STAT 3250

* This is for Fall 2024 *

I love Sam! If you're a stat major and have the chance to take a course with Sam, MAKE SURE YOU DO!
10 HW assignments, 6 quizzes, and 1 midterm exam and final project, and the lowest in each category gets dropped (meaning for example, if you hate exams, you could skip the exam and just do the project).
Overall, the course isn't difficult at all. Just use chatgpt, OH, and ask Sam and the TAs for help. The content is also interesting and extremely useful for internships and full time jobs later related to data science especially.

This class is tricky to review because you what you put into this class is exactly what you get out. You can get an A pretty easily by putting in a fair amount of effort to understand the material or by just mindlessly copying the homework solutions that Sam provides in the lectures. I won't lie, it was tempting some days to take the easy route and just bag the A, but I do think that the content covered in this class is EXTREMELY useful in statistics and data science, so it's in your best interest to actually get a good grasp on them. Grades are composed of weekly homeworks, weekly quizzes, and exams. He goes over the homework in class before they are due, so they are fairly easy to score full points on. Weekly quizzes are online and have unlimited attempts, so they are also free gimme points. Exam is probably the "hardest" part of the class, but there are only two and you can drop one, so if you do well on the midterm, you don't need to take the final! He also offers a ton of extra credit throughout the semester so you can offset a mid score on the exam, but he's very lenient when it comes to grading so it's not difficult to score well on the exam even if you're not super prepared.

Sam is probably the most personable professor I have had at UVA. He sets the class up for his students' success and puts in A LOT of work to make the class helpful for us. He's also just a chill guy -- super easy to talk to and always encourages feedback. I just wish he structured the class in a way that would hold students more accountable for their learning.