Probability for Engineers · Industrial Engineering And Operations Research
There were around 6 or 7 homeworks, which were not too hard (at most 5 hours each) Two midterms and one final. He gave out practice exams, and the exams were very on par (content wise) with the lectures and the homeworks. I’m not sure about the curve as he does not publish it, but I think it is slightly curved
This guy is one of the best professors here. His lectures are extremely clear and he is very approachable. The lectures feel very engaging, and actually meaningful and useful for homework’s/exams. He is very calm and goes at a great pace
Workload was fine, grading was fine, assignments were fine, but exams - bleh.
Contrary to the other reviews, this class was very difficult. I made a mistake of listening to others and taking this class, and my gpa plummeted. I don't necessarily have any qualms with Professor Lacker - he's fine. Probability as a subject is just very difficult and convoluted for some people. Compared to all other STEM classes I've taken, this is one class where you basically need to rely on outside resources - textbooks, problems, practice - because whatever he gives is not even close to enough to even pass. And probability in general is just really weird to me. If you're not a probability/stats major and you're planning on taking this as an elective credit or core credit - I would only recommend if you already have some probability experience/liking.
The class has roughly weekly psets (there are only 8), and they are not TOO difficult but can definitely get more challenging towards the end. The hard part varies: Before the first midterm is the discrete part of the class deals with summations (INFINITE SERIES), then the continuous part has integrals (WEIRD CALC 2 INTEGRATION RULES), and then the double integrals come out towards the end. All the calc is definitely at a lower level than you do in your calc 2-3 classes, you just need to review some niche stuff.
Incredible prof. Although I’m in IEOR so I had no choice, if you have a choice of probability classes to take, this is the one (judging by my friends’ experiences). Lacker explains everything really, really well, records all lectures and posts all notes, assigns a very reasonable amount of work, and provides good practice material via recitations and practice exams (though after the first midterm recitations stopped due to low attendance). You can tell the man is PASSIONATE about this stuff, just ask his opinion on the Central Limit Theorem. The first midterm is going to be relatively easy, the second midterm is TOUGH, the final is somewhere in between.
Weekly PSETS, not too difficult Two exams, and one final. Difficulty varied but there weren't anything out of the blue. All exam material is fair. I think the difficulty of this course is less from the material and more the amount of content and remembering so much information.
I felt the strong need to write this review. Professor Lacker is straight-out amazing. He is so patient with his students and explains things in a way that made sense to me. He was also helpful after class and during office hours. He is one of the professors at Columbia who wants his students to succeed. Very smart guy and please don't hesitate to take a class with him.
Professor Lacker is the best teacher I've had so far at Columbia. He is brilliant and knows the material inside and out. But what makes his course so amazing is that he explains all the material with astounding clarity. Everything is so clear I didn't feel I needed to rely on the textbook at all! His lecturing abilities are phenomenal. This is such a rare phenomenon among professors and is not to be understated. Many professors are so genius they cannot clearly communicate the material. Professor Lacker is at this level of genius but explains everything so everyone can understand it. Yet this course is certainly challenging. His HWs are pretty hard and require using long-forgotten identities about the convergence of infinite sums. And you need to think deeply about what the questions are asking. However, you learn so much from this. If you have to take this course with Professor Lacker, you absolutely should do so!