Professor
Akram Almohalwas
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Most Helpful Review
I disagree with the poster below. The lab exams were not difficult - if you were able to complete the weekly lab assignments, the exams should've been quite easy. However, I do think that the TAs were a bit picky when it came to grading. The midterms weren't too bad. If you go over his lecture slides and read the book thoroughly, you should be fine. The final, however, was a bit brutal. The multiple-choice questions were decent, but the free-response section was tedious and quite lengthy.
I disagree with the poster below. The lab exams were not difficult - if you were able to complete the weekly lab assignments, the exams should've been quite easy. However, I do think that the TAs were a bit picky when it came to grading. The midterms weren't too bad. If you go over his lecture slides and read the book thoroughly, you should be fine. The final, however, was a bit brutal. The multiple-choice questions were decent, but the free-response section was tedious and quite lengthy.
Most Helpful Review
He is a very accessible and friendly professor. We had clickers and he was always disappointed even when 99% of the class would get the answer right because he knew at least one person did not understand the material. He really cares about his students and wants everyone to understand Stats. If you need to take a Stats classes, make sure you take it with him. Ps Eric Fox is an awesome TA
He is a very accessible and friendly professor. We had clickers and he was always disappointed even when 99% of the class would get the answer right because he knew at least one person did not understand the material. He really cares about his students and wants everyone to understand Stats. If you need to take a Stats classes, make sure you take it with him. Ps Eric Fox is an awesome TA
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Most Helpful Review
A few days ago, I was in a horrific car crash. At some point, the paramedics told me that my heart stopped beating, and I was considered medically dead for 2 minutes. At some point in my period of unconsciousness, however, something incredible happened. After being in a state of utter and complete blackness for what seemed like an eternity, I suddenly woke up in a bright field with a long staircase in front of me. I walked up the staircase, feeling a pleasant warmth from the radiating sun surround me as I did so. Eventually, I reached giant golden gates at the top of the staircase. That's when the memory of the car crash hit me like a ton of bricks, and I suddenly realized that I had died and I was now at the gates of heaven. However, I wasn't frightened. There was something calming about this place. After waiting a few minutes, I saw a figure slowly walking towards me and the gates. He eventually reached the gates, and without even touching them, he summoned them to open. Something deep inside told me that this figure opening the doors and about to confront me was God. When the gates opened, he stepped forth, and that's when I saw his face. Standing in front of me, in all his godly grandiosity, was Akram Almohalwas. I was frozen with awe. He handed me a chi square table, and told me that the meaning of life can be determined alone from taking his Stats 13 class. At this moment I was certain: Almohalwas himself was God. I reached to touch his beautiful face, but that's when I woke up in the hospital. I will never forget this experience, and my life will never be the same afterwards.
A few days ago, I was in a horrific car crash. At some point, the paramedics told me that my heart stopped beating, and I was considered medically dead for 2 minutes. At some point in my period of unconsciousness, however, something incredible happened. After being in a state of utter and complete blackness for what seemed like an eternity, I suddenly woke up in a bright field with a long staircase in front of me. I walked up the staircase, feeling a pleasant warmth from the radiating sun surround me as I did so. Eventually, I reached giant golden gates at the top of the staircase. That's when the memory of the car crash hit me like a ton of bricks, and I suddenly realized that I had died and I was now at the gates of heaven. However, I wasn't frightened. There was something calming about this place. After waiting a few minutes, I saw a figure slowly walking towards me and the gates. He eventually reached the gates, and without even touching them, he summoned them to open. Something deep inside told me that this figure opening the doors and about to confront me was God. When the gates opened, he stepped forth, and that's when I saw his face. Standing in front of me, in all his godly grandiosity, was Akram Almohalwas. I was frozen with awe. He handed me a chi square table, and told me that the meaning of life can be determined alone from taking his Stats 13 class. At this moment I was certain: Almohalwas himself was God. I reached to touch his beautiful face, but that's when I woke up in the hospital. I will never forget this experience, and my life will never be the same afterwards.
Most Helpful Review
Summer 2019 - Wow, this guy is literally the G.O.A.T. Stats 100B is probably one of the hardest statistics courses at UCLA, but this professor made it incredibly easy to understand and definitely made the material interesting to learn with real-life examples and applications. (NOTE: This applies to his summer course. I am not sure if this will necessarily apply to his regular quarter courses). He is also super patient and helpful in office hours as well. I think this guy is underrated, especially when everyone raves about Christou. However, Almohalwas is probably one of my favorite professors so far at UCLA. The homework is incredibly INCREDIBLY helpful for the exams. MAKE SURE TO DO THEM AND UNDERSTAND HOW TO DO EACH PROBLEM because again they are VERY HELPFUL for the exams! Also, he gives out extra credit on his final and a bunch of other free points (attendance, participation, etc). Also, he is a little bit messy as the previous reviews have stated (there are files everywhere on CCLE), but he just wants to give you all of the material you will ever need to help you succeed and master the course. Honestly, the hardest part about his class is that the class is essentially straight-scaled (since everyone knows the material really well and so do really well on the exams). So, it may be hard to come back if you don't do that great on one of the exams. However, it is very doable to get an A. Literally, amazing and highly underrated in my opinion. 10/10 would recommend and would take the class again. I look forward to taking more upper-division courses with him. This guy is definitely a few standard deviations above the mean for amazing professors!
Summer 2019 - Wow, this guy is literally the G.O.A.T. Stats 100B is probably one of the hardest statistics courses at UCLA, but this professor made it incredibly easy to understand and definitely made the material interesting to learn with real-life examples and applications. (NOTE: This applies to his summer course. I am not sure if this will necessarily apply to his regular quarter courses). He is also super patient and helpful in office hours as well. I think this guy is underrated, especially when everyone raves about Christou. However, Almohalwas is probably one of my favorite professors so far at UCLA. The homework is incredibly INCREDIBLY helpful for the exams. MAKE SURE TO DO THEM AND UNDERSTAND HOW TO DO EACH PROBLEM because again they are VERY HELPFUL for the exams! Also, he gives out extra credit on his final and a bunch of other free points (attendance, participation, etc). Also, he is a little bit messy as the previous reviews have stated (there are files everywhere on CCLE), but he just wants to give you all of the material you will ever need to help you succeed and master the course. Honestly, the hardest part about his class is that the class is essentially straight-scaled (since everyone knows the material really well and so do really well on the exams). So, it may be hard to come back if you don't do that great on one of the exams. However, it is very doable to get an A. Literally, amazing and highly underrated in my opinion. 10/10 would recommend and would take the class again. I look forward to taking more upper-division courses with him. This guy is definitely a few standard deviations above the mean for amazing professors!
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2020 - I've literally never written a Bruinwalk review until this quarter after I had Almo for 101A. I've had the whole spread of stats professors from Chen, Tsiang, Christou, Zhou, and Sanchez and Almo is for sure the worst experience so far. To compare Almo and Sanchez, I felt that Sanchez was fairly organized. She had lecture notes, and a structured curriculum that go in a linear fashion. She may not be super nice but at least you know what you're learning about. Almo on the other hand is horrendously disorganized with regards to his notes, his lectures, his teaching, and his instructions. His lectures in particular feel that he is just YELLING words that are important but you have no idea what he's actually trying to teach. Not to mention, literally a whole question out of four questions on the midterm was unsolvable which was not mentioned until after the exam was graded meaning that we wasted a ton of time trying to solve this problem during the exam and likely lost points on the other parts of the exam. But overall, this class is not super hard. The homeworks aren't that hard and you can pretty much learn all the material in a day before the final by going through the textbook. But for sake of your sanity and feeling like you're getting your tuition's worth I would not recommend taking this class with Almo.
Winter 2020 - I've literally never written a Bruinwalk review until this quarter after I had Almo for 101A. I've had the whole spread of stats professors from Chen, Tsiang, Christou, Zhou, and Sanchez and Almo is for sure the worst experience so far. To compare Almo and Sanchez, I felt that Sanchez was fairly organized. She had lecture notes, and a structured curriculum that go in a linear fashion. She may not be super nice but at least you know what you're learning about. Almo on the other hand is horrendously disorganized with regards to his notes, his lectures, his teaching, and his instructions. His lectures in particular feel that he is just YELLING words that are important but you have no idea what he's actually trying to teach. Not to mention, literally a whole question out of four questions on the midterm was unsolvable which was not mentioned until after the exam was graded meaning that we wasted a ton of time trying to solve this problem during the exam and likely lost points on the other parts of the exam. But overall, this class is not super hard. The homeworks aren't that hard and you can pretty much learn all the material in a day before the final by going through the textbook. But for sake of your sanity and feeling like you're getting your tuition's worth I would not recommend taking this class with Almo.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2020 - Just finished a midterm for this class. I haven't got a grade from this class yet, so I have no idea how he would deal with curving issue. But the lectures, homework, and exams are DEFINITELY HORRIBLE experience! I do not feel like learning anything from the mandatory lectures, and his unorganized class structure just made students not able to concentrate on the materials. The notes posted online was just like sketchy drafts, and professor gave practice WITHOUT answer. The questions in the exam were also very unfairly hard and did not match the difficulty of the problem sets he usually gave. Overall, I do not recommend taking 101A with Professor Almohalwas if you want to learn anything.
Winter 2020 - Just finished a midterm for this class. I haven't got a grade from this class yet, so I have no idea how he would deal with curving issue. But the lectures, homework, and exams are DEFINITELY HORRIBLE experience! I do not feel like learning anything from the mandatory lectures, and his unorganized class structure just made students not able to concentrate on the materials. The notes posted online was just like sketchy drafts, and professor gave practice WITHOUT answer. The questions in the exam were also very unfairly hard and did not match the difficulty of the problem sets he usually gave. Overall, I do not recommend taking 101A with Professor Almohalwas if you want to learn anything.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2019 - Professor AA is very nice and helpful. He indeed cares about students . However, his class is not clear at all, and the structure is really not organized. His Power Point are kinda messy as well. His homework is doable. The project is a good way to apply the skills we learned in the class. But we have to manually collect data which took a very very long time. Professor AA is indeed a good person and helpful outside class, but I don't recommend his class.
Spring 2019 - Professor AA is very nice and helpful. He indeed cares about students . However, his class is not clear at all, and the structure is really not organized. His Power Point are kinda messy as well. His homework is doable. The project is a good way to apply the skills we learned in the class. But we have to manually collect data which took a very very long time. Professor AA is indeed a good person and helpful outside class, but I don't recommend his class.
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