Professor Paik Shoenberg is a nice guy, but a terrible, lazy professor.

He reads straight from his slides.

His slides? ARE HIS BOOK COPIED AND PASTED ONTO THE SLIDES. It is a wall of text with no spacing between equations and he skips many algebraic steps. They are hard to read and hard to follow. Plus he already has them prepared so he goes through them too fast for you to write them down. You should either print them ahead of time or use a tablet.
His book? Some equations are written WITHIN paragraphs which make it very hard to read. Many variables are undefined making his logic hard to follow as well. There are no additional explanations in his book that supplement the material that he goes over in class because - I repeat - HIS SLIDES ARE HIS BOOK.

His exams? 14 multiple choice questions in 1 hour and 15 minutes. It doesn't sound too bad until you make one algebraic or mathematical mistake and then 10 minutes of working out the question is for nothing since you don't come up with an answer to circle. It was definitely not enough time for me to finish even though the questions themselves were not confusing. The questions are modified versions of examples that he does in class but they take a while to do all of the steps. No part of this class is partial credit. You either get the answer on the exam or you don't. He is too lazy to grade for partial credit. HOWEVER you do get to use any materials you want for the exams so I would suggest making outlines of the steps of example questions so you can fill in the numbers during the exam.

The homework is fair honestly. Some questions take a while to figure out but I really can't criticize the content of questions... however, they are also graded for full or no credit. Lazy.

There is a group project that is pointless yet easy. It shouldn't be a group project... it's THAT easy. My prediction is that he is also too lazy to grade a project for each individual student.

During the first lecture, he literally told us not to go to office hours because he won't be helpful. Therefore, I did not attend office hours.

He provides no resources for studying.

Most of the example questions in his book (which I tried to use for studying) ask for proofs that don't have an answer in the back. He doesn't ask for proofs on the exams.

The MATERIAL is NOT hard. His method of grading and the way he presents the material makes the class hard.

Discussion was taught by a TA with a heavy accent and had the questions written down before class so you couldn't copy down the questions and pay attention to how he answered them at the same time. He was also kind of rude.

Shoenberg should not be a professor here, we deserve better educators than this.

DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS WITH PROFESSOR PAIK!!!!!!! I read all the reviews about how easy the midterms are and how this class was such a breeze but it was not! We base the entire class off his shitty book, in lecture he literally reads the same thing thats in his textbook then waits a couple seconds and thinks that by giving us those few seconds we are going to magically learn what he just read?? The class in not based on if you did the work/process correctly, it's based on if you get the correct answer which shows how lazy he is in grading the exams!!!!! The exams are all multiple choice and a lot of times theres one tiny mistake that changes everything and you get the wrong answer but no partial credit just a big fat zero. While he does let us use open book and open note, it's kinda deceiving because were on such a time crunch so going through the notes/book is a hassle and wastes a lot of time. I ran out of time on every exam. Overall I was very frustrated with this class. I've had bad professors but I've been able to teach myself the material and be successful in the course but not with this class! He did not give us the materials to succeed! He based everything off his book and slides which are basically the same thing as the book and there were very few practical practice problems. Take this class with a better professor! I chose Paik because of his past grade distributions but it backfired on me. I have multiple friends who were not successful in the course so I know I'm not alone on this post

I am selling the newest edition of the textbook (a pdf) Intro to Statistical Investigations (published 2016) for $12! I also have the 2015 edition in paperback form for $35. Price negotiable, email me at *************

As the other reviews have mentioned, this class is probability applied to poker. Which means, if you know poker, it's really fun to watch clips of poker videos and calculate probability of poker hands. He says you don't need to know anything about poker, but I highly recommend you do, otherwise it'll be harder than necessary.

His tests are all in-class, 14 questions in 1 hr and 15 min. For the most part, he just has the same questions he does in class with changed numbers. But definitely go to class because he sometimes gives hints about the problems that can help you!

Overall, Schoenberg is really nice and helpful (he responds to your emails in a really nice way) and the class is really easy to do well (esp if you know poker). I'm quite confident though that it in no way prepares you for 100B, which he himself admitted a few times in class.

If you want to feel prepared for STATS100B or if you actually want to learn anything, don't take STATS100A with Schoenberg. His class is designed to be extremely easy. All tests are open note and multiple choice. No real trick questions on the tests, though in my opinion, there were wording issues which caused me to get wrong answers. Only three homeworks. This class was very little time commitment.

But because the class was so easy, I ended up leaving the class like I wasted my time and didn't learn anything, yet I still got an A-. I could've taken another course instead that would've been more useful to me and my major much more. Plus, now I have to take STATS100B feeling extremely unprepared.

He uploads slides as well which I used often, because his lectures were so slow and not recorded. However, his slides often had mistakes and were just unclear overall. His slides and textbook were both poorly written. Hard to read and understand.

TLDR; his teaching methods encourage students to just regurgitate material on tests and not actually absorb anything. If you don't have to take more statistics/probability classes and you don't really feel the need/want to learn probability properly, then take the course. Otherwise, choose a different professor or take Math 170A.

I highly recommend this fiat lux. It's very laid back, and you get to learn about and play poker!

There were weekly readings to do, but they were only necessary for a discussion that occurs for about half of the class time. As long as other students can start the discussion, you can get by if you forget about or just straight up don't do the reading.

Every class had a "hand of the day," where the professor shows a hand that has occurred in a major tournament and then analyzes what happened and what should have been done.

The final project, which was the only part of the grade besides participation, entailed writing a code in R to use in a simulated poker tournament on the last day of lecture. This doesn't require very much work, as he gives examples and permits submissions that are very similar to them. My partner and I actually forgot about the deadline to submit our code until the night after, and he accepted it without a problem.

All in all, this was a very enjoyable class to take my first quarter here at UCLA. Go Bruins!

Really cool guy and great professor. He teaches how teaching should be done, which I'll describe first by what he does NOT do--he does not overwhelm you with cumbersome, abstract math formulas, he does not give you PTSD-inducing stress, he does not dock you points for trivial things, he does not make you feel like a burden for approaching him. Here is what he does do-- he turns math into fun (teaching probability theory through poker), he puts effort and thought into his exams and lecture materials and slides, he is supportive of your learning.

The reason why nobody is into math is not because people hate math--it's because they hate the experiences associated with math. They don't hate learning math. They hate the way it is taught.

With Schoenberg, on the other hand, you learn the material and you learn to love learning it. The world needs more of him.

Quite straightforward and clear. Was quite fun to learn poker and do poker related probability questions. The tests are very manageable with no real curveballs or anything, some questions are a little tricky due to the content being glossed over in lecture. Overall, as a non stats major, the class was quite good.

He doesn't curve, but the material in of itself is not that hard, and he explains the concepts VERY indepth and well. However, like posters below me have remarked, the midterms/finals are not very forgiving. Labs and hw were straightforward, but the midterms and finals were essentially all multiple choice with no partial credit given. With a midterm of 15 or so questions, screwing up on two questions puts you at a B. If you know your stuff, though, it really isn't that bad. If i recall, his averages were in the low 80s. He is also very helpful during OH. Take his honors seminar, too; you just do a small research project of your own choice and write up a paper - quite a cinch.

This is a very simple, intro to probability class using Poker applications. You don't have to be good at poker, or really, at stats to get an good grade. He goes over everything in class and posts his powerpoints online. He's pretty helpful is you ask questions, though he may appear frustrated at times.

Grading consists of four homework assignments, two computer projects (that had little to do with what we learned in class), midterm and a final. Like others have said, tests are multiple choice heavy, with each question usually worth 6-8 pts, no partial credit.

This is a really easy stats class with a prof that knows what he is doing. 35B is offered only in the fall, I believe. There is also a Fiat lux by this prof that is also about poker probability