I really liked this class with Holmes. Teaching style is a little weird for a programming class but material is not difficult. Mandatory quizzes in section. She doesn't take attendance in lecture but there's no textbook so you have to be there to get the material. Tests are very similar to practice problems she posts.

Horrible professor ! Ucsb should offer other option for pstat 10. I didn't like her teaching style. Also final is 60% and It can lower your grade from A to C. Oh btw, her final is free response on paper... yea you write your code on a paper.

Honestly she's a very solid professor. She goes fast during lecture and doesn't post the notes online, but that's my only complaint. Fairly easy to do well in the class with this professor, provided you study and do all the work. The course material itself is not very difficult. Very nice and helpful during office hours. Exams are straightforward.

She's a nice lady but uses outdated teaching techniques. The material is not difficult, but she made the midterm and final unnecessarily tricky. Most of the TAs aren't very knowledgeable and just skim the material. Luckily the workload is light. It's not hard to get at least a B.

she never posts the lectures and goes so fast you have to got to every one. the material wouldn't be the bad if she did. got about a 10% curve.. ta was the worst least knowledgable person I've ever experienced

NOTES/REVIEWS ARE NOT POSTED. WORST PROF EVER TAKEN. AND TA DIDNT KNO WHAT WAS GOING ON

The only way to get good grade for this class is to go to every single lecture at 8am. She do not put any slides and review stuff on gauchospace.

Her notes can be hard to keep up with, especially considering how many database manipulation examples are given. Does not post these notes on gauchospace and is often very frustrated with students for taking pictures. The midterm is also full of trick questions, even if it seems pretty basic and standard. TAs don't even know whats going on.

The only way you can get material about the course is to record her slides during lecture. Get ready to write and type during class. Old style teaching.

I think this class would be easy if you really tried - I took it with two other tough classes so slacked off a bit and managed a b. worst thing by far about the class is that she goes through A TON of "slides" during lecture, too fast for you to write anything down and DOESN'T POST THEM ON GAUCHOSPACE??? everyone literally took pictures all lecture

Sweet old British lady that knows her stuff, fair and not too workload heavy. I just really wish she would upload her powerpoints because this is an introduction to a coding language and doing prints only on a projector is really hard to write down everything she's saying and the data structures for R as she goes by pretty fast

This class was based heavily on exams (three midterms and one final), with section participation worth 10%. Although exams were difficult, she indeed gave generous curve -- my raw score was B but I ended up getting an A. Make sure to study a lot, do hw practices, and read the textbook though she didn't require if you want to get good grades.

i have had this professor before and didn't like her. you basically teach yourself the material, all she does is read off the slides, and give very few examples. the concepts were doable but i had to teach myself everything, no point in going to her lectures. as a professor she sucks, and is basically very useless.

dont take this class

Don't take this class period. Worst professor I've ever had in my life. Also took PSTAT 10 with her, which I didn't do too good on. Please take this class with some other professor if you want to pass your major class.

The course is essentially graded on only the tests. Holmes provided us a super long study guide of old theorems and formulas to memorize for the final, which was extremely time consuming, and then proceeded to mostly ignore them on the actual test. Class is mostly just proofs by induction, which can be hard to engage with. She is quite nice though.

Dr. Holmes is truly a gift, very sweet and understanding! Super fair midterms and final gave us everything we needed to succeed. Tests resemble the lectures and worksheets that she provides. Homework is relatively straightforward and makes a good chunk of the grade.

Caveat 2005 or so. The text should be base certification book. Quizzes should be based on those in the book. It should be a cert prep course plus possibly some basic SAS/STAT. *Advice: google, SAS support *I have been a SAS Analyst 10 yrs, not fair to test someone on hand written code & ding them because it won't run. T&E & syntax errors hpn

Weekly quizzes in section, attendance in lab and section is mandatory. She uses a projector but doesn't post lecture notes. 2 MC midterms and a free response final. Optional homework, helpful if completed. Reviewing lecture notes will help. Averages on midterms: 80/100 and Final: 52/100.

PSTAT 5LS was frustrating because there was no CLAS, the TA's were difficult and more often than not the homework solutions were wrong, and there's no iClicker for lecture and its not awfully exciting. There's no practice midterms or final but she tells you exactly whats on it. Homework isn't mandatory but know how to do them.

She is awful. Zero explanation of what she just said.

Great old lady with a delight British accent. I would take 5A though as her two midterms were very convoluted and didn't really come from lecture. Final was easy if you use the 5A (I got a 99). Basically, just take 5A and stay away from this class.

She goes through presentations REALLY fast (skeletons posted later don't cover everything). I focused on writing notes during lectures rather then paying more attention to her and ended up with a D and an F on the midterms. Basically taught myself everything the days before the final, got an 87 on that and a B in the class. I heard 5a is easier.

For me personally, this course was very confusing and frustrating. The 1st midterm is relatively easy and should be taken advantage of; the 2nd midterm is significantly more difficult. Received a B and C respectively on these. Wasn't until I started learning from a PSTAT5A textbook that I finally got it. Got a 96 on the final as a result of this.