APMA 3110

Ive gotten C's in all my math courses at UVa but for this class, I went to class everyday and did the problems that she pulls up during class and made sure I knew the formulas and got well above average on the tests somehow. The class seemed really easy to me but it didn't appear to be easy for other people. I think it was actually doing the in class problems that made it click for me

This class goes 0 to 100 real quick... you start out finding the probability of getting heads on a coin toss and quickly find it gets much more complicated. Professor Pisano is very approachable and fair, her practice problems during class give you a pretty good idea of what the tests will be like. I found this class not too difficult at all overall though, especially after taking diff eq, although it is a different type of math for sure

Pisano is pretty underrated, but I can kind of see why. She's not the most exciting professor and her lectures aren't particularly interesting sometimes but she knows her stuff and she's pretty willing to help. She's a kind-hearted person. Had her for two semesters (APMA 1110 and this class) and I never felt like she was doing a bad job. Would recommend. The tests can be pretty hard though, so do a lot of practice problems and try to bring a calculator that can evaluate indefinite integrals during the tests, in case you forget how to do them. I didn't do as well as I would have liked (got a C+) , but it's kind of my fault for not practicing enough. If you work though, it should be fine.

Oh my goodness, what a horrible class. Literally one of the worst math classes I have taken not only in the University, but at my high school as well. Pisano is nothing more than the classic college professor- stands in the front and talks at you with a monotone voice for about 30 mins, and then gives out a worksheet. Every single class, this was the deal-- some classes we even had 2 or 3 worksheets because the material was not supposed to be that hard. These worksheets were easy, but they were a straight up pain in the ass. Then, when it came to exams, Pisano's only advice-- "redo the worksheets." Ok, so everyone did that and the average on the first exam was a 75. Why? She tested on a topic which she covered for about 15 mins one day, and another topic which she covered for about 30 mins on another day. The worksheets on both topics were nowhere near this hard, but the test was. At that point I knew any hope of success in this class would not come from only redoing the worksheets, but from doing everything I could to know the topics inside and out. For the second exam, I did not focus on the worksheets: I studied the slides, and did a whole lot of textbook problems, and really made sure I knew each concept so well that I could be ready for the bs on the exam. Sure enough, on the second exam, when there was a curveball, I got it. However, I still did not get another question which apparently some people learned in AP Stat, but some people had never heard of. I still managed to do somewhat ok, and was in prime position to still do well if I did well on the final. Also, throughout the final 6 weeks of the semester, there are these stupid projects which absolutely help you learn nothing, but are just painful to complete. The last one is a group project, and my group was absolutely terrible, yet Pisano did nothing about it. Finally, the final exam appeared to be easy, but all she did was post your grade on SIS. No email, no explanation, nothing-- just a grade. I went to her office, and literally all the APMA professors were there to address grading concerns or to help students look over their final, but Pisano was the only one not there. Over the course of the semester, I went so many times to her office, and apart from the worksheets advice, I literally got nothing. This class is the absolute worst, and I would recommend taking it with anyone other than Pisano because she makes it so tough, and so much harder than it needs to be.

Pisano just reads off the slides and gives worksheets after every lecture. But compared to Deep, I heard she's better. Also, if you're debating between prob and prob stat, I would recommend this class because prob is pretty difficult.

Classes aren't really helpful. The professor just reads off the slides and goes over the topics really quickly. However, its a great way to review the topics if you already know them beforehand. Professor Pisano is super nice though and really knows her stuff. Thus, I really recommend going to her office hours and getting extra help, clarification, and understanding on class materials and worksheets. I honestly wish I went to them more often. She explains them quite well when you ask her on a more one-on-one basis rather than during class. The class for me was quite difficult, but I personally have trouble with counting and probability (first half of the course). My tip if you were to take this class is to really use those office hours as a way to cement your understanding of the topics for the course.

To be honest I went into this class thinking it would be easy compared to my other classes which was my mistake. Pisano doesn’t teach during class, she posts videos and you do worksheets in class which is nice if you wanna skip but sucks if you wanna learn. She also refuses to tell anyone what the test averages are because she “didn’t calculate” but when someone asked her about the first exam she said she thought it would’ve been around a 60. They asked if she was gonna curve and she said no. I did better on exams in this class than any of my friends and ended with a horrible grade still. She said she would curve at the end but she didn’t. I would strongly recommend not taking this class if you can get out of it. It’s time consuming and will bomb ur gpa.