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.
midterm was hard, but he curved a lot. Final was super essay, as far as i know a lot of people get full credits. However, his lecture was boring, but you have to go there since the explainations on the textbook were not clear. If you only read the textbook, it will be hard to get an A.
The first half of the quarter's content was covered really quickly and pretty confusing, but he slowed down a lot in the last half. Once he slowed down, I actually liked his lectures. The midterm was quite long so scores were very low, but he curved the whole class a lot at the end. The final was reasonable.
Midterm and final were difficult (especially the midterm), He accounts for it with a huge curve. Curves the entire class grade in the end Explains things clearly and throroughly answers questions Some people don't like his teaching style, but if that's the case, attendance isn't mandatory he provides a textbook that explains the material well
Professor Wainwright is a super nice guy and very helpful during office hours, but unfortunately mundane during lecture. His slides are ripped from the textbook with little elaboration, and his examples are also from the book, but often skip "trivial" steps which can make them hard to follow during lecture. Homework is graded on completion.
Gives long exams that make it difficult to finish in time but he very generous curves
While Brian isn't the worst teacher, he definitely fumbled the midterm W24 (avg. was ~50% after curve). I scored extremely low but still managed to pass the class after numerous office hour visits and practice. My advice to succeed is to do extra HW prob. from the book as he uses it for tests Grade Scale was 30 HW, 15 Section, 25 Midterm, 30 Final.
Sped through example problems in lecture, had to do a lot of review outside of class. Midterm was unreasonably short but he did curve it and the final had several problems drawn directly from the textbook, overall difficulty was pretty manageable. As long as you study consistently w/ examples from the textbook you should pass, could have been worse
His tests are the most unreasonable exams I have ever taken at this school. His lecture notes are oftentimes disorganized. At least bro seems like a nice guy
He is simply committing a crime
wainwright was a good professor and very efficient with his lectures. there are weekly quizzes but they really did help to prepare for the midterms and the final. the tests weren't too hard if you understood the homework. the only thing i didn't love how the format of the final was free response when the previous midterms were multiple choice
really understanding and office hours are awesome. he's willing to answer any questions and really makes sure that everyone does well. grade is based on participation, but it's easy to get participation points. the material is hard, but overall, wainwright is a great prof and seems to really care about his students and his class
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
Wainwright is very straightforward. Personally I need the extra help outside of the class to connect all the dots & CLAS every week saved me. The class is do-able. The practice tests/ weekly quizzes & worksheets were very similar to the midterms, the final was a bit long and a bit harder.
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.