STAT 5170

Overview- If you are required to take this class, take it with Woo if at all possible. It's still a really dense class, but he is a good teacher who is willing to help you if you are struggling. If you aren't required, I can't recommend it, as there are much more enjoyable stats classes out there.

Class- Although during lecture you may get overwhelmed and confused, just focus on doing the homeworks and understanding them, as if you can do the homeworks you can ace the exams. If he goes over a proof in class, most of the time you don't really need to know what it said, so don't bother copying the whole thing down and just try to understand the result/concept. If you really need to see it, he records lectures so you can always go back after the fact. The worked examples are usually helpful, so try to pay attention to those.

Grades- As Jeffrey Woo and probably every other review on here says, the first exam is the hardest, so don't be discouraged with your grade on that. If you have a good study group for homeworks and you can do well on those, then you can use them to study for the exams. You get a front and back one page cheat sheet anyway, so don't be too stressed about memorizing any formulas.

Take this class with Woo versus Spitzner. Typically teaches in the spring. A lot of the reviews pertaining to Spring '22 are spot on. Don't spend too much on the technical, proof side of things. Focus on the homework. First exam is the most theoretical, but the rest will be relatively easy computational items. Should be pretty realistic to get a B, will need to work a little harder perhaps for an A. I personally loved Woo as a professor, as I think he is fair and will let you know what will be known on the exams via the helpful exam reviews. I won't say that this is the hardest stat requirement - I still think that math prob. probably is - but still I thoroughly enjoyed the class and it is very practical if you're trying to go into a statistics heavy job, consulting and probably more important for IB, though I can't say much about the IB industry.

Definitely a hard class (would not take if it was not required), but if it is required for you I would 1000% take it with Woo. It's doable, with homework being 25% of your grade, lecture quizzes (not every week) at ~15% and 3 midterms each at 20% (no cumulative final). The hardest test by far is the first test, so don't get discouraged if you don't do well on it. I didn't think I would pass the class after the first midterm and ended up in B+ range because the last two tests are a lot easier. You also get a double-sided cheat sheet on every test which helps a ton if you put practice problems on there. Would highly recommend collaborating on homework, as they are sometimes challenging and usually pretty long. Overall tougher than some of my other statistics classes but definitely doable with Woo!!

This class is probably going to be one of the most difficult statistics classes you will take at UVA, but it's very doable. You'll find that Professor Woo is a very straightforward professor, as in he never expects anything overly unreasonable or difficult of you, which can be a problem for other classes. I found that taking STAT 4630 (Machine Learning) with Woo was good preparation for this class, as he teaches them both very similarly, but this class being a little harder.

Here's a breakdown of the grading (Note that he doesn't ever curve, so your grade is your final grade):

1% Syllabus Quiz. This is pretty easy, so long as you don't make a dumb mistake. It's a single open note quiz, where the solutions can be pulled straight from the syllabus.

7% Individual Lecture Quizzes. He only gave these out for the first half of the semester, so don't think you can recover in the second half, if you need to. This was honestly just a method for you to go to class. The questions could be a little tricky sometimes, but they were mostly straight off of the slides. There were roughly 3-4 questions, and you have roughly 5-10 minutes for the quiz. He drops 4, and there were roughly 7-8 of them.

7% Group Quizzes. Immediately after the individual quizzes, you'll form small groups, and solve the individual quiz together. Same constraints as for the individual quiz, including drops.

25% Homework. There were 6 assignments in total, and he drops one. It's some mix of conceptual questions (show this property, derive this formula, etc.) and computational questions (compute the formula, do this in R). Some assignments are longer than others, but they're overall not too stressful. Form a study group! I found myself making a few math/logic mistakes, and they definitely were useful in catching them.

60% Exams. 3 in total, 20% each, 2 midterms and a final. Pretty much a homework assignment that you have to do within 75 minutes (except for questions that require R to solve). It's closed-book, closed-note (you can bring in a calculator, or use R as a calculator, but I honestly only used my calculator for one question in total), but you can bring in a page of handwritten notes. He holds review sessions during the class before each exam. If you make your cheat sheet exactly what he says during those reviews, you'll be fine. Also, the first exam is by far the hardest, so if you don't do super well on that one, don't give up! The second exam is really easy, and the final is much easier than the first exam as well, but not as easy as the second.

To do well in this class, you really have to understand the first few lectures (autocovariance, stationarity, etc.) as these concepts are fundamental to the rest of the course. Also, GO TO LECTURE! My one complaint is that he doesn't fill in all the slides, and while that is okay, he would show images of long formulas, and we'd have to copy them down, which is a little tedious. If you don't go to lecture, you won't be able to catch up, at least not to the level you should be at, and this class will become extremely difficult. Woo also adds comments throughout the lectures that aren't in the slides, but provide some useful intuition behind the concepts/applications, some of which may show up on the exam.

This is probably the hardest Stat course I have ever taken but you have to take this class if you are a Stat major with econ concentration. There are two midterms and a final which are not that horrible. Professor Woo always provided us with the previous exams and solution which was nice. There is a weekly assignment that involves R programming but the coding isn't that hard so you will be fine. I don't think I would recommend this class unless you have to take it but if you had to take it, take it with him!

Professor Woo is a great professor. This is a hard class. Homework assignments once a week (pretty intensive) and random in-class quizzes (aren't hard). Two midterms and a final compose 60% of the grade. I recommend taking this class with Woo, but that doesn't mean the content is any easier.