STAT 5170

Overall, the concepts being taught are useful, but Spitzner does a horrible job trying to teach. All his lectures feel very disorganized, and he spends most of the class questioning if he correctly wrote down the notes he's lecturing from. Plus, he doesn't explain concepts very well, expects people to know all underlying theory, and expects that every one remembers calculus well. Most of the homework is completed in R, which made studying for the exams difficult since he didn't tell us how he would structure the exam ("you'll know what my exams are like after the first exam" was what he told us). So, if you haven't taken a math or stat class in a while (for me it had been roughly a year bc I was completing mandatory prereq courses for my other major) this class is very difficult and hard to pay attention to. Additionally, if you try to ask him for help he makes you feel dumb/ he seems annoyed that you want help. For context, I took 3 other classes w Spitzner prior to this one (got A's in all of them) so I thought I was used to his teaching style, but his style REALLY doesn't work for this class. I strongly recommend taking this class with some one else.

DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS WITH SPITZNER. Tbh this is my first post on the course forum and I just want to warn ppl to avoid this professor and take it in another semester if possible. He can't teach so by the end of the semester only 1/3 students went to lecture. When you go to office hour he won't take time to really answer your question but will roll his eyes because your questions are too simple (but they are not) and that he has covered them in class (only if anyone will understand). Very arrogant and thinks very highly of himself while the materials are really theoretical and useless. Spent the most time on this class but ended up receiving the LOWEST GRADE SINCE COLLEGE. Completely waste of my time and energy ended up learning nothing.