Professor
Leah Keating
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2023 - I honestly felt that she was very dismissive. I felt very unsupported by her and my TA. I felt like I was treated as if I should have already known the material... except I thought this class was for people that have never coded before? Of course after lecture I would understand the concepts, but when it came to applying them to the homework, I often thought I needed a push or at least a similar example. When I would reach out, she would say to come to her in person instead of messaging her. However, there are only so many times I can call off from work or ask to switch shifts. When I would message her she would leave me on read for hours only to tell me again to go to office hours. Little did she know I was only able to attend my TA's office hours for the first few times.
Fall 2023 - I honestly felt that she was very dismissive. I felt very unsupported by her and my TA. I felt like I was treated as if I should have already known the material... except I thought this class was for people that have never coded before? Of course after lecture I would understand the concepts, but when it came to applying them to the homework, I often thought I needed a push or at least a similar example. When I would reach out, she would say to come to her in person instead of messaging her. However, there are only so many times I can call off from work or ask to switch shifts. When I would message her she would leave me on read for hours only to tell me again to go to office hours. Little did she know I was only able to attend my TA's office hours for the first few times.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2024 - This was one of the most fun classes I've taken in UCLA! Although I've had plenty of prior experience in Python, I still gained a lot from this class, especially in reinforcing concepts that I did not fully grasp previously. As Professor Keating's lecture notes were well-written, I stopped going for lectures after Week 2. Homework and discussion assignments were extremely fun to work on, as they often involved real-world applications of Python. Midterm was really easy with most of us completing it within 20 minutes, so she made the final slightly harder, but it was still manageable. The only downside was the project - my group put in a lot of effort into it, but perhaps we focused too much on the code rather than the explanations, so we were rather harshly deducted 20 marks for insufficient explanations, so do be wary of that. I was searching for data science internships while taking PIC 16A, and it has been extremely helpful in tackling Python interview questions. I cannot stress enough how important the split-apply-combine technique we learnt for Pandas turned out to be. Now that I have secured an internship, looking back in hindsight, this class has played a pivotal role in my success. For anyone looking to enter the field of Data Science, I would highly recommend this class with Professor Keating.
Winter 2024 - This was one of the most fun classes I've taken in UCLA! Although I've had plenty of prior experience in Python, I still gained a lot from this class, especially in reinforcing concepts that I did not fully grasp previously. As Professor Keating's lecture notes were well-written, I stopped going for lectures after Week 2. Homework and discussion assignments were extremely fun to work on, as they often involved real-world applications of Python. Midterm was really easy with most of us completing it within 20 minutes, so she made the final slightly harder, but it was still manageable. The only downside was the project - my group put in a lot of effort into it, but perhaps we focused too much on the code rather than the explanations, so we were rather harshly deducted 20 marks for insufficient explanations, so do be wary of that. I was searching for data science internships while taking PIC 16A, and it has been extremely helpful in tackling Python interview questions. I cannot stress enough how important the split-apply-combine technique we learnt for Pandas turned out to be. Now that I have secured an internship, looking back in hindsight, this class has played a pivotal role in my success. For anyone looking to enter the field of Data Science, I would highly recommend this class with Professor Keating.