STAT 2120

With Gretchen Martinet, this class went pretty well. She's nice enough in lecture, but makes people talk in class. Not really a big deal though. You have the option of attendance being optional or not (if you need an incentive to go). I stopped going. Slides are posted online, I just looked at those. Following lecture, there's a 50 minute lab. Attendance was also optional and I never really went because most people didn't go either. You can just do the lab online, but you won't get help from the TA's (You could get away with going to other sections if you wanted also, but you must go to your sis one for exams). Labs aren't not hard and just based on the lecture with some experimentation with R. There's like 20 of them and you drop the 6 lowest. There's also a quiz each week, 5 questions, at home, pretty easy. 3 get dropped. These questions are more similar to what's on the exam. There's "homework" also, but its not graded and you don't submit anything, just practice problems. So outside of class, might only be about an hour or two of work.
Exams - there's 3, worth the same amount. Not cumulative. About 20 questions, 50 minutes in lab section. Little math on them, mostly conceptual. You get a cheat sheet, front and back. Can write like all of the slides down, you'll be solid. There's a textbook you could get more problems on, I never did this. Some questions are a bit tricky on the exams, just pay attention. It's not bad. I got an 82 on the first one, that's what got me an A- in the course.
Overall, with this teacher, everything is really forgiving. She's not bad at teaching either. Would recommend.

The course grade breakdown: weekly quizzes = 15%, weekly lab assignments = 25%, and three non-cumulative exams each = 20%.

Most people will agree that lecture is not helpful (she basically just reads off slides) so the optional attendance policy is very clutch. Obviously the downside is that you will primarily have to teach yourself. However, the assignments are a good reinforcement and will keep you on track with the material. As someone who was just taking this class to meet a requirement, I felt like the exams could be tricky. The assignments are not that similar to the exam questions and you are not given any practice exams to study. However, the weight of the labs and quizzes will SAVE you. The labs are group work with TAs there to help you, and the quizzes are straightforward. Not to mention, she drops three of your lowest quizzes and six of your lowest labs. Overall, the class is not an easy A, but it is VERY forgiving and you can do well.

Not to mention, Gretchen dropped the grade thresholds by 2% (with 1% from the course evals). She also MIGHT boost your grade if you demonstrated effort throughout the semester. So, maybe attending class more often than not would be worth it.

STAT 2120 with Martinet was a JOKE and if I can spare anyone the stress I would strongly suggest not taking this class with her if you have another option. If you don’t, buckle up, because it can be a rough experience. Lectures mainly consist of her reading directly off the slides with very little explanation which makes it difficult to actually understand the material. The course often feels more like an extended English class with only a small amount of statistics rather than a true stats course. Exams are noticeably harder than the material she covers in class, which is especially surprising given that you are allowed to use a front and back cheat sheet. There is a lab due every day there is class and each one is due at midnight. The lowest six lab grades are dropped at the end of the semester. There is also a weekly quiz and the lowest three quiz scores are dropped. Despite these drops, the workload and lack of clear instruction make the class unnecessarily stressful. Overall, I ended up teaching myself most of the material and honestly feel that my high school stats class was taught more clearly and effectively than this course.