I really enjoyed this class! I love the way he teaches, and I learned a lot. Homeworks and exams were all super doable. I would definitely recommend this professor

I agree with all the reviews that Professor Vazquez is a good professor for his first time teaching and his class is structured well. However, one complaint I had was that this class was graded on a solid scale, meaning there aren't any +/- grades given and there isn't a curve (hopefully he'll incorporate it in his future classes). The midterm and final were Kaggle competitions that were somewhat difficult to get a high score in the model and the write-up reports were graded hard in my opinion.

Note: This review is for Fall 2020, a quarter conducted remotely for this class.

This class was Professor Vazquez's first class at UCLA. He taught this class wonderfully, combining easy-to-follow slides with examples of R code in later lectures to help us understand the application alongside the concepts. He recorded lectures and posted slides to CCLE for us to review at our leisure.

Regarding the grading scheme of the class, weights were allotted roughly equally between three categories: homework, the midterm, and the final. The homework assignments proved relatively simple and straightforward, not requiring too much time to complete. The midterm and the final had roughly similar structure: a Kaggle competition with a report (the final had a presentation component as well). These assessments were not terribly difficult; the midterm was a competition within the class, while the final was graded against thresholds set by the professor. I enjoyed the midterm and final because they more accurately resembled a situation/task we would encounter in the workplace rather than simple regurgitation of concepts and formulae.

TL;DR: Professor Vazquez teaches in a clear, easy-to-follow manner and emphasizes making our skills and knowledge relevant for the workforce, as demonstrated by the midterm and final assessments.

I like the way Vazquez conducted the course, and I would recommend taking him if he is teaching the class. Grading consists of a homework assignment of 3-4 (+/ 2) textbook questions each week, and two equally weighted midterm and final Kaggle competition projects (which are a bit challenging, not so much because of the difficulty of the datasets but because of it being a competition within a class of so many intelligent students). The theme of his class seems to be practical application and job practice, which I appreciated. He is a clear lecturer and the way he interacted with students (especially students from abroad haha) was sweet. He records everything and attendance is not required.

Didn't fully learn the material in the 100A and 100B courses so Professor Vazquez's review, simple lecture, and easy to follow slides were excellent. Always very helpful and the class is structured well. It was his first class, but definitely has the making of a great professor.