Jeff Woo. What a guy. Stinks he is no longer teaching 2120. This class in general is tough but I managed an A-. Labs are easy so just show up it's practically free points. Tests are hard but grind practice problems and understand the processes to get the answers. Overall, my opinion may be invalid now because new teacher but I got an A- with zero Stats prior to UVA.
This class was not ideal! It was set up like a flipped classroom and required a lot of outside of the class learning. It doesn't help that I am not a mathy person. I would not take it unless it is required for a major you are considering!
The key to this class is office hours. You have weekly quizzes that count as 25% of your grade and they are based off the HW. I would go to his office hours every week and make sure my answers were right and then take the quizzes. Midterms were both 10% and fairly easy if you understood what was happening on the HWs. Basically its a hard class and you have the put in the time but a good grade is very doable if you go to him and make sure you understand what's going on!
It was an insanely hard class, but with the generous extra credit and grade boosting homeworks, it's definitely possible to get a good grade! And the way Woo structured the class is perfect. He's great at teaching and super helpful and kind during OH. His curriculum design is really coherent and the homeworks are both there to boost your grade and help you learn so you get plenty of practice for the exams. Exams are a killer (averages my sem were around 80 for the midterms and slightly lower for the final). Highly difficult yet rewarding class. If you can take it, definitely take it with Woo!
A lot of the stuff you learn in this class can be pretty useful later on, especially if you're majoring in one of the sciences. It's also not that difficult: if you do what Woo wants you to, you'll make it out with an A or A- with no issues. The flipped classroom can be annoying, so for the videos I recommend getting a browser extension that lets you speed them up. That easily cut the time I spent on homework in half.
Overall, this class is A LOT of work and it's SUPER time-consuming. This class is on Tuesday and Thursday and before each class period, you have to watch 2-3, 5-11minute flipped classroom videos and take a pre-meeting quiz on them. This by itself takes ~2-3 hours because you have to pause and take notes on the videos. Even though this is a stat class, there is a lab every week and it's very annoying to go to. The labs overall are not difficult and pretty easy if you get a good lab group. Prof Woo randomly assigns your lab partners once the add/drop period is over. Within the first 2 weeks, you can work with whoever you wish. Additionally, there's also a homework set due every Saturday night. I recommend going to his office hours every week to check your homework answers with Prof Woo. In lectures, Prof Woo goes over concepts from the flipped classroom videos and clarifies them further. The material in the homework and lecture activities were easy to understand, but the material builds on each other really fast. There are 2 midterms and 1 final for this course and the exams are VERY hard. I got As on the rest of the assignments for this course but I can't say the same for the exams. You're allowed to bring a "cheat sheet" with formulas but that doesn't make these exams that much easier. This is a prerequisite for econ and comm school. If you're purely interested in learning some statistics, I recommend taking a lower level class. Prof Woo can be a savage if you ask questions that rub him the wrong way :/
I learned a lot and really enjoyed STAT 2120, but it requires your full commitment if you want it to be worthwhile. Jeff Woo has set up a very particular way in which the class runs: you read through slides and watch videos on them before class, then he clarifies some things and gives practice problems during lecture, then you go to lab and apply the lessons to a larger example, then you have homework problems. If you take all of these components seriously, it will be well worth your while. If you slack off, you will find yourself behind and confused. The tests (2 midterms and a final) are quite tricky, but combined they only make up 55% of your grade, so if you do well on homework assignments, pre-meeting quizzes, lab activities, etc. then you can really boost your grade. I recommend taking copious notes from the slides and taking your time with the video lectures. DO NOT BUY THE TEXTBOOK, you will not need it. Overall, glad I took this class even as a non-pre-comm student, because my hard work paid off.
This class is fair. He challenges you on exams. It’s very often that you walk out of an exam thinking you got a 100, and then you check your score and you’re like wtf. He actively tries to trick you, but it’s a fair trickery in that if you know the content well enough you should be able to see through it. Also he’s a phenomenal guy and the rest of the points that aren’t the tests are pretty easy. You have to take this for comm school or Econ, but I guess all you can do is do your best on the exams and hope for the best.
People honestly need to chill tf out about this class. People get mad because his tests are hard but you go to UVA you're going to have hard tests. Get over yourself. Added up, the two midterms and final account for 45% of your overall grade, and the other 55% are pretty much gimme points. Yes, the tests are pretty difficult. My test average was a C+, but I ended up with a B+ in the class because lab, homework, the final project, and lecture participation are easy to get almost 100% in. Dr. Woo is very nice, and only gets "rude" when people ask him about things that are clear in the syllabus or that he has already made clear. His lectures are easy to follow, and the tests are about applying what you learn to problems. People got upset that tests weren't exactly like the problems we did in class, but that's the point. He is testing your knowledge and application skills, not your ability to memorize the steps he showed you in lecture. This class is not an easy A, so I wouldn't take it if you don't have to, but if you do, it really isn't that bad, and as long as you put in some work, you will get no lower than a B.
I heard a lot of bad things going into this course and honestly I didn't think it was that bad. For someone who had never taken a stats class before, I feel like I learned a good amount. The videos are kinda annoying and time consuming, but they really help reinforce material especially if you go to lecture because the info gets drilled into your head more. 55% of your grade is based on homeworks and stuff so it's really easy to balance out bad test grades. He's not the nicest teacher but it's a good introductory course and if you put in the work and do all the practice problems, you should be fine.
