STAT 2020

This was honestly one of the most frustrating classes I have ever taken. I took this class because it is useful for what I plan to do after college and previous reviews said that it was easy and didn't require a ton of work. The course material WAS easy, which is what made the rest of the class so frustrating. Only about half your grade is based on tests, and the rest consists of 1. group projects that are long, frustrating and graded very hard, 2. homework that is long and unnecessarily difficult and 3. the lab sections and homework, which is based on R-coding and was an unexpected portion of the course that everyone, including myself, found unbelievably frustrating. Maria was nice but not particularly helpful - when asked questions, she struggled to explain basic concepts, and on multiple occasions I heard her get frustrated with students just because they were having trouble understanding something. Everything useful that I learned about statistics in this course came from studying for the tests, and 95% of the time I spent on this class was on other pointless nonsense. At the end of the day, I am probably going to get an A or A- but it was not worth it, don't take this class

Do not be fooled by previous reviews of this class - they change the structure this semester and whatever they did it was horrible. The class itself could be incredibly useful and interesting but the way they have structured it, its lack of organization, and the professors/TAs in charge just utterly ruin it. Maria is a nice enough lady but she is a poor lecturer and I felt as if she was condescending to students who didn't understand a concept. The tests are not easy and do not correlate well with the Webassign homework or examples practiced in class. Do not even get me started about lab. Learning to code with R-studio in relation to statistics could have been cool but it was just terribly executed. For both labs and the group projects TA's would give you different answers to the same question if they knew the answers at all. The two group projects were awful as well. The last group project they assigned to us about a month before the final so we could "get ahead" unfortunately they didn't actually teach us the material we needed to know in order to do the project until a WEEK before it was due. So yeah 3/10 would not recommend.

As you can see, they changed this course A LOT since this past fall semester. IT'S NOT AN "EASY A" CLASS. I believe the reason they did so is because this class is now a required course for Biology majors. So I took this class because all my friends said it was easy--it was not a prerequisite for me because I declared Biology before they changed the requirements. Yes, this class was terrible, but there is definitely a way to succeed. I'm not sure about Curran, but Ferrara is not a good lecturer. It's almost impossible to pay attention to her and she has little authority over the class. I believe that she's just very good at statistics and solving stat problems.

That being said, YOU CAN STILL SUCCEED IN THIS CLASS! The best way to succeed in this class is to do as much practice problems as you can. What I've realized while taking this class is that the tests are somewhat fair if you know all the types of problems you go over in the class. So for every practice problem she does in class (she does a lot), make sure you understand it. Please pay attention in class if you can! If you struggle with paying attention like I did, just make sure to write down all the work or at least take a picture. Studying for the tests will then be just you trying to figure out how she did these problems, and you'll learn this way. Of course, lecture material is all fair game. She also gives you a practice exam (which is quite difficult) which is somewhat similar to the types of questions you'll see on your tests. The tests are by no means easy if you don't study.

I think it's also really helpful if you know how to do stat functions on your calculator. Saves you so much time--they expect you to be able to do all the work but your calculator does a lot of it for you very quickly.

Do all the work. Homework, projects. Your final grade distribution is pretty fair--it's not overly heavy on tests alone. Good luck!

I was told this class was an easy "A" class but they significantly changed the class since last year. I am not a bio major and would highly recommend non-bio majors to stay away from this class. I am a straight A student but got a terrible grade in this class. Definitely one of the hardest classes I've taken at UVA.I went to extra help, office hours, and got a tutor and still could not do well in this class. Don't take it unless you have to!

Maria was extremely helpful in office hours- definitely knows how to explain concepts well. The class itself is not hard at all- just put in a little effort and you are on your way to the grade you want. Don't get scared by the previous reviews- the class seems to have evolved for the better since then.

I was really nervous to take this class, especially after hearing that it had changed over the past year and went from being known as an "easy A" class to a very difficult class. I took it because I am pre-med, and for someone who has never liked math that much, I really didn't find this course to be that difficult. As long as you put in the work before the midterms (go over the powerpoints and ALL the practice problems on the powerpoints and extra powerpoints-- don't worry, there aren't too many practice problems) you will be fine. There are about 10 webassigns over the course of the semester and maybe 5 lab assignments. There are also 2 small projects that you complete with a partner. None of them are too difficult, and I would definitely recommend putting in the maximum effort to get full credit on these.

This class is still a joke. It is stupidly easy if you have any sort of math proficiency. Maria is fair and easy. Her voice is annoying, and she is a little odd and can be annoying, but it does not take away from the class. I have heard Rebecca the other teacher is awful, and I do believe that Maris's test scores were higher. If you need an easy stats/math course for any reason then this is the one for you.

This class is kind of a joke. Barely showed up to class and still got a 95 average on the tests. Teacher's voice is kinda annoying but overall her lesson plan is well thought out. Powerpoints are easy to follow so it's easy to teach yourself the material. Don't waste money buying the textbook cause all important info will be covered in slides.

STAT isn't the most interesting subject so lectures are lowkey drawn out, but Maria truly has a talent for conveying the topics to the students. The only studying necessary is through lecture notes and WebAssign homework. Everything you need to know is straightforward. You can definitely get an A if you do your assignments and pull decent midterm grades. Overall nice class!

Overall, Maria , though quite forgetful and sometimes moody, was great at helping us understand the statistics concepts. She would work out problems in class and even though this may have put us behind sometimes it was worthwhile because it would give you a better understanding of how to work out the problem. Not too much work associated with this class other than the weekly homework and weekly lab which together would take at least two hours. On weeks of tests I recommend studying and practice and repracticing the problems a lot! (Also Maria and Rebecca post additional practice problems on Collab for each unit and I recommend practicing those around the time of the exam).
The lab is really annoying--a lot of busy work if you ask me. Sometimes the class can get boring because you're busy just writing and listening about statistics.
Also, a fair warning, but the exams can be tricky, particularly the multiple choice. Make sure that you not only understand how to do the math, but that you also understand the conceptual ideas behind the topics.
Would recommend going to Maria's office hours as she is really helpful if you have a specific question and does a good job of helping to simply the concept even more than was discussed in lecture.