TA sections + Effective Studying = A. You just need to study just like how you study for actuarial exams. Not an easy A, but not a hard A. Shout out to Bella -- she is an outstanding and knowledgeable TA.
I took Professor Peters's graduate course as an undergraduate and initially considered dropping it. However, Dr. Peters encouraged me to stick with it, and I'm glad I did. His lectures were very interesting: He has a deep understanding of the material and consistently took time to check in on my progress and explain concepts thoroughly.
People leave bad reviews because they don't know how to effectively self-study. This is one of the skills that an actuary must have. 172B isn't bad if you know how to read a textbook and apply formulas to solve problems. That's it.
He's very funny but his math skills are questionable. If you get a good TA and you actually read the textbook then the class is a whole lot easier
do not take 171 with him. average mid term on his class is 3 out of 24.
Prof. Peters really cares about students and went above and beyond to help us. However, the structure of the course could be improved. We had to learn all the math in 5/6 weeks, and the math in this class is very difficult. I could've learned the materials better if we started with math right away then moved on to the project in week 9/10.
A lot of math proofs and derivations starting from week four. All homework / midterm are assigned after week 6. Really weird schedule. The professor is nice and held extra office hours to provide help.
Many concepts are unclear in his lecture and there are so many mathematical proofs required for this course that are difficult to understand. I regret to take this quarter taught by him.
Amazing Professor. SHORT & EASY Final. Every stats students shall not hesitate to take this course!
The course and content is difficult, and the professor just reads off the materials in class, but that's because the materials he wrote for the course are detailed, and could be understood easily. The professor is really respected and sometimes humorous so it is not that bad.(171 last quarter) Update: I got A in his 172A. Very interesting course!
His grade policy is so bad! Over 50 in finals and final is very hard and dont have enough time. The curve is bad. Dont take his course!
There are worksheets and quizzes, his lecture notes are from ages ago, he did not update them even thought he switched school. He misses his own classes when he slacks, the TAs had to teach for him. The timing for worksheets and quizzes are insanely short and unreasonable, some require multiple graphing/coding steps within 5 minutes.
You can learn a lot from this guy! Such as being rude, not responding to emails, lazy at teaching, intentionally trying to trick students on quizzes, and literally asking us to find answers in a fortune telling set. Love this guy's class!
His lectures can be confusing, forcing me to have to self teach the content to be able to succeed in the course. He is also very rude in his interactions with students, and is a very harsh grader. If you actually want help learning the material, I'd recommend looking for another professor.
Does not know how to teach at all. You might think the professor teaches better when he makes videos, but he still can't explain anything on point. Does not respect the students hard work, assumes the student didn't study when they ask a question. If hw question is written unclear, points will never be given back cuz he hoards on points.
handwriting requires deciphering on good days, almost made me want to double major in decryption if that's a thing. material coverage boarders speed of light. homework due dates and time given does not depend on material but on the sea level at 5 a.m., battery % left on phone and whether the planets line up the night of assigning.
Material builds up quickly in the course so you need to focus on the concepts. Do the homework and any practice problems he gives, you should be fine.
Professor Duncan is a nice, intelligent, and respectable person. However, he's not that good at teaching. I do understand that this is a hard class, but still, try to avoid taking his class if you can. If not, GL boys and girls...
Felt that he could've provided more info. to better prepare students. His attendance/availability could improve. Not the best professor.
Honestly, Ian is good and he is smart. Before i took his class this fall, i heard his class would be so hard. However, it's honestly not like that , if you do the midterm and final practice problems and try to throughly understand the first two chapters (time value of money and annuity), you should be fine.
He reads off the notes that he has made and puts on gauchospace so attendance isn't that required. The average on our midterm was a 29%. I thought I was gonna fail the class but ended up with a B- some maical way. It seems like if you do your homeowrk and show up to the final and midterm you'll pass. The class material is super tough and boring.
He goes over the lecture too fast, hard to keep up the pace. Have terrible board writing. Exams are extreme. Don't really test on what he teaches.
2018 summer A The final exam is very hard. he finished all the lecture in 4.5 weeks. we didn't have lecture the week before final
He's crazy smart, so sometimes his lectures were hard to digest. However, he really seems to care about how his students are doing and does his best to help. He even extended some homework that was super hard and everyone was struggling on. The homework was very challenging, and the midterm and final heavily relied on things from it.
