Lectures were very informative but there definitely wasn't enough time which is why I recommend doing practice problems from the textbook. To study for exams, I would recommend doing practice problems instead of just doing the homework and attending lectures/section.

His lectures are useless. Half the grade is free, midterm and final are hard.

Prof Wainwright is a great guy, and his class was really interesting. Took 120A as an elective, and it was fairly hard, but if you keep up with TA material and study with his resources (and CLAS) you will do fine. He helped me out when I had a scheduling conflict and really does care about student success. You will be extremely prepared for 120B!

Very good professor. HW is slightly challenging, but is 50 percent of grade and is based on completion which is great. Both the midterm and the final are very fair, as long as you understand the material. The only slight downside is that his lectures are slightly boring. Also, the PSTAT CLAS 120A made my Jeremy Li is incredibly helpful.

120A was tough. I wouldn't say Wainwright was, though. Twice weekly office hours provided plenty of time to get clarification of homework, previous quiz questions, or general prob/stats questions. Every-other-week quizzes were tough, made by TAs, but only 12% of total grade. Mandatory section attendance (13%). Very information-dense. Worth it!

His lectures and pretty boring, and often irrelevant to homework and test material, but he is amazing during office hours, and if you put in the work to teach yourself how to do the homework, the tests should be a walk in the park. The biweekly quizzes are tough, but do-able with ample studying. Will prepare you for 120B.

Did not go to a single lecture and was able to get A+. Homework is free points and the tests are generously curved, but the biweekly quizzes (12% of grade) are difficult. Easy if you keep the topics organized! Anyone who got an F and rated him a 1.0 is simply not cut from the same cloth.

Wainwright was a fair professor and grader. PSTAT120A is always going to be a tough class, but he did a great job breaking down and explaining the material. The midterm and final were both very long, but the questions were fair. Go to CLAS and stay on top of the material from the beginning and you'll be okay

Honestly, this class was not as insane as people say it is. From my experience, the quizzes were more difficult than the exams themselves, and as long as you pay attention in section, you will be fine. Textbook is another big thing, it's not required but it is EXTREMELY helpful especially when studying for exams. Class was scaled very fairly too.

Lectures are not helpful and are rly boring, but his slides are useful. I like how his HW is a bit challenging but you are still getting full credit because he posted solutions the week after. Exams are not hard as long as you study, but they are pretty long and time consuming. Def recommend taking 120A with him because his grading is pretty fair.

Doing Wainwright justice cuz so many people rated him 1/5 for PSTAT120a. Yes he's lectures r boring but he's exam is not that hard (I would say even easier than HW and Quizes, but they are LONG). If you actually put in solid time to study for the content (which is avalaible online), you would do well on it, and pass the class.

Like others are saying, his tests are insanely hard--the leap in difficulty from the lecture questions to the exam questions is pretty big, and the short time window to answer so many questions doesn't help. I'm giving a 2 rating instead of a 1 because I do like how he handles HW policy. He has us recorrect our own HW to get full credit.

If you choose take his class good luck! During lecture he reads off his slides and the examples he gives are over simplified and nothing like the homework or the quizzes that he writes. The midterm had 26 parts for 1 hour and 15 minutes and after being curved the average was still around a 66 percent. Content should not be as hard to get as it is.

The difficulty of the exam is completely different from the usual study, and a lot of content has not been covered. And it's impossible to finish the exam

He just reads off his slides with an occasional extra explanation. Lecture is just a yapping session for reading his slides. Study for your midterm but I don't know how helpful it will be. Midterm is much harder than homework and quiz. The midterm was so long that It wasn't possible to finish.

Dawg acts like he is too cool for the material he is teaching. The information he explains during his lecture does not compare to the quizzes, homework, or exams at ALL. You will have to do your own reading and a lot of studying/watching videos outside of class.

Wainwright's slides are pretty good so you can do well in the class without showing up to lecture. 50% of your grade is free because of the online quizzes, homework, and section attendance. The midterm was kind of hard because he made it really long, but with the feedback he got I don't think he will make the same mistake in the future.

Professor Wainwright is a really nice one, his lectures are really interesting and his teaching style is really awesome. If you have any questions, please please go to office hours, it really helps a lot. He will explain them crystal clear and any questions will be solved! 120A is a heavy and important course, he makes it clear and interesting!

Professor Wainwright is absolutely one of the best professors at UCSB. 120A is a hard course but he makes it interesting and clear to learn. If you have any questions, he will explain them clearly and nicely during office hours, really accessible outside of class. The midterm and final are hard, but, again, just ask questions and you will improve!

Class was structured nicely with section attendance and homework (gave you answers) making up almost half of your grade. Practice exams, homework problems, lecture examples, etc. did not match level of difficulty of the tests though, gave old tests as practice & last yr students had it way easier with their exams.

Prof. Wainwright is really chill, and my 120A experience with him is honestly pretty nice. 50% of the final score is basically free if you do the work, and the exams are not difficult either. Highly recommended.

Pretty easy grading scale. Section attendance, fair midterm and final. Dont have to put too much work in to pass, put in an average amount of work and get an A. Lectures are okay, but I appreciate Dr. Wainwright, probably best professor to take 120a with.

This class was so easy.

Midterm consists of 5 problems with 4 subproblems each. Expects us to finish in 50 min (actually less than that because he ended it earlier than he was supposed to). Idk about others but I could only finish 4. Even if you perfectly know how to do them all, the time was simply not enough.