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.

Lectures weren't too helpful, but it was Wainwright's first time teaching the class and he usually would go through slides too quickly. We had four two hour long take home difficult quizzes, but it helped prepare a lot for our final. HW is completion based (you get to correct it). Overall very difficult course, but also learned a lot from it.

Wainwright is a very caring professor. The material is difficult and lectures can be confusing BUT the grading scale is generous and there's extra credit (up to an additional 10% on quizzes). The quizzes were challenging but take home and open note. He announces extra credit and quiz content in class (which saved my grade) so attend lecture!

Wainwright may intend to be a good teacher, but his help is limited. His lecture is just reading off the slides and he doesn't give enough explanation to help understand. Hw question are either too difficult or too easy, also too many proof question. He didn't provide enough review material for final either. Self-study might be a better strategy.

His lecture is dull and unhelpful. You can learn this course by reading the lengthy PowerPoint every week. There are four really difficult quizzes and one final exam (difficulty is manageable). Since the average for quizzes is low, it's important to get extra credits by going to TA's office hours and giving pre on additional problems.

Wainwright kinda just felt like he was ripping off Swenson the whole quarter. When he was out for a week for Covid at the beginning of fall quarter, he literally just gave us Swenson's prerecorded videos instead of using his own. For this class, going to TA office hours are basically a must, as his notes are long-winded and sometimes confusing.

Professor Wainwright was a great professor but talks a lot during lectures. The course material was difficult but not impossible, and the homework was pretty easy. Tests and quizzes are very fair. Loved listening to his stories during class!

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.

Lectures are only focused on the main topics and easy questions that will help you understand but not solidify the material. He doesn't give you studying material for any exam at all so you must find other ways to study beyond the weekly homework. The textbook is at the library and is essential for studying, tests make or break your grade.

Hardly gives you anything to prepare and study for midterms. Final exam was incredibly difficult and we weren't given anything to prepare for it. Lectures are very slow, examples aren't always concise. He's a good guy but not a good professor for this class. This class requires you to understand coding which is ridiculous, it's a statistics class.

This class was so easy.

PSTAT 5A was a difficult course. Wainwrights lectures were no help in learning the material. I spent most of my time reading the textbook for this class and teaching myself concepts. There are very limited resources to help you study for exams, which entirely make or break your grade. The final was insanely hard. 0/10 recommend.

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.

As someone who has never learned to code before, this class was the best way for me to learn to code. If this is your first time coding, take this first! The lecture slides have everything you need to know to get As. Quizzes are tougher but doable. 90+ is an A which helped. Go to section and understand how the code works if you want to succeed.

2 mandatory lab sections/week graded solely on showing up. Isn't 100% the best prof, but definitely cares about students and wants them to succeed: no A-, B-, etc (90-99 = A). Midterm/final VERY fair and straightforward/reflect practice problems and are mostly on R/SQL coding syntax. Little workload and easy to catch up, but quizzes are hard :/.

He very obviously cares about his students. He is super sweet, helpful, reasonable with grading/regrades and does not give A-'s. His lectures could be longwinded at times, but he posts them online so I always just watched them double speed and it was super helpful/convienent. Just do the reccomended homework problems and you'll for sure get an A!