STAT 2120

This class may have been better before it went online, but it wasn't very enjoyable for me. Professor Ross' lectures were not super clear, making it necessary to learn the topic on your own, and if I didn't have prior coding knowledge in python this class would have been a lot harder. The structure of the class was really what I didn't like though, as Professor Ross crammed everything into the last two weeks, although this may have been because of the short semester due to COVID. Overall, it wasn't awful especially if you have already taken a coding and/or a stats class, but it isn't super fun.

Ah, Richard Ross. What a man. My main gripe is that he curved the first exam with like 10 points so we thought we were all set for the rest of the year, but tragically, he ended the final with a 76 mean. Also he's just the worst at wording. On the final project, we were APPARENTLY supposed to provide the general form of an equation, but the instructions just said "model," so many of us provided only the model specific to the problem and lost like... 10% on the final project. Luckily for us, our TA was nice enough to let us know what was up beforehand, but most of the class was not so lucky. Richard Ross refused to give people points back which was an unsavory move. The same thing was true of the post-lecture quizzes and the homework.

For Fall 2020, each week had two prerecorded lectures and two synchronous labs. The lectures were pretty to the point and Professor Ross was an effective teacher. The labs were basically problem sets you completed with a group of 2-3 other students. They were pretty enjoyable if you had a good group. The course also had weekly homework, two midterms, a project, and the final. All of those had a reasonable difficulty. The course used Python for all calculations, so it helped to have some prior programming knowledge although isn't necessary.

Love this guy! I think this year was his second year teaching this course and although it was online due to covid, I really enjoyed it! It was a synchronous lecture with a synchronous lab. The lectures were very engaging and the PowerPoints on the material was explained really well. Many people are worried about the coding portion of this course but DO NOT WORRY YOU WILL CATCH ON! Professor Ross doesn't expect you to be a coding wiz so just take good notes and pay attention to what he says and you will be good! There are 2 midterms and a final (all very under a time crunch so be prepared) in this course along with a weekly homework assignment which took me about 3 hours to complete and labs 2x a week where you work in a group and complete exercises with aid from TAs. It's not that bad at all. #tCF2020

Professor Ross is hands down one of the most empathetic and sincere professors I have ever had. He always goes out of his way to make students feel welcome and makes an effort to take everyone into consideration. HE'S SERIOUSLY THE BEST such a nice and genuine person. I seriously can't find anything bad to say about him-- definitely gonna miss having him as a professor.

Although the Fall 2020 semester isn't over yet, I just wanted to write a review on my experience in this course so far. I was quite nervous coming into this class, but after you get a hang of it, it really isn't too bad. At first it is quite overwhelming since there are many different platforms used in this class, but you get used to it pretty quickly. I would say that the biggest thing people complain about for this class is the use of Python/coding, but it really isn't that bad because Professor Ross provides us with the code for most/if not all concepts. Professor Ross states in the beginning of the course that he provides all the resources for students to do well, which I completely agree with. Professor Ross is very organized and gives us a "to-do list" of things for each class, which is really helpful. A tip that I would give for anyone taking this class is to utilize Campuswire! Also, Professor Ross is a super understanding professor and he is very considerate of his students. Due to COVID changes, many people struggled on the first exam with technical difficulties, which Professor Ross handled very well and was super open to suggestions on how to improve the class. He is also very considerate of many other things in general (he's very woke, for lack of better words), and you can just tell he is a genuinely good guy. I really loved having him as a professor.

For me personally, the only thing that I didn't particularly enjoy with this class were the labs, but it's just something that is required with the course anyway. I do agree with other posts that the class is kind of a lot of work, but I would say it's pretty easy to get a good grade in this class because many of the lowest grades are dropped so it's worth it in the end.

Lots of work, don't take this class unless you are prepared to have 2-3 hours of work for it every day. Do not take unless you have sufficient experience in coding.

Because of the labs and lectures, this class takes up a lot of time in one's schedule. There's very little beginner instruction about Python, so be prepared to just kinda learn the basics on your own; however, it's not too bad, because Ross posts his scripts, so you can just copy and paste them into Spyder to run. The material is pretty standard of an Intro Stat course, but exam difficulty was super inconsistent -- the first exam was pretty easy, the second was super hard due to the time constraint, and the last one was pretty in the middle. The grade breakdown is split between homework, exams, lab reports, a final lab project, and participation. Honestly, it's quite a heavy workload even though it's a 4 credit class. There's extra credit available for posting in the discussion forums. Ross is a decent, understanding prof and is very helpful during office hours if you go, but I also disapproved of his sudden change of exam policy which is mentioned quite a bit in the other comments. Although it can't excuse everything, it's important to remember that this was Ross's first year teaching this class, so hopefully, it gets better and more organized from here out. However, overall if you need to take STAT 2120 for a requirement, then Ross is a pretty good choice based on his personality, but get ready for some inconsistencies.

This comment will probably be downvoted by all the Ross haters from Spring 2020, but this is a honest review of the professor and the class.

Professor Ross got a bad rep this semester because he initially gave us 48 hours to complete the final, but reduced it to the standard 3 hours a week before the final. He did this because some people cheated in the second midterm and giving people more time would only give them a better chance to cheat. Many students had a problem with this (because the second midterm took a long time to complete). However, the final was not as intense as the midterm, and 3 hours was more than enough to complete it.

Other than that, Prof Ross is a great professor. He's new, so I was hesitant to take his course at first. Regardless, it was a good decision because he was a very chill guy. The transition to online teaching was very handled, and there were very little hiccups (except for the first lab, the rest went well). There are always tons of TAs to help during labs, and Prof Ross and the TAs host a lot of office hours for students to ask questions. If you have any questions, going to office hours is extremely beneficial. We also get extra credit if we answer our peers' questions about statistics on the Collab discussion page. Prof Ross said he'll give everyone 1% extra credit if 90% of the class filled out the course evaluation but less than 90% did it (I believe it was very close to 90 though), and he gave us extra credit anyways. As for the course, I wanted to only major in commerce when I started this course, but I'm also interested in majoring in statistics now. That's how interesting the course can be (if you're even a little interested in statistical analysis). The course is quite challenging, so be prepared to dedicate much more time to it than your other subjects.

Professor Ross is a wonderful professor who is very understanding and super helpful if you want help. If you dedicate time to this class, there is no reason you won't get an A.

To begin, yes, STAT 2120 with Ross will be a time-consuming course and I personally wouldn't recommend taking the class unless it's required for your major and school (which it is required for many majors i.e. econ, comm, etc.). There are two lectures and two labs a week and you will always have: two post-lecture online quizzes each week, two labs (in groups) per week, one homework assignment a week, and a form of participation clicker questions during lecture. There are 3 exams and a final project as well. The work is doable and it is permitted to work in groups for a lot of it (not quizzes or tests, obviously) but it's really important to start working on assignments as early as you can. Also, the TA grading can suck because it was pretty inconsistent a lot of the time but you can submit regrade requests for most things. The issue with the course were the exams because although the content was fair, it felt like we were never allotted enough time except for the final (which was a fiasco in itself as im sure others have mentioned below). Ross is a good professor, he knows his stuff, makes himself available, and seems like a nice person. He did go over time in lectures though which I suspect he will get better at going forward. Possible to get an A or A-, but this is a class that you will have to prioritize.