
Maria Cha
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Based on 132 Users
I had to take this class twice in order to pass, the first half of the quarter is very easy and then it picks up the speed the second half and it is easy to fall behind. She is nice but has a monotone voice that can make you fall asleep. The discussion has almost nothing to do with the lecture because all we do in section is complete coding labs. If you want to do good on those you have to show up in person, my TA was John and he was the sweetest and most helpful man ever. Im not a math person so I attended office hours and she wasn't helpful. She would just read the question out loud and expect me to suddenly be enlightened by her voice.
This class is pretty easy if you already have some stats background (ie. have taken AP Stats in high school). Professor Cha's tests and quizzes are closely related to what she teaches during lectures. Her lectures are pretty long but she usually goes over concepts at the beginning and has many practice problems following the concepts, which can be helpful. There are "labs" in this class that you will have to complete in R. However, they are often pretty easy even for people with no previous background in R before. The TAs usually go over the lab questions with you so you don't really need to do any outside work on your own. Overall, a very easy class.
Many people here praise Cha, but I'll be devil's advocate and say, as someone who was never properly taught math, this was one of the most annoying classes I ever taken. I felt many times that what we learned in lecture vs what we were tested on was so disconnected that I always felt like I didn't learn anything. Everyone who says this class is easy surely must have had actually good experiences with math or statistics in high school because I had such a rough time understanding the concepts. The midterm and final really tested you on your understanding of the material, but I always felt like the questions that were on the midterm/final were things we were never taught properly to solve or learned how to solve. The only reason I even managed a B in this class was because I did decent on the homework and final project we did. That midterm and final kicked my ass with me getting a C- for both. As someone previously mentioned, you gotta use Khan Academy or do the practice questions on the textbook that's recommended for the class to really gain a solid foundation for the course. Don't take this class with Cha if you genuinely felt as if you never had a proper understanding of math in your life.
The teaching was so plain and she likely would not provide her students with anything interesting or just in depth. cha seems to have a tendency of strictly following a script for what she will be teaching and lacks flexibility. Her class and her style made me question the way that she had studied for her degrees; and I think that she likely got help or just simply studied to mainly pass the tests for good grades and NOT for retaining and expanding her knowledge. Stats department at ucla must be so desperate and they skip hiring truly qualified individuals so many times that it is reasonable for students to lose hope in them. cha is a good example of the spirit in delivering knowledge that ucla stat department strives for i.e. provisionality and mediocrity. Believe others when they say that the faculties from this department may be totally gapped in knowledge and techniques. I truly hope that cha did not gain her position from merely sharing similitudes in culture and religion with her connections at ucla.
Professor Cha was a great professor who taught engaging lectures and an overall easy class. I had taken AP Statistics during my senior year of high school so this classes was basically a refresher, but also taught me some new material. There was no homework for the class, only short, weekly open-note quizzes that took about 15-30 min to complete. The lowest quiz grade was dropped and the midterm and final were also open note and asynchronous. Lectures were recorded but iClicker questions were used to track attendance which counted towards extra credit at the end of the quarter. Definitely recommend taking this class.
Easiest GE ever. Especially if you took AP Statistics. The main thing this class required was labs, but if you attended your TA discussion section they'll just give you all the answers. There were weekly quizzes but they were untimed and straightforward. There was one midterm and one final, both which allowed 15 pages of cheat sheet (front and back) so it was essentially open note and were online. She took iClicker attendance for up to 1% of extra credit. Her slides are more than enough to help you learn the content. 100% recommend this class (fulfills a Life Science GE!)
This class is an extremely easy GE as long as you keep up with the deadlines and don't fall behind. Lab reports and exams were a free 100% as long as you followed the instructions for the lab reports that the TA's gave and for the quizzes they were open note so make sure to double check your answers and then you should be able to get 100% for all of them. In terms of the exams, you got more than enough time to finish both. I finished both exams in about half the time, and was able to get near 100% accuracy in both of them. I would advice to make the cheatsheet which she allows to have up to 15 pages front and back of notes, which is really helpful to use when you need to remember any of the formulas. If you have an interest in statistics and have even a little prior knowledge, then this class will be a chill class that you don't have to put much time into outside of class, and receive an A+ for your GE credit. So I would suggest anyone who wants an easy GE to balance out a tougher schedule to take this class, even if you don't have an interest in mathematics or statistics, this class caters to a beginner/basic level knowledge of statistics, and a substantial portion of the class was able to end up with an A.
Professor Cha is so nice and cares so much about the students in her class. Don't be afraid to ask her questions before or after class or in office hours. Her slides had so much information on them, making it super easy to study for the exams. The only criticism I have is that there was a lot of busy work in the class, especially the worksheets in discussion section.
I took AP Stats in high school but took this class for GE and found it to be very easy. The grading is:
4% participation- with iClicker; as long as you answer at least one question during each lecture (doesn't even have to be correct) then you're good, and you can miss up to one class. If you get Reef, you don't even have to go to lecture.
20% online quizzes- on CCLE, a few easy multiple choice questions assigned every Friday, due on Sunday. Drop lowest two scores as well
16% labs- There's 5 labs (about one due every two weeks), lowest grade is dropped. You'll have to get a $6 course reader from the campus bookstore. You can either go to your TA's lab session every week, or you can do it on your own time if you download the Fathom software (it costs $5 to rent for a year). As long as you read the instructions in the course reader/lab manual, you can fully complete the labs by yourself; they're very straightforward.
60% exams, 30% each- There's midterms weeks 5 and 10, and the material is not cumulative. They're 25-30 multiple choice and I aced both of them. She lets you bring a one-sided formula sheet as long as it's handwritten. Also, you can use any calculator you want. That means if you have a TI-84 and know how to use the DISTR and STAT menus, you barely have to do any work at all; you can have the calculator do the z- and t-tests or normal/binomial distribution stuff for you. If you got a 5 on AP Stats these should be a breeze.
Overall, during lecture she was pretty clear and she posted her lecture slides in advance every week. She 'recommends' you get the textbook "Essential Statistics: Exploring the World Through Data, Second Edition" by Gould, Ryan and Wong but it's not necessary at all; her slides cover everything and have plenty of examples.
I had to take this class twice in order to pass, the first half of the quarter is very easy and then it picks up the speed the second half and it is easy to fall behind. She is nice but has a monotone voice that can make you fall asleep. The discussion has almost nothing to do with the lecture because all we do in section is complete coding labs. If you want to do good on those you have to show up in person, my TA was John and he was the sweetest and most helpful man ever. Im not a math person so I attended office hours and she wasn't helpful. She would just read the question out loud and expect me to suddenly be enlightened by her voice.
This class is pretty easy if you already have some stats background (ie. have taken AP Stats in high school). Professor Cha's tests and quizzes are closely related to what she teaches during lectures. Her lectures are pretty long but she usually goes over concepts at the beginning and has many practice problems following the concepts, which can be helpful. There are "labs" in this class that you will have to complete in R. However, they are often pretty easy even for people with no previous background in R before. The TAs usually go over the lab questions with you so you don't really need to do any outside work on your own. Overall, a very easy class.
Many people here praise Cha, but I'll be devil's advocate and say, as someone who was never properly taught math, this was one of the most annoying classes I ever taken. I felt many times that what we learned in lecture vs what we were tested on was so disconnected that I always felt like I didn't learn anything. Everyone who says this class is easy surely must have had actually good experiences with math or statistics in high school because I had such a rough time understanding the concepts. The midterm and final really tested you on your understanding of the material, but I always felt like the questions that were on the midterm/final were things we were never taught properly to solve or learned how to solve. The only reason I even managed a B in this class was because I did decent on the homework and final project we did. That midterm and final kicked my ass with me getting a C- for both. As someone previously mentioned, you gotta use Khan Academy or do the practice questions on the textbook that's recommended for the class to really gain a solid foundation for the course. Don't take this class with Cha if you genuinely felt as if you never had a proper understanding of math in your life.
The teaching was so plain and she likely would not provide her students with anything interesting or just in depth. cha seems to have a tendency of strictly following a script for what she will be teaching and lacks flexibility. Her class and her style made me question the way that she had studied for her degrees; and I think that she likely got help or just simply studied to mainly pass the tests for good grades and NOT for retaining and expanding her knowledge. Stats department at ucla must be so desperate and they skip hiring truly qualified individuals so many times that it is reasonable for students to lose hope in them. cha is a good example of the spirit in delivering knowledge that ucla stat department strives for i.e. provisionality and mediocrity. Believe others when they say that the faculties from this department may be totally gapped in knowledge and techniques. I truly hope that cha did not gain her position from merely sharing similitudes in culture and religion with her connections at ucla.
Professor Cha was a great professor who taught engaging lectures and an overall easy class. I had taken AP Statistics during my senior year of high school so this classes was basically a refresher, but also taught me some new material. There was no homework for the class, only short, weekly open-note quizzes that took about 15-30 min to complete. The lowest quiz grade was dropped and the midterm and final were also open note and asynchronous. Lectures were recorded but iClicker questions were used to track attendance which counted towards extra credit at the end of the quarter. Definitely recommend taking this class.
Easiest GE ever. Especially if you took AP Statistics. The main thing this class required was labs, but if you attended your TA discussion section they'll just give you all the answers. There were weekly quizzes but they were untimed and straightforward. There was one midterm and one final, both which allowed 15 pages of cheat sheet (front and back) so it was essentially open note and were online. She took iClicker attendance for up to 1% of extra credit. Her slides are more than enough to help you learn the content. 100% recommend this class (fulfills a Life Science GE!)
This class is an extremely easy GE as long as you keep up with the deadlines and don't fall behind. Lab reports and exams were a free 100% as long as you followed the instructions for the lab reports that the TA's gave and for the quizzes they were open note so make sure to double check your answers and then you should be able to get 100% for all of them. In terms of the exams, you got more than enough time to finish both. I finished both exams in about half the time, and was able to get near 100% accuracy in both of them. I would advice to make the cheatsheet which she allows to have up to 15 pages front and back of notes, which is really helpful to use when you need to remember any of the formulas. If you have an interest in statistics and have even a little prior knowledge, then this class will be a chill class that you don't have to put much time into outside of class, and receive an A+ for your GE credit. So I would suggest anyone who wants an easy GE to balance out a tougher schedule to take this class, even if you don't have an interest in mathematics or statistics, this class caters to a beginner/basic level knowledge of statistics, and a substantial portion of the class was able to end up with an A.
Professor Cha is so nice and cares so much about the students in her class. Don't be afraid to ask her questions before or after class or in office hours. Her slides had so much information on them, making it super easy to study for the exams. The only criticism I have is that there was a lot of busy work in the class, especially the worksheets in discussion section.
I took AP Stats in high school but took this class for GE and found it to be very easy. The grading is:
4% participation- with iClicker; as long as you answer at least one question during each lecture (doesn't even have to be correct) then you're good, and you can miss up to one class. If you get Reef, you don't even have to go to lecture.
20% online quizzes- on CCLE, a few easy multiple choice questions assigned every Friday, due on Sunday. Drop lowest two scores as well
16% labs- There's 5 labs (about one due every two weeks), lowest grade is dropped. You'll have to get a $6 course reader from the campus bookstore. You can either go to your TA's lab session every week, or you can do it on your own time if you download the Fathom software (it costs $5 to rent for a year). As long as you read the instructions in the course reader/lab manual, you can fully complete the labs by yourself; they're very straightforward.
60% exams, 30% each- There's midterms weeks 5 and 10, and the material is not cumulative. They're 25-30 multiple choice and I aced both of them. She lets you bring a one-sided formula sheet as long as it's handwritten. Also, you can use any calculator you want. That means if you have a TI-84 and know how to use the DISTR and STAT menus, you barely have to do any work at all; you can have the calculator do the z- and t-tests or normal/binomial distribution stuff for you. If you got a 5 on AP Stats these should be a breeze.
Overall, during lecture she was pretty clear and she posted her lecture slides in advance every week. She 'recommends' you get the textbook "Essential Statistics: Exploring the World Through Data, Second Edition" by Gould, Ryan and Wong but it's not necessary at all; her slides cover everything and have plenty of examples.