STAT 3120

Not that great of a teacher. He uses powerpoints and doesn't really take the time to explain the concepts. He'll occasionally write some proofs on the board, so those are worth writing down since he sometimes ask about them. The first half of the semester is ridiculous, but surprisingly the midterm was fairly easier than the homeworks. After the midterm (there's only one), a lot of the stuff we learned was basic stat from STAT 2120 (e.g. hypothesis testing, confidence intervals) with some expansion on some topics. Despite the easier material the second half, the final was quite difficult. The good thing about this class is that for the midterm, you get one cheat sheet and two for the final. Miao doesn't do a good job reviewing the material before the tests though; he simply goes over the powerpoints again at a faster rate. Unfortunately, this class can't be avoided if you're a stat major but if you wanna avoid doing a lot of proofs on the exams, you should take it with him. Otherwise take it with someone better who can actually teach the material. I basically learned everything from reading the textbook; I hardly paid attention to his lectures.

Not a good teacher but not terrible. Miao does not really lecture well and has a tendency to just read verbatim off the slides. He is also not that helpful in office hours. If you do not understand something he will just tell you that he went over it in lecture and will leave it at that offering no assistance. Basically you need to teach yourself most of the material and, as such, it is not necessary to go to class. Still, he is a fair grader and I feel like I learned a lot in the relatively well paced course. Homework makes up around half you grade so do perfectly on these and you should do fine in the class. You will get an A if you put in the work.

Expect to teach yourself in this class. The accent didn't really help in understanding and it was a classic class where the teacher just read off the slides. Just do the homework and read the textbook. It's your best bet. Or wait for a better professor.