Contrary to prior quarters, this class has been changed and made far more difficult than it used to be. There were two midterms and a final all of which were multiple choice and written. The exams were difficult and tested minute details of R, but the curve made up for them. Nonetheless, studying for the exams was difficult seeing as though we’d receive homework assignments due the same day as exams only to be postponed at the last minute after students have spent all week doing them instead of studying do to their length. The homework assignments were lengthy, time consuming, and difficult, but if you put the time into it you will genuinely get a lot out of them. You will actually gain a lot of knowledge in R from this class and you will be more prepared for 102A than students from previous quarters were if you are able to invest the time into the class. The TA Jake is not as bad as others depict him to be. He extended his office hours almost every week an assignment was due. His office hours were the most helpful of all the TAs, so definitely take advantage of it. As for the professor, he genuinely cares and only real downside about this class is the time you need to spend on homework assignments and the group projects. I definitely don’t recommend taking this class unless you’re a stats major/minor or considering becoming one. Also, if you do take this class try to take a lighter course load as this class will take up a lot of your time especially if you do not have prior programming knowledge.

Alright, well this review is going to be slightly different from the others.

I’ll start off by saying I struggle a lot with any programming, math, or stats related courses.

But I actually really really liked Michael and the head TA, Jake. Jake is hands down the smartest TA I have ever met at UCLA. He also dedicated so much time to the students in the class. In addition to his regular office hours, sometimes
he would hold 6-8 hour office hours or additional office hours 2-3 times a week. I never felt like a bother when I asked him a question and he really helped me to understand the material. The truth of the matter is that there are a lot more people posting negative reviews than there were that showed up to office hours. The beginning of the quarter had a large turn out, but towards the last few weeks there was hardly anyone there. Sometimes it was just me and one other person.

Here’s the truth: if you want to be good at programming you’re gonna have to struggle, at least at the beginning. Yes, I freaking died this quarter. I got stuck a lot. I struggled to keep up with assignments and I had to ask for help often. But I have never learned so much from a class at UCLA as this one. By the end of the quarter I really noticed a change in the way I approached problems and how I thought about them.

I know there are a lot of BS classes out there that are hard for no reason and we often find ourselves as students asking, “When the hell am I ever gonna use this?”. But this is NOT one of those classes. R is one of the most desired skills in the job market right now. This class has the potential to provide more internship opportunities, job opportunities, and higher salaries. That might sound dramatic, but proficiency in R and data analysis really is so high in demand for all industries right now. And the better you get at approaching difficult problems the better you will do in stats/ programming interviews. Classes like this one is what makes our tuition money worth it.

Also, this class isn’t a weader. It became more difficult because they wanted to better prepare students for upper division statistics courses and teach them more.

If you’re taking this class, don’t be afraid, especially of Jake. Go to office hours and don’t be intimidated by Michael or Jake after the first office hour session. Yes you’ll have to dedicate a lot of time to this class, but you will learn a lot. If I could finish this class, then anyone at UCLA can. I am really happy I took this class.

Wow...... what a quarter. First off, if you do not have any programming experience, the homework is gonna take a lot of your time as it did for me, also the grading rubric for the homework is very specific so you can lose points very easily. Homework was very tedious especially when it had that killer question on each that many students struggled with and had to go to office hours for.

Second, the tests were difficult because of the time constraint and the free response questions. The multiple choice was easy for the most part, but some of it required answers that only you can get from messing with R.

One thing I regret in this class is taking it with a major class that made balancing classes very difficult. With that in mind, if you love R or need this class for your major,minor,etc, and have easy classes to balance this out with . Go for it. As for me, I gonna take a long break because this class sucked out a lot of energy from me. Peace and Love folks.

The class is overwhelmingly hard, and I don't recommend anyone taking it. Lectures are clear, but the tests are non-sense. We are tested not on the ability to analyze data by R, but simply some weird rules and edge cases. Homework are good, but gradings are incredibly strict. We can be deducted for more than 10% of homework grade just because of style of coding. As a "fair" CS student who almost got an A in every CS class I took, I still find this class very confusing.

NMGB WZNS

Mike is awesome, I didn't even do very well in the class but he was always super helpful.

Loved Tsiang! He's an amazing lecturer, and made sure that all the concepts he taught were super clear to us. He's also super helpful in office hours! He always told us that our health is of utmost importance, and academics comes second, and not to worry about our grades because he would made sure that our final grade reflected our learning in the end. This way of thinking made me feel a lot better about the class, since I really just focused on learning R Programming, and wasn't that worried about my grade. His tests can be kinda tricky, but if you study the homework closely and also go over some of the example questions he does during lecture, you'll definitely be fine! Tsiang uses Campuswire for this class, which was my savior for homework questions. He also offers a bit of extra credit if you're active enough on Campuswire, so make sure to take advantage of that!

The professor really cares about the students and is always nice and patient.

Michael truly cares about his students. He's AMAZING! His lectures are easy to follow and he posts lecture notes online. The class is also bruincasted. Homework can be a little bit challenging, but he uses campuswire to answer students' questions. He's really passionate about R. If you're taking STATS 20, choose Professor Tsiang. 12/10 recommend.

Take him! You'll definitely love him once you take his lecture. :) Mike is such an amazing professor, and I hope he'll teach some stats upper division classes later so that I can take his wonderful lecture again!