Shixin Zheng | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Shixin Zheng STAT400 Expecting a W Anonymous 12/02/2025	As stated below, this man should be teaching a fashion class. THET465 would be a better fit for his teaching. He has very nice outfits but is not an effective teacher. Homework is too difficult and the exams don't match the content taught in class.
Shixin Zheng STAT400 Expecting a B- Anonymous 12/01/2025	Pros: dresses nice, review guides are very similar to the exams so if you diligently do them, you shouldnt struggle on the exams, the quizzes are free points so even though he doesnt tell us the content of the quiz, its simple if you do the homework(lowkey on depends ta tho, my TA was chill, I've heard that the other TA was lowkey bad). He posts the notes, with his voice recording over them, so if you miss lectures, it's not the end of the world. The best thing is that he curves graciously. The average for our second exam was 78; however, he wants the exam averages to be 83, so he curves them up to it. If you do poorly on an exam, these curves are lifesavers. He genuinely tries to ensure that we all do well in this class and listens to us. Cons: homework is pretty hard, I won't lie, but he also gives us a week to do them, and he encourages collaboration with your peers, just don't cheat on it. Regarding my grade, I don't study enough, which is entirely on me; nothing on him. Another con is that there may be gaps in your understanding due to inconsistencies in the notes. Since he is using other people's notes for this class, that may be the reason for these gaps, which could improve in future semesters, as this is his first semester teaching it. Final: These complaints stem from the fact that a 400-level math course is not easy. Shocker!!!. Just be prepared to do the work. He is 3.5, not a 4, but since there is not 3.5, I'm rounding up for my guy. Stop the hate!!!!!
Shixin Zheng STAT400 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/21/2025	Not nearly as bad as the reviews here would suggest. Was admittedly a somewhat poor lecturer the first few weeks with convoluted examples, but definitely improved throughout the course of the semester. Homeworks also only have max 1 proof/theoretical question, the rest are mostly computational and not as hard as suggested. Honestly did not find exams 1 and 2 that hard, even with no prior Stats experience and moderate studying, going to class is key imo even people say otherwise. Zheng also listened to feedback, ended up curving midterms, and provided better material for exam 2. Overall not the best lecturer in the world and still makes things a little confusing at times but got better as the year went on and is an open and nice professor. Take everything else read here with a grain of salt
Shixin Zheng STAT400 Anonymous 11/10/2025	he looks super cool walks into the lecture hall with a fireeee fit and then opens his mouth and everything goes downhill. cannot teach, doesn't give anything to help prepare for exams until like 1-2 days before, and the class is a mess. nobody should be stressing over stat400 like this lol do not take him!!!! he is kind though so at least there's that. but yea i have no clue what im about to get in this class bc he hasn't told us if/how he's curving the class 😹😹😹 just don't take him
Shixin Zheng STAT400 Anonymous 11/10/2025	Crazy hard homework and exams that have no similarity to anything done in class or quizzes. Really poor lectures and exam weighting that will drop your A+ to a C- in no time.
Shixin Zheng STAT400 Anonymous 11/07/2025	During lecture he doesn't go over anything useful. You will leave lecture knowing nothing. On top of that, the homework contains the most difficult quetstions related to the given topic. So if you are only relying on the homeworks you will never come away with even a hint of a foundational understanding of the homework topics. Everything I just went over are all of the resources you will be provided with in this course. If this is the only professor available, just don't do it for your own sake. He has some serious drip though, I can't lie.
Shixin Zheng STAT400 Anonymous 11/04/2025	Usually I do not leave reviews until the course is over, but so far this class is a total MESS. The homework is insanely hard competition math - style questions that are graded on accuracy with no preparation for them. We have weekly quizzes that are pretty easy but there is basically no way to prepare for them and they vary based on TA so this class has one TA that gives easy quizzes while another that gives harder quizzes. The professor has very messy handwriting and on top of that his lectures are all over the place with him sometimes going too slow and rambling on about theories and other times speeding through problems with minimal explanation. Finally, his exam preparation is literally non existent. There are no practice exams provided, the information about the exam is thrown out last minute, and when he did release some practice problems he couldn't even articulate the point of doing them as he said they weren't similar to the exam problems in style or difficulty. I have done a ton of STAT and MATH classes before and this class is an absolute joke and a total disaster so far.
Shixin Zheng STAT400 Expecting a C Anonymous 10/31/2025	Does not teach great but has very nice outfits. Would recommend to teach fashion class instead of stat.
Shixin Zheng STAT400 Anonymous 10/31/2025	Does not go over any practice problems. Just yaps about a bunch of formulas and theories. He did a review session before the midterm and said doing practice problems would not be a good use of our time and instead just yapped about some theoretical stuff that he already yapped about before. This man is a nightmare and should not be teaching this class. Run for you life.
Shixin Zheng STAT400 Anonymous 10/30/2025	goes over no practice problems in class, therefore, leaving us clueless for homeworks and exams. we are 3 weeks behind but he refuses to push the second midterm back. take anyone else but him. this class should not be this much of a struggle.
Shixin Zheng STAT400 Anonymous 10/30/2025	He is the worst option possible for stat400. Take any other professor available over him. I would even suggest delaying this class a semester so you do not have to go through the pain and torture he puts you through.
Shixin Zheng STAT400 Anonymous 10/29/2025	It's his first year so I'm sure he will figure things out but the homework is really useless and not applicable to the course. Best advice is to teach yourself with AI practice problems and hope he releases practice problems relevant to the exams. His handwriting is bad and his notes focus too much on theory than applicability. I did well on the first exam because I grinded practice problems for 16 hours, after skipping all the lectures. Lectures are useless as of now.
Shixin Zheng Anonymous 10/26/2025	Very bad lecturer and explainer, gpt homework and exams, terrible attitude towards grades ("grades are just a letter on a paper", unwillingness to curve).
Shixin Zheng STAT400 Anonymous 10/21/2025	He makes this class impossible. No exaggeration. Do yourself a service and take any other professor.
Shixin Zheng STAT400 Anonymous 10/21/2025	Do not take him. No material, bad notes, no practice questions. Stat400 should not be as hard as he makes it.
Shixin Zheng STAT400 Anonymous 10/20/2025	Do not take him. Alot of problems. In lecture example problems are too convoluted or disorganized No example problems. When we were given example problems 2 days before the exam, they were not useful or similar in any way Midterm questions are nothing but curveballs No practice problems done during the exam review Unbelievably hard homework, doesn't help with learning most of the time Language barrier in the lectures Notes are not great, kinda hard to understand No practice exams Have to use outside resources for at least one or two problems out of each homework every week Our groupme gathered all these problems by the time the first midterms were graded. The TAs are completely delusional too.
Shixin Zheng STAT400 Anonymous 10/20/2025	Puts more effort into his outfits rather than making sure his students understand the concepts and succeed. The lectures lack practical and real world examples like those you would see on quizzes and exams so good luck understanding anything without seeing any sort of useful applications. Trying to solve the homework while only using the lecture notes is impossible. Stay away, your GPA will thank you.
Shixin Zheng STAT400 Anonymous 10/11/2025	Do not take him!!! His explains the material very poorly, assigns impossible homework, and refused to give textbook sections/problems for additional practice.
Shixin Zheng STAT400 Anonymous 09/21/2025	Given that we are only 3 weeks into Zheng's first semester of teaching, I'm only giving 4 stars just to balance out the review below. This is by no means a complete review, though it doesn't immediately justify giving someone a 1-star for that reason. The lectures are loosely based on a drafted version of lecture notes from Jonathan Fernandes and Mestiyage Gunatilleka, both of whom are historically high-regarded professors for STAT400. There are gaps of explanation during the lecture; some parts feel glossed over, likely unintentional due to the nature of reading off the draft notes. There have also been some observable moments of language barrier, such as reading "Independent Trails" instead of "Independent Trials", or some handwriting issues mid-lecture that students occasionally have to raise their hand to question what was written, or correct the professor in writing P(B\|A) instead of P(A\|B). According to Zheng, if he had to put a number on the difficulty of the coursework, he mentioned the following towards the end of the first lecture: "Homeworks are... like an 8/10" "Exams are, 5/10" "The quizzes, these are like 2/10" "The homeworks are by far harder than anything you will see on the exam" As of now, we've only had one homework (no homework was assigned during the first 2 weeks). There were four problems, each one reflecting what we learned in class: basic combinatorics, binomial trials, geometric probability, and the inclusion-exclusion principle. They do not expect you to know the answer just from the lectures alone - it is explicitly encouraged to use outside material (internet included) when completing it. The first midterm isn't till October, the second one isn't till November, and the cumulative final is in December. I cannot speak for how the exams go until then. Whether you choose to go to the lectures is up to your learning style: Are you actually incentivized to study outside of class? Or would you do better with a primer in-person? Until then, take the preceding reviews with a grain of salt.
Shixin Zheng STAT400 Anonymous 09/20/2025	DONT TAKE HIM. THE SEMESTER HAS BARELY STARTED AND I CANT EXPRESS HOW MUCH I REGRET NOT SWITCHING OUT OF THIS SECTION. THE HOMEWORK DOES NOT REFLECT ANYTHING WE DO IN CLASS. PEOPLE WALK OUT OF HIS LECTURES BECAUSE HES JUST WASTING EVERYONES TIME. PLEASE DONT TAKE HIM

Shixin Zheng
STAT400

Expecting a W
Anonymous
12/02/2025

As stated below, this man should be teaching a fashion class. THET465 would be a better fit for his teaching. He has very nice outfits but is not an effective teacher. Homework is too difficult and the exams don't match the content taught in class.

Shixin Zheng
STAT400

Expecting a B-
Anonymous
12/01/2025

Pros: dresses nice, review guides are very similar to the exams so if you diligently do them, you shouldnt struggle on the exams, the quizzes are free points so even though he doesnt tell us the content of the quiz, its simple if you do the homework(lowkey on depends ta tho, my TA was chill, I've heard that the other TA was lowkey bad). He posts the notes, with his voice recording over them, so if you miss lectures, it's not the end of the world. The best thing is that he curves graciously. The average for our second exam was 78; however, he wants the exam averages to be 83, so he curves them up to it. If you do poorly on an exam, these curves are lifesavers. He genuinely tries to ensure that we all do well in this class and listens to us. Cons: homework is pretty hard, I won't lie, but he also gives us a week to do them, and he encourages collaboration with your peers, just don't cheat on it. Regarding my grade, I don't study enough, which is entirely on me; nothing on him. Another con is that there may be gaps in your understanding due to inconsistencies in the notes. Since he is using other people's notes for this class, that may be the reason for these gaps, which could improve in future semesters, as this is his first semester teaching it. Final: These complaints stem from the fact that a 400-level math course is not easy. Shocker!!!. Just be prepared to do the work. He is 3.5, not a 4, but since there is not 3.5, I'm rounding up for my guy. Stop the hate!!!!!

Shixin Zheng
STAT400

Expecting an A
Anonymous
11/21/2025

Not nearly as bad as the reviews here would suggest. Was admittedly a somewhat poor lecturer the first few weeks with convoluted examples, but definitely improved throughout the course of the semester. Homeworks also only have max 1 proof/theoretical question, the rest are mostly computational and not as hard as suggested. Honestly did not find exams 1 and 2 that hard, even with no prior Stats experience and moderate studying, going to class is key imo even people say otherwise. Zheng also listened to feedback, ended up curving midterms, and provided better material for exam 2. Overall not the best lecturer in the world and still makes things a little confusing at times but got better as the year went on and is an open and nice professor. Take everything else read here with a grain of salt

Shixin Zheng
STAT400

Anonymous
11/10/2025

he looks super cool walks into the lecture hall with a fireeee fit and then opens his mouth and everything goes downhill. cannot teach, doesn't give anything to help prepare for exams until like 1-2 days before, and the class is a mess. nobody should be stressing over stat400 like this lol do not take him!!!! he is kind though so at least there's that. but yea i have no clue what im about to get in this class bc he hasn't told us if/how he's curving the class 😹😹😹 just don't take him

Shixin Zheng
STAT400

Anonymous
11/10/2025

Crazy hard homework and exams that have no similarity to anything done in class or quizzes. Really poor lectures and exam weighting that will drop your A+ to a C- in no time.

Shixin Zheng
STAT400

Anonymous
11/07/2025

During lecture he doesn't go over anything useful. You will leave lecture knowing nothing. On top of that, the homework contains the most difficult quetstions related to the given topic. So if you are only relying on the homeworks you will never come away with even a hint of a foundational understanding of the homework topics. Everything I just went over are all of the resources you will be provided with in this course. If this is the only professor available, just don't do it for your own sake. He has some serious drip though, I can't lie.

Shixin Zheng
STAT400

Anonymous
11/04/2025

Usually I do not leave reviews until the course is over, but so far this class is a total MESS. The homework is insanely hard competition math - style questions that are graded on accuracy with no preparation for them. We have weekly quizzes that are pretty easy but there is basically no way to prepare for them and they vary based on TA so this class has one TA that gives easy quizzes while another that gives harder quizzes. The professor has very messy handwriting and on top of that his lectures are all over the place with him sometimes going too slow and rambling on about theories and other times speeding through problems with minimal explanation. Finally, his exam preparation is literally non existent. There are no practice exams provided, the information about the exam is thrown out last minute, and when he did release some practice problems he couldn't even articulate the point of doing them as he said they weren't similar to the exam problems in style or difficulty. I have done a ton of STAT and MATH classes before and this class is an absolute joke and a total disaster so far.

Shixin Zheng
STAT400

Expecting a C
Anonymous
10/31/2025

Does not teach great but has very nice outfits. Would recommend to teach fashion class instead of stat.

Shixin Zheng
STAT400

Anonymous
10/31/2025

Does not go over any practice problems. Just yaps about a bunch of formulas and theories. He did a review session before the midterm and said doing practice problems would not be a good use of our time and instead just yapped about some theoretical stuff that he already yapped about before. This man is a nightmare and should not be teaching this class. Run for you life.

Shixin Zheng
STAT400

Anonymous
10/30/2025

goes over no practice problems in class, therefore, leaving us clueless for homeworks and exams. we are 3 weeks behind but he refuses to push the second midterm back. take anyone else but him. this class should not be this much of a struggle.

Shixin Zheng
STAT400

Anonymous
10/30/2025

He is the worst option possible for stat400. Take any other professor available over him. I would even suggest delaying this class a semester so you do not have to go through the pain and torture he puts you through.

Shixin Zheng
STAT400

Anonymous
10/29/2025

It's his first year so I'm sure he will figure things out but the homework is really useless and not applicable to the course. Best advice is to teach yourself with AI practice problems and hope he releases practice problems relevant to the exams. His handwriting is bad and his notes focus too much on theory than applicability. I did well on the first exam because I grinded practice problems for 16 hours, after skipping all the lectures. Lectures are useless as of now.

Shixin Zheng
STAT400

Anonymous
10/21/2025

He makes this class impossible. No exaggeration. Do yourself a service and take any other professor.

Shixin Zheng
STAT400

Anonymous
10/21/2025

Do not take him. No material, bad notes, no practice questions. Stat400 should not be as hard as he makes it.

Shixin Zheng
STAT400

Anonymous
10/20/2025

Do not take him. Alot of problems. In lecture example problems are too convoluted or disorganized No example problems. When we were given example problems 2 days before the exam, they were not useful or similar in any way Midterm questions are nothing but curveballs No practice problems done during the exam review Unbelievably hard homework, doesn't help with learning most of the time Language barrier in the lectures Notes are not great, kinda hard to understand No practice exams Have to use outside resources for at least one or two problems out of each homework every week Our groupme gathered all these problems by the time the first midterms were graded. The TAs are completely delusional too.

Shixin Zheng
STAT400

Anonymous
10/20/2025

Puts more effort into his outfits rather than making sure his students understand the concepts and succeed. The lectures lack practical and real world examples like those you would see on quizzes and exams so good luck understanding anything without seeing any sort of useful applications. Trying to solve the homework while only using the lecture notes is impossible. Stay away, your GPA will thank you.

Shixin Zheng
STAT400

Anonymous
10/11/2025

Do not take him!!! His explains the material very poorly, assigns impossible homework, and refused to give textbook sections/problems for additional practice.

Shixin Zheng
STAT400

Anonymous
09/21/2025

Given that we are only 3 weeks into Zheng's first semester of teaching, I'm only giving 4 stars just to balance out the review below. This is by no means a complete review, though it doesn't immediately justify giving someone a 1-star for that reason. The lectures are loosely based on a drafted version of lecture notes from Jonathan Fernandes and Mestiyage Gunatilleka, both of whom are historically high-regarded professors for STAT400. There are gaps of explanation during the lecture; some parts feel glossed over, likely unintentional due to the nature of reading off the draft notes. There have also been some observable moments of language barrier, such as reading "Independent Trails" instead of "Independent Trials", or some handwriting issues mid-lecture that students occasionally have to raise their hand to question what was written, or correct the professor in writing P(B|A) instead of P(A|B). According to Zheng, if he had to put a number on the difficulty of the coursework, he mentioned the following towards the end of the first lecture: "Homeworks are... like an 8/10" "Exams are, 5/10" "The quizzes, these are like 2/10" "The homeworks are by far harder than anything you will see on the exam" As of now, we've only had one homework (no homework was assigned during the first 2 weeks). There were four problems, each one reflecting what we learned in class: basic combinatorics, binomial trials, geometric probability, and the inclusion-exclusion principle. They do not expect you to know the answer just from the lectures alone - it is explicitly encouraged to use outside material (internet included) when completing it. The first midterm isn't till October, the second one isn't till November, and the cumulative final is in December. I cannot speak for how the exams go until then. Whether you choose to go to the lectures is up to your learning style: Are you actually incentivized to study outside of class? Or would you do better with a primer in-person? Until then, take the preceding reviews with a grain of salt.

Shixin Zheng
STAT400

Anonymous
09/20/2025

DONT TAKE HIM. THE SEMESTER HAS BARELY STARTED AND I CANT EXPRESS HOW MUCH I REGRET NOT SWITCHING OUT OF THIS SECTION. THE HOMEWORK DOES NOT REFLECT ANYTHING WE DO IN CLASS. PEOPLE WALK OUT OF HIS LECTURES BECAUSE HES JUST WASTING EVERYONES TIME. PLEASE DONT TAKE HIM