He claims you don’t need any prior programming experience. This is not true. Homework takes a very long time, and there is not much help given. The professor and the TAs don’t like to give answers when you ask for help. Instead, they ask you questions that you need to think through by yourself. The tests are hard and out of left field. They cannot be done in the time given. He said he wanted at least an 80% average on the midterm. The actual average of the first midterm was 58%. If you enjoy this kind of environment, you might enjoy the class. However, if you don’t need it for your major/minor, I’d recommend not taking it. If you absolutely have to take the class make sure your other classes aren’t too difficult.

The class is overwhelmingly hard, and I don't recommend anyone taking it. Lectures are clear, but the tests are non-sense. We are tested not on the ability to analyze data by R, but simply some weird rules and edge cases. Homework are good, but gradings are incredibly strict. We can be deducted for more than 10% of homework grade just because of style of coding. As a "fair" CS student who almost got an A in every CS class I took, I still find this class very confusing.

Wow...... what a quarter. First off, if you do not have any programming experience, the homework is gonna take a lot of your time as it did for me, also the grading rubric for the homework is very specific so you can lose points very easily. Homework was very tedious especially when it had that killer question on each that many students struggled with and had to go to office hours for.

Second, the tests were difficult because of the time constraint and the free response questions. The multiple choice was easy for the most part, but some of it required answers that only you can get from messing with R.

One thing I regret in this class is taking it with a major class that made balancing classes very difficult. With that in mind, if you love R or need this class for your major,minor,etc, and have easy classes to balance this out with . Go for it. As for me, I gonna take a long break because this class sucked out a lot of energy from me. Peace and Love folks.

Contrary to prior quarters, this class has been changed and made far more difficult than it used to be. There were two midterms and a final all of which were multiple choice and written. The exams were difficult and tested minute details of R, but the curve made up for them. Nonetheless, studying for the exams was difficult seeing as though we’d receive homework assignments due the same day as exams only to be postponed at the last minute after students have spent all week doing them instead of studying do to their length. The homework assignments were lengthy, time consuming, and difficult, but if you put the time into it you will genuinely get a lot out of them. You will actually gain a lot of knowledge in R from this class and you will be more prepared for 102A than students from previous quarters were if you are able to invest the time into the class. The TA Jake is not as bad as others depict him to be. He extended his office hours almost every week an assignment was due. His office hours were the most helpful of all the TAs, so definitely take advantage of it. As for the professor, he genuinely cares and only real downside about this class is the time you need to spend on homework assignments and the group projects. I definitely don’t recommend taking this class unless you’re a stats major/minor or considering becoming one. Also, if you do take this class try to take a lighter course load as this class will take up a lot of your time especially if you do not have prior programming knowledge.

To start off, Mike is an amazing professor and the most dedicated and hard working teacher I've ever had. He really really cares about his students. He'll respond to emails instantly at any time of day and has lots of office hours availability. This is a tough class though. The work load is quite heavy. Coding homework every week that usually takes like five hours (obviously depends on how good you are). The exams test for a deep knowledge of the material and how code functions. The averages on the midterms were 50-60% and very time pressured. Final seems to have been about the same, though not at all time pressured. Obviously the class is scaled at the end. It seems like the top 25-30% got As and the median grade was a B. Prior understanding of CS stuff probably helps a lot in this class but even without it you can do pretty well if you put the work in. I've never taken a CS and pulled out an A- after being barely above average on the midterms. The exam multiple choice is based heavily on the lecture notes so have those down really well. Exams are way harder than the practice ones he gives you.

Mike says he cares about our wellbeing, but I'd say that's complete bs. Here I sit at 3 am still doing his homework. He gives 8 questions each week and they're impossible to solve without wanting to die every single second. The TA Jake Kramer is an absolute asshole that delights in seeing his students fail. Avoid at all costs.

This class was such a nightmare! So much heavy, unnecessarily difficult workload that takes up what should be used as study time! The exams test on minute details that you can't really study for. The last two weeks were a complete disaster! A self study chapter, a homework assignment, and a final project all assigned in Week 9 with barely enough time to study for the final. And the worst part about the class is the professor saying crap like "Your mental health is more important than your grades" which baffles me because this class is the source of mental health problems. The only good thing about this class is the curve, but everything else was just bad.

Stats 20 with Mike was a grueling experience, but one which I would wholeheartedly have again, as I believed that I learned a solid amount with regards to programming as well as R itself. I came into this class with no programming experience whatsoever, but Mike easily guided me through the lectures while also pausing for questions if the class had any questions.

Mike also provides an extensive amount of office hours and is always willing to help guide the students with the homework and answer any clarifying questions as well. I went to virtually every single office hour and felt like I received a good understanding of the goals of this class.

Now, the tests--both the midterms as well as the final--are difficult, but in the end, Mike tends to curve the class, so the absolute number you see is not the actual end result of the grade. The midterms were primarily difficult due to the time constraints--only 45 minutes--while the final was more difficult on a conceptual level than time-restrictive.

Overall, this class was enjoyable for me, and I disagree with claims that one needs prior programming experience to do well in this class. I believe that as long as you focus on learning and understanding the material, instead of the grade, and give an effort for the class, you will do relatively well in Mike's Stats 20.

TL;DR: Waffles, not grades.

Like a previous review says, Mike Tsiang was missing, so his TA Eduardo Honig fully replaced him but he doesn't have a profile to rate under. I would never wish this class upon my worst enemy. It was so hard to follow as this class was my intro to coding in R, and the homework progress from attaching files to critically thinking about complex code in like a week, it was literal hell and I was spending hours upon hours every assignment. He was terrible at lecturing and typed so fast I couldn't keep up, and expected everyone to know things even though this is an INTRODUCTION to R. Don't even get me started on exams, they felt like I was in a technical interview at Meta. The good thing is that they were take home, but don't let that fool you because it was incredibly long and difficult. The TA Danny was great though, and really tried to help as much as possible in discussion.

I really enjoyed taking this class with Tsiang. He explains all the material very clearly and puts in a lot of effort into teaching. Stats is not the most interesting subject (at least to me) but he makes his lectures as engaging as possible. He was also super helpful during office hours and was willing to spend lots of time with students to make sure they understand a concept. In addition, his exams were completely fair and by no means challenging as long as you put in a little bit of effort into studying. He even let us use a cheat sheet which was really helpful.
If you're hesitant about taking this class with Tsiang because of the reviews - don't be! I don't understand why people are upset with his teaching. I thought he went above and beyond to help students and is in general a super nice person. Would definitely recommend this class with him.