If you are a pre-med student or student interested in research: I'd highly recommend this class.

Overall: I was initially dreading taking stats and only took this because the other stats was full, but this class far exceeded my expectations and was genuinely fascinating. Dr. Garfinkel essentially spent the entire quarter shitting on traditional statistics and teaching more cutting edge approaches through computer simulations. There are no complex formulas, it is largely conceptual, so if math isn't your strong suit you'll definitely prefer this.

For research/premeds: Unlike LS30 A/B, lab coding and class are directly applicable to one another, and to real life. Dr. Garfinkel literally gives you scripts in class on how to present the different things you learn in research papers or to a PI. You use real life disease examples and data which is really cool since you could essentially just replace the data with your own if you go on to work in a lab. This class is essentially an intro to the statistics they teach you in med school rather than useless formulas!!

Learning team: The learning team was extremely responsive and listened to student feedback. They gave the majority of the code to us after previous quarters complained about too much coding (it was all pretty easy after the 30 series), and when our quarter felt there was too harsh of grading on homework, they reduced the amount of points taken off. They were also extremely accommodating for me as a non-UCLA athlete with conflicts and making assignments up. Grading on the final was very forgiving and Garfinkel is also just generally hilarious and a great lecturer.

Tests/assignments:
- Exams were extremely predictable and similar to practice tests (although the answer keys could be conflicting on wording sometimes), and I didn't feel the need to go to any PSS.
- Biggest tips to succeed would be to do practice tests, memorize the specific wording of responses in class, and learn distinctions between different resampling methods well. We also got a notecard for the final exam which made all the tiny difficult differences between the resampling methods easy to just write down beforehand.
- (For once) campuswire was also a great resource that TA's and classmates were all super active
- homeworks could be difficult (similar to 30 series length), but 95% of my questions could be answered on campuswire or with the textbook
- Overall courseload was similar to LS30A, and is very doable with any class combination

Not the easiest class in UCLA but definitely one that I would recommend EVERY pre-med student to take. Honestly if you can't get an A in this class, you probably won't get into med school anyways. You learn the cutting edge techniques of modern-day statistics but tailored towards pre-med students. I've never took a single statistics before in my life but still managed to get a 98% on this class. The final exam allowing a double sided cheat card also helped.

overall, if you want a free A, take stats 13. If you plan on doing any sort of research in the medical field in the future, this class is almost a must-take.

Professor Garfinkel was one of the best professors I've had at UCLA! His lectures were very engaging and he was extremely helpful during office hours. He definitely is a professor that wants his students to succeed and understand the material. The workload can sometimes feel like a lot but the material you learn in lab is super helpful for all the homework assignments and makes it very manageable. The textbook is also super helpful to learn the material and there were no curveballs on any of the exams. If you try and put in the work with this class you can do very well. The course content is also extremely important and you learn useful coding. Highly recommend this class and Professor Garfinkel!

I decided to take this class after watching Professor Garfinkel’s videos in LS30A and took it simultaneously with LS30B. The work was manageable and I was able to end with A’s in both. The TA’s and LA’s are very helpful with the coding and explaining topics that were confusing during lecture. The lectures aren’t recorded but the slides are posted after and the textbook is very helpful for understanding the concepts. The professor is very engaging and I didn’t mind having it as a 9am. The midterm and final felt very fair and similar to the practice exams, and I recommend using the CLC worksheets as practice before the exams because they use past exam problems. The only thing is that homework was pretty harshly graded even after getting help from TA’s, but this was balanced out by the exams, quizzes, data analysis assignment (which only took a short time to complete), and participation. If you put in the work in this class you will do well, and it was much more interesting to me than a traditional statistics class.

TAKE THIS CLASS.
I'm not going to lie. The only reason I decided to take LS40 was because Dr. Garfinkel taught it. After taking LS30A/B and surviving off of his YouTube videos, I considered him somewhat of a math god. For starters, the content that your learn in LS40 is extremely valuable, and made me question why stats 13 even exists. It is highly applicable to research and builds a foundation of statistics that every person should have. Most of the people taking it are pre-med, and I would highly encourage everyone to take it. Next, Dr. Garfinkel is one of the best professors I've had at UCLA. He is an amazing lecturer, and you can tell that he is extremely passionate about what he teaches. He wrote the textbook so he obviously knows exactly what's he's teaching, and anticipates the questions about more difficult concepts and answers them flawlessly. spring 24 is the first quarter where the workload was cut down, and it is very very manageable. It was less work that 30A or 30B. We just had a lab graded on completion, a homework assignment, and a short canvas quiz that you get 2 attempts on every week. The code is given to you so it's really easy to navigate even if you aren't that good at cocalc. The only issue I had with this class was the grading. We had 8 homework assignment in total - they returned the first 4 right around the middle of the quarter. These homeworks were graded pretty harshly, as they were very nit-picky about the details. I would say it's pretty much impossible to get a full score. Our homeworks 5-8 however, were not returned until grades were due after the final. This was a little frustrating because we couldn't use them as a resource to study, and I had no clue what my grade in the class was. I will say that they did get a lot more lenient with the grading after receiving a lot of complaints. The midterm itself also took 2 weeks to get graded, which I think is a bit long. The instructional team was very accommodating. In addition to the final, there is a data analysis assignment that is pretty easy - it's just like a shortened version of a homework assignment. I was able to get a full score on it, but they don't give you a rubric at all so you really just have to try your hardest and pray you checked their boxes. The midterms and finals were very fair, the questions were pretty much the same format as all the practice materials they give you. All in all, I have absolutely zero regrets taking this class, and if you actually care about your education and the quality of learning/content that you get out of UCLA, I am willing to bet that you won't regret it either. This class is one of the few that I can say is making my out of state tuition worth it.
TLDR: Take this class, they cut down the workload, exams are fair, homework and labs are extremely relevant to content

Prof. Garfinkel is the goat honestly !! He's very engaging and passionate about the material, and is very willing to help students. Our final review session was extended over an hour because he wanted to answer everyone's questions. Class is easy enough as long as you show up to lecture (+ you need to show up for iClicker participation points anyway). Lectures weren't recorded but the slides would be posted on Canvas.

I didn't go to PSS or Garfinkel's office hours but attended my TA's office hours every week for homework help. Unfortunately homework is graded on correctness but they kind of tell you the answers at office hours + you can also see if other people have the same question on Campuswire. For the midterms and final, you get a 3x5 index card. They provide practice midterms and finals that are generally very similar to the actual content.

They haven't published the textbook yet so they provided it to us for free, I'm not sure if it will change.

Overall highly recommend this class!!

I really enjoyed this class, and I am grateful that Stats 13 was filled lol. Don't worry if this happens to you because you will be okay of you take this class! I will say, lectures and homework and super relevant for success in this class. As long as you do the assignments and attend lecture, you will do great in the class! Dr. Garfinkel was a very nice professor to have this quarter. He has great lectures and was always super engaging. He held a very long final review session that was super helpful! However, I didn't find his office hours super helpful for homework/assignments because it was more of a discussion on topic or concepts. Don't be afraid to say "Hi" though! I found going to the TA and LA more helpful for homework or problem-solving sessions. When they said they were reducing the workload by 30% they meant it - thankfully. That being said, the class does require you to put effort in as I found the homework was graded quite harshly. However, I would say that the homework was similar to the weekly quizzes and exams.

So, i see you have come searching for answers after having a pretty bad enrollment time, and not being able to enroll into Stats 13. HAHA, I was once you BUT, do not fear, this class is pretty fun and interesting, and not as bad as the LS 30A/B classes.Honestly, this class was pretty fun. You have labs every week similar to the LS 30A/B ones only the coding is much condensed and more easier now, and they are graded on competition. Contrary to LS 30, the labs are worth less. You have weekly homework assignments due which are lengthy and code heavy based on your labs, but pretty easy as well, only you have to put much more thought into it, but if you are taking notes in class and actively attending PSS sessions, you should be good. They're also helpful for exams. Had I gotten 2 more points on the data analysis and one more point on the final i probably would have ended off with an A. Oh and one time i got to class late, and there was seriously one iclicker question, and i missed it, so i got a zero for participation that day apart from the two other abscesses they allow/drop after I had meticulously planned those absences, so don't be late and do all the clickers they're important. I also, after everything, emailed them after an announcement went out saying to email them to see our final to see if we could maybe get points back and they just...didn't...answer me back...but overall the professor, he's an amazing professor. You can tell he is extremely passionate about teaching this course. His office hours are also pretty interesting and cool. If you can, take it with this professor, he is pretty funny, and everyone agrees he is a sassy person "stats withs sass". Insightful course and trust I also felt like I was taking a risk with this course after not getting into Stats 13, but I learned a lot and it was fun so 10/10 (besides them not rounding my 89% to a 90 could have helped my GPA smh(my self confidence)). Also the exams were not rough at all, just pay attention to detail in the questions. The actual concepts are easy to grasp if you are consistent in going to problem solving sessions if you have questions and TA/Professor office hours. Also, do the PSS worksheets. You'll come to realize that each statistical method follows a pattern. Just don't be discouraged, this class is great.

This class is a must-take for anyone going into healthcare, scientific research, etc!! It's a relatively easy class if you pay attention and use your resources. The coding aspect is the most difficult part of the class (Python based simulations) but they help you build a really great foundation and they start from beginner level so anyone can succeed, even with very little coding experience. It is so worth it, because you can use the skill of Python to get into labs and actually be able to carry out useful simulations to perform data analysis for your future PI. The class is full of so many mind-blowing concepts that will really open your eyes to the world of data analysis in scientific research and the problems with traditional statistics, and it will totally change your perception of medical discoveries and research. Hands down would take this class again and would easily choose this over Stats 13 for premed or prehealth.

Prof. Garfinkel is amazing, has such fun energy in class and will not sugarcoat the concepts that he teaches. He is engaging, and if you have to miss a lecture they are always bruin-casted. The teaching staff is super committed to helping students succeed and they are very accommodating to extenuating circumstances. The grading scheme is pretty generous and most students seem to do well in the class.

I thought the content learned and Alan was a good professor who genuinely wanted to teach but I have several issues with this class. For people deciding whether to take this or Stats 13 I would have taken Stats 13, if given the option. My biggest issue overall with this class was the Data Analysis assignment. This is an assignment worth 20% of your grade, it is assigned Monday of finals week and is due Friday of finals week, on top of the final you have to take in this class. I thought it was quite unfair and stressful to assign such a project on the most stressful week of the quarter on top of their already difficult and content-heavy final, not to mention they graded the data analysis assignment so harshly it dropped my grade from an A to an A minus even though I scored well on the final and midterm. They sell you on the class that they made it easier, but it is still so content-dense, the homework takes so long, and they grade them so harshly. The average on most homework was almost always below 90%, and most other students in the class I talked to would agree that they spent over four hours each week on the homework to get docked points for the smallest errors that they could find.

I think the content we learned was applicable to the real world, and it was interesting to be able to code statistical tests. Alan overall was a good passionate professor, although there were other people on his team who took away from his valuable teachings.