Third class with Wainwright, super chill, lecture not required but helpful as he explains nuance and is responsive to lecture questions. Go to office hours with actual questions and you should be set for exams. Homework can be done with a partner which makes them super manageable.
Brian can be very charismatic in his lectures, and explains the content well enough. The course contains a lot of difficult content to cover but his grading scale is very lenient, however the exams (particularly the midterm) were very nitpicky on the particular content used, and covered 50% of the final grade; section attendance was also required.
No curve at all. The exams are straightforward but covers an insane amount of content, so it's really hard for you to memorize every detail clearly. However, those things that you fail to notice are highly likely to appear on the exam. Afterall it's a tough course and the professor is not good.
He taught Bayesian Statistics very well and used lots of real world examples which helps to remind you of the "why" we do any of the statistics. He explained things very well with very helpful visuals which made it easy to understand the theory. Attendance isn't mandatory but I highly recommend going to the lectures. Great course and professor.
great professor
Brian was an okay instructor. The material is fairly complicated and he was able to break it down somewhat simply. 50% of your grade is final and midterm. Four HWs were challenging and you could work on them with a partner. Midterm was incredibly difficult and the final was take home and much fairer.
Lectures were fairly engaging, although there's way too much information on the slides and it gets impossible to follow at times. HW is a free 50%. But final was absurdly difficult based on everything else he assigned; it brought my grade down an entire letter. You'll be fine as long as you study MUCH more than you think you have to for the final.
Professor is fine, but his lectures are not interactive and a lot is gone over very quickly. The class was curved generously at the end because of the midterm and final being somewhat challenging. Homework and grading are both very lenient: scored a mediocre 89 on both midterm and final, but I originally thought my grade was going to be much worse.
Lectures were nothing special but sufficient to learn material. Easy midterm, harder final. Gave us extra credit for filling out a survey. Generous curve on lower end (63% turned into a passing C). Most people have difficulty with the material, not the professor. HW is harder than both midterm and final and serves as good prep.
He's just okay, boring lectures, he moves fast and skims over a lot. TAs were a lot more helpful. Exams were very difficult and incomparable to HW/practice exams, despite him saying they would be similar. The difference between what he gives us to prepare and the actual exam is genuinely laughable.
Very great professor, but a structurally flawed class. You'll likely not have enough time for the difficult exams. I was one of those and that really demotivated me for the rest of the quarter. Definitely focus on this class if you want to succeed. He goes fast too so be sure to pay attention. 40% HW/section, 60% tough exams. Edit: Brutal final.
The final was absolutely brutal, and the Canvas & CLAS resources were definitely not enough to prepare us for the type of exam he gave us. The midterm average was about 65%, with just a few people scoring full credit. Lecture/HW were helpful but only concept-wise because the problems were nowhere similar in difficulty compared to the final.
Exams were hard; I had never had such a low grade before on an exam. There was no curve for any of the tests. Class average for the midterm was a 65%. Homework is a free A, but the final was nothing like he said it was gonna be. Decent lecturer but really boring.
Wainwright is a nice guy, but as a professor, he's okay. However, his exams were extremely difficult and felt unfair. The midterm had an average score of 30% in my section, and the final was even harder, stuff I had never encountered before. The disconnect between the coursework and the exams was significant. I also never worked harder in a class
Exams are extremely unfair. I saw a lot of people saying his final is easy, well he changed. His final is even harder than the midterm and the example tests he gave us for practice is useless. It's not about putting in effort anymore, I spend so much time for this class and going to tutors and he decided to make questions tricky to mess you up.
Brian is an alright professor that does prepare you for the midterm with lectures and homework. The final was said to be cumulative but focused on topics post midterm that were briefly mentioned in class. The final was also said to have the same level of difficulty as the midterm but students would say otherwise.
From what I've heard that final should be easier compared to the midterm, but it was actually a lot harder for me personally. I did ok on the midterm but the final was really hard and long... I did learn stuff but the exam is super challenging although I thought I was prepared for it. Not sure if there's a curve at the end. Okay lecture/tough exam
Horrible, unfair final, with questions incomparable to ones we had seen before, after a Canvas announcement claiming the exam would be analogous in rigor to the midterm (it was not).
He was fine but taking this class with him was kind of hard everyone runs out of time for the tests but he is fair. Hard to pay attention in lecture because he goes so fast and doesn't actually show how to solve a problem step by step he is just teaching concepts so makes it hard to study. But he is fine you just have to put effort in.
I had Wainwright for 120A (fall ‘24). I personally could have performed better but in general Wainwright provided a well-structured class and he's a fine lecturer. He prepared me well for 120B, as I've recently come to figure out.
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.
