out of a total of 20 questions on the exam wrong just because you didn't understand what he was asking, not because you didn't know the concepts). The only saving grace was my TA, Meghan Yetman. If you can get her, do!!!! She was incredible and saved me and my entire lab in this course.

It doesn't matter when you take this course or which professor you take it with because you will end up having to teach the whole course to your self. I would HIGHLY recommend taking the class in the summer it is 100x easier. --- this will be the most helpful review you have ever read.

Man, is this guy intelligent, and good lord is he boring. It appears that Spitzner is on a completely different level from everyone taking the class, making the work too difficult to understand and requiring students to learn it entirely on their own. As a first year, I would suggest to any incoming students reading this not to bother taking this course if he is the professor, it's just not worth it. I hate writing terrible reviews because it makes me feel like an awful person, but I felt obligated to share my experience for the sake of others.

Profesor Spitzner is a nice guy, but his lectures are very bland and by the end of the year few people attend them. The exams are difficult, but he does give you old exams, which are very similar to the ones you take. Even if you work hard, the class is still pretty tough. Only take the class if you need to.

Spitzner is a nice man... but he's an AWFUL professor. The number of students who show up to class gradually decreases as the semester progresses. By the end of the semester, less than half of the class shows up. This is because of two reasons: class is not worthwhile & Spitzner will put you to sleep. Most students have to teach the material to themselves. I highly recommend that future statistic students take this course with someone else because this was an unpleasant class. Actually, it's one of the worst classes here at UVA- not worth your tuition money.

Spitzner is absolutely terrible. He is a terrible lecturer and can teach you nothing. There is no point in going to class, just read the textbook because all Spitzner does in class is read off of slides he made from definitions in the textbook. He also purposely writes questions that try to trick you on tests and most fail. Take this with ANYONE else.

Terrible

Spitzner is hands down one of the worst professors at UVa. Not only is he hated by the majority of his students, but he writes his exams in a way that doesn't allow you to use a calculator. Essentially if you want to do well in this class, you have to teach all of the material to yourself and attend all of the help labs.

This class was pretty bad. Spitzner is a very boring lecturer and doesn't really care how well he presents the information. The lectures became pretty much worthless. The class starts off with very basic things that are extremely easy but then it quickly gets harder and harder. The labs were written to take more than the lab period to be prepared to work on them on your own time. They also got very difficult. The homeworks aren't too bad but it is on WebWork which is a terrible program where the answers are calculated using excel. The issue here is you should use your calculator for the homework because you dont get excel on the exam. The exams are not too bad as they generally resemble the practice exams he gives you before the exams. My class had a 75% average on the first exam and a 65% average of the second exam. He will curve the exams individually if the score are bad enough. For our class he deemed at 65% bad enough to curve however he is waiting till the end of the course to see if he actually needs to. In the end, the curve will be to a B like most classes that curve at UVA.

The class is 2 midterms, 1 final exam, lab assignments that meet twice a week, and homework that is due weekly.

If you can take this class with another professor, do it. If you have take Spitzner, Good luck and enjoy his soundcloud.

http://m.soundcloud.com/dreem-deceever

I like the ass song the most.

Spitzner is a horrible professor and his lectures are the most boring I've ever attended at this school. However, his exams aren't too hard and are very similar to the practice exams that he gives out beforehand. Don't worry much about using excel because none of it matters for the test.