STAT 2020

Good class and relatively easy A if you are willing to devote a little time to it each week! Classroom is constructed to be reverse which I found annoying and not as helpful as a traditional style classroom, but the content isn't hard so it wasn't so bad. Homeworks weekly, but you get two tries on every question. Labs were also pretty easy if you watch the pre lab video. Worst part of the whole class was taking exams in that cramped lecture hall because she didn't staple the pages together.

For background, I took a stats class before taking this course, so the material itself was pretty easy. My friends who took this course thought that the material was also pretty easy to quickly understand (or at least pretty easy to understand after some practice).
Maria, however, is a whole different story. I thought that she would be pretty easy going at first, but it turns out that she pretty much hates her job and takes it out on everyone else. She is an INCREDIBLY slow talker -- I always put her lab videos and lecture videos (which I hardly watched) on 2x speed, and it was still slow. Her lectures are pretty much useless because she posts all the material that needs to be learned before hand as a PowerPoint and video, and lectures are just practice we get already in the homework (I regretted every time I showed up to lecture, but there is a class participation grade). I ended up doing work for OTHER classes during lecture.
This class would be a pretty good grade booster if she didn't make every exam worth 30-40 points when each exam before the final is worth 15% of our grade -- it doesn't seem like a big amount, but it will add up.
#tCFfall2021

Maria provides a lot of resources and is very straightforward about the expectations for this class. I never had to read the textbook for this class, as Maria's PowerPoints and notes were sufficient enough. The homework problems on Achieve is very helpful to understanding the content as well. In lecture, you do practice problems in small groups, and then go over them, although Maria would take way too long to explain the problems and never finish. If you took AP Stat in high school and did well, this class will be very easy. She doesn't teach you how to use the stat functions in the calculator, but knowing that is very helpful instead of knowing the R code. The lab is where you learn to use R, and can be done with no programming experience if you watch the prelab videos. Take this over STAT 2120 if you can. #tCFfall2021

This is a really great survey of statistics with an applied biological lens. I don't think you need to take this class AND another introduction to statistics because the class is 98% statistics and 2% biology (all of the problems have bio applications, but you only learn a couple topics that are, conceptually, a true intersection between biology and statistics such as specificity, sensitivity, and PPV).

During a COVID semester, the class was set up in a way where there were a couple asynchronous videos to watch a week with topic quizzes for each on gradescope (quiz material came directly from the videos). The topic videos were about an hour each, but I watched them sped up and took notes, so it probably took me 2 hours total to watch the videos, take notes, and finish the quizzes every week. There was also a lab component where you watch a lecture tutorial before Tuesday's lab. The lab portion of the class probably took about 1.5-2 hours a week by the time I watched the tutorial and completed the lab with my group. Besides a 10-15 question weekly homework, the final portion of the class consisted of synchronous groupwork on Thursdays that takes up the whole "lecture" period.

Overall, this is one of those classes that looks like it has a ton of work, but once you get on a schedule, it is very routine and not that bad to complete. Maria and the TAs were very nice, and questions on Piazza were always answered pretty quickly.

took this it sucked!! i wouldn't say it was "hard" material wise, but the amount of work it took from week to week was just too much and the lectures are so hard to get through. by the end of the semester i had to watch them on 4x-5x speed to be able to get myself to pay attention. we had weekly homework assignments, daily quizzes, lab, lab prep video (around an hour), lecture videos (around an hour and a half), a lab project, and 3 exams throughout the semester. if you have to do this for a pre-req, you'll get through it, but otherwise i'd recommend taking 1601 or something.

I took this class since I saw that a lot of pre-med students typically do. It was probably the easiest class I had this semester, very doable for a first-year student. During this online semester, Tuesdays were asynchronous and basically OH while Thursdays involved about a half-hour of group-work and then the rest of class was her going over the problems from said group work. The exams are fair and shouldn't be too challenging if you go over the slides and post-lecture "quizzes". Since our tests were open-note this semester, having a well-organized "cheat-sheet" on hand helped too. Labs are where students learn to use R for analysis. If you have any programming experience at all, it should be a breeze. And if you don't have programming/coding experience, it still shouldn't be too hard since Prof.Ferrara makes the instructions very clear.

I didn't go to OH at all so I didn't have much interaction with the professor, but she seems really nice. She was super prompt about responding to questions on Piazza, and I'm sure a lot of students appreciated that.

I recommend taking this if you're looking for an intro stats course and/or want to get some basic familiarity with using RStudio.

#tCFspring2021

I enjoyed this class. It was definitely challenging, even in covid, so don't take it unless you are willing to put a lot of work in. Maria is a very thorough lecturer and a nice person. She teaches you to code in labs, which I found to be very interesting. Maria is very much the professor who's syllabus is final. She does not round (even if you are 0.01 away) and her tests are challenging. That being said, getting an A level grade or even a B+ is very much achievable.
#tCFspring2021

Coming from someone who has never taken a statistics course, this class was very straightforward. You go over a chapter or two every week and there are three tests throughout the semester, including a final, which is not cumulative. The professor's lecture videos were informative and easy to follow. The labs were relatively simple as long as you watched the lab videos. If you put in a reasonable amount of work, you should get a good grade.

Maria is super nice! She dropped our worst grade on homework, lab, and quiz, also ignore three absence without reason. Should be easy A if you take good note watching the video, do homework and practice problems before exams. Don't have to do reading, video includes everything. Remember to be friend with your labmate.

If you're looking for an easy, pre-health related stats class this is it! It's basically an intro stat class with a sprinkle of biology-related problems and I enjoyed it as someone who'd never taken stats in high school. I will say that Maria assigns a TON of outside class work including 2 topic videos that are usually over the typical class time of an hour 15 and on top of that assigns an hour long lab video for your 50 min lab, weekly homework, 2 topic quizzes a week, and 1 synchronous lecture and lab on top of all this. In her topic videos she goes through everything extremely diligently and slowly and I don't know anyone who watched it at anything less than 2x speed. This class is very time consuming but I won't say it's too difficult. If you put moderate effort into every assignment, you'll end up with a decent grade in this class. She also provides practice exams which are super helpful for preparing for her 3 exams which aren't really cumulative either which is a nice bonus. Also, lab is a complete waste of time; you basically learn R but it's never used on an exam and I don't feel like it's a good use of a lab. TLDR; loooots of work, but easy. Maria is super nice and approachable. #tCF2020