Mike says he cares about our wellbeing, but I'd say that's complete bs. Here I sit at 3 am still doing his homework. He gives 8 questions each week and they're impossible to solve without wanting to die every single second. The TA Jake Kramer is an absolute asshole that delights in seeing his students fail. Avoid at all costs.

Stats 20 with Mike was a grueling experience, but one which I would wholeheartedly have again, as I believed that I learned a solid amount with regards to programming as well as R itself. I came into this class with no programming experience whatsoever, but Mike easily guided me through the lectures while also pausing for questions if the class had any questions.

Mike also provides an extensive amount of office hours and is always willing to help guide the students with the homework and answer any clarifying questions as well. I went to virtually every single office hour and felt like I received a good understanding of the goals of this class.

Now, the tests--both the midterms as well as the final--are difficult, but in the end, Mike tends to curve the class, so the absolute number you see is not the actual end result of the grade. The midterms were primarily difficult due to the time constraints--only 45 minutes--while the final was more difficult on a conceptual level than time-restrictive.

Overall, this class was enjoyable for me, and I disagree with claims that one needs prior programming experience to do well in this class. I believe that as long as you focus on learning and understanding the material, instead of the grade, and give an effort for the class, you will do relatively well in Mike's Stats 20.

TL;DR: Waffles, not grades.

Terrible class, insane workload for each homework and the final project, unreasonable deadlines on homework, terribly designed midterms and final (they were unfinishable for the vast majority of students), and TA Jake Kramer was very rude, unhelpful, and made you EXTREMELY uncomfortable with asking questions. Campuswire is filled with his snarky, rude comments to questions. Mike's a little bit more approachable.

I did learn a lot about R programming. But I don't think the emotional abuse from the heavy workload was necessary.

Avoid this class if possible. I know many of my friends are considering dropping a stats minor because of this class, which is what the Stats department wants I suppose. Not cool.

To start off, Mike is an amazing professor and the most dedicated and hard working teacher I've ever had. He really really cares about his students. He'll respond to emails instantly at any time of day and has lots of office hours availability. This is a tough class though. The work load is quite heavy. Coding homework every week that usually takes like five hours (obviously depends on how good you are). The exams test for a deep knowledge of the material and how code functions. The averages on the midterms were 50-60% and very time pressured. Final seems to have been about the same, though not at all time pressured. Obviously the class is scaled at the end. It seems like the top 25-30% got As and the median grade was a B. Prior understanding of CS stuff probably helps a lot in this class but even without it you can do pretty well if you put the work in. I've never taken a CS and pulled out an A- after being barely above average on the midterms. The exam multiple choice is based heavily on the lecture notes so have those down really well. Exams are way harder than the practice ones he gives you.

Contrary to prior quarters, this class has been changed and made far more difficult than it used to be. There were two midterms and a final all of which were multiple choice and written. The exams were difficult and tested minute details of R, but the curve made up for them. Nonetheless, studying for the exams was difficult seeing as though we’d receive homework assignments due the same day as exams only to be postponed at the last minute after students have spent all week doing them instead of studying do to their length. The homework assignments were lengthy, time consuming, and difficult, but if you put the time into it you will genuinely get a lot out of them. You will actually gain a lot of knowledge in R from this class and you will be more prepared for 102A than students from previous quarters were if you are able to invest the time into the class. The TA Jake is not as bad as others depict him to be. He extended his office hours almost every week an assignment was due. His office hours were the most helpful of all the TAs, so definitely take advantage of it. As for the professor, he genuinely cares and only real downside about this class is the time you need to spend on homework assignments and the group projects. I definitely don’t recommend taking this class unless you’re a stats major/minor or considering becoming one. Also, if you do take this class try to take a lighter course load as this class will take up a lot of your time especially if you do not have prior programming knowledge.

Alright, well this review is going to be slightly different from the others.

I’ll start off by saying I struggle a lot with any programming, math, or stats related courses.

But I actually really really liked Michael and the head TA, Jake. Jake is hands down the smartest TA I have ever met at UCLA. He also dedicated so much time to the students in the class. In addition to his regular office hours, sometimes
he would hold 6-8 hour office hours or additional office hours 2-3 times a week. I never felt like a bother when I asked him a question and he really helped me to understand the material. The truth of the matter is that there are a lot more people posting negative reviews than there were that showed up to office hours. The beginning of the quarter had a large turn out, but towards the last few weeks there was hardly anyone there. Sometimes it was just me and one other person.

Here’s the truth: if you want to be good at programming you’re gonna have to struggle, at least at the beginning. Yes, I freaking died this quarter. I got stuck a lot. I struggled to keep up with assignments and I had to ask for help often. But I have never learned so much from a class at UCLA as this one. By the end of the quarter I really noticed a change in the way I approached problems and how I thought about them.

I know there are a lot of BS classes out there that are hard for no reason and we often find ourselves as students asking, “When the hell am I ever gonna use this?”. But this is NOT one of those classes. R is one of the most desired skills in the job market right now. This class has the potential to provide more internship opportunities, job opportunities, and higher salaries. That might sound dramatic, but proficiency in R and data analysis really is so high in demand for all industries right now. And the better you get at approaching difficult problems the better you will do in stats/ programming interviews. Classes like this one is what makes our tuition money worth it.

Also, this class isn’t a weader. It became more difficult because they wanted to better prepare students for upper division statistics courses and teach them more.

If you’re taking this class, don’t be afraid, especially of Jake. Go to office hours and don’t be intimidated by Michael or Jake after the first office hour session. Yes you’ll have to dedicate a lot of time to this class, but you will learn a lot. If I could finish this class, then anyone at UCLA can. I am really happy I took this class.

Wow...... what a quarter. First off, if you do not have any programming experience, the homework is gonna take a lot of your time as it did for me, also the grading rubric for the homework is very specific so you can lose points very easily. Homework was very tedious especially when it had that killer question on each that many students struggled with and had to go to office hours for.

Second, the tests were difficult because of the time constraint and the free response questions. The multiple choice was easy for the most part, but some of it required answers that only you can get from messing with R.

One thing I regret in this class is taking it with a major class that made balancing classes very difficult. With that in mind, if you love R or need this class for your major,minor,etc, and have easy classes to balance this out with . Go for it. As for me, I gonna take a long break because this class sucked out a lot of energy from me. Peace and Love folks.

The class is overwhelmingly hard, and I don't recommend anyone taking it. Lectures are clear, but the tests are non-sense. We are tested not on the ability to analyze data by R, but simply some weird rules and edge cases. Homework are good, but gradings are incredibly strict. We can be deducted for more than 10% of homework grade just because of style of coding. As a "fair" CS student who almost got an A in every CS class I took, I still find this class very confusing.

NMGB WZNS

Mike is awesome, I didn't even do very well in the class but he was always super helpful.