Easily one of the all around best professors I've had at UCLA! Passionate about the material and genuinely cares for students. His class is very organized and structured, with weekly/bimonthly assignments (homework/quizzes/labs) and very detailed and helpful slides that he posts. Definitely a great lecturer too; he doesn't just read from the slides, and he adds silly humor throughout. He not only cares for students' learning and mastery fo the subject, but also about our well being, mental health, etc. Homework isn't turned in (everyone gets full 5%), two midterms, one final, labs, and online quizzes. Don't have to go to lab/discussion if you download Fathom for labs. Definitely recommend!!

If you are even remotely considering taking stats 10....

TAKE IT WITH PROF MICHAEL

"No grade in any class, including this one, is more important than your physical well-being, your mental well-being, and your integrity. Take time to rest, eat, exercise, go for a walk, hang out with friends, speak to a counselor, or whatever it takes to take care of yourself. It might not feel like it, but you are not alone. Be mindful of others’ struggles as well."

This is an excerpt from his syllabus. I have never met in all my years as a student a more caring and underestanding teacher. In addition to being just a genuinely good human being in the sea of coldness that typically comes from math professors, he is actually an amazing teacher, very clear and thorough in his explanations.

This class was such a nightmare! So much heavy, unnecessarily difficult workload that takes up what should be used as study time! The exams test on minute details that you can't really study for. The last two weeks were a complete disaster! A self study chapter, a homework assignment, and a final project all assigned in Week 9 with barely enough time to study for the final. And the worst part about the class is the professor saying crap like "Your mental health is more important than your grades" which baffles me because this class is the source of mental health problems. The only good thing about this class is the curve, but everything else was just bad.

Stats 20 with Mike was a grueling experience, but one which I would wholeheartedly have again, as I believed that I learned a solid amount with regards to programming as well as R itself. I came into this class with no programming experience whatsoever, but Mike easily guided me through the lectures while also pausing for questions if the class had any questions.

Mike also provides an extensive amount of office hours and is always willing to help guide the students with the homework and answer any clarifying questions as well. I went to virtually every single office hour and felt like I received a good understanding of the goals of this class.

Now, the tests--both the midterms as well as the final--are difficult, but in the end, Mike tends to curve the class, so the absolute number you see is not the actual end result of the grade. The midterms were primarily difficult due to the time constraints--only 45 minutes--while the final was more difficult on a conceptual level than time-restrictive.

Overall, this class was enjoyable for me, and I disagree with claims that one needs prior programming experience to do well in this class. I believe that as long as you focus on learning and understanding the material, instead of the grade, and give an effort for the class, you will do relatively well in Mike's Stats 20.

TL;DR: Waffles, not grades.

this class is nice, and the professor is wonderful. i'm not sure how the class was before when most bad reviews were but my ta was amazing. homework is graded on effort, tests and overall grades are curved up (around half the people get an a/a- when averages on midterms and exams are around 80). this class is amazing. i think some people might find it hard if they never coded before but the class is not daunting at all imo, we use campuswire so just post ur question there anonymously. get a study group or have contact of a friend if u get stuck on homework. all homeworks automatically have a 24hr extension so thats really nice. for an intro coding class, its really nice imo (cough cough cs 31). the class isnt an easy a and you'll have to study, but this class didn't give me a lot of stress and i hope most classes are this caring.

Prof. states multiple times to let him worry about your grade and you just worry about learning. At first, I was apprehensive but by the end, you should believe him. If you are worried about grades do not worry he curves his midterms and final very generously. Super organized class with clear lectures and clearer notes (his notes even have a table of contents). I really felt like I learned a lot and was never stressed about my grade. If you need to take Stats20 take it with Prof. Tsiang.

Mike is awesome; he really wants you to succeed. He is very approachable outside of class. The material of the class is difficult, but the class itself is well organized. The tests build on the HWs, which build on the notes. Do not worry about your grade even if your raw scores are low, as the curve is very generous.

This class actually kinda kicked my ass. Everything seemed straightforward and then wasn't. I walked out of the first midterm thinking I couldn't have gotten anything wrong but I got a C. Lectures are basically useless, and the TAs that we had at least SUCK. Labs and HW are easy, it was really the midterms and finals.

But Tsiang is a really cool dude and obviously cares. I should have gotten a B- and he bumped me up to an A-

Though I learned a lot in this class, I really did not enjoy it. Here's my summary of this class:
• R is a really slow and not commonly-used language. If you're interested in data science, learn Python and take classes in the CS department instead.
• Professor Tsiang is a nice, helpful professor, but he has some strange disdain for his students that I was never able to quite pinpoint. He strikes me as a professor that loved being a college student and became a professor because that was the closest thing to it.
• The professor really prioritizes student mental health and well-being, which is tremendously refreshing.
• This class is more graded on effort than correctness, so it is relatively easy to get a good grade as long as you try on the assignment and study for the exams.
• His lecture notes are the most wonderful thing to ever be created. They are clean, organized, extremely thorough, and I'd even say sexy. ;)

For some reason, I never clicked with this professor. I tried many times to try and connect with him in class, yet our conversations were always somehow awkward and ended on a weird note. The professor strikes me as someone who really enjoyed being a college student and became a professor because it was the closest thing to it. I feel like he had some sort of disdain for me and something about him always through me off, though I’m not sure what.

However, I felt that the professor was very concerned for his students and always put in an effort to help us learn and master R. He always prioritized our mental health, which I really appreciated. The focus on putting our health and relationships before our academics was very refreshing and something I really appreciated throughout the quarter.

In terms of the structure of the class, I thought that it could’ve been better. I hated R during the first half of the quarter because it seemed very inefficient, slow, and useless. Only toward the end when we started to import data files and make pretty graphs did I see the usefulness of R. It would’ve been nice to see that at the beginning of the quarter so that I would’ve had more motivation to suffer through in the beginning. He also gave really cryptic answers to my questions about the homework, which I did not appreciate. Also, the professor is really picky about using the Tidyverse style guide, which I really hated. THE CURLY BRACES SHOULD GO ON THE NEXT LINE!

I absolutely loved his lecture notes, they were extremely thorough, well put-together, and concise. I stopped going to lecture because he would simply read off the lecture notes and code some things, so there was no point in me going in person. I thought the BruinLearn was chaotic and very disorganized, I always had trouble finding what I needed to there. Materials just seemed to be dumped online, without regard to organizing them in any logical way. How ironic!

I really enjoyed taking this class with Tsiang. He explains all the material very clearly and puts in a lot of effort into teaching. Stats is not the most interesting subject (at least to me) but he makes his lectures as engaging as possible. He was also super helpful during office hours and was willing to spend lots of time with students to make sure they understand a concept. In addition, his exams were completely fair and by no means challenging as long as you put in a little bit of effort into studying. He even let us use a cheat sheet which was really helpful.
If you're hesitant about taking this class with Tsiang because of the reviews - don't be! I don't understand why people are upset with his teaching. I thought he went above and beyond to help students and is in general a super nice person. Would definitely recommend this class with him.