APMA 3100

She is literally the goat of probability. Amazing teacher and it is mastery-based learning as in you get 3 chances to showcase you understand a learning target.

The final is a grade maintainer instead of a penalty as well, you can only dip down or go up one letter grade.

Very well paced and you can check your classwork with the TA's.

Professor Marley is simply amazing!

I was dreading taking this course because I heard that it was really difficult, but after taking it with Prof. Marley, I feel like it was really manageable and I learned a lot. It consisted of reading the slides and textbook outside of class (which honestly was just skimming and not 100% necessary usually), and briefly going over the core concepts and example problems in class. Afterwards, we were given the rest of the class to complete a worksheet with a group. Her explanations were honestly much more helpful than reading the slides (which used a lot of notation which could make things confusing) and there was always enough time to complete the group worksheet in class. Prof Marley was also really helpful with answering questions and guiding you when you had trouble on the worksheets.

The checkpoint system was honestly pretty nice. It was a mastery based system with 25 learning targets, and there were 8 checkpoints that each tested around 2-4 learning targets, with each target appearing on two checkpoints and an additional reassessment date so you get 3 opportunities to master each of them. I very much preferred it over midterms, as you basically had an entire class to answer less questions than what you’d see on a midterm. There were also two projects, which are lengthy but cool opportunities to see the applications of probability. The weekly webworks could get pretty annoying and convoluted, but they were still possible. You get a grade based on thresholds for the amount of learning targets mastered, worksheet grades, webwork scores, and project grades. For example, to get an A, you needed 23/25 LT’s mastered, a 90% score on total points of worksheets and webworks, and 90% score on total project points. The final exam can only move your grade up or down once based on if your score meets a threshold (if you have an A, getting at least an 80 on the final lets you keep your A, and at least 95 moves you to an A+, with lower than an 80 moving you to an A-).

Overall, I highly recommend taking this course with Prof. Marley if you want a great learning experience that never feels too overwhelming or stressful.

Marley is such a nice teacher! She explains things very well. I expected probability to be extremely hard, but she breaks it down step by step during class and makes sure you understand what you are doing. Although I wouldn't call this class an easy A, if you put in the effort, you'll definitely see results.