MATH 170A
Probability Theory
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Requisites: courses 32B, 33A, 131A. Not open to students with credit for course 170E, Electrical and Computer Engineering 131A, or Statistics 100A. Rigorous presentation of probability theory based on real analysis. Probability space, probability and conditional probability, independence, Bayes' rule, discrete and continuous random variables and their distributions, expectation, moments and variance, conditional distribution and expectation, weak law of large numbers. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
4 of 5
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2020 - The Math department is trying to make this class rigorous however I believe the syllabus has not been well-developed (yet?). While the class attempts to introduce Probability as Measure Theory, it does not go in much detail, leaving students only confused. Overall however, I did learn quite a bit from this class and would recommend 170A over STATS 100A to anyone who wants to learn Probability in a little more depth. Professor Rebrova definitely knows her stuff but is not a great lecturer. The lectures are not clear and organized and I often am confused at the end. However, Office Hours are useful and she answers your questions very clearly. She has taught probability before so it might just be the change in curriculum that affected her teaching so maybe give her a chance! FYI: For this virtual format, most of the grade weightage was given to quizzes (best of 4 out of 5 count) for a total of 60%!!! In general the exams and quizzes were a little tricky.
Spring 2020 - The Math department is trying to make this class rigorous however I believe the syllabus has not been well-developed (yet?). While the class attempts to introduce Probability as Measure Theory, it does not go in much detail, leaving students only confused. Overall however, I did learn quite a bit from this class and would recommend 170A over STATS 100A to anyone who wants to learn Probability in a little more depth. Professor Rebrova definitely knows her stuff but is not a great lecturer. The lectures are not clear and organized and I often am confused at the end. However, Office Hours are useful and she answers your questions very clearly. She has taught probability before so it might just be the change in curriculum that affected her teaching so maybe give her a chance! FYI: For this virtual format, most of the grade weightage was given to quizzes (best of 4 out of 5 count) for a total of 60%!!! In general the exams and quizzes were a little tricky.
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Most Helpful Review
Pretty good professor, very different from those negative comments. He did give us a very hard second midterm, but he lowered the total points from 55 to 50, and he assigned very few points for the hard problems. The final was super easy. I spent 40 minutes and handed in my paper without double-checking, and I still got an A.
Pretty good professor, very different from those negative comments. He did give us a very hard second midterm, but he lowered the total points from 55 to 50, and he assigned very few points for the hard problems. The final was super easy. I spent 40 minutes and handed in my paper without double-checking, and I still got an A.
Most Helpful Review
Professor Richthammer is a really good professor. He really understands what he's lecturing, and does a good job balancing theory with examples. For lower-division classes, I could imagine him putting in more theory than is necessary, but once you hit upper-division classes, you should expect to get theory no matter what. His homework and tests are difficult, but he is a very generous grader. I struggled through the class, and still managed a B-, which I personally thought was higher than I should have received. He is also extremely approachable, encourages you to ask questions, and can be reached at office hours or via email very easily. Overall, he's a good teacher that will push you to understand the material, while not grading too harshly at the same time. Highly recommended.
Professor Richthammer is a really good professor. He really understands what he's lecturing, and does a good job balancing theory with examples. For lower-division classes, I could imagine him putting in more theory than is necessary, but once you hit upper-division classes, you should expect to get theory no matter what. His homework and tests are difficult, but he is a very generous grader. I struggled through the class, and still managed a B-, which I personally thought was higher than I should have received. He is also extremely approachable, encourages you to ask questions, and can be reached at office hours or via email very easily. Overall, he's a good teacher that will push you to understand the material, while not grading too harshly at the same time. Highly recommended.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2016 - He is a good lecturer. He has clear and thorough lecture, and a beautiful handwriting! The homework problems are hard, but that's not made by him. That's the problem set commonly used by the department. His exams look quite similar to homework problem, and there is no surprise in the exam. Try to understand the homework problem thoroughly and it should be sufficient to deal with exams. One of the drawback is that I think he only gives 20% A and A-.
Winter 2016 - He is a good lecturer. He has clear and thorough lecture, and a beautiful handwriting! The homework problems are hard, but that's not made by him. That's the problem set commonly used by the department. His exams look quite similar to homework problem, and there is no surprise in the exam. Try to understand the homework problem thoroughly and it should be sufficient to deal with exams. One of the drawback is that I think he only gives 20% A and A-.
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Spring 2018 - There are 3 parts in 170A: basics, discrete random variables, continuous random variables. Tang initially said there should be 5 to 7 homeworks. However, it turned out that he only assigned 3 homeworks altogether which correspond to the 3 topics. Test is not hard except for the last question(which is optional if you have extra time). Questions are all from lecture notes, homework and practice exams, with a little change. I honestly don't get why most people scored badly in the exams because questions are all quite familiar. A one-page cheat sheet is allowed for each exam. Overall, Tang is a great lecturer who teaches very clearly and is generous with giving As.
Spring 2018 - There are 3 parts in 170A: basics, discrete random variables, continuous random variables. Tang initially said there should be 5 to 7 homeworks. However, it turned out that he only assigned 3 homeworks altogether which correspond to the 3 topics. Test is not hard except for the last question(which is optional if you have extra time). Questions are all from lecture notes, homework and practice exams, with a little change. I honestly don't get why most people scored badly in the exams because questions are all quite familiar. A one-page cheat sheet is allowed for each exam. Overall, Tang is a great lecturer who teaches very clearly and is generous with giving As.
Most Helpful Review
I took his class this fall and he's very fair in terms of the difficulty of midterms and finals (Very comprehensive and not out of the blue). Study his notes and do the homework and really don't stress out too much about this class. I think his curve is very generous in terms of getting B's I didn't perform well on the final and THE MIDTERMS and only did somewhat well on the hw and I got a B-. However, I do believe from listening to others getting in the A range is very tough. You must be meticulous with every point. Maybe this is true for all upper division math classes? The professor cares about your learning a lot. In office hours, he doesn't mind answering any question you have and he tries to elaborate to teach you what you need to know. His notes are also very thought out and he doesn't go too quickly at all in comparison to some other professors. I recommend him a lot! (Just be careful if you're trying to get an A)
I took his class this fall and he's very fair in terms of the difficulty of midterms and finals (Very comprehensive and not out of the blue). Study his notes and do the homework and really don't stress out too much about this class. I think his curve is very generous in terms of getting B's I didn't perform well on the final and THE MIDTERMS and only did somewhat well on the hw and I got a B-. However, I do believe from listening to others getting in the A range is very tough. You must be meticulous with every point. Maybe this is true for all upper division math classes? The professor cares about your learning a lot. In office hours, he doesn't mind answering any question you have and he tries to elaborate to teach you what you need to know. His notes are also very thought out and he doesn't go too quickly at all in comparison to some other professors. I recommend him a lot! (Just be careful if you're trying to get an A)
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4 of 5
