STAT 2120

This is a weed out course but if you enjoy statistics and data analysis then you will ultimately enjoy the class. Getting used to the coding portion of the class is difficult but you are provided with all the scripts that you need. There is weekly homework on top of bi-weekly labs that take a good while. Midterms are pretty difficult and so is the final. While you may enjoy this class if you like statistics, I would not suggest taking this course if you do not have any interest in statistics or experience with coding.

I'm going to give a fairly lengthy review, and considering that this semester did not go too well, I'm not sure how relevant this will be if he changes the course structure in the future. However, I'll try to throw in some more general information about how to succeed in 2120. To begin, there's a lecture quiz after every lab and lecture, and overall they're not too bad, but they did suck this year because they were 30% of the grade and getting even one question wrong on a quiz gives you an 80%. There's also weekly homework and two labs a week. In my opinion, these were very easy. Ross posts all the necessary code on Collab, so all you really have to do is change the file name and numbers and it should be fine. It never took my group more than 20 mins to complete the labs. HW took over an hour on average but was also pretty doable. For me, the biggest issue with the course was the fact that all the HW and labs are based on python whereas the exams require actual statistical knowledge. The best way to prepare for these is to go over the lecture videos and solution vidoes (2x speed works fine). Even if you dutifully take notes in class, I found that skimming through the recorded lecture videos again before the exam was helpful because Ross would go over things more conceptually. Ross usually tried to be helpful, but sometimes I found him abrasive in office hours, so I also did teach myself some of the content with Youtube videos to make sure I really understood everything conceptually. Ross is VERY BIG on concepts. Also, make use of your cheat sheets. I basically wrote out all the lecture material in very small hand-writing, which made the exams a bit easier. Anyways, to study for exams just go over anything you don't understand 100% and also test yourself by making sure you know what tests to run and which code to use. I like to be lazy, but this is definitely a class that requires more active studying and actual engagement with the course content. The LTAs are okay and the UTAs are pretty useless (they often had no idea how to help and sometimes gave out the wrong information) but they're nice enough. The midterm project is an easy grade boost and the final project was a bit annoying, but still possible to do very well in. Make time to meet with Ross or the LTAs to make sure you don't make any dumb mistakes on the final paper, and you should be able to bet on getting a B+ at minimum and ideally an A. Anyways, this class was annoying mostly because I felt like it was too easy to just copy and paste stuff for the HW and labs and I always felt underprepared for the exams, but I ended up doing really well in the class so it's possible to just teach yourself everything before the exams. People really disliked the exams, but I thought most were very fair, and Ross usually gave everyone credit for the really difficult questions that everyone failed. Even though he seems like a stickler, and sometimes he is, he does find ways to curve and save people's GPAs.

A classic comm school pre-req that unfortunately sinks your GPA. Most recent test had an average of 60 after he curved it. If you want to do well, go to as many P2L sessions as possible and do review far ahead of exams + make an amazing cheat sheet.

Good luck with Richard Ross. Overall, the class is uninteresting, poorly taught, poorly managed. Even the TA asked me if the first midterm would be online or on paper minutes before we had to start the exam, since the professor was late and evidently lacks communication skills with his LTA’s. He says that we do not offer him feedback, which could be very well true, but he is not the most welcoming professor. If this course is a prereq for you, I would advise you spend the bulk of your studying in stats. He rushes through the material and throws together a half baked exam, and according to previous years is vary particular about verbiage, meaning you must absorb this man’s brain waves to get an ounce of an idea of what he wants from you. This is not a review of someone scorned. This is review of someone who has dealt with people of many types and it doesn’t take a conversation to get the idea of what kind of educator RR Is.

This class could be conducted in a way better manner, but unfortunately Professor Ross is a very difficult teacher who doesn't seem to care much for his students. He throws python at you without teaching it at all. He assigns an absurd amount of work every week. He isn't a very forgiving teacher and the grading on exams are god awful. His lectures put you to sleep. The pacing is fast and the material taught for the final exam is rushed and not well explained. Though many students need tot ake it for a prereq just know that this course is not it.

Unnecessary amount of workload for very little benefit. Getting good grades on labs/homework is dependent on your ability to read Ross' mind, as his assignment questions are often open-ended despite him only looking for a certain answer in certain wording. He seems like a nice guy, but it goes to waste as he is unforgiving in exams and labs when it comes to help and curves. (There are no curves) Seeking help from the guy himself isn't very helpful as he often contradicts himself and can leave you more confused than where you started. During our final lab project, for example, the instruction sheet had something that was contradicted by another post by Ross. When he made a second post to clear the confusion, he ended up not only failing to address the initial contradiction, he added more detail for a solution that included material that wasn't taught in the course (and therefore not usable in the final project.) If this class isn't a prereq for you, please take any other stat class.

I didn't particularly enjoy this class, but I'd be lying if I didn't say I learned a lot. Using python for statistics, while confusing at first, was really cool to see. The most frustrating part of this class is that the grading on tests is harsh. Most of the stuff on the tests is conceptual, and you really have to pack in buzzwords in explanations or you aren't gonna get full points. To succeed in this class, I would form a study session with people and collaborate on the homework. Textbook and calc 1 knowledge are not required. Seriously. Also, I found that going to P2L sessions really helped (you'll know what that is when the class starts). Overall okay class, but much is left to be desired.

When most people talk about this class, they either really hate it or are pretty much indifferent. There are weekly homework assignments, post-lecture quizzes, lab assignments, 2 midterms and final, project, and lots of extra credit opportunities. The lectures were recorded and posted on Microsoft Teams, so if you really needed to miss a class or just missed something during the live lecture, they were easily accessible. As for Rich Ross, I would say that he is a pretty straightforward professor, which can sometimes make him unlikeable. But, for the most part, I appreciated this about him; he was clear in his class expectations. I didn't like though that, sometimes, the homework/lecture quizzes/labs could have really ambiguous wording (SO frustrating). I mainly went to TA office hours, and often times, it would just be a bunch of students all confused about the same question. The lab TAs were really approachable and tried to be helpful, but since they don't grade the homework, they didn't always have the answer. Overall, I enjoyed this class, but I also just generally like statistics. I thought the workload was manageable (as long as you don't procrastinate on the homework and try and collaborate with other students - you can miss the smallest detail, which they take off points for), the exams were straightforward, and DEFINITELY DO THE EXTRA CREDIT. In terms of the project, double check your work! Just like the homework and labs, you can get points off for the smallest details, which add up in the end.

I took this class as a pre-req for econ, and I had heard a lot of bad things about it but honestly thought it was fine. It's 2 lectures and 2 labs per week, and the labs are super helpful for understanding the material, and so are the homeworks. The workload really isn't bad - it's just a lot of class time, but outside of class, there's one homework per week and post-lecture quizzes that take 5-10 minutes which you can do just by looking at your notes. I felt very prepared for exams just from labs and homeworks and I didn't have to study much outside of making the cheat sheet - rewriting my notes was enough studying for me. We had P2L for this class, so go to that, especially before exams because they have really helpful practice questions/tests. Also for homeworks, you're allowed to work with people. This class used campuswirse (similar to piazza if you've used that in other classes) and you get extra credit for answering other people's questions, which was great because every time I had a question a bunch of people answered really quickly. He also offers extra credit for exams so that's some easy points you can get.

I think Professor Ross is a great teacher. He explains things very clearly and uses a lot of examples during lectures. I also think he's very fair and cares about his students.

If you don't have any background in coding/python it can be a little hard at first, but the coding is pretty easy once you get the hang of it - he gives you most of the code you need and you just alter it a little for specific questions.

Overall, I thought this class was interesting and a good intro to stats and very doable if you stay on top of things.

How should I put this, let me start with a conclusion: Don't ever take this course if you don't have to. If you are interested in statistics, take a higher level or different stat course cuz the contents is mostly covered in high school. If you have to take this for perquisite, then good luck to you and your GPA.

I would say no doubt that Ross is a knowledgeable instructor that is more than capable of teaching this course. However, he is not a good professor nor a good educator. Many of the course's content is covered throughout your high school whether you studied IB, AP or even A level statistics. He often makes simply content way harder for students to understand by explaining and using a method that is much harder for students to learn well and understand. The workload for this course is heavy but understandable, given the fact that it is a 4 credit course. However, Rich Ross is the most nitpicking and weird tempered instructor that I have ever met. Not only his exam grading procedures are extremely nitpicking (removing all points for a tiny partial error), he also set his exams to have weird and confusing questions that completely differs from the quizzes and homework we have done throughout the course. His homework and lab questions are worded really bad where you don't know what he is asking, this was even agreed by his TAs when we seek help trying to understand the question, and the TA told us to just "Do the best you can since I am not sure either." Ross isn't reasonable either, as a person or an educator. Ross gave us opportunities to earn extra credit on midterms by posting review questions on campuswire, while ignoring the fact that campuswire could not handle questions and answers that is too long. When approaching Ross and tried to work out some solution around this uncontrollable technology error that prevents many students from earning their extra credits, he simply replied "We will grade all posts made to Campuswire that meet the conditions for grading. It is each student’s responsibility to ensure that their submission is visible on Campuswire. To deviate from this would undermine the equity of opportunity that I offer to students." While Ross thinks he is ensuring "the equity of opportunity" that he provides to each student, he is discriminating unfairly against those students that faces an unavoidable technology error where it is completely not their fault.

Ross is more than worthy of teaching at UVA with his expertise on statistical knowledge, but maybe not a introductionary course that has more than 400 people.