Professor

Robert Gould

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3.4
Overall Ratings
Based on 137 Users
Easiness 2.8 / 5 How easy the class is, 1 being extremely difficult and 5 being easy peasy.
Workload 2.4 / 5 How light the workload is, 1 being extremely heavy and 5 being extremely light.
Clarity 3.5 / 5 How clear the professor is, 1 being extremely unclear and 5 being very clear.
Helpfulness 3.9 / 5 How helpful the professor is, 1 being not helpful at all and 5 being extremely helpful.

Reviews (137)

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Dec. 25, 2017
Quarter: Fall 2017
Grade: B+

Gould seems like a teddy bear when he talks and looks like a super nice professor when you go into that first couple of lectures... but beneath the "cuteness" there's the EVIL that lies within him...
- SOOOOOOO much work for a class... every week he makes us do a homework assignment with like 15 problems and ONLY GRADES 5 RANDOM QUESTIONS which means that if the ONLY 5 you did wrong are the only 5 he chose, then your grade is screwed!!!
- His wording in exams is waaaaay harder than in the homework problems in the textbook... and watch out for the WRITTEN problems in the midterm (all is multiple choice but 2 questions and they grade them HARSHLY)
-We asked him for practice midterm and he was like "it takes me a long time to write a midterm, why should I take that much extra time to also write a practice midterm..." He literally wrote the textbook and cannot give us a practice midterm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...?
-Also participation with clickers (which cost 60$) is only ONE (1%) PERCENT OF THE WHOLE GRADE.... like ARE YOU KIDDING ME.....
-His T.A.'s did not speak english and their lab and discussion sections are SOOOO useless cuz they cant communicate well.......
-And the worst part was that there was a group project in which RANDOM students gave you your grade and you can never understand it and how the system works its HORRIBLE....

People who took this class with other professors did waaaay better so I do reccomend Tsiang

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5 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
March 15, 2021
Quarter: Winter 2020
Grade: P

Listen, you have to read until the end for this to make sense. this professor makes his students do far too much: quizzes 2x a week minimum (its actually 4 but you only have to do 2 if you like the grade you got), midterms every other week (4 in total and worth 60% of your grade), attending lecture mandatory + answer polling questions (this was the first part of the course, around 3/4 in he made class optional to attend), labs were supposed to be bi weekly but it quickly became due basically every week, homework assignments due every week, and we had to build a reputation on campus wire as if the polling questions weren't enough then it became only participation was based on the reputation built on campus wire which was stressful bc you had to answer questions and ask questions and get upvotes on your answers. everything, and i mean everything was graded. all of the things mentioned above were graded and some of us in the groupme think they were graded harshly. also, he textbook was required for literally everything to do with the class even necessary to use the technology that was part of the text book to do labs, homework, and even the midterms [but guess who wrote the textbook? you guessed it, literally the professor trying to make $$].
Now, none of this is actually that crazy, what really bothers me about this man and his course is that he put is extremely heavy workload on his students DURING a global pandemic, and in the midst of our current political climate?!!!? a week in this class will sometimes look like: a midterm (literally not even during class time like you have to find the time on your own sometime in the week to take it), a homework assignment due, a lab due, two quizzes due (also on your own time, not even during class), attending lecture, attending a lab, and attending a discussion. this was far too much.

I honestly regret taking this class, it did more harm to me than good. I feel like i didn't learn anything, rather i was playing a game of catch up. This class is the definition of burnout and it really shows how far removed professors at UCLA are from their students and the pressure and stress they are under during this time. Professor, please consider restructuring this class if you teach remotely again. And if you're a student and thinking of taking this course, don't.

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STATS 10
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
March 23, 2021
Quarter: Winter 2021
Grade: A

I had never taken a statistics course before this class and I thought Professor Gould was such a great lecturer and teacher! I felt like I was able to grasp all the concepts fairly well and I have definitely come out of this class with some new knowledge and appreciation for statistics. Although the workload for this class was heavy at times (homework, labs, quizzes, etc...), I think that with the amount of concepts discussed in this class it was mostly fair. All of the quizzes and midterms were open book/open note/open lecture which really helped. Also, there was a "midterm" every other week which seems kinda daunting but they were all fairly short and it was nice to have my grade split up among a bunch of smaller assignments rather than two large ones. The only thing that kind of bothered me was the amount of homework problems that were assigned week to week, especially on weeks where we had a lab due and/or a midterm due. Sometimes there would be 15+ multistep problems assigned which was a lot to handle on top of the other assignments due that week. Overall, Professor Gould was a super nice person and a great lecturer but make sure to stay on top of your work or it can really pile up.

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STATS 13
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Dec. 28, 2020
Quarter: Fall 2020
Grade: A

I loved taking Stats 13 with Professor Gould! There's some busy work with this class (weekly homework assignments and coding labs), but it's fairly straightforward and relatively easy for a five unit class. He posts videos going over all of the textbook concepts before lecture so the structure of the class is really helpful for learning the material (especially for slow readers like me who usually don't use textbooks). Because of the way Gould teaches this class, you end up feeling extremely prepared by the time exams come around! If I didn't already have my heart set on medicine, I would totally love to major in Statistics because this class was just so interesting to me. 10/10 would recommend!

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April 13, 2017
Quarter: Winter 2017
Grade: A

Take Stats 13 with Gould, I have no idea how he isn't rated higher. You're almost guaranteed an A if you just put in about 60% effort. If you took AP Stats, probably 25% effort. I could've passed the final without taking the class at all. In addition, I definitely learned a solid amount, and it was no a worthless way to spend my time. Would recommend 10/10.

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STATS 13
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
March 25, 2021
Quarter: Fall 2020
Grade: A

Overall, this was a pretty enjoyable class. Workload can be a bit heavy but the content is interesting and not difficult. Exams were really fair and reflected what we learned in class. The use of Campuswire was also really helpful for getting extra help. Participation does matter for this class but it's simple to get points (just attend lecture and post on Campuswire!) There are weekly group lab projects, but again they are not very difficult.

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April 2, 2020
Quarter: Winter 2020
Grade: A

For most of this class I wasn't sure what we were even learning. I would take some notes during lecture and know that I am processing new information but then wasn't even sure what it was that I was doing. The content of the class isn't very difficult but Gould made it difficult.

1. He goes through his slides too fast. I stopped taking notes at one point because half the time I was just writing "see lecture slides" since I didn't have time to write anything down (he does post them on CCLE). He also seems to be using slides he made a few years ago and doesn't remember what's on them. It seemed like the next slide was always a surprise to him and he was learning along with the rest of the class.

2. His homework assignments are terribly constructed. There were often typos that made it hard to understand and the wording allowed for multiple interpretations. My friend went into office hours to get clarifications and Gould said her approach was completely wrong and the other students had thought the same as her. When Gould saw that all the students clearly didn't know what to do, he did nothing. He didn't post on CCLE or Campuswire or anything. So basically if you can't go to office hours you will not be able to do the homework assignments. The assignments are also graded extremely harsh. There might be 5 questions each with parts a-e and if I got one part of one question wrong I would get 10-20% off. I got a 50% on an assignment where I had 3 small errors. If you're wondering, he gave one assignment per week due Fridays at 6pm. The only problem with this is that our last lecture ended Thursday at 4:45pm. And most of the time you couldn't finish the homework until after the Thursday lecture because he teaches material for it. So you have to figure out the homework in 24 hours with no office hours in that time to help. Just Campuswire which Gould rarely went on to answer questions, and there were a lot of questions.

3. His final is EASY. It's a take home exam that you have a week to complete and I finished it in a couple of hours. So don't worry too much about your midterm or homework grades because I guarantee everyone is struggling but the final will save you.

4. Don't read the book. You need it for some homework problems but I think there's a free PDF somewhere.

Overall I would not take a class with Gould again. He isn't the worst professor, but definitely not one of my favorites. It wasn't a difficult class but it took a lot of time to figure out what he meant in his homework problems. My TA was so helpful and I wouldn't have survived without him.

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Oct. 7, 2022
Quarter: Spring 2022
Grade: A

The best professor I've had in the UCLA stats path, however I can acknowledge why people don't like the pacing of his classes. For both Stats 10 and 101A he used a mini midterm system which I personally really liked, and kept the content relevant, making it hard to fall behind. He explains concepts really well, and I was excited to go to lecture. If you like the midterm system then he's a 10/10 prof.

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March 28, 2020
Quarter: Winter 2020
Grade: P

You just meet once a week for an hour. A guest speaker comes in and talks about their job, and Gould gives you a week to briefly answer 1-2 simple questions about the guest lecture (e.g., what did you find interesting about the presentation, does this job appeal to you, etc) and upload to CCLE. "Final exam" is to just submit a resume. Only caveat is that attendance is mandatory (there's a sign in sheet).

If you're in need of units, this is pretty much a free P/NP 1.0 unit to tack onto your schedule.

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1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Dec. 19, 2020
Quarter: Fall 2019
Grade: A

I took this class Fall 2020 so this is a remote learning review:

Gould tried out a flipped classroom approach this quarter (I'm not sure if he'll continue doing so because he asked for our feedback and no one really liked it.)

There's a lot of work in this class. It's not hard, just time consuming. Every week we have homework problems from the textbook, weekly quiz, and a two-part lab. These are fairly easy points that pad your grade so it's not hard to get an A if you just put some effort in.

Will you learn a lot though? Doubtful. I came in with AP Stats background so most if not all of this class was review. You do most of your learning from watching a 10-minute recorded video every week and optional textbook readings. His lecture is very boring and unhelpful but attendance is more or less required for participation points. There's one midterm and a final - both are ridiculously easy.

TL;DR: take this class with a different professor if you really want to learn R/important stats topics esp for students interested in research.

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STATS 10
Quarter: Fall 2017
Grade: B+
Dec. 25, 2017

Gould seems like a teddy bear when he talks and looks like a super nice professor when you go into that first couple of lectures... but beneath the "cuteness" there's the EVIL that lies within him...
- SOOOOOOO much work for a class... every week he makes us do a homework assignment with like 15 problems and ONLY GRADES 5 RANDOM QUESTIONS which means that if the ONLY 5 you did wrong are the only 5 he chose, then your grade is screwed!!!
- His wording in exams is waaaaay harder than in the homework problems in the textbook... and watch out for the WRITTEN problems in the midterm (all is multiple choice but 2 questions and they grade them HARSHLY)
-We asked him for practice midterm and he was like "it takes me a long time to write a midterm, why should I take that much extra time to also write a practice midterm..." He literally wrote the textbook and cannot give us a practice midterm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...?
-Also participation with clickers (which cost 60$) is only ONE (1%) PERCENT OF THE WHOLE GRADE.... like ARE YOU KIDDING ME.....
-His T.A.'s did not speak english and their lab and discussion sections are SOOOO useless cuz they cant communicate well.......
-And the worst part was that there was a group project in which RANDOM students gave you your grade and you can never understand it and how the system works its HORRIBLE....

People who took this class with other professors did waaaay better so I do reccomend Tsiang

Helpful?

5 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
STATS 10
Quarter: Winter 2020
Grade: P
March 15, 2021

Listen, you have to read until the end for this to make sense. this professor makes his students do far too much: quizzes 2x a week minimum (its actually 4 but you only have to do 2 if you like the grade you got), midterms every other week (4 in total and worth 60% of your grade), attending lecture mandatory + answer polling questions (this was the first part of the course, around 3/4 in he made class optional to attend), labs were supposed to be bi weekly but it quickly became due basically every week, homework assignments due every week, and we had to build a reputation on campus wire as if the polling questions weren't enough then it became only participation was based on the reputation built on campus wire which was stressful bc you had to answer questions and ask questions and get upvotes on your answers. everything, and i mean everything was graded. all of the things mentioned above were graded and some of us in the groupme think they were graded harshly. also, he textbook was required for literally everything to do with the class even necessary to use the technology that was part of the text book to do labs, homework, and even the midterms [but guess who wrote the textbook? you guessed it, literally the professor trying to make $$].
Now, none of this is actually that crazy, what really bothers me about this man and his course is that he put is extremely heavy workload on his students DURING a global pandemic, and in the midst of our current political climate?!!!? a week in this class will sometimes look like: a midterm (literally not even during class time like you have to find the time on your own sometime in the week to take it), a homework assignment due, a lab due, two quizzes due (also on your own time, not even during class), attending lecture, attending a lab, and attending a discussion. this was far too much.

I honestly regret taking this class, it did more harm to me than good. I feel like i didn't learn anything, rather i was playing a game of catch up. This class is the definition of burnout and it really shows how far removed professors at UCLA are from their students and the pressure and stress they are under during this time. Professor, please consider restructuring this class if you teach remotely again. And if you're a student and thinking of taking this course, don't.

Helpful?

3 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: Winter 2021
Grade: A
March 23, 2021

I had never taken a statistics course before this class and I thought Professor Gould was such a great lecturer and teacher! I felt like I was able to grasp all the concepts fairly well and I have definitely come out of this class with some new knowledge and appreciation for statistics. Although the workload for this class was heavy at times (homework, labs, quizzes, etc...), I think that with the amount of concepts discussed in this class it was mostly fair. All of the quizzes and midterms were open book/open note/open lecture which really helped. Also, there was a "midterm" every other week which seems kinda daunting but they were all fairly short and it was nice to have my grade split up among a bunch of smaller assignments rather than two large ones. The only thing that kind of bothered me was the amount of homework problems that were assigned week to week, especially on weeks where we had a lab due and/or a midterm due. Sometimes there would be 15+ multistep problems assigned which was a lot to handle on top of the other assignments due that week. Overall, Professor Gould was a super nice person and a great lecturer but make sure to stay on top of your work or it can really pile up.

Helpful?

2 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
STATS 13
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Fall 2020
Grade: A
Dec. 28, 2020

I loved taking Stats 13 with Professor Gould! There's some busy work with this class (weekly homework assignments and coding labs), but it's fairly straightforward and relatively easy for a five unit class. He posts videos going over all of the textbook concepts before lecture so the structure of the class is really helpful for learning the material (especially for slow readers like me who usually don't use textbooks). Because of the way Gould teaches this class, you end up feeling extremely prepared by the time exams come around! If I didn't already have my heart set on medicine, I would totally love to major in Statistics because this class was just so interesting to me. 10/10 would recommend!

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STATS 13
Quarter: Winter 2017
Grade: A
April 13, 2017

Take Stats 13 with Gould, I have no idea how he isn't rated higher. You're almost guaranteed an A if you just put in about 60% effort. If you took AP Stats, probably 25% effort. I could've passed the final without taking the class at all. In addition, I definitely learned a solid amount, and it was no a worthless way to spend my time. Would recommend 10/10.

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1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
STATS 13
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Fall 2020
Grade: A
March 25, 2021

Overall, this was a pretty enjoyable class. Workload can be a bit heavy but the content is interesting and not difficult. Exams were really fair and reflected what we learned in class. The use of Campuswire was also really helpful for getting extra help. Participation does matter for this class but it's simple to get points (just attend lecture and post on Campuswire!) There are weekly group lab projects, but again they are not very difficult.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
STATS 101A
Quarter: Winter 2020
Grade: A
April 2, 2020

For most of this class I wasn't sure what we were even learning. I would take some notes during lecture and know that I am processing new information but then wasn't even sure what it was that I was doing. The content of the class isn't very difficult but Gould made it difficult.

1. He goes through his slides too fast. I stopped taking notes at one point because half the time I was just writing "see lecture slides" since I didn't have time to write anything down (he does post them on CCLE). He also seems to be using slides he made a few years ago and doesn't remember what's on them. It seemed like the next slide was always a surprise to him and he was learning along with the rest of the class.

2. His homework assignments are terribly constructed. There were often typos that made it hard to understand and the wording allowed for multiple interpretations. My friend went into office hours to get clarifications and Gould said her approach was completely wrong and the other students had thought the same as her. When Gould saw that all the students clearly didn't know what to do, he did nothing. He didn't post on CCLE or Campuswire or anything. So basically if you can't go to office hours you will not be able to do the homework assignments. The assignments are also graded extremely harsh. There might be 5 questions each with parts a-e and if I got one part of one question wrong I would get 10-20% off. I got a 50% on an assignment where I had 3 small errors. If you're wondering, he gave one assignment per week due Fridays at 6pm. The only problem with this is that our last lecture ended Thursday at 4:45pm. And most of the time you couldn't finish the homework until after the Thursday lecture because he teaches material for it. So you have to figure out the homework in 24 hours with no office hours in that time to help. Just Campuswire which Gould rarely went on to answer questions, and there were a lot of questions.

3. His final is EASY. It's a take home exam that you have a week to complete and I finished it in a couple of hours. So don't worry too much about your midterm or homework grades because I guarantee everyone is struggling but the final will save you.

4. Don't read the book. You need it for some homework problems but I think there's a free PDF somewhere.

Overall I would not take a class with Gould again. He isn't the worst professor, but definitely not one of my favorites. It wasn't a difficult class but it took a lot of time to figure out what he meant in his homework problems. My TA was so helpful and I wouldn't have survived without him.

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1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
STATS 101A
Quarter: Spring 2022
Grade: A
Oct. 7, 2022

The best professor I've had in the UCLA stats path, however I can acknowledge why people don't like the pacing of his classes. For both Stats 10 and 101A he used a mini midterm system which I personally really liked, and kept the content relevant, making it hard to fall behind. He explains concepts really well, and I was excited to go to lecture. If you like the midterm system then he's a 10/10 prof.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
STATS 186
Quarter: Winter 2020
Grade: P
March 28, 2020

You just meet once a week for an hour. A guest speaker comes in and talks about their job, and Gould gives you a week to briefly answer 1-2 simple questions about the guest lecture (e.g., what did you find interesting about the presentation, does this job appeal to you, etc) and upload to CCLE. "Final exam" is to just submit a resume. Only caveat is that attendance is mandatory (there's a sign in sheet).

If you're in need of units, this is pretty much a free P/NP 1.0 unit to tack onto your schedule.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
STATS 13
Quarter: Fall 2019
Grade: A
Dec. 19, 2020

I took this class Fall 2020 so this is a remote learning review:

Gould tried out a flipped classroom approach this quarter (I'm not sure if he'll continue doing so because he asked for our feedback and no one really liked it.)

There's a lot of work in this class. It's not hard, just time consuming. Every week we have homework problems from the textbook, weekly quiz, and a two-part lab. These are fairly easy points that pad your grade so it's not hard to get an A if you just put some effort in.

Will you learn a lot though? Doubtful. I came in with AP Stats background so most if not all of this class was review. You do most of your learning from watching a 10-minute recorded video every week and optional textbook readings. His lecture is very boring and unhelpful but attendance is more or less required for participation points. There's one midterm and a final - both are ridiculously easy.

TL;DR: take this class with a different professor if you really want to learn R/important stats topics esp for students interested in research.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
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