Combinatorics does not come naturally to me and I found even the basics confusing. Things eventually clicked in how to recognize certain simpler distributions for the homework problems, but Professor Needell wasn't particularly helpful in this. I did not learn much in class, and I had to watch learn via looking up solutions. I have no idea how to recognize or the real world applications of half of the distributions we learned about (ex. Gamma, Chi-Square), which is disappointing since I know they are used quite extensively in multiple fields of study. There was a tedious-amount of homework, which I guess were helpful in tackling exam problems, since I did not learn much from lectures. I can't speak to how helpful she is outside of class (because I never figured out her office hours sign up). Her first two exams were relatively-easy in regard to the content we were learning, but the final was very hard. I was saved by the fact that it was multiple-choice and made very good educated guesses. In summary, I think that there must be better 170E professors than Needell, since I didn't learn much directly from her, but I don't think this class is necessarily that difficult.

Idk if the subject material was horrible or the professor is. I think it's both to be honest. Not the best lectures, and homework is the most tedious garbage you're forced to endure. Good luck.

Terrible teacher -- some may even say dog water. Her teaching is equivalent to if Murr from Impractical Jokers had a bad punishment.