SYS 3060

From reading the other reviews, you will definitely understand that this is a class that under no condition, you should take unless you have to. For those systems majors/minors who have to take this class, here is my advice.
1) Limit your course load the semester you take this class
Traditionally, people take this class third year spring, which lines up with SYS 3034, and SYS 3062. SYS 3062 isn't terrible in terms of work, but SYS 3034 takes a lot of your time as well, so plan to take only four classes, or five with two very easy classes.
2) Probability and Statistics are a hard prerequisite for this class
On the first day of class, we had to fill out a form on our honor that we had completed MATH/APMA 3100, and STAT/APMA 3120. If you hadn't completed these classes and hadn't taken other classes like APMA 3110, and stayed in the class, the form said that you would automatically fail. I knew several people who couldn't take the class and now have to take it their fourth year, so plan accordingly to get those classes done.
3) Set aside time each week to do the readings/homeworks/to make flashcards
I definitely didn't follow this strictly through the semester, but I would highly recommend setting aside a couple hours at the beginning of the week to read the textbook, and then a couple hours at the end of the week to work on the homework, and I would find a friend to hold you accountable and to discuss how to generally solve the problems. Make your flashcards while you read, I would always spend most of my time before exams making flashcards and have very little time to actually study them.
4) The tests are strict memorization, don't spend any time studying how to actually solve problems
The tests literally just test how well you can memorize the book, and to do well that's basically what you have to do.
Also, the first homework is usually due the day after the super bowl in the spring, so plan accordingly.
In conclusion, don't take this class unless you have to, and take an easy semester and pace yourself.

Absolute worst class in the systems major. Lectures are straight out of the textbook. Exams just require you to memorize the entire book and recite it. Homeworks take roughly 30 hours per week. And at the end of it you learn nothing except how to type formulas on Microsoft Word

This class could easily be twice as useful with half the work. It's the closest any class has ever come to quizzing me on "What did the textbook say on page 362"

This class is notorious, but it's really not that bad. It is a ton of work, but if you put in the time, the material itself is not that difficult and it's not hard to do ok. But only if you are willing to dedicate hours each week. Prof. K cares a lot and is actually very willing to help.

Don't take this class if you do not have to. Although it is very doable, it does take a tremendous amount of time. There are only 5 assignments, some group and some individual, but they will take about 10-20 hours to do, so do not wait last minute. Tests are purely memorization and verbatim from the textbook. Pace yourself throughout.

Since there's not much in terms of choices available for this class, the only thing that can be done is prepare yourself the best to succeed. If you don't have to take this class, you probably shouldn't.

This is not a thinking course. This is a course about "stamina" as Prof. K will say during its first meeting - and he's not wrong. From the first week of the class on, your best shot at performing well and avoiding massive stress is to continually work on reading the textbook (the book which contains the source material for the tests, which involves you responding to questions with content you've memorized from the textbook) and doing homeworks (5 in total over the semester, which each take about 30-40 hrs to complete, and you can't collaborate). If at any point you have like an hour that seems free, you're likely wrong - you should probably use it to work on Stoch. Getting ahead of the homeworks and being extra prepared for the tests (meaning you know cold all the textbook material via studying methods like flashcards) will go a long way towards making your semester more bearable.

The homeworks are so strenuous not because they are themselves difficult (problems essentially follow the material presented in the textbook to a T), but because there are incredibly stringent formatting requirements (as others have mentioned) and there is a lot asked for in these problems. Learning LaTeX or a similar formatting language will help tremendously in making your homeworks presentable, editable, and manageable, and using computational tools like Matlab for calculations and graphing will be very helpful.

It's a course that is by no means impossible to succeed in, but will require constant effort.

Material isn't actually that hard but the problem sets take forever. At the very worst, start two weeks before they're due or else you'll be doing all nighters. You can do great on the tests if you're good at memorizing because they require absolutely zero understanding of concepts. Make it to class because there are attendance checks. You're also not allowed to wear hats in class.

The homework sets take a long time to complete (mostly because of strict formatting guidelines), but there's only 5 of them and they're spaced out evenly throughout the semester so just pace yourself accordingly and you'll be fine. The exams aren't too bad because they don't test your computational knowledge - they're strictly conceptual so just memorize the book. That seems like a lot but the chapters are relatively short and very concise. The second half of the course isn't as bad as the first half.

The content of the course is not very difficult to understand. The course requires you to do very formal homework write-ups which take a long time. The professor ranks on the top of the most unreasonable teachers of all time list. I'd recommend doing the homeworks on the computer as copy and paste for formulas/ showing work will come in handy

The homework is hard, and you definitely should start early (and go to office hours). Tests are straightforward, but they just require you to memorize EVERYTHING. As Professor Krzysztofowicz tells you the first day of class, the key is to start early and get ahead (though most people don't). Systems Engineers have to take it, wouldn't recommend to anyone else unless you really love hard work and statistics.

Just get started on the homeworks early and you'll be fine. People complain about the professor but really the only bad part is that he teaches straight out of the book (which he wrote) and seems to have made up his own notation. Good class overall.

Get started on the HW sets early and go to office hours. These will take all night and then some if you wait til the last minute.

DON'T DO THE HOMEWORK LAST MINUTE. There's a reason why he gives you 2 weeks to do it. Go to office hours. The TAs are very helpful. The first 2 homeworks are the worst (my report ended up being 30 pages long for each). Also, if you fail anything (homework, exam) you fail the entire course. However, you're allowed regrades (except for the last homework and final, because there's no time). Make sure you staple the homework at 45 degrees--they take off points if you don't. This course is required for majors, so suck it up. The second half is better than the 1st half, though.

This class is not as bad as everyone makes it out to be. All you need to do is start the homework early, since he gives you 3 weeks to do each one (and you'll need it). The material is very dry and doesn't seem very applicable to modern systems engineering, but it's not too hard to get through.

Not overly difficult, just lots of work. Start the homeworks early!!

One of THE hardest classes at UVA. Required for systems engineering majors... good luck.

This is the most time consuming and pointless class required for systems. It has no real world application, especially since some of the concepts are made up. The homework assignments take between 15-30 hours each but are worth 65% of your grade. Take the time to do these right and get As on them and this will help balance out your test grade averages. The tests and final are absurd. You have to memorize the book- there is no way around it. Going to class doesnt matter since the homeworks you teach yourself out of the book and the tests are memorizing the book. If you get As on the HWs and 50-70s on the tests you can walk out with a B.

Major: Systems

Basically once every 3 weeks you get a killer problem set. The TA's were very helpful, pretty much tell you what you need to get through the problem sets when you go to them. Class and book are the same thing, the prof is a very formulaic lecturer, and extremely old school. Problem sets take as much as 30 hours to complete, and are often 30 pages in length

Holy crap this is the worst class ever. Better find a good group to do the homeworks with. Don't go to class, he just reads the notes, slower than you can probably read too.

This course was insanely difficult. The prof expects you to memorize the text that he has written and regurgitate mind-numbing details on tests. Don't take this course if you don't have to.

Not worthwhile to go to class. Professor just stands at the front and reads from the text book. HW's are extremely tedious and time consuming. Some taking upwards of 50 hours.

To be successful in this class you need to not procrastinate, be good at memorizing, and have plenty of free time. If you don't need to take this class, I wouldn't recommend it. You have 3 weeks to complete each of the 5 homework assignments. Professor Krzysztofowicz says to start them early, and that's really the key to doing well in this class. (The week before each homework was due, there could be 20+ people in TA office hours.) The first 2 homework assignments were by far the longest/most difficult. For the tests, you literally need to memorize the text - including formulas. If you can do that, you're golden. It not as bad as people make it sound if you're willing to put the time into it.

Painful!

If I was not a systems major I would not have taken this class. That being said I believe that it was informative and useful.

Really hard class. I didn't find the way he measured knowledge of the material to be very useful. Maybe if I was someone with a photographic memory or hours to memorize his entire book, I'd feel differently. In any case, start the homeworks early. I know you won't (I didn't either), but don't say I didn't warn you when you are up for 48 straight hours finishing them.

This class is seriously flawed. The structure of the class doesn't promote student learning -- homeworks, while incredibly time-consuming, almost exactly mirror the examples given in the textbook. Because there is so much work to do, the student just duplicates the work done in the textbook rather than actually learning the material. Tests, on the other hand, have no calculations involved -- they simply involve rote memorization and regurgitation. However, this doesn't promote useful learning either, as you're memorizing things like the equation for the normal distribution instead of the actual concepts of the class. And the material isn't really relevant -- no advanced software tools are used, so the class is focused more on the low-level, nitty-gritty process of performing regressions, rather than actually performing stochastic prediction. I had an internship in this exact field and almost all of the class was irrelevant to the work that we were doing because it was so low-level and out-of-date. Do not take this class unless you have to.

So this material in this course is at times interesting and probably useful. That being said if you know how to read (and I know that's a stretch for us engineers) you really never have to go to class. Prof. K lectures straight out of his own textbook. After the first 2 weeks of going to class and realizing that I could take the notes for the entire lecture in about 20 min by just looking at the chapters online I never went to class again outside of exams. Did not affect my grade at all. If you don't mind teaching yourself, lecture is really optional.

This class is incredibly time consuming. Exams are very difficult, first exam had an average in the 60's with no curve. Be careful not to fail any exams or problem sets (easier to do than you'd think) because you have to redo them if you do. Problem sets take a really long time, especially the first two. If you start early, you'll be ok.

This class is definitely doable. Start the homeworks early and pay attention in class and to his "textbook" to do well on the tests. The subject is interesting and Prof. K. enjoys teaching it. Sure he's old school, but this is a good class.

This course is awesome. It is unbelievably difficult and demanding at times (when the homeworks are due), but the material is very interesting and could potentially be useful in industry. Start early on the homeworks, you have three weeks to do them and they typically take upwards of 25 hours each.

Krzysztofowicz is hated for this class, but he is an old school teacher who loves what he does, demands a lot form his students, and pushes them to really engage the material and understand it. He is great at bringing in outside material relevant to the course, and can be inspirational in his lectures.

Overall, tremendously difficult but very rewarding class

This class is hard, but you have to take it. The first two homeworks will be especially hard.

Straight memorization but the book and material are useful. Prof. K is a nice guy but also unreasonable about letting people into the class. Just make a ton of note cards.

Like everyone has said, the homeworks take forever. Do not procrastinate or you won't finish. Also, make sure you get a 60 or above on everything or you have to redo the assignment/test. Don't let that scare you; homework averages are usually near the 90s. Just put in the work.

Kwicz is old school, wears a bow tie, and specifies the angle at which you should staple the HW. He's tasked with teaching a difficult subject but he's very knowledgeable and surprisingly nice and helpful if you need it. The HW takes a bit but is sort of just busy work in that it requires very little abstract thought. tests are memorization. Basically, it's a straight forward class with no tricks...the opposite of 3021

HWs take up to 20+ hrs easily. But you have 3 weeks to complete an assignment.

Wonderful professor. Lectures could be confusing/difficult at times, but very organized and fun otherwise. You should start on the homeworks at least a week in advance. They are not extremely difficult, but simply time consuming. The midterms are very straight forward memorization. If you put in the time (3-4 days before the test), you'll do well.

Krzysztofowicz is one of the smartest and most intelligent professors I have had at this school. Unfortunately, the homeworks are a pain and take 15 or more hours. The tests are also insanely hard. If you work hard, and are good at memorizing, you can do well in this class.

K-witz's class is very difficult; if you're looking for a tech elective to graduate, I would recommend you go elsewhere. He expects a lot on the homeworks, and they take alot of time, probably at least 20 hours each. I cannot stress this enough, START THEM EARLY, I'd say at least a week in advance. While they are difficult, K-witz is very approachable at office hours, and is generally a pretty nice guy.

Interesting class. At times it was my favorite class of the three required that semester for systems engineering, but that was never within a week before a homework assignment was due.

This class isn't impossible like the other reviews say it is, but it will ruin you if you procrastinate (which lots of people inevitably do). If you don't have a TA willing to help a lot, you're also screwed. It is brute force memorization, but the memorization is completely straightforward. If you put in the work, you'll do well. If you don't, you'll fail (and I mean fail, not get a "C"). Also, the prof is a nice guy, just old fashioned. It would make a lot more sense for this class to be curved, but it's not, which is what makes it virtually impossible to get an A.

This course is absolutely unreasonable in its expectation of students. The workload is absolutely ridiculous and structure of the class is intimidating. There are only four homework assignments, but each one will take around 20-25 hours to complete. Although he claims that the amount of work is reasonable given four weeks to complete each assignment, this is not always true or possible.

The material, for me at least, was decently interesting. I thought the book was a better resource than the lecture, but you must attend lecture to get some notes he leaves out of the book.

The test are pure, brute force, memorization. If you want to know what will be asked on a test, just flip to a random page of the book, pretend like it is blank and try to write that page from memory. The amount of memorization is ridiculous as well, requiring you to know everything.

To do well in this class, you must work hard. Read and re-read the book until you can write it. Start the homework as soon as possible and visit the TA often.

Most difficult and unrewarding class I have ever taken. The exams do not test anything but memorization, with no partial credit. Homework assignments take 15 to 25 hours, all of which is poorly explained in the "text book." By that, I mean it is a pdf he wrote that has no examples, just dense notation of a subject that really doesn't matter unless you like to predict weather.

Very tough class. Make sure you start your homeworks early and memorize lecture notes.

Ridiculously tough class, requires a lot of work for the homework assignments. It's interesting to learn but a lot of material.

Very tough class, there were 4 homework assignments during the semester, each one took upwards of twenty hours a piece to complete, start very early!! 2 tests and a final, basically memorize any and everything from lecture and the book to do well. Do not take for fun!

IF YOU ARE A MINOR: DON'T TAKE THIS CLASS. Only four homeworks, but they are long. Start early, work often, and they aren't too bad. The tests are pure memorization, so they are just a matter of studying a lot. Class is painfully boring, you just copy what K-wich writes on the board. But not all the notes are in his book, so don't blindly skip class.

Prof. K is demanding, but a good guy. He wants you to succeed, so he tells you how to prepare for hw's and tests. HW are ridiculously long. Tests are pure memorization of class notes. The structure of the class allows you to do better than you would think.

Tough class. Start the homeworks early so you do not have to pull an all nighter. Go to the TA for help, usually very helpful.

Homeworks take FOREVER, but if you meet with him in person he's the nicest guy ever.

This was one of the most involved systems classes I have ever taken - the homeworks take upwards of 20 hours (there are only 4), and the amount of memorization for tests is immense.