This review is for Fall 2021, our first quarter in person since the pandemic. Christou's lectures go at lightning speed so it was hard for me to fully understand what was going on in the class. Unfortunately, he doesn't record his lectures nor did the TA. However, he does post his lecture notes online, along with a 10-15 quick video summary of the lecture. Christou cares a lot about his students as he holds at least two hours of office hours every day. He has a good sense of humor as well.
As you may have heard, his exams have low averages, but don't stress out about that because his curve is amazing and he will not fail you if you try. First exam average was a 33%, second exam a 35%. He didn't tell us what the final exam average was, and I have no idea how I did on the final. He emailed us to come to his office hours if we want to see our final exam. Also he grades harshly on the exams, and I noticed he doesn't provide any feedback to us on the exams; he just wrote how many points we got deducted on each problem.
Towards the end of the quarter, he told us the cutoff for an A- was about a 40%, and a B- is >25%. So again don't stress out about your grade in this class.
There were 3 take-home quizzes for this class. The first quiz was assigned to us at 5 pm and due the next day at 10 am. This was not enough time for us and many of us pulled all nighters trying to finish the quiz. The quiz was 5 questions but with multiple parts. Because of this, he gave us a little more time for the second quiz, I believe 24 hours if I remember correctly. And for the third quiz, he gave us about 3 days to finish it.
There were 10 homework assignments. Our TA was very helpful since he went over some of the problems in discussion, and gave emailed us hints. If you have access to Christou's old 100C assignments from previous quarters, they will be helpful since he recycles many homework, quiz, and exam questions.
Overall, this class was alright. I like Christou but this class burned me out and I wouldn't take a class with him again. But he's a decent lecturer and I definitely learned a lot in this class. If you're looking for rigor, take this class.

Professor Christou was an amazing lecturer who was super patient with all his students and helped out with all my questions and requests. He was very accommodating and supportive and held office hours almost every single day. It is a very hard class but definitely worth your time.

Professor Christou was an amazing lecturer who was super patient with all his students and helped out with all my questions and requests. He was very accommodating and supportive and held office hours almost every single day. It is a very hard class but definitely worth your time.

Best Professor UCLA has to offer hands down. The workload is difficult to balance and his tests will provide a level of stress that rivals the Bar exam, but your effort is directly rewarded. As a student who transferred to UCLA, very few classes felt fair in either college, but in Christou's class if you put in the maximum effort you will both get an A and genuinely learn the material.

You can clearly see from other reviews that he cares about his students and is a die hard bruin, but another bonus is that all the intensive homework and exams will make you a competent Statistics student whether you like it or not. There is a reason that Christou's Stats 100 classes fill up so fast. They are the fairest courses available at UCLA and you are nearly guaranteed to understand the material at the at the end of the class, no matter your preconceived notions about your work ethic or intelligence.

There are no easy As in this class, but there are earned As in which you might learn a thing or two.

This is my third class with Professor Christou. I had a really difficult time in his 100B class and was doubtful I could take another class with him again (for the sake of my mental health), but decided to give his classes another go this quarter - and I'm so glad I did.

I cannot stress this enough, but Prof. Christou is extremely kind and caring, and you can feel his care for students permeate through your computer screen and bring you warmth during online classes. With corona + protests going on in the backdrop, he was super considerate and allowed the final assignments + final to be optional. Even better, the man went back on campus to shoot his students a thank you video to thank us for being his students. Who does that?? He also read out all the names of graduating seniors and had the entire class unmute & clap for each student. The guy even spent 15 minutes in a lecture explaining to students why Black Lives Matter and gave us time and space to reflect on it. Towards the end of our last lecture, so many students thanked Professor Christou for everything he had done for us this quarter. He may not be the easiest prof, and his tests may have made me doubt my major way too many times, but his heart for his students is truly unparalleled. TAKE HIM.

• Grading: 0.20 × Quizzes + 0.20 × Midterm1 + 0.25 × Midterm2 + 0.35 × Final
In terms of workload, all of Christou's assignments are difficult and long (as usual). I think he experiments with the grading scheme and mandatory assignments each quarter; this quarter, he posted homework assignments for practice and had mandatory, graded weekly quizzes. The quizzes were initially timed and pretty difficult, but I think that reflected through the grade distribution so he adjusted them to be take-home + due in 3 days. The average of the first midterm (timed) was around 27% and the second (untimed) 42%. However, you can ALWAYS trust the curve. More than half the class was curved up to an A (for example, cutoff for A was 40% on the second midterm), and the lowest grade he gave out was a B-. He truly wants you to learn the material the best you can and the curve always pulls through in the end, so don't freak out if you get a seemingly dismal grade before it.

What a professor. I took him during the COVID-19. He TRULY TRULY TRULY Cares about his students. His exams are hard, and the average of the exams was somewhat high since he gave 48 hours to complete the midterm 2. HOWEVER, he gave really generous curves to the whole class. What I really appreciated about the professor is that he did a small graduation celebration for the class of 2020. He even made a thank you video showing the campus. I am really proud and appreciate being a Stats major and took him. PROFESSOR CHRISTOU IS THE BEST. MUST TAKE HIM!!!!!

The exams are incredibly hard, but the curve is incredibly generous. You can bring your notes to the exams and the midterms are 2 hours long, but definitely not enough. Don't get caught in the idea that you need to know how to solve the problem in its entirety, just aim to get partial credits (I know this is kinda dumb as it doesnt encourage actual problem solving). Also, finding old materials definitely help. Christou has office hours almost everyday of the week, so take advantage of that. Good luck!

I love professor christou, but thats only once i got my grades back. I took him for 100B and then again for 100C and he is definitely a hard teacher and its a hard class (100B too). Oftentimes you wont know what is going on because he jumps around a lot when he teaches (somehow expecting you to be following his train of thought). WRITE EVERYTHING DOWN because you really can never be sure with him. He sometimes gives out a lot of homework, but usually the TA will give you the answers if you are truly clueless (go to office hours with TA not him((unless your TA sucks)) because he isnt too helpful unless he loves you and is willing to give you time). But tests are always open note! Which you will need because you have never seen 90% of it before. Averages are usually below 50, but he has wonderful curves on tests. He told us not to worry about our grades in his class and said once "tests are a learning experience", which i thought was a bit backwards. Also for the first time (and i don't know if he continued doing this) he gave his 100C students an oral exam (you him and TA for 15 mins +/- a few) which was probably not the best way to be tested for some and probably the best thing for others --depends who you are. As for the amount of learning done id rate him a B- because what he teaches is sometimes kinda choppy and unstructured. Overall, I was happy with my grade and i couldn't imagine having taken the class with any other professor because he really passes everyone with above a B- (unless you literally dont do shit or show up or give any sort of effort) So he's a safety net, and one professor i will miss (he's like a dad at this point). Good luck fellow statisticians :)

Lectures are imperative to attend but also super rushed.
Whenever he asks questions during lectures the entire class looks around confused. You can only get clarity in office hours.
Tests are ridiculously hard but are also Open Notes so actually take notes.
Don't worry if you don't get the HWs, pray your TA is a good one

But truly, as a professor and a person is one of the best teachers I have had. Other than his lecturing style which is a personal dislike, he is amazing and will try his absolute best to ensure you understand the material. Take him if you have just for the experience

With Christou, you have to know what you're getting into, otherwise the class will be a pain and you will hate yourself for the rest of the quarter (only semi-kidding). For those of you wondering why you had to take math classes on differentiation, integration and linear algebra, this class will make you understand why.

First, be prepared to take some of the hardest exams you will have ever taken. I had Math majors, Political Science PhD students and people interning for SpaceX complain that Christou's tests were the hardest they had ever taken. It is no joke when I say that some kids have either cried while taking the test or cried after taking the test, and it wasn't out of relief.

For example, the average on the two midterms were a 54 and a 52, with a standard deviation of 16 and 18, respectively. I got a 59 and a 52, respectively, and I was happy to get those scores. (I thought the final was very easy comparatively, which is why I ended up with an A- instead of a B or a B+).

However, his curve is very generous. For example, based on the scores of the two midterms mentioned above, if you got a 60 or above, you got at least an A-. Between a 40 and a 60 was some form of a B and below 40 was some form of a C. So long as you attempt the test and do not cheat, Christou will never give you anything lower than a passing grade.

As for the HWs, they are hard. He has around 8 HW assignments, and they usually required 5-6 hours minimum to complete, if you don't have help from the TA. (I remember the study group I was with thought that there was no way the exam could be harder than the HWs. Trust me, the exam can ALWAYS be harder than the HWs.) Some will require you to use R, however, he will have R code posted online on his website that you can essentially copy with a few modifications to make it work. It's mostly to try and explain conceptual ideas or to make calculations easier, as some problems involve taking the inverse of a 4x4 or a 5x5 matrix and then multiplying it by its transpose, or finding the eigen values of a 4x4 or 5x5 matrix (see what I mean by using Linear Algebra?). Other times you have to find the gradient of a multivariate function, so brush up on your math if you don't remember.

In terms of lectures, Christou is arguably the fastest talker you will ever meet. One of my favorite jokes is that he'll explain a concept in a couple minutes then expect you to solve a problem using that concept in around 10 seconds (I wish I was kidding). He does tend to skip over steps when he solves problems, so you'll be doing a lot of tracing back to figure out how he got from point A to point B. He is also a big stickler on using any electronic device in class and being constantly late (although you won't be using any electronic device or be late as he goes over a lot of material in the class and you'll be busy writing down notes). Christou also doesn't use notes in class, everything is either by memory or pure knowledge while lecturing.

In terms of office hours, you will thank the Lord as he has office hours usually every day, for around an hour or two each day. While he can be intimidating, he really has the students interests at heart. If anyone has had Vivian Lew, they know she speaks her mind. Lew had a very glowing opinion of Christou, saying he's one of the nicest professors in the Stats department and that he really cares about the students learning. And it's true. Christou also has a twisted sense of humor, as he'll joke around before taking the exam saying things like "Drink safely after the exam, ok?" or "I would joke, but I figure I don't want to get your spirits up right before the exam."

The TL;DR version is that, as Christou puts it, "I believe in giving exams that challenge the students to the best of their ability, but don't want them worrying about the grade." The class is hard, the homeworks are hard, the tests are hard, and the material is hard. However, I really enjoyed taking the class with Christou and would recommend any student to take a stats class with Christou, if nothing else but to be in the "Christou club".