Grading breakdown:

(15%) Four group homeworks & five labs
(10%) Four reaction papers
(2.5%) Evaluation by group member (individual grade)
(2.5%) Lecture attendance when we have guest speaker (individual grade)
(25%) Midterm
(45%) Final exam

The only pre-req for this course is STATS10, but if you take this class as a stats major, you will be assigned to Stats major homework group where you will be asked to do STATS101A~101C materials (up to interaction effects & random forests stuff for classification method). This class is so weired that different homework questions are assigned between non-stats and stats but all students take same midterm/final.

When it comes to her teaching, she is not able to explain basic statistics concepts in a proper manner. I would be far behind and end up dropping this class if I were not a stats major. EVERY SINGLE her notes and slides has typos as well as her massive amount of emails. Students are actually taught by the TA, Narek. He teaches us pretty well though.

Overall, I would not recommend this class at all. Whole quarter has been stressful to me because of two different reaction paper & homework assignment groups whose members reply my messages when homeworks are due + worst instructor who doesn't teach anything and keeps saying 'Do you understand me?'

Super easy class of course as essentially the last stats major course but worst lecturer I've had in my time at UCLA.

Unfortunately, she's the only professor that teaches the course but in case you have another option in the future, I wouldn't take this with her! Her lecture slides and instructions are confusing so you never know what she expects or is asking of you. Her emails and lectures and handouts are filled with typos. Often times, she doesn't understand the question students are asking so its difficult to ask questions. Unorganized class, unorganized lecture, ineffective professor and difficult to communicate with. I'm sure she's nice and well known for her work academically, but definitely the worst professor which was a shame because this class was something the seniors looked forward to.

M. Esfandiari is a sweet woman who comes to class everyday perfectly put together and excited. However, her teaching methods are really confusing, her lecture notes don't make much sense and have weird/useless examples, and her exams are tough (and hard to study for).

Read the textbook (it really helps). Stats is a hard class, especially for non-science majors since it's a math class even if no one wants to call it that.

Lots of hw, labs, classtime. Need to go to lecture.

STUDY HARD, this class is not easy

Selling book for stats 10. Book is called introductory stats.

For more info text **********

Stats is a very difficult subject and esp. for sociology majors, so be prepared to work in this class. There are quizzes each week, hw almost twice a week, labs, a midterm and a final. Grade breakdown: Quizzes (drops the lowest 2) 10%, Hw (drops the lowest 2, i think) 10%, labs 10%, midterm 35%, final 35%. The material is taught in a manner i was unfamiliar with so i was very confused. I found kevin to be a really good TA; hes very clear and teaches the material in a very easy manner. I would recommend taking him or switching into his discussions. She grades on a curve, which helps because a lot of people get Cs on the tests. The tests and quizzes are pretty difficult because they are worded in a tricky manner...PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO THE WORDING. I was very worried about this class because i feared it would cause my gpa to drop; but if u stick it out, u might just be pleasantly surprised.

Prof Esfandiari is very nice however her lectures are very hard to understand. She clearly is a very smart lady but it seems as though her class is very disorganized and thus makes it very hard to follow. I took stats 10 and barely went to lecture because I gave up on learning in them. I did the homework, quizzes, and labs and got As on them. The first midterm is VERY easy. The second is harder and the final is fair. I took this class pass / no pass and it was pretty obvious I was going to fail. I spoke with her and she genuinely cared about my grades and ultimately passed me. VERY NICE BUT NOT A GREAT LECTURER. Only take her if you are willing to read the textbook and teach it to yourself.

I took her Spring 2013. After these reviews, I decided to take a chance and hopefully she would be the "motherly" professor other reviews claimed she would be.

Unfortunately, I was extremely disappointed. All of her material was messy, disorganized and full of spelling errors. Her lectures were bland and hard to follow.

What really put me off though, was when I went in after the final to review my wrong answers. While I was looking through the exam, I found a typo with the final. Instead of changing it for the rest of the class, she just shrugged it off because I was too far from an A to change anyways..

If you have to take stats 10 this is the woman to take it with. Not only is she one of the only women in this department but she really cares about her students. She literally treats you like your mom and is really fair. Her lectures, accent, and mistakes on the board do little damage to your grade. Just read the book and go to section to help you get the big picture. I never read the book nor studied, I just went to class, section, and did the homework and I still got a B with the profesor's help in office hours. Her tests are also open notes and book and had a lot of questions similar to homework and lectures that you could just answer them by looking back at these problems during the test.

Mahtash is a very kind woman and is very available to help you out from what I understand, not that I ever went to OH. Stats 10 is also a very basic introductory course and the content is a breeze.

Now that we've got that out of the way, she's a terrible lecturer who spends too much time on side topics/telling terrible jokes/answering stupid questions and she has this annoying habit of asking the class to raise their hand to see if they understand things. The lectures are very poorly organized and you'd probably be better off reading the textbook instead of attending. I went to lecture just because it was at 11 and I had a class at 12. Her English is poor and it shows on her lecture notes and online quizzes, both of which are full of grammar and spelling errors. The class grade is curved so about 30% will get A- or better and it is based on homework, labs, online quizzes, midterm, and final. She drops the lowest homework grade, and you get the best eight quiz scores out of a total of twelve taken.

Try to get Kevin Nichols as your TA, he's very straightforward and will tell you everything you need to know to do well in the class. I got an A in the class with minimal effort, good luck to all.

Do not take any her classes. She is worst and terrible professor at UCLA. She does not know how teach the class.specially, Her lecture note is trash and lecture is waste time.I can definately say that she is just middle or elementary school teacher. You have to study by yourself. In addtion, she is very lazy & do not prepare the class.