STAT 2120

Took this course over the Summer to avoid the horror stories I heard about the class during the semester only to find myself in one of those same situations. The course was fast-paced and different from the semester but was not graded as such with 70% of your average composed of 80 trick multiple-choice questions. Furthermore the disjointed nature of class materials made learning time consuming and redundant. I would recommend taking this course with Spitzner only if you really enjoy math and learning on your own.

NEVER TAKE STAT 2120 IF YOU CAN, IT WILL RUIN YOUR GPA

If you're going to take a statistics class, please take my advice an DO NOT take it with Spitzner. He is so bad at teaching statistics. Also, I sat in the front of the lecture and could barely hear a word he said. He teaches off of power points that explain absolutely nothing. He never does any inclass examples on the board to walk you through a problem, its entirely taught from his voice and lawer pointer. I've taken biostatistics and even statistics during high school however, his tests are legit impossible. This is class is designed as a weed-out class for people who are pre-comm so the tests are basically entirely theoretical. I miraculously passed with B, probably because the gTA I had for the lab was mad chill with the grading. But most gTA's for the labs aren't easy graders. PAUL DIVER is the best TA, just sayinggg Summary: if you don't have to take stat 2120 for pre-comm or for your major, stay away from this class as a whole. Im a cog sci major and God knows why I took it. It was awful.

Spitzner is not THAT awful, but probably one of the least engaging lecturers I've had. Requires a lot of self-studying and studying outside of required work to do well. The course escalates very quickly from basic principles to more complex problems. A lot of hours of work between webwork and labs throughout the week. Don't take this class unless you absolutely have to.

Don't take the class with Spitzner. He's so boring and not a good teacher at all. I never went to class. If you're looking for an amazing TA, definitely take the class with PAUL DIVER. He is an amazing TA and definitely was a million times more helpful than Spitzner. I survived the class solely due to him.

Spitzner is a mess. Don't take this class with him. The material was challenging, but definitely doable. If I had a better professor, I'm sure I would have done better in this class.

While it is very clear that Professor Spitzner knows what he is talking about, his ability in communicating his knowledge to his students is severely limited. His lectures consist almost entirely of him reading a powerpoint word for word without supplementing the presentation in a meaningful way, so going to lecture was a waste of time. When he isn't reading off of a powerpoint he is playing around with excel, which isn't helpful when exam time comes around. His lab assignments are very time consuming and aren't very clear as to how they relate to the subject matter, more often than not. His exams are worded specifically to trick you semantically as opposed to testing your statistic knowledge. If you are able to teach yourself from a textbook you should do fine in this class and learn the necessary skills and base knowledge to progress further, but I would recommend taking this class with another professor if possible.

I was very disappointed, this class was worth neither my time nor my tuition money. His lectures consist of him reading off of the powerpoint slides, which contain pictures and examples from the textbook and are posted on Collab from the beginning of the course. Thus, most people stopped coming to class after the second week (I was one of the few who did not skip, hoping that he might actually say something useful. My hopes were dashed). All of the mid-terms and final (which amounted to 70% of our final grade) were all multiple choice, so there was no opportunity for partial credit. Do not take STAT 2120 (or any class with Spitzner) unless you need it as a major pre-req. If you need a math credit, just take Calculus. If you have to take the class with Spitzner, read the textbook (seriously, I regret not doing this more), go to HelpLab, and get a tutor the first week of class because you won't really learn anything form Spitzner himself. He is very awkward and has poor face-to-face communication skills.

Spitzner is an awful professor. He has no communication skills, and he focuses his lectures on some useless excel files he made in his free time. The tests are super tricky and your score will never accurately reflect what you have learned in class. The labs are pointless because you just plug numbers into excel files and write down the answers. My TA stopped reading our answers and gave everyone 10/10 for the last half of the course. The lab does, however, give you the opportunity to communicate with other students and explain things to each other. The homework is perhaps the only thing I agreed with because it's pretty easy if you read the book and notes. Statistics is one of the most important and applicable maths, so I do recommend this course, but with another professor. If you do have Spitzner, just make class average on the tests (around 70%) and you will pull a B. Also, buy a TI 89 if you want to breeze through the homework.

Definitely a critical subject to learn, but the assessments are definitely designed to trick you rather than to allow you to demonstrate your knowledge.