Never left my trace on Bruinwalk before, but I am writing one for this class as almost all the reviews for Fall 2019, most of which have been unfavourable, were posted before official grades were released and hence I feel that they may not convey the fairest representation of the class as a whole...

You probably heard/seen what others think about the course solely in terms of workload/difficulty - and yes, I concur - the assignments are pretty tough and time-consuming - and this I say as someone who has taken CS30/31, for your reference.

There are weekly homework assignments (total 9) that, for me took around 10 hours on average for each and a final project around week 9/10 that I think spent good 30+ hours on (yes during week 10 & finals week but we were given two weeks and even two-day extension in the end).

Talk about exams - the median for the first midterm was about high 50s and the second one was about low 50s. Standard dev. was around 20 for both exams. The final exam was much less nerve-wracking in terms of time.

The exam questions were focused on surprisingly minute details that you've probably never encountered before unless you have memorised every single detail of the materials prof. Mike posted on CCLE and did extensive experiments on your own. Bottom line the exams really teach you a lesson that the world of R is extensive and you probably still have a long way to go before labeling yourself as a true expert.

Here's the thing though. Having spent loads of time and effort on this course alone and been stressed out pretty much the whole quarter, I still have an overall positive impression of the course. For starters you learn lots - this is inevitable as you are to be faced with loads of assignments and, well, the best way to learn anything is by getting your hands dirty. Secondly the faculty members - the prof. and the TAs - do care about your learning experience, and this I say based on the following reasons

1. Both the professor and TA (Jake for me) offer plenty of office hours (like more than any other courses I've taken).
2. They really want you to learn lots and be prepared for future endeavours; prof Mike threw in loads of outside learning materials on CCLE and Jake always went great lengths to cover more than what were covered in lectures
3. Prof Mike really does mean when he says that he cares about our mental/physical well-being. He's always willing to listen to our concerns and suggestions and takes measures when necessary... and of course, ah, the curve - the curve is the prime evidence that prof Mike really does care about your grades.

For those who haven't taken yet - chances are this course is tough and you will likely be putting in heck tonnes of time on this course unless you've already got sturdy background in R. You're a sailor on an adventure and there's thunderstorms called assignments and exams waiting for you - but fear not, cause you are not sailing alone and in the end your journey shall be rewarded with invaluable treasures called knowledge and you'll be compensated by the curve for all the damages your ship sustained. Just keep pushing yourself and weather the storm... Good luck to all future sailors out there...

Thank you very much prof. Mike and TA Jake for all the things they've offered.

Michael truly concerns about students' learning. Whenever a student asked how he would give our grades, he said like 'Don't worry about your grade too much, but focus on your learning.' After the final, it is turned out he is pretty lenient on grading. His lectures and slides are well-organized and easy to follow up even when you miss a day.

Regarding the exams, both midterms and final were ALL multiple choice questions and somewhat tricky. You should know every single detail of R in order not to spoil the tests.

Currently in this course as a freshman and don't know what I should do to survive. Literally prepared for midterms and homework for a long time. I can't remember a single week not putting more than 10 hours in doing HW, usually it is around 15. I had almost no programming experience before this and this is my first ever coding class, and I don't recommend Stats 20 to ANYONE who doesn't have much coding experience. Even if you do, I strongly recommend you to self-learn R before coming here otherwise it would be a disaster. Trust me you can't imagine how much details you need to remember for the midterms. Don't ever trust any comment before Fall 2019.

Redacting my past review. The stats dept is dealing with rapid growth and has some bad actors, which is made clear by this course. Do not take this course if you do not need to, or make sure to not take it with Tsiang and Jake.

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.

This class gave me the worst anxiety and panic out of my four classes for the quarter. As someone who has never coded before, the learning curve is quite steep as Professor Tsiang shoves in a lot of content. Additionally, homework takes a long time and nearly drove me to tears several times. However, I would say Tsiang genuinely cares for the students in this class. Besides OH (which he offered both in-person and online), he was also chronically on Campuswire answering our questions and had his LAs arrange a study session before each exam. He won't give answers straight away but it's still helpful nonetheless.
At the end of the day, I would choose Professor Tsiang again as my introduction to R as I did learn a lot from this class, but I would caution upcoming students to take this during a less-busy quarter so they don't feel overwhelmed all the time.

The content of this class is tough (easier if you already have coding experience). Homework and exams were difficult, however Mike places a huge emphasis on learning and not on worrying about grades. As a result, even with low exam scores and difficult homework, the class is curved very generously at the end. I would highly recommend taking this class with Mike as you can prioritize learning over grades, something a lot of classes nowadays lack.

I would overall recommend this class because I feel like the way the class was structured was really beneficial for learning without worrying about grades and gpa. The homework was graded on completion(with clear effort) and homework was worth a large percentage of your overall grade. The homeworks were manageable and really did allow me to exercise all I learned in class. The professor is truly very kind and understanding, and this class never gave me stress because it felt like a safe learning space. :)

As a Psych major pursuing a Computing Specialization, this was my first coding course. Hands-down, this was the most applicable course I've taken at UCLA so far. While it is definitely challenging, it is extremely rewarding because you learn so much; Professor Mike and the TAs are super supportive and understanding, as well. Prior to this course I already had some experience with using R for basic data organization, graphics, and statistics, but I still found the course soooo helpful and interesting because it really helped me begin to understand the deeper intuition behind everything in R. Homework-wise, some of the assignments were very long and difficult, but as long as you made an honest effort you would get 100% on them (they're completion-based). Exam-wise, the tests were challenging and relatively unpredictable (some had a harder MC while others had a harder free response section, sometimes questions involved super specific syntax stuff and weird edge cases), but he re-scaled them so that the averages were low Bs (and Professor Mike gave us super cute rubber ducks to give us emotional support during exams :). I would be lying if I said I was never frustrated in this class, but ultimately I found a love for it. The professor, TAs, and LAs are ALWAYS available to answer your questions on Campuswire, and there is an amazing emphasis on mental health over grades. If you re-frame this course as a learning experience rather than just another letter on your transcript, you'll probably have some fun and definitely come out of it feeling proud of yourself!

At first, I thought his class was extremely hard. That. was before I fully realized that the homeworks are based on completion. You really get what you put into this class. If you really want to learn R, he is a great teacher. His notes are awesome, and I do think his assigned homework is useful to complete (you do have to attempt the homework, but not graded on accuracy). In my opinion, tests are not easy, but he curves a lot. He also allows around 3 pages of cheat sheets. If you have a coding background - this class is easy.