Shaw-Hwa Lo

Didn't show up half the classes because there is really a no point (ta makes the exams). Surprisingly, I got an A. I have no idea how I did for the final because he didn't submit the scores.

Shaw-Hwa Lo is not a very good professor. Pros: - There is supposedly a large curve. The average grades on the midterms (69 and 62, respectively) are to be curved to a B/B+, apparently. - He posts lecture notes on CourseWorks Cons: - His English is not the greatest, so it's hard to understand him sometimes. He can be hard of hearing too. - When he writes on the blackboard, the writing is nearly illegible and extremely tiny. - He breezed through the last few chapters in the last week, which was bad because they are the most challenging ones. - He is not that great at explaining concepts. Sometimes he'll delve into theory and proofs even though there won't be any on the exams. That will take up time that could've been spent on working through additional problems. Make sure you do your homework (try to do them without resorting to answer keys unless you've done your best already). The exams are very problem-oriented, so drill and kill on homework problems and examples, not on the theory. Also, the prerequisite for this course is "Elementary Calculus," but be absolutely sure you know how to do double integrals (not covered in Calculus III) and find the determinant (basic matrices, Linear Algebra). They play a key role in the final chapters of the course.

I took this guys Intro to Statistics. Easy class... HORRIBLE TEACHER! He's a nice guy, but not only can you not understand him, he can not teach intro classes. He seems like a very brilliant guy, but he can't put anything into simpler terms for students to understand. When you don't understand he sometimes gets mad and explains it just as he had before (without trying to help you understand it in a different way). When you ask questions he has absolutely no idea how to answer you because he just doesn't understand (which gets very frustrating when you are stumped on something).

I should've listened to the other reviewers. It was clear that the professor didn't care much about the class. It was also clear that the professor, TA, and grader never communicated. Lectures were very theory-oriented, and the TA office sessions were about proofs. But the homeworks were mostly word problems and so were the exams. The averages on most of the tests were between 50-60%, and I don't even know why because the problems weren't very hard. I got a bad grade. The TA was a condescending jackass. The professor was a sweet guy but didn't care much. It was hard to know what to study, and I didn't make this class a priority, so I feel the pain now. Wait to take this class with someone else, or skip if you can.

Don't take this class unless you have to, in which case there is only one section (unless you want to take the grad school one, which is probably terrible too). Prof. Lo is a horrendous teacher on several levels. 1. He does not speak English well. 2. He speaks very quietly. You have to sit in the first two rows if you want to hear anything. 3. Even if he was great at speaking, he's still terrible at explaining things. 4. Asking questions is equivalent to pressing an instant replay button: he's just going to repeat the last thing he said in exactly the same words. You will soon learn not to bother. The only reason the class isn't so hard is that everyone is on equal footing here. Seriously, don't even bother going to the lectures (most people did not show up after Day 1). It is so boring I can't even explain. Also it's like a mile from my other classes. The textbook is okay, so you can teach yourself from there. I would recommend going to the TA's office hours because no one went and he's actually a great teacher (his name is Jonathan, though he might switch to a different class next semester). Don't save the textbook reading for right before the exams though because the textbook spends it's sweet time explaining every concept in tons of examples, and you never know what you can skip and what you can't. The tests tended to reward those who actually did the homeworks, so definit…

Not much from the professor or TA. Everything I have learned was self-taught.

probability and distributions, it is much harder than what you learnt from undergraduate studies

This class was the worst experience at Columbia. The professor is unclear with his explanations, do not cover enough example problems in class, and runs late on schedule. Therefore, the last weeks were very rushed. Throughout the entire semester, I had to learn by myself from the textbook, which was also very hard to understand. Although I do not consider myself as a statistics genius, I do consider myself as a quick learner. However, the way the professor explained things made the material much harder than it actually is. The course brought my grades down, and deprived my motivation to study statistics. Do everything you can to avoid this class.

Very mixed about this class. The two previous reviews make it look as it's quite easy to get an A. It's not. Let me give you the pros and cons: Pros - Prof.Lo is a very nice guy. - Generous grading. - Big curve at the end. - No proofs. Cons - The lectures are not very helpful. Prof. Lo reads through his handwritten slides, full of formulas, but then post the slides only one or two weeks after the lecture (or later), because he wants to "finish the whole chapter first". - The book is at times incomprehensible. - The exams questions are not very straightforward, in particular in the final. - There is a lot of cheating and this tends to inflate the curve.

Basic foundation of statistical reasoning.