STAT 2020

This course is not bad at all. There is weekly homework and 3 exams. The exams are exactly like the practice tests so be sure to do those. It is a flipped classroom where you have to take notes outside of class and then in class you go over practice problems. The lab portion of the class was harder than expected. They grade pretty harsh. There are definitely opportunities to get your final grade up if you take advantage of them. If you work hard in this class, it is doable to get an A.

This isn't a terrible class, but I do not recommend taking it over the summer. Maria is kind and helpful, but I think she tried to smush a full semester into 4 weeks rather than restructuring the class for the 4 weeks. Her timing isn't great (for example, she has us filling out a lab group evaluation 1 day after we filled another one out, which doesn't make much sense). This class would probably be great during a normal semester, but it just doesn't work over the summer with the way she teaches it right now.

It is a flipped classroom, yet she reteaches everything during class anyway which is a waste of class time (and also not how a flipped classroom is supposed to work). It gets pretty slow, making it hard to focus for 2 hours 15 minutes, but I am learning.

I wouldn't say this version of the course is an easy A; you def have to put in good effort since its so condensed. There are labs multiple times a week (and one lab project), group class work every day, and about 6 homework assignments. There's a midterm halfway through and a final. Exam questions are harder than anything we see in class or on homework (I wish she would show us the hardest stuff in class when we can still ask questions, but alas). Exams are 50% of your grade.

Like I said, Maria is definitely kind and organized. She will help you if you ask. The main thing I didn't like was the structure and timing of the class; if that was altered this class would be perfect for summer.
If you absolutely have to take it over the summer, you will 100% be fine if you have the time to devote to studying for exams. But again, if you have the choice, take a different summer class and take this one during a normal semester.

This class is easy, which makes it perfect to fill a requirement and boost your GPA. Maria is a slow talker, which made lectures tedious and hard to pay attention in. I had never taken stats before, and I found it easier to use her power points to teach myself before class as she intends for us to do. Then I would ignore what was going on in class and do the hw instead. I studied for tests by doing the practice exams she gives and retaking them until I got perfect scores. Her MC is hard so make sure you can get close to perfect on free response questions. If you’ve taken stats before this class should be a piece of cake. I never had any experience with stats or R, and I got an A.

I was genuinely surprised at how much I liked this course. After nightmarish experiences with the math department here and the flipped classroom style they employed, I wasn't sure what to expect with this class. But I can confidently say that this was the only class where I've experienced a flipped classroom being used and taught incredibly well. Maria explained concepts incredibly thoroughly. If you're someone who picks up on things quickly, and read over the slides beforehand, it can definitely feel a little bit slow. But going to lectures and following along/completing the classwork REALLY solidified my understanding of the topics and made things a lot less stressful when it came time to study for the exams.

The labs were incredibly easy and definitely rewarded those who watched the videos beforehand. Aka you will not be able to do the lab if you don't watch - Maria lays practically everything you need to do during the lab out during the video which was INCREDIBLY helpful and stress relieving. You don't need to teach yourself R or anything crazy, she really does make sure that everything is being explained, and the structure of the lab with 4 lab assistants made it so that questions you had in lab would be answered quickly.

I truly only took this class as a requirement for my major. But I thought Maria was a great professor and honestly will consider taking more classes in this area in the future. Put in the work she asks you to (literally just reading over the slides before each day, doing the homework, watching prelab videos once a week) and your grade will reflect that.

#tCFfall2022

This class is basically just an intro stats course, if you took AP Stats in high school this should look somewhat familiar. You do most of the reading/learning outside of class and in class you do some review and practice problems. Maria teaches reallllly slowly but for some people thats good because it guarantees that theres time for everybody to know whats going on. Try to do well on the homeworks and labs as much as you can as they can buffer your grade. Exams are honestly not bad at all if actually put in a little time to study. But make sure you do study, because the three exams make up 50% of your grade! The practice exams are amazing, if youre able to do well on those then youre gonna do well on the exams (theyre almost the same). For me going through all the relevant powerpoints and taking the practice exam was enough to be well prepared for each exam. Overall class is pretty good! Content was kinda boring to me but im sure some people would find it interesting. Maria is also a nice person and a good professor.

#tCFfall22

This class was really easy. The labs are a breeze if you literally just watch the lab video on 2x speed. R is also super easy even if you suck at coding like I do. If you pay attention in lecture and study by doing the class practice/practice exam, the exams should be easy too. The homework is really short and doesn't take long if, again, you paid attention in class. She explains things really simply so you literally just have to memorize some formulas and practice. She's also really chill and even let us watch the world cup penalty shoot out on our last day. Overall don't worry about this class

This class is essentially an introductory statistics class with a biology theme. To my knowledge, most or all the concepts taught in this class compared to another intro stat class are the same; the only difference is that our application problems will be related to medicine or science.

I ended up enjoying this class. It starts out slow, going over mean/median/mode, but the later concepts become interesting and challenging.

This class uses a flipped classroom model, which I didn't really like. Maria started to change this model midway through the semester, so maybe the next section she teaches will be less flipped. Before class, it is expected that you will have read/taken notes on the slides so you can do practice problems in class. I was unmotivated to take notes at the beginning of the semester, which made class confusing. When I actually started taking the notes seriously, the class became a breeze. Maria also started to review concepts in class, which also helped.

The biggest parts of your grade are the tests (15% each for exams one and two, 20% for the final), followed by the lab work and project (25%), so it is important to do well on these. Try to get 100% where it's easy, like the classwork grade and homework/symposium grades. Homework questions give you two attempts: if you get it wrong the first time, DO NOT try again until you confirm you have the right answer. If you go to office hours, Maria will help you out and explain the problem to you. Alternatively, ask your class friends for homework help. It's always better to ask questions and look a little stupid than to bomb your lab/homework assignments (I lived by that and ended this class with an A).

Overall, I ended up enjoying this class. There were some days I had to do a whole lot of studying to figure out what was going on, but when it clicked, it clicked. Use your resources, take your notes, and ask questions when you need help, and you'll do just fine.

If you have taken a statistics course before (such as AP Stats in high school), this class will be a breeze. 90% of what we learned in this class was material I had learned in AP Stats. As a result, this class was easy and I don't feel like I learned much. Professor Ferrara is nice, but she talks slowly and explains everything multiple times, so class time tended to drag on. The course itself was structured so that we took notes before class and did practice problems in class. Usually, we would do about 20 minutes of practice problems, and then Professor Ferrara would spend the next hour explaining those problems. Tests were very predictable, and there was only about an hour of actual homework per week. There is also a 1 hour "lab" each week, which is just basic coding in R, and can easily be finished during class time if your group is motivated. I actually really liked the lab component of the course.

I got an A+ in the course. In my opinion, this class is doable. It's easy to get an A if you do the work.

The style of the course is strange. The homework is to review the powerpoint and teach yourself the content. Then, in lecture, in a small group you work on 1-3 problems. She monitors attendance by the classwork, but you do get 4 drops. In lecture, she does go over the content as if you have never heard anything before, but doesn't do a full overview. There is also a lab section of this class, but do not be intimidated as she makes lab very easy. The lab uses R studio and her pre-lab videos cover exactly what to do. I do not feel I actually learned the coding content, but more just copy and pasted code and changed a word or two. I had never coded before, and I felt it was a breeze.

Advice:
1. Know the vocabulary - The hardest portions of the exams were NOT the statistics/ math parts, but the multiple choice. If you want to do well, make sure you know the vocabulary
2. Go to office hours for homework problems - On every homework problem you get 2 attempts to get the correct answer, and it is graded. I recommend after the first attempt to go to office hours to have the TAs check your new answer. It is annoying, but they will confirm your answer so you are guaranteed a 100% on the homework.

This is the perfect class for anyone who wants to go into health/biology. Stats was never my favorite topic, but she made it easy to understand. The classroom is flipped so lectures are on youtube at home and then practice group problems in class with a once a week lab to learn R Studio. Everything is well paced with good instruction and her office hours are helpful. She is really nice about helping students who are confused as well. Her exams are all a little harder than the practice problems so if you take this class keep in mind to use her practice exams and really study times. Timing yourself on them helps understand your capacity better. Labs and HW are weighted just as much if not more than the exams though so they aren't super stressful.