STAT 2120

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.