STAT426 | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Jonathan Fernandes STAT426 Expecting an A- Anonymous 01/19/2026	Dr. Fernandes, while really open to feedback and understanding, does everything wrong the first time. In theory his structure is very good but in practice he messed up severely. I definitely learned a lot of machine learning methods from the class, but it was in a very inefficient way and lacked deeper understanding. He assumed a lot of probability theory knowledge that I just did not learn in STAT410. The problem sets were pretty good - they were applied questions where you have to do calculations and as long as you check your work and follow what was done in class you're completely fine. They do make you think a little more because the notes in class are more general, but they are extremely time consuming. The grading was pretty fair, but if you make calculation errors you lose a lot of points. The problem with the problem sets were they were very very long and tedious. Every question (about 5) had many parts each with their own set of calculations. It was very unclear what work had to be shown and what could be calculated. But overall they were in my opinion the right things to have in an intro machine learning class grounded in math. He had mostly weekly quizzes, but it would be on content from that week of lecture - which means you basically have one day to ask questions and no time to practice on the homework. The exams use homework questions verbatim, but they are homework questions that you probably haven't started because they were released very recently and you'd still be working on the previous homework. In general it is unclear what the cutoff is for the quizzes and what you should study. His lectures - both notes and the way he talks - are extremely disorganized. The way he structured the class made sense in theory, but in practice, he repeats himself constantly - both verbally and in notes - went about 5 minutes over every single lecture (and arrived late). He would go into tangents about specific examples and analogies on really simple concepts but then breeze over the complicated stuff. He had a syllabus that he said (as required) he would notify the class if changed, but we were behind for a while and he made no mention of it. He would also spend all of the exam review days just lecturing about some disorganized example (which is supposed to be "dedicated to your questions"). A lot of the time he would be going through algebraic manipulations but hadn't explained what it's for. Unlike the problem sets, which were about every week, we had R projects once in a while. He refused to allow any language but R, which was very difficult to work with especially with almost no guidance in class. The language did not have documentation for the packages we were using, and he even said in class that he suggests generating the code with LLMs. The projects required writing a report but it was unclear about how detailed this needed to be. Especially for the final project, which we technically had 3 weeks to do (due during final weeks), he had assigned 2 problem sets in the last two weeks, each very tedious and taking that whole week to get through. The final project itself expected a "report no longer than 12 pages." He never graded the final, which was an R project, worth 25% of our grade. He didn't make an announcement about this, but I suspect it was because many people were using AI to generate code. He suggested in class that we use AI to generate code, but then later he said he would deduct 50% of our grade if he suspected it. The thing is, we only had 2 R projects before that. Someone else's full solution had 1000 lines of code, half of it generated. When asked for an extension he gave a 1 day extension insisting everything needed to be graded by the Saturday of that week but proceeded to not grade anything until many days after that. Like other reviews have said, the averages were pretty bad. He reduced the denominator for the 2nd exam by 20 points because it was so bad (so a 70/100 became a 70/80), he dropped 2 quizzes, 2 homeworks, and effectively dropped the final project for everyone. He also is pretty terrible with integrity and confidentiality. During quizzes and exams he did not wait until everyone had an exam, he just let people start the moment they received the exam. No honor code to sign either. When passing out exam 1 to the class he would smile at every person who failed and ask "What happened?" which basically tells the entire class that that person did bad. Then he would say "Good job" to those who did well. He would leave the door open during quizzes and exams despite very disruptive noises. Most egregious however was that he did not announce when the exam was over - so if you had an exam right after that, you just had no idea that you were going to be late. I happened to take my phone out and check the time as I was turning in my exam to see we were 5 minutes over, and he hadn't said a word. He also assigned homework during exam weeks. Tips for Success: A high grade is very attainable if you know what to expect. - For homeworks: Follow the scribbles he made, and go to office hours when confused. He answers questions really well at office hours. Especially in the earlier homeworks, you have to prove something that you might have learned in linear algebra, or calculus 3, or stat410 that was not mentioned in class, like something with eigenvalues or interval convergence. You can also email him questions, which he responds to within 1-2 days. Make sure you have Stat426 in the subject line. - For quizzes: Study that week of content and memorize the formulas - For exams: Study the latest homework and make sure you put down all formulas on your cheat sheet - For projects: Try to avoid the LLM-generation because it makes it very difficult when it hallucinates. He does not specify what counts as okay and what is violation of academic integrity when it comes to LLMs, so if you ask him at office hours he might not like if you say the code was generated. - In general: go to office hours often, ask questions often, and try to get ahead as much as you can. - If you need an extension just ask and he will grant it to the whole class. - Email him when you have a problem with something. He will usually just accept your feedback and adjust. Unfortunately because he does so much wrong the first time, you might have to do this a lot to have a good experience.
Jonathan Fernandes STAT426 Anonymous 12/08/2025	I saw that previous reviews for this professor were largely pretty good, so I decided to take him, but STAT426 is very different. The way he lectures and teaches the class is very confusing, and there aren't many useful online resources to actually aid you. During the lectures, he solves random equations and processes without explaining what any of it is and what he is actually doing. As a result, the averages for the weekly quizzes, which exclusively cover a random concept he went over in class, are very low. Most people just rewatch his lectures (which he uploads) and memorize random equations/processes he quickly goes over in class without actually understanding what any of it is, just to do somewhat well on quizzes. The weekly homeworks aren't much help either, as they are very difficult and doesn't even really cover the material in class or on the quizzes. This is his first time teaching the class, so hopefully, in the future, it will be better. I will say, though, he is very nice and approachable during office hours or after class.
Jonathan Fernandes STAT426 Anonymous 10/13/2025	It is a difficult class ... and it is taking me sometime to get used to working out the details. Homework's require you to do work - but they push you to work on some additional details. There are in-class quizzes, that he he mostly pulls out from the calculations covered in lectures. It is true that this is his first time teaching the class, and he did offer to teach us using the slides (how this class was previously taught), and the whole class unanimously said no to, including myself. I get it that the course might not vibe with everyone - but you can always talk to him, he's extremely approachable.
Jonathan Fernandes STAT426 Expecting a B Anonymous 10/08/2025	I would have to mostly agree with the previous review for this class with him, its basically really unorganized and he doesn't explain the content very well. I want to emphasize that I think he's a very very nice person and clearly wants students to do well, but the course is so poorly structured and the way things are being explained so confusing that our highest quiz avg is like a 60% across the first 3 quizzes. There's a pretty high tendency that whatever was on the homework won't be on the quiz, it feels, and instead it will be something random from the content covered in class more recently so its a little hard to prep. I think the thing that actually makes it confusing is he doesn't really break down and explain concepts so much as mention them and do an example, but the example will be really specific and not that educational. Or, like the other review says, he will spend a long time doing algebraic manipulations and calculations that are largely unexplained. I got an A+ in Stat410 before this and there's a lot of stuff where it feels like it just pops out of nowhere, so I'm not sure if its a difference in professor expectations regarding 400/410 or what but I certainly feel like some things are out of thin air. He also gives a lot of stuff in very specific forms it feels and expects us to generalize it ourselves, which feels maybe the opposite of how I would expect most classes to go pedagogically. I don't know a single person currently doing "well" in the class.
Jonathan Fernandes STAT426 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 10/03/2025	This class thus far has been a complete and total disaster. The averages of our first quiz were around 40%, our next quiz had an average of 30%. I understand that Professor Fernandes is teaching this course for the first time and developing content on his own but it really feels like no attempt is being made to translate the knowledge to us. He whizzes through complex derivations and algebraic manipulation at light speed to the point where nobody understands anything. As a Stats minor who has taken 2 classes previously in this department and confidently received As in both, this class has been nothing short of a catastrophe. When speaking to my other friends in this class who are also Stat minors or double majors, we all feel equally confused and appalled by the way this class is being led. My friends who previously took this professor have nothing but good things to say but I truly have nothing but complaints. He is unable to see that the entire class is severely struggling and I can see that many of my peers have opted out of coming to class altogether. If he would simply slow down, clearly define every subject and then actually explain each concept in a way that is understandable, we would be far better off. I miss the teaching styles of my previous professors sorely, who would break down and explain a concept before jumping into practice problems. Then when we would have quizzes, homeworks, or exams, the problems would be closely related to the examples we'd worked out in class. This professor gets stuck in the weeds of theory and calculation to the point where he spends nearly the entire period working out complex algebraic manipulations that are so confusing and ill-explained that nobody learns anything. The homework is then an exercise of torture that feels far too complex and entirely unrelated to the concepts we are covering in class with the quizzes being a deeper decent into the hell of STAT426 where, truly, every quiz has left myself and my friends in a deeper confusion of how we are expected to perform in this class. I should have dropped this class while I could. I recommend that you avoid this class at all costs. As a 4.0 student, I am truly fearing for my sanity and my GPA. Jonathan Fernandes, PLEASE reconsider how you lead this course. Slow down, focus on practical examples, have the homework DIRECTLY follow from those practical examples, have the quizzes DIRECTLY follow from class examples and homework and have some mercy on us poor students.
Deep Ray STAT426 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/24/2025	I would give 6 stars if I could. Phenomenal professor, probably the best I've had at UMD so far. Very knowledgeable on the material. Said material is really damn hard and confusing but he makes it so that you can understand it. It's a lot of work and a lot of confusing math, but Professor Ray made this probably my favorite class I've taken.
Deep Ray STAT426 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/23/2025	Prof. Ray is very knowledgeable about machine learning and his course was quite engaging. Material covered a lot of the formal background for machine learning methods, and the final project gave students a good chance to actually apply the material. Exams were extremely fair and homework, though sometimes challenging, was totally reasonable. Would recommend taking this course with Dr. Ray if you get the chance.
Matthias Wellershoff STAT426 Anonymous 12/08/2024	Wellershoff is actually a really nice professor. I went to his office hours a couple of times and he was always very approachable. He also recorded lectures (which is always a bonus). The reason for the low review is because of the class itself. Apart from being EXTREMELY DIFFICULT, STAT426 is extremely theory intensive and there is no real practicable application for most of the concepts you learn. If you want to learn about machine learning, I recommend you take an alternative class.
Deep Ray STAT426 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/11/2023	Dr. Ray is extremely knowledgeable about his field and clearly cares about ensuring his class is fair and thorough. I really enjoyed his breakdown of the class. Homeworks (which include both theory/proofs and coding and application) were tough but fair. His office hours were helpful whenever I had questions. His exams were more intuition/big-picture concept questions and were a lot easier than the homeworks. The final project is a final report integrating the various machine learning approaches we have learned in class. I like how he designs the report to be possibly used as a mini-portfolio/reference for the future. While Dr. Ray is a new professor at UMD, I would say that he is already one of my favorite teachers. He sometimes goes a little quickly through the slides but all his lecture slides are posted on ELMS. I would highly recommend this class and Dr. Ray if you are interested in learning more about machine learning approaches!
Vincent Lyzinski STAT426 Expecting an A Anonymous 02/01/2023	While fairly difficult problems are common, you have more than enough time to complete them and he explains very well the material, you just need the statistics background and it is fine.
Vincent Lyzinski STAT426 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/26/2022	The content of STAT426 is very theoretical, as the other reviewer said, but this is a statistics based data science class, so that is not exactly egregious. The homeworks are decently difficult-- I definitely found myself submitting up until the 11:59pm deadline a few times because I just needed to think about the problems. Some questions are from the ISLR textbook. These are usually not too bad, although sometimes they take pages of algebra. Some questions are ones that Lyzinski himself writes. These are usually extremely long questions (like the problems physically span half a page) but when you go to actually solve/answer them, they usually only take a few lines. These do take a while to think about though, as you're always convinced it can't just be 2 lines of math! There must be more to do! Nope, there usually isn't, his own questions are decently short to complete. He tends to do most of the mathematical deriving himself for these questions as well. These questions depend a lot on what he says during lecture and what's on the powerpoint slides. If you go to office hours, he will either explain these questions in full (AKA pretty much solve it for you) or give you really good hints. The hardest part of this class for me was figuring out what to take notes on-- he flies through the slides really quickly. I pretty much gave up on taking notes halfway through the semester. Just didn't know what to take notes on. The exams were also pretty tough. They were similar to his practice tests and also to homeworks, but he would usually throw one or two trick questions on there. He is also very liberal with partial credit though, which makes the tough exams somewhat easier in that regard. Here's the best part-- he curves every assignment. Homework, exams, and the final project. For the exams, a mid D was equivalent to a B-, a C+ was equivalent to an A-. So that was quite lovely. Definitely a super cool class but do not take if you want to come out a strong coder. He gives you code to run for homeworks and on the final project you basically just had to go through his powerpoints to find the other code you needed. You will understand... some.. of the theoretical stuff. Not all of it though, as this class is very dense in material. But I really learned a LOT about machine learning this semester. So I would recommend this class with Lyzinski, but only if you care about the statistics background of data science. If you're looking to become a great coder go take a CMSC class instead.
Vincent Lyzinski STAT426 Anonymous 12/15/2022	Content is extremely theoretical and he flies through it very fast. There is almost no actual coding in this class (you are copy pasting already written code). Homeworks are also difficult and take a long time to complete.

Jonathan Fernandes
STAT426

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
01/19/2026

Dr. Fernandes, while really open to feedback and understanding, does everything wrong the first time. In theory his structure is very good but in practice he messed up severely. I definitely learned a lot of machine learning methods from the class, but it was in a very inefficient way and lacked deeper understanding. He assumed a lot of probability theory knowledge that I just did not learn in STAT410. The problem sets were pretty good - they were applied questions where you have to do calculations and as long as you check your work and follow what was done in class you're completely fine. They do make you think a little more because the notes in class are more general, but they are extremely time consuming. The grading was pretty fair, but if you make calculation errors you lose a lot of points. The problem with the problem sets were they were very very long and tedious. Every question (about 5) had many parts each with their own set of calculations. It was very unclear what work had to be shown and what could be calculated. But overall they were in my opinion the right things to have in an intro machine learning class grounded in math. He had mostly weekly quizzes, but it would be on content from that week of lecture - which means you basically have one day to ask questions and no time to practice on the homework. The exams use homework questions verbatim, but they are homework questions that you probably haven't started because they were released very recently and you'd still be working on the previous homework. In general it is unclear what the cutoff is for the quizzes and what you should study. His lectures - both notes and the way he talks - are extremely disorganized. The way he structured the class made sense in theory, but in practice, he repeats himself constantly - both verbally and in notes - went about 5 minutes over every single lecture (and arrived late). He would go into tangents about specific examples and analogies on really simple concepts but then breeze over the complicated stuff. He had a syllabus that he said (as required) he would notify the class if changed, but we were behind for a while and he made no mention of it. He would also spend all of the exam review days just lecturing about some disorganized example (which is supposed to be "dedicated to your questions"). A lot of the time he would be going through algebraic manipulations but hadn't explained what it's for. Unlike the problem sets, which were about every week, we had R projects once in a while. He refused to allow any language but R, which was very difficult to work with especially with almost no guidance in class. The language did not have documentation for the packages we were using, and he even said in class that he suggests generating the code with LLMs. The projects required writing a report but it was unclear about how detailed this needed to be. Especially for the final project, which we technically had 3 weeks to do (due during final weeks), he had assigned 2 problem sets in the last two weeks, each very tedious and taking that whole week to get through. The final project itself expected a "report no longer than 12 pages." He never graded the final, which was an R project, worth 25% of our grade. He didn't make an announcement about this, but I suspect it was because many people were using AI to generate code. He suggested in class that we use AI to generate code, but then later he said he would deduct 50% of our grade if he suspected it. The thing is, we only had 2 R projects before that. Someone else's full solution had 1000 lines of code, half of it generated. When asked for an extension he gave a 1 day extension insisting everything needed to be graded by the Saturday of that week but proceeded to not grade anything until many days after that. Like other reviews have said, the averages were pretty bad. He reduced the denominator for the 2nd exam by 20 points because it was so bad (so a 70/100 became a 70/80), he dropped 2 quizzes, 2 homeworks, and effectively dropped the final project for everyone. He also is pretty terrible with integrity and confidentiality. During quizzes and exams he did not wait until everyone had an exam, he just let people start the moment they received the exam. No honor code to sign either. When passing out exam 1 to the class he would smile at every person who failed and ask "What happened?" which basically tells the entire class that that person did bad. Then he would say "Good job" to those who did well. He would leave the door open during quizzes and exams despite very disruptive noises. Most egregious however was that he did not announce when the exam was over - so if you had an exam right after that, you just had no idea that you were going to be late. I happened to take my phone out and check the time as I was turning in my exam to see we were 5 minutes over, and he hadn't said a word. He also assigned homework during exam weeks. Tips for Success: A high grade is very attainable if you know what to expect. - For homeworks: Follow the scribbles he made, and go to office hours when confused. He answers questions really well at office hours. Especially in the earlier homeworks, you have to prove something that you might have learned in linear algebra, or calculus 3, or stat410 that was not mentioned in class, like something with eigenvalues or interval convergence. You can also email him questions, which he responds to within 1-2 days. Make sure you have Stat426 in the subject line. - For quizzes: Study that week of content and memorize the formulas - For exams: Study the latest homework and make sure you put down all formulas on your cheat sheet - For projects: Try to avoid the LLM-generation because it makes it very difficult when it hallucinates. He does not specify what counts as okay and what is violation of academic integrity when it comes to LLMs, so if you ask him at office hours he might not like if you say the code was generated. - In general: go to office hours often, ask questions often, and try to get ahead as much as you can. - If you need an extension just ask and he will grant it to the whole class. - Email him when you have a problem with something. He will usually just accept your feedback and adjust. Unfortunately because he does so much wrong the first time, you might have to do this a lot to have a good experience.

Jonathan Fernandes
STAT426

Anonymous
12/08/2025

I saw that previous reviews for this professor were largely pretty good, so I decided to take him, but STAT426 is very different. The way he lectures and teaches the class is very confusing, and there aren't many useful online resources to actually aid you. During the lectures, he solves random equations and processes without explaining what any of it is and what he is actually doing. As a result, the averages for the weekly quizzes, which exclusively cover a random concept he went over in class, are very low. Most people just rewatch his lectures (which he uploads) and memorize random equations/processes he quickly goes over in class without actually understanding what any of it is, just to do somewhat well on quizzes. The weekly homeworks aren't much help either, as they are very difficult and doesn't even really cover the material in class or on the quizzes. This is his first time teaching the class, so hopefully, in the future, it will be better. I will say, though, he is very nice and approachable during office hours or after class.

Jonathan Fernandes
STAT426

Anonymous
10/13/2025

It is a difficult class ... and it is taking me sometime to get used to working out the details. Homework's require you to do work - but they push you to work on some additional details. There are in-class quizzes, that he he mostly pulls out from the calculations covered in lectures. It is true that this is his first time teaching the class, and he did offer to teach us using the slides (how this class was previously taught), and the whole class unanimously said no to, including myself. I get it that the course might not vibe with everyone - but you can always talk to him, he's extremely approachable.

Jonathan Fernandes
STAT426

Expecting a B
Anonymous
10/08/2025

I would have to mostly agree with the previous review for this class with him, its basically really unorganized and he doesn't explain the content very well. I want to emphasize that I think he's a very very nice person and clearly wants students to do well, but the course is so poorly structured and the way things are being explained so confusing that our highest quiz avg is like a 60% across the first 3 quizzes. There's a pretty high tendency that whatever was on the homework won't be on the quiz, it feels, and instead it will be something random from the content covered in class more recently so its a little hard to prep. I think the thing that actually makes it confusing is he doesn't really break down and explain concepts so much as mention them and do an example, but the example will be really specific and not that educational. Or, like the other review says, he will spend a long time doing algebraic manipulations and calculations that are largely unexplained. I got an A+ in Stat410 before this and there's a lot of stuff where it feels like it just pops out of nowhere, so I'm not sure if its a difference in professor expectations regarding 400/410 or what but I certainly feel like some things are out of thin air. He also gives a lot of stuff in very specific forms it feels and expects us to generalize it ourselves, which feels maybe the opposite of how I would expect most classes to go pedagogically. I don't know a single person currently doing "well" in the class.

Jonathan Fernandes
STAT426

Expecting a C+
Anonymous
10/03/2025

This class thus far has been a complete and total disaster. The averages of our first quiz were around 40%, our next quiz had an average of 30%. I understand that Professor Fernandes is teaching this course for the first time and developing content on his own but it really feels like no attempt is being made to translate the knowledge to us. He whizzes through complex derivations and algebraic manipulation at light speed to the point where nobody understands anything. As a Stats minor who has taken 2 classes previously in this department and confidently received As in both, this class has been nothing short of a catastrophe. When speaking to my other friends in this class who are also Stat minors or double majors, we all feel equally confused and appalled by the way this class is being led. My friends who previously took this professor have nothing but good things to say but I truly have nothing but complaints. He is unable to see that the entire class is severely struggling and I can see that many of my peers have opted out of coming to class altogether. If he would simply slow down, clearly define every subject and then actually explain each concept in a way that is understandable, we would be far better off. I miss the teaching styles of my previous professors sorely, who would break down and explain a concept before jumping into practice problems. Then when we would have quizzes, homeworks, or exams, the problems would be closely related to the examples we'd worked out in class. This professor gets stuck in the weeds of theory and calculation to the point where he spends nearly the entire period working out complex algebraic manipulations that are so confusing and ill-explained that nobody learns anything. The homework is then an exercise of torture that feels far too complex and entirely unrelated to the concepts we are covering in class with the quizzes being a deeper decent into the hell of STAT426 where, truly, every quiz has left myself and my friends in a deeper confusion of how we are expected to perform in this class. I should have dropped this class while I could. I recommend that you avoid this class at all costs. As a 4.0 student, I am truly fearing for my sanity and my GPA. Jonathan Fernandes, PLEASE reconsider how you lead this course. Slow down, focus on practical examples, have the homework DIRECTLY follow from those practical examples, have the quizzes DIRECTLY follow from class examples and homework and have some mercy on us poor students.

Deep Ray
STAT426

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/24/2025

I would give 6 stars if I could. Phenomenal professor, probably the best I've had at UMD so far. Very knowledgeable on the material. Said material is really damn hard and confusing but he makes it so that you can understand it. It's a lot of work and a lot of confusing math, but Professor Ray made this probably my favorite class I've taken.

Deep Ray
STAT426

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/23/2025

Prof. Ray is very knowledgeable about machine learning and his course was quite engaging. Material covered a lot of the formal background for machine learning methods, and the final project gave students a good chance to actually apply the material. Exams were extremely fair and homework, though sometimes challenging, was totally reasonable. Would recommend taking this course with Dr. Ray if you get the chance.

Matthias Wellershoff
STAT426

Anonymous
12/08/2024

Wellershoff is actually a really nice professor. I went to his office hours a couple of times and he was always very approachable. He also recorded lectures (which is always a bonus). The reason for the low review is because of the class itself. Apart from being EXTREMELY DIFFICULT, STAT426 is extremely theory intensive and there is no real practicable application for most of the concepts you learn. If you want to learn about machine learning, I recommend you take an alternative class.

Deep Ray
STAT426

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/11/2023

Dr. Ray is extremely knowledgeable about his field and clearly cares about ensuring his class is fair and thorough. I really enjoyed his breakdown of the class. Homeworks (which include both theory/proofs and coding and application) were tough but fair. His office hours were helpful whenever I had questions. His exams were more intuition/big-picture concept questions and were a lot easier than the homeworks. The final project is a final report integrating the various machine learning approaches we have learned in class. I like how he designs the report to be possibly used as a mini-portfolio/reference for the future. While Dr. Ray is a new professor at UMD, I would say that he is already one of my favorite teachers. He sometimes goes a little quickly through the slides but all his lecture slides are posted on ELMS. I would highly recommend this class and Dr. Ray if you are interested in learning more about machine learning approaches!

Vincent Lyzinski
STAT426

Expecting an A
Anonymous
02/01/2023

While fairly difficult problems are common, you have more than enough time to complete them and he explains very well the material, you just need the statistics background and it is fine.

Vincent Lyzinski
STAT426

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/26/2022

The content of STAT426 is very theoretical, as the other reviewer said, but this is a statistics based data science class, so that is not exactly egregious. The homeworks are decently difficult-- I definitely found myself submitting up until the 11:59pm deadline a few times because I just needed to think about the problems. Some questions are from the ISLR textbook. These are usually not too bad, although sometimes they take pages of algebra. Some questions are ones that Lyzinski himself writes. These are usually extremely long questions (like the problems physically span half a page) but when you go to actually solve/answer them, they usually only take a few lines. These do take a while to think about though, as you're always convinced it can't just be 2 lines of math! There must be more to do! Nope, there usually isn't, his own questions are decently short to complete. He tends to do most of the mathematical deriving himself for these questions as well. These questions depend a lot on what he says during lecture and what's on the powerpoint slides. If you go to office hours, he will either explain these questions in full (AKA pretty much solve it for you) or give you really good hints. The hardest part of this class for me was figuring out what to take notes on-- he flies through the slides really quickly. I pretty much gave up on taking notes halfway through the semester. Just didn't know what to take notes on. The exams were also pretty tough. They were similar to his practice tests and also to homeworks, but he would usually throw one or two trick questions on there. He is also very liberal with partial credit though, which makes the tough exams somewhat easier in that regard. Here's the best part-- he curves every assignment. Homework, exams, and the final project. For the exams, a mid D was equivalent to a B-, a C+ was equivalent to an A-. So that was quite lovely. Definitely a super cool class but do not take if you want to come out a strong coder. He gives you code to run for homeworks and on the final project you basically just had to go through his powerpoints to find the other code you needed. You will understand... some.. of the theoretical stuff. Not all of it though, as this class is very dense in material. But I really learned a LOT about machine learning this semester. So I would recommend this class with Lyzinski, but only if you care about the statistics background of data science. If you're looking to become a great coder go take a CMSC class instead.

Vincent Lyzinski
STAT426

Anonymous
12/15/2022

Content is extremely theoretical and he flies through it very fast. There is almost no actual coding in this class (you are copy pasting already written code). Homeworks are also difficult and take a long time to complete.

Reviews for STAT426