STAT 2020

As you can see, they changed this course A LOT since this past fall semester. IT'S NOT AN "EASY A" CLASS. I believe the reason they did so is because this class is now a required course for Biology majors. So I took this class because all my friends said it was easy--it was not a prerequisite for me because I declared Biology before they changed the requirements. Yes, this class was terrible, but there is definitely a way to succeed. I'm not sure about Curran, but Ferrara is not a good lecturer. It's almost impossible to pay attention to her and she has little authority over the class. I believe that she's just very good at statistics and solving stat problems.

That being said, YOU CAN STILL SUCCEED IN THIS CLASS! The best way to succeed in this class is to do as much practice problems as you can. What I've realized while taking this class is that the tests are somewhat fair if you know all the types of problems you go over in the class. So for every practice problem she does in class (she does a lot), make sure you understand it. Please pay attention in class if you can! If you struggle with paying attention like I did, just make sure to write down all the work or at least take a picture. Studying for the tests will then be just you trying to figure out how she did these problems, and you'll learn this way. Of course, lecture material is all fair game. She also gives you a practice exam (which is quite difficult) which is somewhat similar to the types of questions you'll see on your tests. The tests are by no means easy if you don't study.

I think it's also really helpful if you know how to do stat functions on your calculator. Saves you so much time--they expect you to be able to do all the work but your calculator does a lot of it for you very quickly.

Do all the work. Homework, projects. Your final grade distribution is pretty fair--it's not overly heavy on tests alone. Good luck!

Do not be fooled by previous reviews of this class - they change the structure this semester and whatever they did it was horrible. The class itself could be incredibly useful and interesting but the way they have structured it, its lack of organization, and the professors/TAs in charge just utterly ruin it. Maria is a nice enough lady but she is a poor lecturer and I felt as if she was condescending to students who didn't understand a concept. The tests are not easy and do not correlate well with the Webassign homework or examples practiced in class. Do not even get me started about lab. Learning to code with R-studio in relation to statistics could have been cool but it was just terribly executed. For both labs and the group projects TA's would give you different answers to the same question if they knew the answers at all. The two group projects were awful as well. The last group project they assigned to us about a month before the final so we could "get ahead" unfortunately they didn't actually teach us the material we needed to know in order to do the project until a WEEK before it was due. So yeah 3/10 would not recommend.

This was honestly one of the most frustrating classes I have ever taken. I took this class because it is useful for what I plan to do after college and previous reviews said that it was easy and didn't require a ton of work. The course material WAS easy, which is what made the rest of the class so frustrating. Only about half your grade is based on tests, and the rest consists of 1. group projects that are long, frustrating and graded very hard, 2. homework that is long and unnecessarily difficult and 3. the lab sections and homework, which is based on R-coding and was an unexpected portion of the course that everyone, including myself, found unbelievably frustrating. Maria was nice but not particularly helpful - when asked questions, she struggled to explain basic concepts, and on multiple occasions I heard her get frustrated with students just because they were having trouble understanding something. Everything useful that I learned about statistics in this course came from studying for the tests, and 95% of the time I spent on this class was on other pointless nonsense. At the end of the day, I am probably going to get an A or A- but it was not worth it, don't take this class

This class was so frustrating and just an absolute mess. They changed the structure of the course to prepare biology students for reaserch, so the homeworks and labs were different from previous semesters. The lab was pointless and the R program was taught very poorly. Half the time the TA's couldn't even agree on the correct code for assignments, which actually ended up in a lot arguing. You're required to go to lab, but they basically just give you the code you need to submit the assignment. Labs assignments were also returned very late. The homework wasn't difficult, but it did take a lot of time. However, the homework doesn't correlate to the exam well at all. The group projects involving R were completely pointless and described so vaguely that you'd have no idea what you needed to do unless you went to office hours. Even then, people were told different things, so you're kind of left hoping that you have everything you need. For being so open ended, the projects were graded very strictly. Exams were multiple choice with maybe 1 free respone, and they were definitely tough because the types of questions on the exam were different from the problems we practiced in lecture. This class was just so disorganized and it just always felt like nothing correlated from lab, to homework, to exams. I hope for the sake of future students that this course is structured much better than it was this semester. If you need a stat class, look elsewhere. If this class is a requirement, I'm sorry.

The class started off okay but devolved into a trainwreck in roughly a month. They changed the class this semester and whatever they did must have completely ruined it because before I've only heard good things about the class but now it's infuriating and not easy at all. Maria is nice enough but utterly hopeless as a teacher. Exams are worded so badly half the battle is figuring out what the heck they're asking. The R component was a joke, TAs had no idea what was going on and assignments were returned months late. Overall I'm just disappointed. I was looking forward to useful, not too difficult class to fulfill some pre-reqs and take alongside biochem. Instead I got this.

If you're thinking about taking this class because you heard it was easy- don't. The class was redone this year and it's different. It's very unorganized and extremely frustrating at times. The added component of R serves no purpose outside lab classes and assignments, which are tedious and worthless. Webassign is infuriating because of its specificity in answers, so you need to use R. However, you can't use R on any of the tests, so you don't know how to do the problems. Contrary to what the reviews below me say, the 2 midterms and final exam are not easy. The group projects are extremely open ended and graded very harshly and once again, hardly tie into the course material. Maria is cool, but she's a pretty bad lecturer and makes you feel stupid if you don't know what's going on. If you don't need this class, don't take it. It's an easy subject turned into a class designed to give you a bad grade. One of my least favorite courses at UVa.

Easiest class I've taken at UVA. Been to class maybe 5-6 times the whole semester (mandatory labs) and still did well. The power points were really helpful and you don't need to read the textbook. The homework can little time consuming but fair. The two midterms and the final were relatively easy. If you need to take a math class and your major doesn't require you to take STAT 2120, this class is a god send.

Generally a pretty easy class, especially if you have any prior experience in stats whatsoever. Lectures are completely unnecessary aside from 4-5 labs completed throughout the semester. Just read through the chapters and flip through the posted slides as you complete weekly homework, which is often time consuming and varied a lot in difficulty week-to-week. Aside from homework and the labs, you have 2 midterms and a final, all of which you can have a cheat sheet for. Be warned that Maria is a bitch about homework. If its not turned in at the beginning of class, you get a 0, no exceptions.

This class is pretty straightforward. The work includes two midterms, weekly homework, and occasional labs. Maria is not very helpful and is not the best at explaining, but if you teach yourself the material you should be fine.

This class was very easy and very useful. If you ever think you might need to do data analysis or any type of statistical analysis in research, take this! Lectures were very boring and the weekly homework assignments were tedious, but the book was great. Maria is a really nice lady but not a particularly effective teacher - I did most of my learning from the book. The group projects are kind of a pain in the ass...but again, all very doable, and the professors are very approachable. so go to office hours if you need!