I took this class after Econ 144 with Rojas, and there is a lot of overlap. Professor Liao's class has a more theoretical approach, requiring you to prove certain properties of processes. The R coding is minimal, and most of the code is given to you already. The workload is low, with four lab assignments (very little work) and five homework assignments. The homework is short and the questions follow directly from lecture notes, so they aren't too bad. The grade makeup is 50% Final, 30% Midterm, and 20% Homework. The professor offers two different grading methods to determine your final grade, either based on your raw score (>=85 is an A) or ranking in the class (top 20% is an A). The exams aren't easy, but they are fair and take a few questions directly from the homework. He also allows a double-sided page of notes during the exams. During lectures, he annotates the slides with his iPad, which can cause a lot of clutter. These are usually just further explanations, so remember that the essentials are typed on the original slide. Professor Liao is very nice, and I would take another class with him again.

The first half of this course was really hard looking back. THe first half was basically just focusing on returns and statistics, stuff you would learn in econ 41 and 103 but the midterm really drills you hard on how much you can remember from 41 and 103. You need to be really good at statistics in order to do well but this class is also related to 104 and 144 since the second half gets into the higher level statistical models and their properties. The final wasn't bad, it's what you would see based on your homework and final practice tests he gives as well as stuff from the actual midterm. The homework and lab assignments are doable and are the bulk of your grade. He's very responsive to emails and helpful (I never went to office hours, had a time conflict). The curve is also generous so even if you feel like you're doing bad (like I did cause I thought I bombed my midterm), chances are most people in the class felt that way and the curve does account your performance in comparison to others. So if you want to take this class, you should take it if you want to learn more about econometrics and data science, especially if you want a focus in financial markets

his midterm was hella easy, got 30/30. Midterm was exactly like the practice midterm he gave with different number, but the problem comes when you take final. I just studied practice study guide for final as his midterm was just like the practice guide, and he also stated that the practice guide will be the good study guide for final exam but NO. His final exam was 10000x harder than the practice guide with so many advanced questions. well... good thing that he curves the grade but if you dont study with tutor which cost 50$/hour, dont expect to get 70+ in his final exam. GOOD LUCK AND HAVE FUCKIN FUJN

Liao was an incredibly frustrating professor. I don't know what the other reviewers are talking about, but his midterm is 100x harder than the practice midterm, as is the final from the practice final. This quarter he gave us the final from the previous quarter, which is a slightly better indicator of the difficulty of the exam but overall not helpful. He's one of those professors who teaches you problems one way and then expects you to know how to do them a different way that you never even covered in class.
He has an accent, but if you're used to hearing accented English, it shouldn't be a problem. He basically rewrites his online lecture notes verbatim on the board during lecture with maybe a few extra example problems thrown in. The homework problems are absolutely no indicator of the difficulty of the exam questions, even the "starred" ones.
I think part of the problem for me is that he doesn't teach the class with an aim towards what you "need to know," if that makes sense. He just gives you everything and it's up to you to pick out the formulas and such that are important. He also gives you no context for what you're actually trying to do. I took AP Stats in high school, and my professor would teach the class in terms of 'population' and 'sample,' so you kind of knew the difference between things intuitively. Liao doesn't even really use those terms.

Basically, if you can avoid taking him, do. If not, I would recommend trying to find a tutor or some sort of supplemental help.

He is a good professor. His class is clear and straightforward. he loves to answer your questions at any time. You will always get the points. His final is harder than midterm. However, I did final better than Midterm. I think it's not hard like they said if u work hard. Really a good professor u should take.

he is definately not the easisest professor you would get here at ucla, but he's ok one.
if you only study his practice exam posted on the class website, expect to get c or below(or maybe not if you are smart enough). KNOW THE CONCEPT from the notes he post, it can be very hard due to overly used sigma and other mathmatical terms if you are not a math person. If you mastered the concept he posted on the website and do the practice test, you will be fine with his exams which is more like to SAT style questions where you dont have to think but apply the concept. Theres no point of avoiding him, even if you take the same course with another professor only 25% will get A 25% will get B and rest will get C or below. If you cant be those 50% in liao's class im pretty sure you wont be in top 50% to other professor's 41.

TIPS: dont panic when you see the problems that were not on homework or your practice exams.. because the answer will be kinda obvious. if you roll the dice ten times and the number of times that you will get 3 will definately not be .9000
half of the test questions have obvious answers.

great econ professor in econ department. You can learn a lot from the class. Selling textbook for econ41

I found Liao to be a great professor overall. He posts concise lecture notes and gives fair tests. There isn't any homework (although he assigns homework questions for your benefit), and your grade is 40% midterm and 60% final. The midterm was super straightforward, but the final was a bit harder, since we needed a proper distribution for the curve. I am not a straight A student, and I found his class very enjoyable. I would recommend him.

Got an A- but would definitely not recommend zhipeng. His notes in class are basically word for word from the notes that he posts. He does not go over many examples in class and a lot of the notes are just long proofs for things that really dont matter. He is hard to understand (accent) and often spells things wrong when he writes them on the board. I never went to him one on one so i can't comment on that. He tries his best to answer questions and you can tell he cares about the students he just lacks the ability to convey things properly and effectively. He just writes stuff on the board and doesnt explain how you would use something or what it is for. Basically says use this and plug in this and you get answer. You won't learn anything. Midterm was easy final was hard, He uses the department curve 25% A 35% B 25% C everyone else D/F. So it is possible to get screwed by the curve. Don't take this class and avoid a ton of stress.

It was so easy that I got A+ even though I did not go to any of his lectures after the midterm. It's extremely helpful if you take Stats 10 before taking this class.