Professor read off slides that were so hard to understand because he didn't explain the notations unless you ask him. I could've put more effort into this class but I was juggling two mgmt classes at the same time so my grade suffered. if you're not a mathy person this might be hard for you. I found econ 11 to be easier but that's also cuz I had a great professor too. shoutout to surro :p

Liao was actually a surprisingly good professor. The quarter I had to take Econ 41 I didn't have the option to go with Rojas that I wanted, so I was nervous about taking Liao since he had no reviews and I heard his accent is pretty tough.

Nevertheless, the class is incredibly straightforward. All lecture notes are posted online and he merely goes into them in more detail in class which is very helpful since you can study things you may not have understood in class at home and clarify things in his online notes during lecture. The midterm was very easy and covered only up to basic probability concepts such as independence and conditional probabilities. It's made super easy and I, like a lot of people, was able to get 100 on it. He also provides a significant time gap between the midterm and the last content covered on it. So you have a good 2 weeks to study for the midterm which was very generous.

Our class was a bit behind so he did end up rushing a bit at the end when we got to actual hypothesis testing and he was barely able to finish the last lecture materials on the very last day of class. Things really do pickup very quickly after the midterm. This makes it a bit hard, especially because you likely fall behind at least a bit while studying for the midterm itself but it's doable as long as you have a good TA (Alec was great during my quarter) and try not fall too behind.

The final, like the other guy said, was definitely hard. it was more than twice the length of the midterm in less than twice the time (30 questions on midterm, 80 on final). On the other hand, no you don't need a tutor as long as you can... you know... study? The content on the final is definitely harder than the midterm. DO NOT solely rely on his practice questions to study for the final!! While that's a good strategy for the midterm, it will NOT help you for the final as the content is much more difficult and is meant to put you in a huge time crunch. That being said, he told us he didn't expect anyone to finish the exam (nobody did) and thus you should take your time, do the easiest first, and try to be as accurate as possible before just bubbling randomly in the last minute or two. I studied as many textbook, practice problems (TA and prof), and past exams from other classes as I could to be familiar with any type of problem he could throw and ended up getting one of the highest scores. The final is curved VERY generously though so don't worry. Average score was about a 50% i think

Overall, surprisingly good professor. Definitely a nice guy who does care. His accent can be rough at times but honestly he explains things pretty well regardless.

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

After reading the reviews for this class, I was very worried it was going to be super difficult. Especially given that your grade is 30% midterm and 70% final (or 100% final if you do better on it). I also have never taken a stats class before and have only ever taken calculus. For me, I found this class to be far easier than both econ 11 and econ 101. However, I also tend to struggle with the conceptual content in econ classes rather than the math, and this class did not have any connection to econ concepts at all besides a few slides he threw in that were not tested on. Although he has a pretty strong accent and was hard to understand at times, if you just read along with the slides while he lectures, it does help a lot. I went to mostly all of the lectures in person but was not really paying the closest attention, so you could definitely just get on the Zoom or watch the recordings and be okay. There are optional homework assignments with every lecture. I would recommend doing these as he completes the lectures. Most of them are pretty short and do not take a long time besides the last few chapters, which did take quite a bit more time just because the content is more difficult after the midterm. The midterm was almost exactly like the two practice midterms he provided. I do not think there were any problems from the homework, but it gives you extra practice, so I would recommend doing the homework problems as well. For the final, he did switch it up a bit. However, there were still many questions that were very similar to the practice exam questions and the homework questions. I would recommend doing the practice final and practice midterms many times. If you memorize the questions and the formulas you need to solve these problems, it will help you go through the exam much faster since he only gives you two hours for 51 multiple choice questions and you have to go pretty fast to finish. There were also a few questions on the final that were very similar to some of the homework questions, so doing those helped me a lot as well. Like I said, he does throw a few curveball questions in there, but I assume that was to bring the average down a bit since the average on the midterm was a B+. The average on the final was around 68%. I do think he ended up curving the class up slightly since I should have ended up with an A-. Overall, I think Zhipeng is not a bad professor. He seems to always want to help his students and is very good at replying to emails. If you listen to his advice about what to study, you will do well.

Liao is not as bad as the other reviews make him out to be. His accent is understandable (mostly), and his lectures are clear when you attend in person (but very difficult to make out on recordings). He does not simply read off the slides, and attending lectures in person made a difference. Difficulty picks up significantly post-midterm (90% median on midterm; 69% final). But doing all the HW problems repeatedly, taking the practice tests, and strategizing which time-consuming mcq to skip (i.e. joint pmf problems) will set you up for a good score. There are many formulas to memorize, but they follow a pattern after a while. Don't leave it to the last minute and you'll be ok

I find it hard to review this professor due to personal ups and downs during the quarter. I performed well on the midterm after studying hard and received a high grade, but struggled on the final. Thankfully, my midterm grade balanced things out. Overall, he is a fair instructor.

Avoid this professor if you can. His tests are unreasonably hard for the given amount of time, with over half the class failing the final if it weren’t for the curve (even with curve about a third still failed). His accent is so thick that you can barely understand his lectures and you end up solely relying on the slides. Hw is optional so the whole grade is based off the midterm and final or just the final (whichever ends up being higher).

Bottom line: wait till next quarter to take this course if you can.

this class in particular was my kryptonite because even though the material itself is easy, the way Professor Liao teaches is just not great. i ended up not going to his lectures and only his office hours and ta discussions because i would often sleep in his class. the midterm was easy but the final was just a dumpster fire. i suppose it was to balance the class averages from both exams since the midterm's average was pretty high.

overall, i would rather take a different professor than him but if you find ways to self-study, you should be fine.

I would not recommend taking this class with Liao, mainly because of the grade scheme. His lectures are useless to go to, so just focus on the homework, the discussion, and the slides he posts. The final is either 100% of your grade or 70% (if you do better on the final the midterm is dropped) and as mentioned the grading is purely competitive. Our final average was a 63% or so, and an 80% got me an A- (my midterm was dropped). I think if you spend a lot of time on the practice exams you will be fine, but if you want to save yourself the stress try and take someone else.

i would say liao is a pretty good teacher to have for econ 41 compared to the others. he does have a very strong accent so it is difficult to understand him in class or over his recordings. he posts his lecture slides on canvas and the TAs post their discussions as well so i mainly did this class remotely and had no issue. liao creates reasonable, multiple-choice exams, unlike what i experienced in econ 11. the midterm was 30% and the final was 70%. his midterm was very easy and almost exactly like the practice midterm, if easier. it is 30 questions in 1 hour and 15 minutes, and i had time to triple check my answers and still turn it in early. the final was 51 questions and 2 hours, which was a huge time crunch, but still very similar to the practice final. the worst thing about this class is that he follows a grading structure of 25% A’s, 35% B’s, 25% C’s, and 15% fail, so no matter how good you do on the exams, you’re just competing against how well you did against your classmates. as long as you study and know how to do the practice finals you'll be good.