Stay the hell away from this woman. Her exams are hard and very conceptual. Very few problems where you actually solve a problem. She's also misleading. I'd take someone else if I were you. Wish I had known about this early on. I got a C- in her class and when I repeated the course with someone else, I was a few points away from an A-. Enough said.

For all of those that are stuck and its too late to drop-- Hang in there!! I struggled a lot in this class. Don't be fooled because it was pretty difficult. Make sure you do ALL of the homework assignments and most importantly READ the book!! The lectures weren't too helpful for me. Most of the questions are conceptual and little math is actually required. I was worried that I might not pass. I got a C- on the first test, a C- on the second test BUT I studied my a** off for the final (which wasn't too hard because you get the hang of how her tests are like) I got a B+ on the final and ended up with a B in her class. Good luck everyone.

Shams is really hard to understand, because she just isn't very good at explaining things AND because she has a bad accent. The material isn't too hard because it's just basic stats, but the curve might screw you over: only 10% A's, 10% A-'s. Discussion sections are useles.

I'm not sure how I feel about Shams. I've taken stats before, so the subject material was fairly easy for me, so I'm not the most objective on the subject, but I found it to be a fairly easy class. HOWEVER, I do feel for the people that haven't taken stats before -- Shams isn't the best at explaining all the concepts. She's an okay professor, overall, and you should be fine if you take the initiative to learn it all on your own if you haven't had stats before. (If you've taken stats at UCLA or even in high school, you will be fine if you just brush up a little bit because her tests are extremely fair if you're well-prepared and you fully understand the concepts.) The homework and the tests aren't exactly similar, but to any south campus (i.e. psychobiology) majors, this is not surprising at all. Anyone who's been through the chem/LS series knows not to expect the tests to look exactly like the textbook problems, so I think those people will do just fine with Shams. As for the psych majors who aren't used to math/science classes, best of luck ;)

Difficult class, difficult professor. She is hard to understand and I personally do not think she explained things well at all. And unlike previous comments, I feel the book barely helped, and a lot of the things she teaches differ from the book. The homework problems do not correlate with the test problems, and the stupid calculator she makes you use on the exams really slows you down. The first midterm was really problem-based and even required some upper-level math, whereas the second midterm and the final were pretty conceptual. the ta ( i had michael) was extremely concerned and tried really hard to help, but I found him pretty ineffective. the friday discussion sections were pointless and I never went to his office hours but I heard that he had people sign up for time slots within his office hours and did 10 minute one-on-one time with people. So if you didn't get there early enough to sign up, you didn't get to talk to him. Also, when discussing the midterms in office hours, you were not allowed to right anything down- so there was really no point in trying to learn what you did wrong because unless you could cement it in your memory after having him explain it once, you were out of luck.

The material is easy, I enjoy and understand stats. However, it is very difficult to understand Professor Shams. Her exams are inconsistent with the material that is taught. Also, over 80% of the class is still attempting to finish when she calls time because not enough time is allowed to finish the exam. Maybe she should take into account that the calculator you are required to use should come with a magnifying glass.

I agree that she's boring so it's hard to pay attention or learn anything in class. But as a responsible student, guess what you should do when you don't understand the material? Read the book! It's a very easy-read and helps a lot. Another suggestion is to go to her office hours...it's surprising how good she is at explaining things one on one. If you know the material (which is NOT difficult) then you'll be fine on the test. I took it with two of my friends and all three of us got flat A's so I don't know what all this "failing" talk is about.

HATE HER!!!! horrible horrible horrible..take Marken (the best professor ever). she is not helpful and she will fail 30% of her class

I agree with the last 2 comments below me. And again, its not like I got a bad grade in this class, I am looking at an A right now. But she really is a bad teacher. Nice, but bad. Take somebody else for this class if you can. The curve has such a small standard deviation that if you don't do amazing on any one of the tests, you are basically screwed for the rest of the class. She mumbles incoherently, goes too slow, and is extremely confusing in lecture. Essentially, you have to teach everything to yourself, and if you can't, then guess what?............ you're f#@*ed! : )