It's very test heavy. And the exam is 50%. You don't know what you should study for, he does not make it very clear. Examples in lectures are nothing like the questions on tests.

Don't recommend to take this course for your last year in UTM with prof Al since you probably cannot graduate on time this year. I had taken this course last fall semester, and our final course average is D showing on Acorn with most of my friends drop/defer this course and retake it this summer.

350 chars is not enough to describe how bad this course is with Al coordinating and teaching it. 1. He speaks at 0.5x speed (video lectures) 2. No part marks, no going back to questions on 21% term tests. 3. No piazza, only office hours to ask questions. 4. Unstructured mess (no one knew course was async until after first lecture time had passed)

Tests are weighted 21% of final grade, no part marks, no skipping questions and going back. Lecture videos are unrelated to the subject, only show proofs of equations or solves example questions that are much much easier than both the quiz and the test questions. No accommodations whatever the reason might be. Final is 50%,and same format as tests.

Very hard course with an awful, lazy professor. You do the math.

Recorded lectures only with little and sometimes unhelpful content, talks like a tortuga, no place to ask questions. He made a supposedly easy course into a nightmare.

Experience with online only. Lecture content does not pertain to test material, have to learn a majority of the course with the textbook. Online tests are all final answer, where no part marks are awarded. Tests are weighted 21 for 2 term tests and 50% for the exam, with 8% towards minor quizzes that we can't use to study.

Worst course coordinator I have ever seen. Avoid at all costs.

There's two tests each worth 21%, weekly quizzes worth 8%, and a final worth 50%. He released exam info and a week of lectures 4 days before the exam, has some quizzes hidden so you can't go back to review, correct test answers were not released, TAs only got one of the two test versions' solutions, and lectures do not contain all the test material

Probably the worst professor I've had. Was supposed to be a synchronous class but he just ditched that and decided to upload video lectures instead where he goes over a few textbook problems. Never responds to e-mails and office hours are unhelpful. Tests are awful as well, just write the final answer in, no way to show your work. Terrible prof.

Horrible instructor. The format of the tests should be illegal, no part marks whatsoever and you can't go back to questions. The exam was even worse, made us write long mathematical expressions on a keyboard without telling us in advance (keep in mind we've never done this in any of the tests or quizzes). Communication is also non existent or dayof

Lazy, doesn't know what he is doing, worst format of all time, shouldn't have a job in general.

He is a very bad prof. Poor everything.

I think I failed the course, that exam was so hard. I don't know what to do anymore..

I don't even know where to begin with this prof. The way this course was coordinated by this man was just horrible. His video lectures were of no help. Had to study entirely from the book to understand what his hour long videos explain. Completely useless going to his office hours, man can't even answer a question properly.

Do not take any classes with Alvaro Nosedal, I know he taught STA256 and STA302 this fall. Because of this class I will never take another stats course ever again. This is the worst coordinated class I have ever taken in my 3 years in university and I expect it to be the worst class I ever take in all of uni once im done.

Dont take Him

I wish I had good things to say. There's no discussion board, Solutions are released for a limited time so you can't see them once time's up. "Lecture" videos are careless and the prof does absolutely nothing to make the material more appealing. Honestly, he makes STA256 look as if it's a course that doesn't need to be taken seriously. So sad...

The coordination of his STA256 course was absolutely abysmal. Tests are worth 21% and the exam is 50%. Moreover, the tests and exams are out of 10 marks. With no part parks! The questions are very difficult and there is almost no way to prepare for the questions, even if you do the recommended textbook problems and watch the tiresome lectures.

He sucks

The final exam was a Quercus quiz where you just enter numbers in. However, there were only 10-11 questions and our final exam was worth 50%. So, a student fully gains or loses 5% of their overall grade. (no partmarks) I am going to need the entire winter break to recover from this final and the resulting wrecked CGPA. Most unorganized course yet.

Worst prof and course coordination I have witnessed and been through in my life. Do not take this course if he is coordinating it. Useless prof who cant teach and he talks at the rate of a sloth moving. This guy was non-existent. Did not care about students at all. 50% exam, 11 questions, 10 marks... he does not care about the students at all.

Worst prof you could ask for. -Added extra week of material four days before exam. -Final exam worth 50% and you could not get partial marks. Also had to take every question in order. -Weekly quizzes due same days as tests.

Worst prof I've had so far. Lecture videos are extremely low effort and do a terrible job at teaching the material. Tests were only marked based on only your final answer. Introduced a weeks worth of material 2 days before the 50% final exam. The questions were randomized for every student but not standardized in difficulty. Avoid taking his class.

Genuinely one of the worst experiences with a professor I've ever had. "Lectures" were youtube video's that were irrelevant tests.. Which was just inputting a final answer for every question with no chance to show our work. Dropped another week of content 3 days before the exam. Genuinely one of the worst courses I've ever had. 0/10 avoid them.

I could write a 5 page essay on how bad this mans coordination and teaching has been. But to summarize: 2 tests worth 21% each (overall 42%) Exam worth 50%. ONLY FINAL ANSWERS WERE ACCEPTED. Yes, 0 partial marks. Every question was all or nothing on the exam, the 2 tests, and the quizzes because Al is too lazy to mark his students by hand.

Does not know how to teach Does not respond to emails Does not manage his course in any way STA256 is a relatively easy mark if you've already taken multivariable calc, otherwise good luck...

doesnt know how to solve problems, doesnt how to teach

Al is the laziest prof I have ever gotten during the pandemic. The weight of his tests and final was chunky and the format was horrible. His tests and the exam only ask for numerical answers, meaning no partial marks. He keeps disregarding the student's complaints and gives a whole week of new content on the week of the final.

The midterms and exam are worth significantly more than the average class. This would be fine, if he gave students the time to review it. Overall, I don't believe adequate time was given to review certain topics given how prevalent they ended up being on assessments worth >20% of your final grade.

READ AND RE READ ALL THE OTHER REVIEWS AND SAVE YOURSELVES.

like the other reviews have mentioned, al made sta256 a nightmare. if this prof genuinely cared about the students he wouldn't coordinate the tests/exams the way he did. seems like keeping the class average down is more important, even if the methods of doing so are unethical. I don't know about how al is in-person, but if hes teaching online RUN.

I'm honestly appalled at how abysmal this professor's teaching quality is; this course was horribly correlated.

Not one single thing is this course was done right. Even after we finished, half the class got an email saying they didn't do the exam, even though they did. Please if you see his name on acorn, or anywhere for that matter, run and run far away. What a joke...

This man literally does not care for anything for the students. Responds to emails, Nope. Classes, really badly coordinated. Everything was a mess and don't just take my word for it, read the other reviews, that should give you insight into what I mean.

meh, not great

I have talked to my friends from other universities about how their experience with stats was and when they described it, it was very reasonable. Then came this guy, you cannot go back on the test to check whether you answered the question right even the EXAM! I will never take a statistics course again thanks to this professor.

Textbook example of how not to teach statistics.

This guy made me not just feel like a clown, but the entire circus for taking STA302 with him. No email response, no discussion board/Piazza, very confusing wordings/symbol in formulae, no solution for the 2 term tests (okay, he gave the solution for the ONE proof question, so there's that), tests on complete different materials covered in lecture.

would've been fine if the tests/exams were structured differently, he responded to emails, maybe provided a discussion board (like piazza), gave us quiz/test solutions...

if you're taking an online class where this dude is the coordinator, run away!!! you can't go back on test questions, and he takes forever to answer emails. lecture videos barely cover the material he actually wants you to know, better off reading the textbook. don't know how he still has a job and if he's still working here next year.. what a joke

The final exam is so difficult and on have fill in the blank question for test and exam

To give you a frame of reference on how bad this course is, my grade went from a 92, to a 64 due to his final. My experience is not unique. Avoid this course and especially this professor at all costs.

Final exam was really unreasonable , my mark dropped from 75 to 66 after the final exam

The final grade is unbelievable

terrible professor, the lectures dont correspond to the homework, and neither the lectures nor homework correspond to the tests/exam, you CANNOT GO BACK ON TEST QUESTIONS OR SKIP ANY TO COME BACK TO, most of the questions are graded solely based on the final answer. stay away from this prof, this is the worst experience ive ever had with a course

Last semester Sta256 was awful, and this semester Im taking sta258 with him again , Just done my test 1 for sta258 , it was awful , test format sucks and also he added a lots of proving and calculating questions to the test compare to the fall term. This class suppose to be easier then sta256, but rn i feel its harder than Sta256 .

STA313 at UTM. STAY AWAY from him for your money and grades. Worst professor I have ever met in my four year uni life. Whoever designed quizzes that can't go back should go to jail. Every week we only had three hours of communication on Quercus, and the average time he replies my email is a week. Refuse to post quiz and test solutions.

When everyone said he is suck, you should know how terrible this prof is.

Alvaro online tests sometimes include very bizarre and obscure questions that were never looked over in lecture. The tests are also weighted extremely heavily and each question is worth 5% of your overall grade and it boils down to a single numerical answer (with 3 decimal places) with no part marks.

I really do not understand how he grade. The final exam takes up 45%. Among 10 questions, 7 of them are fill in blank, and you can not go back. This means, if you, accidently type one digit wrong, you lose 4.5 of your total mark, which is extremely unfair. Another thing is discussion board, it is just specious. Do not take his online class!

Quite possibly the worst professor I've ever had in my entire undergrad, I still don't understand how he's teaching with terrible reviews. Never gives part marks, lectures are all over the place that you can't even properly follow the textbook. Requires FOUR textbooks for one course as if we have the time to switch between all four of them.

Whatever he teaches during lectures are not helpful at all for the term tests and the final. If you want to lower your gpa, take his courses. Barely learned something useful.

The worst prof I've ever had in my 4 years of University. Lectures were all over the place and did not explain concepts from the lecture slides at all. Discussion boards don't even work and he won't use Piazza. Also does not answer emails at all. Posted an announcement talking about how we should prepare only TEN hours before the exam.

Worst prof in the uni by far.

Tests is not based what was taught in the class

I hope you guys to go to this professor's class and experience the questions he has on the exam.

He seems like a nice guy but he has very poor teaching skills, and formats his course terribly. Test heavy, swifts through difficult material like he's just trying so desperately to get through a certain number of slides regardless of whether or not his students are following and understanding. Every5 seconds says "it's easy" when it's really not.

His test is so hard and weird.

His test is so weird and tough. He explained many examples hardly, even though there's an easy way to solve. There's no chaper distinction. No email reply even though I follow his email policy and instruction.

Exams are so lengthy and heavily marked...

Why does he make a discussion board (that is barely even open for the week it's purported to be for) and never answer ANY of the questions... horrible horrible lecturer and lazy prof. Absolutely abysmal experience.

So heavy marking, no discussion board, no email replies

He spends too much time on basic stuff then speeds through complex topics. Also, the tests have a disproportionate difficulty (averages in the 40's) and are graded way to harshly. Everyone I know who submitted remark requests got points back for having correct answers but losing marks for no reason.

As a statistics major student,I can`t avoid him. Every time I took his course, the course grade average was around 'C-'. Easy course easy quiz,but we have hard tests. For each test, there must be one question which is very hard.The posted past exam is always easier than the new one which tortures you(for new semester students

Avoid taking his courses

Just drop out if you ever see his name on any course

he doesnt like vim (allegedly)

Nice grade which is lowest mark during my all sta course.

会不会出题啊？压分就算了，哪有人用题量压分的，会的都没写完！你哪怕出个难题我不会我就认了，这么大的计算量是给人算的吗？tmd计算器都按冒烟了

儿子出题难， 孙子监考严。 老子就不会， 还我上学钱。

He knows nothing about teaching, gpt is way more better than him!!!!!