Professor

Guani Wu

AD
2.7
Overall Ratings
Based on 94 Users
Easiness 2.5 / 5 How easy the class is, 1 being extremely difficult and 5 being easy peasy.
Workload 2.8 / 5 How light the workload is, 1 being extremely heavy and 5 being extremely light.
Clarity 2.4 / 5 How clear the professor is, 1 being extremely unclear and 5 being very clear.
Helpfulness 2.8 / 5 How helpful the professor is, 1 being not helpful at all and 5 being extremely helpful.

Reviews (94)

2 of 7
2 of 7
Add your review...
June 25, 2022
Quarter: Spring 2022
Grade: C-

Taking 102A and 102B with Wu was the worst decision I made in my three years at UCLA.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Feb. 17, 2023
Quarter: Fall 2022
Grade: B+

Bro just fired him

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
STATS 10
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Dec. 22, 2020
Quarter: Fall 2020
Grade: A

I'm a poli sci major that hates math, but Wu made this fairly painless. He's an incredibly nice, personable, and helpful professor that clearly cares about students succeeding. The content isn't that interesting but Wu teaches in a very clear manner that made it fairly easy. It is easy to get behind, however, so I'd recommend staying on top of lectures and actually reading the textbook (I think I'd space out on a lot of the lectures if I didn't have the textbook's background knowledge).
The lab portion of Stats 10 is totally ridiculous, but most TA's walk you through it step by step so it's fine.
Wu writes pretty hard exams, as well. The midterm was easy but he used relatively confusing language that lead to the mean score in the class being 73. The final was also hard, with a mean score of a 72... so take studying for the tests seriously. In my class he curved pretty generously (dropped a few low scores and rounded some things up, I believe), but I'm not sure if this is the norm.
If you have to take stats 10, Professor Wu is a good person to take it with!

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
May 12, 2022
Quarter: Spring 2022
Grade: I

I took 102b with Wu 2022 spring but class is not listed so I'll say something here.

Don't take his class.

I got wrong on part of a small hw question. It got me 10% off the total hw. Prof doesn't use gradescope, so you have absolutely no idea how you got your points off. I went to ask TA for the correct solution, TA said go ask prof. I went to the prof. Prof said go ask TA.

Quizzes are also fcked up. Extremely unclear question prompt with millions of possible interpretations. Thought it's completion grade, it doesn't help to throw random garbage prompt just to waste students' time

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
STATS 10
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Dec. 22, 2020
Quarter: Fall 2020
Grade: A

I didn't really go to class so I can't say much about Prof. Wu except that he once played Animal Crossing music during our mid-class break, which is pretty sweet. The course content was presented in a very clear way in the lecture slides and the textbook. These course materials were enough for me to complete the homework and open-note quizzes and do quite well on them. Like others have noted, the labs were kinda pointless. If you get a TA who helps you through them step-by-step, you should be fine; if you don't, I recommend making friends with someone who DOES have a helpful TA or joining a GroupMe chat for the class. The midterm and final were not too difficult, but the wording of the questions can be tricky. I finished the midterm with extra time left and made the mistake of submitting early. If you have time left on either of the exams, use it to go through every single question to ensure that you weren't confused by the wording. There are only 20-something questions, where some questions are worth more points than others, so missing one can be the difference between an A and a B.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
STATS 102A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Aug. 9, 2020
Quarter: Summer 2020
Grade: A

Exams and quizzes were generally not easy. You need to watch every one of the discussion videos and to browse campuswire twice a day in order to finally get the details for your assignments clear. (what is desired is often not well specified in the spec) Despite all these, the course has really generous curve.

Helpful?

2 1 Please log in to provide feedback.
April 2, 2024
Quarter: Winter 2024
Grade: B-

Wu is a very nice man, but a terrible professor. He often begins class with a joke or story, or asks us how we are doing, and when he notices he is 致郁 he will say "I know from experience there is nothing I can say to make you guys feel better". He does not respond to emails at all. The TAs are often just as clueless as the students when it comes to homework expectations. My TA said they had to "push back" against the professor on some of the homework specs when they were too vague or too difficult.

Grading scheme: 5% quiz (based on completion), 35% homework (coding), 25% midterm, 35% final. Quizzes were easy enough, timed in lockdown browser. Homework was very confusing, because the hw specs were often not specific, so the TA would email us 3 days before it was due to clarify how the autograder and student graders will score us. Averages on the homeworks were all over the place, between 75% and 90%, but grading was usually pretty generous (or I got lucky). Due every 2 weeks, 5 overall, so each one was worth a substantial amount of our grade.

Tests: Midterm and final were the hardest tests I have ever taken. Averages for midterm was ~55% and average on the final was ~40%. No curve on individual assignments, but there was an end of class curve of about 25% (so D- became B-). No study guides, and lecture notes are pretty confusing, so pay attention in lecture (not recorded, slide notes posted, but for the latter half of the quarter he taught on the chalkboard, not using posted slides). Midterm was all MC, Final was half MC half free response.

I do not think Wu wanted to teach this class. He often expressed resentment on the topics he had to cover. The last chapter was barely covered in class, but still covered pretty extensively on the final. Some things on the final were not even part of the course curriculum and never covered in class.

Discussion sections were optional, essentially homework help and quiz review.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Feb. 25, 2024
Quarter: Winter 2024
Grade: A

The most difficult concepts were taught right before the midterm and final. He does curve, but the exams were so difficult and I would not take them again. He is helpful in explaining the concepts, but the problem is that the difficulty from quizzes and in class examples to exam questions is quite a jump. I suggest looking up YouTube videos on how to do IEEE-754 conversions (extremely helpful) and any of the algorithm content.
As for the homework, they were mostly manageable, given that you go to office hours (his or the TA's) and get help. Note: you can't work on the homework together, so office hours is the only way to get help. Also, you don't get to drop any homework assignments. There was one extremely difficult homework assignment, so I suggest starting on homework as soon as possible so you can get help right away.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Feb. 29, 2024
Quarter: Winter 2024
Grade: N/A

Nice guy but workload is heavy (each hw took anywhere from 5-15 hrs) and exams are brutal. Curve is super generous so most people get decent grades but you don't really know your standing until the end. Class was hard but not impossible, just took a lot of time.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Jan. 2, 2023
Quarter: Fall 2022
Grade: A-

I am honestly shocked about the current rating that this course has. Professor Wu is my favorite professor at UCLA and goes out of his way to be accommodating to his students. This course was challenging and you will need to work hard, but it is by no means impossible. Professor Wu has a more theoretical teaching style, but if you have questions and you go to office hours he will take the time to help you understand. He really is a great guy. Good luck!

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
STATS 102C
Quarter: Spring 2022
Grade: C-
June 25, 2022

Taking 102A and 102B with Wu was the worst decision I made in my three years at UCLA.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
STATS 102C
Quarter: Fall 2022
Grade: B+
Feb. 17, 2023

Bro just fired him

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
STATS 10
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Fall 2020
Grade: A
Dec. 22, 2020

I'm a poli sci major that hates math, but Wu made this fairly painless. He's an incredibly nice, personable, and helpful professor that clearly cares about students succeeding. The content isn't that interesting but Wu teaches in a very clear manner that made it fairly easy. It is easy to get behind, however, so I'd recommend staying on top of lectures and actually reading the textbook (I think I'd space out on a lot of the lectures if I didn't have the textbook's background knowledge).
The lab portion of Stats 10 is totally ridiculous, but most TA's walk you through it step by step so it's fine.
Wu writes pretty hard exams, as well. The midterm was easy but he used relatively confusing language that lead to the mean score in the class being 73. The final was also hard, with a mean score of a 72... so take studying for the tests seriously. In my class he curved pretty generously (dropped a few low scores and rounded some things up, I believe), but I'm not sure if this is the norm.
If you have to take stats 10, Professor Wu is a good person to take it with!

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
STATS 102C
Quarter: Spring 2022
Grade: I
May 12, 2022

I took 102b with Wu 2022 spring but class is not listed so I'll say something here.

Don't take his class.

I got wrong on part of a small hw question. It got me 10% off the total hw. Prof doesn't use gradescope, so you have absolutely no idea how you got your points off. I went to ask TA for the correct solution, TA said go ask prof. I went to the prof. Prof said go ask TA.

Quizzes are also fcked up. Extremely unclear question prompt with millions of possible interpretations. Thought it's completion grade, it doesn't help to throw random garbage prompt just to waste students' time

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
STATS 10
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Fall 2020
Grade: A
Dec. 22, 2020

I didn't really go to class so I can't say much about Prof. Wu except that he once played Animal Crossing music during our mid-class break, which is pretty sweet. The course content was presented in a very clear way in the lecture slides and the textbook. These course materials were enough for me to complete the homework and open-note quizzes and do quite well on them. Like others have noted, the labs were kinda pointless. If you get a TA who helps you through them step-by-step, you should be fine; if you don't, I recommend making friends with someone who DOES have a helpful TA or joining a GroupMe chat for the class. The midterm and final were not too difficult, but the wording of the questions can be tricky. I finished the midterm with extra time left and made the mistake of submitting early. If you have time left on either of the exams, use it to go through every single question to ensure that you weren't confused by the wording. There are only 20-something questions, where some questions are worth more points than others, so missing one can be the difference between an A and a B.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
STATS 102A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Summer 2020
Grade: A
Aug. 9, 2020

Exams and quizzes were generally not easy. You need to watch every one of the discussion videos and to browse campuswire twice a day in order to finally get the details for your assignments clear. (what is desired is often not well specified in the spec) Despite all these, the course has really generous curve.

Helpful?

2 1 Please log in to provide feedback.
STATS 102A
Quarter: Winter 2024
Grade: B-
April 2, 2024

Wu is a very nice man, but a terrible professor. He often begins class with a joke or story, or asks us how we are doing, and when he notices he is 致郁 he will say "I know from experience there is nothing I can say to make you guys feel better". He does not respond to emails at all. The TAs are often just as clueless as the students when it comes to homework expectations. My TA said they had to "push back" against the professor on some of the homework specs when they were too vague or too difficult.

Grading scheme: 5% quiz (based on completion), 35% homework (coding), 25% midterm, 35% final. Quizzes were easy enough, timed in lockdown browser. Homework was very confusing, because the hw specs were often not specific, so the TA would email us 3 days before it was due to clarify how the autograder and student graders will score us. Averages on the homeworks were all over the place, between 75% and 90%, but grading was usually pretty generous (or I got lucky). Due every 2 weeks, 5 overall, so each one was worth a substantial amount of our grade.

Tests: Midterm and final were the hardest tests I have ever taken. Averages for midterm was ~55% and average on the final was ~40%. No curve on individual assignments, but there was an end of class curve of about 25% (so D- became B-). No study guides, and lecture notes are pretty confusing, so pay attention in lecture (not recorded, slide notes posted, but for the latter half of the quarter he taught on the chalkboard, not using posted slides). Midterm was all MC, Final was half MC half free response.

I do not think Wu wanted to teach this class. He often expressed resentment on the topics he had to cover. The last chapter was barely covered in class, but still covered pretty extensively on the final. Some things on the final were not even part of the course curriculum and never covered in class.

Discussion sections were optional, essentially homework help and quiz review.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
STATS 102A
Quarter: Winter 2024
Grade: A
Feb. 25, 2024

The most difficult concepts were taught right before the midterm and final. He does curve, but the exams were so difficult and I would not take them again. He is helpful in explaining the concepts, but the problem is that the difficulty from quizzes and in class examples to exam questions is quite a jump. I suggest looking up YouTube videos on how to do IEEE-754 conversions (extremely helpful) and any of the algorithm content.
As for the homework, they were mostly manageable, given that you go to office hours (his or the TA's) and get help. Note: you can't work on the homework together, so office hours is the only way to get help. Also, you don't get to drop any homework assignments. There was one extremely difficult homework assignment, so I suggest starting on homework as soon as possible so you can get help right away.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
STATS 102A
Quarter: Winter 2024
Grade: N/A
Feb. 29, 2024

Nice guy but workload is heavy (each hw took anywhere from 5-15 hrs) and exams are brutal. Curve is super generous so most people get decent grades but you don't really know your standing until the end. Class was hard but not impossible, just took a lot of time.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
STATS 102C
Quarter: Fall 2022
Grade: A-
Jan. 2, 2023

I am honestly shocked about the current rating that this course has. Professor Wu is my favorite professor at UCLA and goes out of his way to be accommodating to his students. This course was challenging and you will need to work hard, but it is by no means impossible. Professor Wu has a more theoretical teaching style, but if you have questions and you go to office hours he will take the time to help you understand. He really is a great guy. Good luck!

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
2 of 7
ADS

Adblock Detected

Bruinwalk is an entirely Daily Bruin-run service brought to you for free. We hate annoying ads just as much as you do, but they help keep our lights on. We promise to keep our ads as relevant for you as possible, so please consider disabling your ad-blocking software while using this site.

Thank you for supporting us!