STAT 3080

I can't lie, this class was harder than expected. It is VERY coding-intensive, so it definitely helps if you come in with a bit of prior R knowledge under your belt. I came from STAT 2020, so I was familiar with the basic commands, but the course progresses from the basics to advanced statistics quite fast, so make sure you don't fall behind. Here's the rundown:

The workload: There are online lectures that we are expected to watch before every class (tbh, it was kind of a waste of time imo and I found more value in just reading the comments left on the R file with the code on the lectures). There is a coding assignment every week that goes with the content covered in the online lectures for that week. They are auto graded on Gradescope, so you can see what test cases you pass and fail. Some of the test cases are hidden, so I would recommend checking with the TA before submitting! In addition to that, there are daily assignments for every class. These are kinda annoying and they're due at the end of the day, so don't forget to submit them (there are no drops!). At the end of the semester, there is a project consisting of 4 "modules", and this is just an extended version of the weekly homework except it's more involved.

The exams: There are three programming quizzes in the first half of the semester. STUDY FOR THEM! He actually requires you to know what each command does and you would also need to able to spot mistakes in buggy code and suggest improvements! These are worth a pretty good chunk of your grade and they are not easy, so be prepared! You get a one page cheat sheet for each quiz, so take advantage of that too!

The professor: Prof. Brown is chill l and that's pretty much all I can say about him. He was just kinda there for the lectures and didn't really lecture unless the whole class was stuck on a problem on the daily assignment. However, I do like that he was open to feedback on the grading and how to improve it. Also, he's pretty strict about turning in things on time, so don't try to turn things in late!

There is a neat good curve at the end of the semester, so don't fret if you don't do as well on the quizzes or if you forget a couple daily assignments. You will be pretty R-savvy by the end of this course, so it is kind of a necessary evil if you're a stats major/minor, but if this is not required for you, I wouldn't recommend it.

Oh goodness, where do I begin? Taylor is great, very chill guy if you can get past your 94.999 grade that you might end up with. The material forces you to become good at R and Prof Brown does everything he can one-on-one to level up your understanding. With that said, do not underestimate the programming quizzes. Those are essentially the exams for the class and can tank your grade if you don't study for them. The nice thing is they're front-loaded and they'll be behind you before you're halfway through the semester. Interesting class, good luck!

This class isn't that difficult, except for the in class quizzes. It isn't too hard to get high As on every other component of the class (especially the project, on which you can get a 100). Coming to class is kind of required because of the graded daily assignments, but watching the lecture videos beforehand isn't really necessary (as the code scripts are posted). The HWs are mostly doable, except when there are some gradescope checks which aren't visible, therefore you kind of have to wing those points. The quizzes are annoying, so study well. The workload overall isn't that much at all (maybe 3-4 hrs max for a HW).
The professor is pretty average, and very approachable. He is mostly helpful if you need questions answered or stats advice, or just want to talk.