SYS 3060

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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"

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

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.