STAT 2020

I enjoyed this course. The work and work load are not terribly hard. I think it is helpful to go to office hours before an exam, just to be on the safe side. I think Jessica does a really good job of teaching the course. However, she does breeze through some concepts, but she does not mind re-explaining if you ask in or outside of class. :)

If you have taken stats in high school, much of this class will be review. I didn't find it too challenging at all and thought the professor did a good job lecturing, although she does go quickly sometimes. Lecture power points are online and attendance isn't taken so you don't have to go to class except some fridays when there are labs, although I found it helpful to go everyday. A problem set for homework every week, a group project, two tests and the final. You get a self made cheat sheet for the tests that you can basically put all your notes and formulas on, and I never studied for more than an hour or two for each test and got As on both. If you're premed or just want a basic intro stats class, this is for you. I would definitely recommend it!

I would definitely recommend taking this class with Curran over Ferrara. Curran explains stuff a lot better and is much more patient. This class was kind of difficult; the final is cumulative and there is an 8-page group project plus homework almost every week, but if you need to take it, Curran is great.

This class was great! Curran is the bomb at teaching! She is so kind and answers all questions during office hours! She goes a bit quickly in class, but it's okay, you won't get lost! The class is pretty easy ONLY if you put in work! You do have homework assignments every week, which can be kind of annoying but they're not bad if you just put in the time to finish them! Some material gets a bit tricky, but not too bad. I just don't like how she rounds to the nearest hundredth, so you if you get 92.64, you'll still get an A- lol... but otherwise, you can easily grasp the idea of basic statistics in this course!

This class was atrocious! They made the class difficult this semester because it is now a required class for biology majors and is 4 credits ( lab component work with r studio). We learned a lot about r studio, but it felt like a complete waste of time and energy. Exams were poorly written and each question was weighed 4 to 4.5 points so if you miss more than 3 questions say goodbye to your A on the exam. The average for the first exam was 79 and 76 for the second exam ( it was a 90 during spring 2015 WTF!!). The Web assign homework were ok and you can easily get a 100% plus you can work with your friends or classmates to find the answers (Curran drops the lowest HW grade). Also, there is no rounding for the final grade (92.99 will not be rounded up to 93 -_-). Curran is a nice person and was an ok lecturer, but not great. DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS FOR FUN OR FOR PRE-MED if you are not required to take this class. This is not an easy A, more like an easy B!! plus it's 4 credits. Schafer's biochem class was more tolerable than this class!

Yeah this class sucks. I took it because I love biology, I love statistics, and this class is required for biology majors. Fortunately I took AP Stats in high school, so I didn't really have to pay attention during lectures. I felt really bad for people who hadn't taken Stats before because that's really what got me through this course. Curran is a pretty good teacher, but she mainly just reads off of the powerpoints. (I don't think she even makes the powerpoints, I think the textbook company provides them.)
The biggest problem with this class is the lab section. We used a statistics program called R, which involved writing a ton of code. The TAs didn't really teach us how to use R, they just showed us examples of things that we could do in R and then walked around as we struggled to complete our lab assignments. A lot of my google searches this semester were something like, "How to do [anything] in R." If you're looking for a statistics class, look at 2120 or something else. You shouldn't take Biostats unless you really need it.

Both Jessica Curran and Maria Ferrara are great, Maria is a bit more engaging and personable than Jessica. They are both super kind and want to help you learn.

Definitely avoid this class unless it is required. Statistics is really useful but also really hard, and STAT 2120 is probably a better option for most people. 2020 was supposed to be the easier option but I think they changed it to make it harder this semester and moving forward. I am a CS major so I enjoyed learning R but you can just do that for free online if you want through DataCamp.

We had WebAssign homework every week, a midterm, a final, labs and lab assignments every week using R, and two group projects where we used R and wrote a lab report.

TL:DR; Don't take it unless you have to take it. If you need to take it, Maria is probably the better option.

This is the worst class I've taken at UVA. Avoid at all costs unless you must take it. This class used to be very easy and highly recommended by many science majors, but this year they changed it and the grade distribution is MUCH different. The teachers just read directly off the slides and are not engaging at all. The labs are poorly prepared and not graded easily. During lab, students would just sit and wait for the TA's to give out the answers. One student even said they overheard the teacher saying that she wrote up the assignment the night before lab. The tests shouldn't be difficult, but they are so short that missing one or two question often brought your grade down a half a letter grade. The projects are poorly designed, graded very harshly, and brought down most people grades. On the projects, everyone gets the same grade which lead to a lot of people not contributing at all because they knew they would not be held accountable. The online homework assigned weekly doesn't seem to really help prep students for test either

Really is not that bad. Do not bother getting the book/reading, just go to lecture and listen, do the hw/project and you can get an A.

I would suggest taking this class with Jessica. She is a professor, and Maria is a grad student, but they are both very nice. From what I've heard, this class is easier than STAT 2120. I recommend going to office hours for questions about homework, lab, group projects, and midterm review. Going to office hours will definitely help your grade. Attendance is not mandatory, and do not waste money on the book.