I really like Miles and this he is a great professor however this class is hard. He screen records all of his lectures so you can go back if you miss one or need to review but he does take attendance in class. He gives 6 homework assignments and you have about a week and a half to do each. START EARLY. They are tough and take a long time to do. Go to your TA for help. Miles is very strict about not looking at other student's code but the TA can be more lenient. His midterm is difficult but he gives a practice midterm and the structure and types of questions are basically the same. The material taught after the midterm is totally different (less coding heavy and more concept-based). His final is not at all like the midterm (not cumulative) and is much easier. Overall I really enjoyed this class even though it was difficult.

After taking STATS 102A with Professor Chen, I was excited to have him again for STATS 102B, and he did not disappoint. While STATS 102A had a heavy coding emphasis, this class focused more on algorithms and the math behind said algorithms. For the midterms--particularly the second one--I was pressed for time, but that was the only uncomfortable part of the course. Having taking STATS 101C prior to this class, it was an enjoyable experience; 101C and 102B have quite a bit of overlap. In fact, I would term 102B as "coding 101C," which I enjoyed because it allowed me to better understand how these algorithms actually work rather than simply filling out a template with defaults. STATS 102B is one of the more important classes in the stats major, and Professor Chen made it a great experience.

He is a great professor. Explaining things so clearly with his lecture slides. Tbh his clarity made the class so easy that you don't really have to study for it or attend lectures. Also if you have programming experiences, the assignments will be very easy as well. Overall, great professor, super easy class!

Chen is a nice prof!!

In the STATS10, you will get the free credits for the assignment. But I still recommend you to finish it after the lecture. It's similar to the question in the midterm or the final.

He doesn't curve students' grades. It's not difficult to get an A in this class. But if you want an A+. It may take you some effort and luck. May you need a 98 or higher.

Chen will upload the lecture video on Youtube, and students don't have to attend the lecture. He usually speaks very clearly, so even students with poor English skills can watch his lecture at 2x speed. Such as me. My English sucks.

If you have studied STATS in AP, the class will be easy for you. If you haven't, just feel easy to take it.

Pay attention in class, do the homework, and you'll get an A.

I would rec! Pretty easy if you give semi attention in class. when i took it, it was structured:

You can watch it on youtube if you want but he'll randomly say 3 letters during the video and you had to write it down and do a quiz later. that way he knows you participated. There were optional problems and then a quiz at the end of the week. the quiz is pretty easy if you do the work. I forgot if its a weekly lab project or a biweekly project but your ta normally goes over it with you. it might be a little confusing in the beginning if you don't know R.

I felt like the exams were fair and not trying to trick you. it's pretty easy to get an A if you're proficient in algebra.

I loved this class!!! Miles Chen is a great statistics lecturer and is also really nice, funny, and down-to-earth. It was exactly like my high school stats class and I was good at stats, so I will say, it might be harder for those who are not math-inclined. But if you do generally like stats, it's a great course. The labs were fairly easy because the TA pretty much walks you through it, but working with R (the coding language) can be really tricky and foreign. There were weekly quizzes on Gradescope which were really straightforward too if you understood the concepts from lecture. On the midterm and final, we were given plenty of time to complete 50 multiple choice questions and they were totally fair assessments. Great class!

Miles is easily one of the best professors I have had at UCLA. I came into this class terrified of coding and even just looking at R from my experience in stats 20, and now coming out of it feel confident with coding in R and even motivated to learn more languages. The class isn't super easy and the homework definitely is time consuming and challenging but they are definitely doable and you learn a lot from it. The midterm was far more difficult than the final for me personally, but across the board all of Miles homeworks and exams are very fair.

I really enjoyed taking this class with Miles. I had a bad experience with Stats 20 that left me feeling really nervous for 102A. While the homework assignments were challenging, they really helped me understand the concepts we learned in lecture and also made me feel more confident in my R capabilities. The content of the class is super interesting. Miles is very approachable and helpful in OH, and overall super encouraging and wants his students to succeed. I also really liked how we used Campuswire for this class, as everyone is super helpful and quick to answer questions. All of the exams are very fair and the grade breakdown is fair as well. I highly recommend taking this class with Miles!

Note: This review is for Winter 2021, a quarter conducted remotely for this class.

I thoroughly enjoyed Professor Chen's STATS 102A class. The first half was an in-depth review of STATS 20 (with a little extra around classes and regex (i.e., regular expressions), with the latter half shifting toward use in computational statistics. Professor Chen was extremely clear about how to approach some situations and how to use code in such instances, helping provide a nice picture of how to run simulations with R.

I've heard many people describe some of the homework assignments as difficult, but I found them to be manageable (in fact, I sort of wished there was a little more extension to some assignments). For the exams, the online version of this course had two-hour exams (midterm and final) that were open book; it was more about application and less about memorization, which I found more practical and representative of a real-life situation. Overall, his grading scheme is rather generous, and you should not worry too much about your grade in the course

TL;DR: A solid STATS 20 background can be extremely helpful, but nonetheless the class is not bad if you actively listen/pay attention in lecture. Grades are generally not too stressful.