I was kinda scared by this class at first because Lark starts by laying out a bunch of strict rules that make it seem like he's a hardass, but once you sit through a few lectures and do a couple homeworks, you'll realize it's not scary at all. Lectures are just straight-up chalk and blackboard lectures and he repeats material from previous lectures often, so even though I went to all of the lectures on required content, you're probably fine with using the recorded lectures and slides instead. Homework is 50% of your grade and collaboration isn't allowed, so make sure you give extra care to it. Good news is, if you do the homework properly, the test problems will be a breeze. If you can memorize some formulas and procedures, this class will be straightforward for you. #tCFS24
Grade Distribution
32 Reviews
Honestly just a weird class. He starts off the semester sending all these scary formally worded documents and requirements and stuff but the class itself is pretty chill. The first few weeks are the worst I think, because you have to adjust to his style and are uncertain about what to expect from the homeworks. After that it gets better. Lectures: he gives you recorded lectures that are almost identical to what he says in class. He tells you this and says you can come to lecture or watch the lectures but he recommends doing both. I did both but I'm still not sure if I really needed to. It's good for cementing your understanding I guess but he literally just goes through exactly the same problems in class as he did in the recording so can get pretty boring. Also, you do no practice problems besides the HW so just be aware lecture is different than any other APMA class you have taken. Lark also writes on the chalk board and proceeds to stand in front of what he wrote and speak so it can get pretty annoying. I would recommend sitting on the front and side so you can see the board even when he stands right in front of it. Homeworks: There's one a week and will take you probably like 1-2 hours to go through it. The TAs are very nice and helpful so if you are having any issues they are great (wouldn't recommend Lark's OH). Definitely make an equation sheet as you go through the class because there's a lot of equations and it'll be essential for studying for exams. Exams: There are 2 - a midterm and a final exam (cumulative). The whole thing is really memorizing equations because you aren't given equations on the exams which is very stupid. The exams themselves are pretty easy - if you know what you're doing (and know the equations) you will be fine. Nothing surprising on there. Overall, the class isn't too bad but is very different than other APMA classes.
Instructor was great. The classes are not required there are lecture videos online. Going to class helps as most of the lecture are example problems. The layout of the course made it very manageable. The homework weighed a lot of your grade. The office hours for the other instructor of this course was way more helpful. Homework were manageable but took quite amount of time. There was only one midterm and a final which reduced the stress of having to study a lot for test. A lot of the test just required memorizing the different statistical test and formulas less understanding and logical thinking.
Lark is a great professor who is very helpful if you are willing to reach out and contact him. Statistics is definitely easier than basically all of the other APMAs but if you are slacking off I could see how it would be easy to fall behind. Make sure to take the homeworks seriously because they are a huge part of the grade. The exams are fair and not particularly hard as long as you prepare reasonably. Lark's a good guy and I would recommend taking it with him over basically everyone else because he's been doing it forever and definitely knows how to drill the concepts into your head. #tCFF23
Honestly if you have taken AP Statistics or another intro statistics course I would skip this class. Over half of the course was material covered in AP Statistics. There was kind of a insane amount of repetition in the lectures, which did help me understand the material, but got quite boring. Homeworks' were long, but you are given a lot of time to finish them, and given it is worth 50% of your grade, make sure to do well on them. Exams were easier than the homeworks, only annoying part was not getting a formula sheet, so just spend an hour or two to memorize the formulas before the final, and it was fairly trivial. But yeah, if you already have a decent knowledge in Statistics you can take this for a fairly easy time, but I would just take another more interesting class.
Prof Lark sounds kind of scary over email and in his course policies but in person he's very friendly and social with his students. Math-wise the class isn't too hard, but it can be challenging to understand what exactly everything is. Lark lets you watch his recorded lectures instead of coming to class which is really nice if you have a high workload, and reading the textbook isn't really necessary. My only complaint is that you have to memorize a ton of formulas for the exams because he doesn't provide formula sheets. The homework is also lengthy but he gives you a week to do it. Overall not a bad APMA class and has very useful applications in the engineering fields #TCFfall2022
Do not get scared on the first day. Lark is incredibly dry and has a very sarcasm heavy personality. The homework is a hefty portion of your grade, 50%. However, the homework is not easy. I typically spent 6-10 hours on the assignments every week. Make sure you focus on the assignments, especially early on in the semester, 1 bad homework grade can bar you from an A very easily. I started off not very strong in the beginning getting C+ and B range homework grades but once I realized a lot of the homework can be deduced through the textbook I ended up doing much better in the class. There is 1 midterm and 1 final and they are nearly as difficult as the homeworks. As long as you understand the homework assignments you will definitely perform fine on any examinations. This class has a strict cheating policy so DO NOT work with others. The homeworks are not to be worked on together and he doesn't give you answers in office hours. Treat the homeworks like take home quizzes, really understand the material and this class is very doable.
Based on previous positive reviews, I think this course lost something in its transition to online. The course is mainly watching lectures and doing problem sets. His lectures were mostly reading the slides so I just read the slides directly. Since the midterm was removed, homework is 70% of your grade. That means that each problem set is 10% of your grade. It's a lot of pressure and one problem set can set you way back. My advice for the class: find a group you can communicate with to ask questions on the problem set. Start the problem sets early. Also, get the textbook since it can help you out with the problems (I know that seems obvious but I didn't get the textbook until later)
While the class isn't that hard, and prof Lark is a descent lecturer. He wasn't very helpful in answering questions in OH, even if I had worked out a homework problem and asked him if that was correct he would say that it was for me to learn and he wouldn't give me any pointers. But other than that, the class is pretty easy, homework aren't too crazy
Enjoyed this class overall. Professor really made an effort to make sure we knew the material well and that we knew how it actually applied to the real world.