Ha Nguyen

There are I think 6 problem sets throughout the semester, each a reasonable length with problems that more or less correspond to those on the midterms. They are graded leniently, but PLEASE NOTE, the TA's for this class are atrocious and they will not be graded until the end of the semester (we received PS1 grade on time, and no others until finals had concluded). There are 3 midterms, the first two are non-cumulative and pretty straightforward, the third one was cumulative and extremely long, I did not finish. Professor Nguyen said he might curve at the end of the semester but probably not, so you actually have to perform well in the class. My grade ended up coming out okay, so I believe he did end up caving and curving.

Basics of statistics: mean, standard deviation, normal distribution, confidence intervals, that sorta thing

I learned the basics of statistical reasoning—how to analyze/present data, how to effectively create surveys, etc.

Hard problem sets, will assign several problem sets per week in the end justifying it with his laziness early on in the semester. Exams are doable but because he does not teach or provide adequate practice material, they become harder than they need to be.

The reality is, the entire statistics department at Columbia is not good. For this reason, I am not going to tell you not to take Prof. Nguyen's class, because he may very well be the best option available. That being said, this class was not a good experience. Professor Nguyen is a nice guy, but not a good professor. His lectures are extremely disengaging and disorganized, and his powerpoint may be the most unhelpful I've ever seen. There are rarely slides with clear bullets that can be jotted down in your notes, usually they are graphics displayed in an un-followable way, to the extent that if you miss a class, it's honestly not worth reviewing the slides. Also, it's very hard to get in contact with Professor Nguyen, especially over email, and this caused problems for me a couple times. The textbook is not the best, but if you read and take notes on the textbook chapters you are supposed to, and use ChatGPT as a supplemental teaching tool for the problem sets, you will be fine. The first two midterms were very straightforward and similar to the problem sets, the third one was created by Professor Lee and was absurdly difficult. It seems that Lee makes all the decisions for the class, and Nguyen just shows up to teach at lecture.

More about calculating and applying probability

Learned about statistics and their use and misuse, how to interpret statistics.

This instructor is complete trash. He is an adjunct instructor who comes to Columbia for extra cash and cannot teach AT ALL. He will read off a powerpoint in class, be unprepared, and assign the hardest problems from the book, which defeats the whole purpose of providing students with practice material for the exams. I did not learn anything from this jackass, and it is a shame that an institution such as Columbia has such bad instructors.

A couple of questions a week, nothing too bad. He does grade the homework on accuracy, not completion, though. In terms of exams, there's a midterm, a quiz, and a final, cheatsheets allows. Said final was worth 55% of the grade.

I learned a ton about statistics that I did not know before. Skills of calculating statistics and how to present them and how to conclude results.