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I was skeptical going into LS 40 because I had heard that the class was new and disorganized. It is true that there isn't much of a textbook, and it's clear that material is still being developed. However, I really enjoyed this class. Professor V is very accommodating, and she adjusted well to online learning. She was very empathetic towards her students and understood the stress we were under due to COVID during spring quarter. She even adjusted the final for us. Stats can be boring but she tried her best to make lecture engaging, and really listened to our questions to help us understand. She also posted her slides, which are very clear and well done. Personally, I enjoyed the coding aspects of this class a lot, and thought that the coding lined up really nicely with the course material (unlike the LS 30 series). The material is very relevant to modern technology and I hope to apply it in the future. Overall I would highly recommend this class, especially since its easier to enroll in than Stats 13.

A lot of accommodations were made this quarter due to remote learning and just the general chaos of the world during finals, but this class turned out better than I expected! Before taking LS 40, I was disinterested in statistics and was unenthusiastic about the prospect of learning about it for an entire quarter. I was afraid of the coding assignments because I struggled with the ones in LS 30 A/B. But looking back, LS 40 was surprisingly not as hard or boring as I imagined. Prof. Venugopal made sure lectures were a safe space to ask questions and loved her students dearly. Sometimes topics were a bit unclear, but students managed to ask questions and get the clarity needed.

Contentwise, I had no idea what bootstrapping and box models were, let alone how to code for them. But I think the class was pretty well organized and topics built from previous lectures. First, we started out discussing basic things like plots, p-values, and central measures of tendency. Later in the course, we applied this to theoretical simulations and this was a part of every kind of statistical testing we explored.

There are 6 components in the syllabus that awarded points: homework, knowledge assessments, prelab quizzes, midterm, final, and extra credit. Coding labs are NOT a part of your grade!

There is a weekly homework coding assignment, and I suppose this is the hardest part of each week, but there were only a couple difficult ones. I highly recommend going to TA office hours and asking questions on how to do something if you're stuck, or after you're finished with your coding lab you can ask your TA or LA then. Homework was 36% of our grade (9 homeworks, 40 points each).

Every two weeks or so we would be assigned these "Knowledge Assignments". These vary from answering questions to making a short PowerPoint or decision tree about the statistical topic assigned. If you team up with a partner, you are supposed to be awarded extra credit for doing so. So each time, everyone would partner up and work on it. This was a little more difficult because we were not face-to-face and communication was important, but this is very doable and easy. Just pick a partner that you trust will get the work done on time. In total, this category is only worth 5% of your grade, but I'm pretty sure everyone gets all the points if you just answer the questions correctly.

Each week we also answered a short, 5 multiple-choice question quiz before attending our coding lab, all of which was 4% of our grade. This was super easy and all the info could be found by scrolling through reading the instructions of the lab on Cocalc. I think the quizzes were just for participation and weren't necessarily graded on correctness as well. The coding labs, not graded and just there as a review/practice each week, were SO much easier than the ones in previous classes like LS 30A/B because there are instructions for each question. Sometimes it will tell you what new formula to use, syntax tips, etc. It's easy to finish most labs in about an hour. I don't know if the instructions were provided to us just because of remote learning, but either way this made the labs very doable and efficient. Labs built upon previous labs too, and were reflective of what we went over that week in class.

There was only one midterm for this class worth about 20% (200 points) of our grade, and it was on Cocalc. Most of the questions were free response and more conceptual, asking more about the "why" of the statistical tests we used than the "what". There was only 1 coding problem at the end, but it was super easy and it was similar to previous lab problems we had done. We were also allowed to reference lectures/anything on CCLE, previous labs, and homework during the exam so that was helpful.

The final exam, worth 35% of our grade, was boosted automatically to 100% for all students this quarter. I didn't look at it, but I've heard that it was a similar format to the midterm and would've been doable.

There is also some extra credit available, like the Mid-Quarter LA survey, course evaluations at the end of the quarter, or practice midterm and practice final exam submissions.

It's pretty wasy to get an A in this class if you go to office hours, attend lectures, and just stay organized. There's not too much work but put in the effort to study and remember what the professor went over and you should be good for the exams. Dr. V. was a wonderful professor and I highly recommend taking her!

I have mixed feelings about this class. Dr. V seems like a really sweet person and I really appreciate the accommodations she made for her students this quarter, but at the same time I wish the lectures were a little more organized. For example there were a couple of days where we had to repeat a previous lecture because something was taught or explained wrong, so to me it wasn't always the best use of time. She is definitely helpful for answering questions and the material wasn't too difficult, so it wasn't too bad overall.

I think that Dr. Venugopal has a kind soul and truly cares for her students, but sometimes I did get a little lost by her lectures. I think this may have to do with the fact that it is a new course and they are still figuring out how to teach it, but I think the material here could be quite useful. Don't be scared by the thought of coding, because even though it is challenging, it is rewarding when you figure something out. I would say that if you want to be challenged, take this class.

Class was just plain terrible. She didn't explain anything well and we were basically expected to learn everything on our own. Our midterms and finals were 15 pages each in a 24 hour window. Thank goodness it was open notes because the midterms and finals were EXTREMELY poorly written and basically copies of lecture slides and textbook stuff. Take it with this teacher if you want the risk of getting an B+ vs an A to an A-. You won't learn anything. The practice midterms were nothing like the real ones either (except 1-2 parts)

I took this class during Spring 2024 and a lot of students complained about both the professor and the class, but it really was not bad at all. Professor Venugopal was incredibly accommodating, labs were easy, exams were incredibly fair and pretty easy (and you could either count both midterms and not the final, only the final, or mix your highest midterm and 1/2 of the final as 50% of your grade), and homework assignments were just making study guides based on the week's material (which greatly helped with studying). Overall, she was a decent professor, very kind, and was so willing to listen to and support students the whole quarter. Since LS30 is probably the easier series at UCLA, that definitely made my experience better, but I think Prof Venugopal was also pretty great.

I took this class shortened over the summer so that might affect things but here is my review:
- she is very sweet and seems like she really does want to be helpful, but ultimately she really don't make all that much sense
- her lectures are almost pointless. I resulted to reading the textbook and watching the videos in my syllabus which were super helpful.
- The class is not all that challenging if you can teach yourself the information. There is a decent amount of homework but it is all due by Sunday so you should have ample time to do it.
- The midterm and final got changed last minute to open note/open book with 24 hours to complete both which honestly might have made them harder. I didn't study a ton for either of them and because of that I ended up studying/watching videos while I took it, but it took a VERY long time. The midterm was 15 pages long and the final was 18. It is a good thing we had 24 hours because I spent at least 9 hours on each which sounds crazy but is true.
- some of the homework isn't on things we learned about so... good luck and go to office hours. It is graded on completion but at least my TA was pretty nitpicky, so just be cautious.
- the coding lab was actually pretty fun and relatively easy. We almost always finished everything in class and then would just review with a friend before they were due.
- all in all it is pretty easy to get an A if you put in the extra work to teach yourself... she gives enough extra credit to raise your grade by 3 percent which makes a big difference.
- Lastly, make study groups. I didn't, but really wish I had to bounce ideas off of and get help.

Save yourself the pain. Take this class with a different professor!

Dr. V is nice, and the class is an easy A is you're already good at math, however she's a horrible lecturer. It's required to attend live lectures due to poll questions, however they are not helpful. You're better off reading the textbook. Dr. V somehow makes simple math seem incredibly complicated, so you're honestly better off reading the slides on your own and ignoring her explanations (that's what I did).
If you haven't taken calculus DON'T take this class from Dr. V. If you're really really bad at math, DON'T take this class from Dr.V. She never covers all the material planned for the lecture, so the class ended up several lectures behind the syllabus. To actually understand the material, you have to do so completely on your own time or build off of knowledge from AP Calc.
The homework for this class is graded on completeness and correctness. It's mostly busy work.
Each of the quizzes were unlimited attempts, and some of them asked for your "confidence" in the answer so it was possible to get 300%. This is a great way to boost your grade.
A few of the labs are a bit time consuming, but the TAs and LAs are very helpful and will help you if you get stuck.
Both the Final and Midterm were split into three parts: A group study guide, an individual test, and a group test. the individual tests were a bit tricky, but the other portions made it really easy to get an A.