2.4
Quality3.9
Difficulty29%
Would Retake199
Reviews29%
Would Retake
199
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
35
4
23
3
15
2
33
1
93
What Students Say
“350 characters is not enough to capture my hate for this Professor”
STAT20 - 1.0 rating“Shobhana is an awful professor who doesn't know how to teach”
STAT20 - 1.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
32%
Textbook Required
12%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.79 avg changeRatings by Course
STATS2
5.0
(1)STAT151A
5.0
(1)STATS20
4.0
(2)STAT131A
4.0
(1)STAT155
3.7
(3)Difficulty by Course
135
4.5
STATW21
4.4
STAT88
4.2
stat134
4.0
STAT2
4.0
Reviews (199)
Shobhana is very reasonable on what material she tests you on. Exams were fair, homework could be a little too easy at times, and I fell asleep a couple times during lecture, but I'd take another class with Shobhana. She's very approachable and explains concepts well. Warning: this class will be hard if you haven't taken stats before.
She is very nice and funny, but cannot communicate the material very well. Homeworks are WAY easier than quizzes, and especially the midterms (class avg was F on the first midterm). Grade distribution is tough!!
VERY tough teacher -- only take this class if you're willing to put a TON of work into it. very poor communication skills -- throws the material at you and expects you to figure it out yourself, because her explanations just make everything even more confusing. surely a great statistician, but an AWFUL teacher. PLEASE avoid this class with her!!
Useless lecture, can't explain anything!
Despite what the majority says, I like her lectures - funny and clear. Quite impossible to fall asleep in class. Listens to students and changes her way of teaching according to what we want. Level of difficulty of tests vary a lot; the first midterm was impossible, and the second was way easier.
I think I'm failing this class pretty hard. I put in hours and hours a week, and it's still never good enough to get an average grade on quizzes/midterms because the questions asked on them are WAYYY HARDER. Also, she gives like 2312302 challenging questions to complete in ONE HOUR.
she is really funny and helpful, but her lecture is useless and she is extremely unorganized (posted something the morning right before you'll have your exam!) i definitely wouldn't come to class if there is no iclicker (which you won't expect when she'll give you one because she rarely does)
Great Professor! Lectures are always interesting and her frequent non-sequitors break up the material. Approachable and helpful, she seemed to remember every student's name. Do not underestimate this class. Although it is "Introductory" it is very subtle and the curve is intense. As she said in class one day "Don't forget this is Berkeley!"
Gets sidetracked way too often in class, and only briefly mentions important statistical concepts. Is not at all empathetic to student needs and does not communicate her ideas or expectations clearly
I loved her-she was my favorite teacher this semester. I was very wary of taking this class b/c a) i heard bad things about it, b) i had never taken stats before and c)i'm not math/science person. however, i learned a lot from shobhana and she was an extremely engaging professor. However, this class was challenging- i worked my butt off! good luck!
tricky exam
I need to use statistics for my job. Unfortunately, I had Shobana in College. I feel like I have to relearn Stats. She was BEYOND HORRIBLE. I have NEVER had such a horrible lecturer IN MY ENTIRE LIFE and I learned absolutely nothing from her. Period.
Wow woah awesome 5 stars I love u best professor ever !!
Unorganized, unclear, unhelpful. Iclickers force attendance. Has stopped w/ 8 min remaining in lec & said "you can read this at home" and skipped over slides and said the same on multiple occasions. Class was so behind her planned schedule that we had to learn about 4.5 chapters of material on our own before the final- terrible experience.
Professor Shobhana was definitely very clear, helpful and friendly. She makes an effort to get to know you individually and keep the class engaged. The material is notbad but exams are tricky and there is so much competition in the class. quizzes were multiple choice and easy. ent for all of her lectures, it made reading the material later simple.
Her lectures are unorganized and the midterms and finals were impossible. I got 100's on all of the quizzes and failed the midterms miserably. It is easy to get a B if you studied a lot, but must be really good at stat to get an A.
Worst teacher at Cal. Period. Unorganized. Unclear. Don't listen to her because she will make the material more confusing.
Take online courses at ucb at your own risk. Homework M & F gives great flexibility for scheduling, but the Sticigui program is outdated/confusing and the office hours are erratic (get rescheduled often). GSIs are extremely unhelpful, they either confuse the topic more or give u the answer for the hwk. Prof nonexistent...
decent lectures but very tricky exams, she'll throw in really random things
the lecture pace is awful. she spent the first half of the semester teaching VERY SLOWLY (2 month, 2 chapters), and towards the end of semester, she teaches 1 chapter every lecture, trying to cover everything in the last few lectures. She assigns tedious homework that requires us to manually enter data into R. She has HW and lec in RRR week. AVOID!
I took Prof. Stoyanov's 135 & 155 courses and feel that many of the comments on here are unjustified. She is a clear, helpful, & funny professor who cares about her students. She also responds speedily to e-mails and piazza posts. R HW did NOT require manual data entry, as data was imported from a CD or provided link with a single line of code.
Class was easy as she used Starks videos to teach it, but the exam was 10x harder than anything she had given us in the assignments.
extremely unhelpful
She's really mean and i only saw her during exams so that must say something.
Horrible professorunhelpful, extremely hard tests, horrible lecturer. Avoid and do not take.
Genuinely not good at TEACHING the content of the class. Lectures are very theoretical but hardly include example problems. Exams are generally pretty difficult but you're allowed to have a cheat sheet. Also, she takes attendance IN LECTURE - stupid. Ended up teaching myself most of the content through online videos which were much more helpful...
Great teacher. Took her class and loved her so much. Hope you guys choose her class, because she is a gem of a teacher.
There are many great professors at Berkeley, but unfortunately, Shobhana isn't one of them. At first, I thought she was a fantastic lecturer, but as the semester went on, I realized the class had no structure. She jumps around from topic to topic and it becomes very hard to follow. I definitely recommend taking stat 20 with another professor.
Not a great teacher and genuinely not a great person either. She even called out a student on crutches and told him to walk down the steps to sit in the front because we was standing by the doorway.
350 characters is not enough to capture my hate for this Professor.
Shobhana is an awful professor who doesn't know how to teach. She refuses to admit she's ever wrong; she'll tell us one thing in class, then change it the next day and pretend she was correct all along. She emphasizes the importance of semantics, but she can hardly write a grammatically clear sentence, often giving unnecessarily confusing problems.
Professor Stoyanov was great, I took her Stat 88 class and found it to be extremely interesting. She was funny during lecture, kept the class lively, and was even more helpful during office hours. Go to her office hours and she will be extremely helpful and friendly!
She incorporated little quizzes, weekly homeworks and Big quizzes once every two weeks. She really took an effort to teach each concepts and often tailored the homeworks and quizzes on confusing concepts. She often makes jokes which are hilarious and I really loved her teaching. The class is definitely hard but it doesn't mean we can't do it.
The only reason I did well in this class is because I took AP stats in high school. Otherwise, I would've undoubtedly failed her class.
She's a funny and enthusiastic lecturer. Both her and her GSIs are incredibly accessible outside of class for help. She also used online Piazza where you can ask questions and they're immediately answered. This class wasn't easy but if you tried on hw, quizzes, etc. and asked q's you'd do well.
While many teachers discourage average students this professor gave me hope. I only went to her office hours once but she was really helpful when I did go, unfortunately I was not able to make it to all of her office hours. As students we need to be accountable for our own lives. I had a bad semester but it had nothing to do with her teaching style
Stoyanov is an awsome proffessor, she is always walking around the lecture hall making sure that her students are on top of it. She was always active on piazza making sure that our questions were answered. Alot of these bad reviews must be from salty people who where sleeping in class. I actually tried but life happens.
Probably the funniest professor I have ever had at Berkeley. Her lecture are enjoyable and goes by quickly. However, the lectures are incredibly ineffective in regards to material that you need to know for the class. Get ready to teach yourself everything. There are quizzes after every lecture and they are inexplicably hard.
I really enjoyed her class, and she has a sense of humor. She likes to get the class involved and participate with each other and via iclickers. She's a great professor, but her tests can be tricky. She likes to get to know her students' names and is open to talk, help, and explain anything during her office hours.
Funniest professor I have had at Berkeley, truly cares about her students especially if you go to OH, she will break down the problem and the applications behind it until you understand it. If you put in the work you can get an A, don't listen to these downers!!
My first semester at Berkeley and I got stuck with this awful professor. When she asks a question to the entire class, she doesn't even shuts up for students to actually think. As someone who frequently went to office hours, the amount of work I put in I should have at least gotten a B. She puts material that we haven't practiced on the midterm.
The class is just alright. It's an online class, so you'll have to do much of the work yourself to learn. There's two homework assignments due every week, so just be organized and stay on top of your work. No makeup/late hw accepted. There is, however, two extra credit hw. There's one midterm and a final. It's not an easy class, but it's manageable
I have taken a few upper division classes with Professor Stoyanov. She is a caring professor and is very responsive on piazza. As long as you show up and pay attention to what she says in lecture, A range would not be a problem. Meanwhile, if you habitually cheat during exams and projects, then do not take her class: she is very strict on that.
Took this class during the Fall 17 semester. Class focused too much on making simple concepts difficult and cumbersome. Fast forward to today and we skipped over crucial lessons that are required for Econometrics. Unfortunately we crammed regression into the last week of class and skipped various chapters that turned out to be relevant.
The textbook and homework assignments are the work of a different instructor. The assignments are tedious and the online tools can be very annoying. More time is spent figuring out how to use online tools than actually learning concepts. She tries and fails to be funny by including pro-left wing political talking points in our exam questions.
she is really unwilling to switch her office hours If you cant make her posted ones, her lectures tend to drone on, and she only convers very basic problems in class. A stat programming language called R was also introduced this semester, which none of the GSIs or other outside sources knew how to use. Be prepared to teach yourself the content
Her exams are fair and she gives a lot of material to prep for it, so if you study you should be fine. She's pretty funny in lecture because she sometimes tells short anecdotes. We're learning R this semester and I think it makes the class a lot more relevant to real-world applications.
I took Stat88 with her and thought she was pretty good. She was a good, clear lecturer and because of the format of the class, lecture was unmissable. I wouldn't necessarily recommend Stat-88 unless it fulfills a requirement, but that's just because the material is repeated in many other classes. I liked Stoyanov overall though, she's really funny.
She is an underrated professor. I took both Stats W21 and Stat 88 with her and although the material could be overwhelming and boring, she really cares about her students in OH and she always responds to emails within 1 or 2 hours. In terms of grading she is very flexible and often drops your lowest test score last minute just to help boost GPAs
Lectures were pretty disorganized and not very helpful--study the material from the textbook and look over slides on your own. She would sometimes briefly, but publicly scold students during lectures. Also lost her temper completely once because students were on their phones, though she did apologize afterwards. Wouldn't take her again.
Not the greatest teacher and often goes over very simple examples in class, but then gives completely different questions on HW. That being said most of her exams are comprised of questions that almost exactly mirror those on the HW and worksheets she gives, and are very fair. She is also a very caring and comes off as very mom-like.
Really great professor, cares a lot about her students; way more than I've seen any other professor at Cal. Read the book and that will help also make sure to go to lecture since the material doesn't always directly follow the slides. Would definitely take again.
Everyone learns differently, but I don't think Professor Stoyanov's teaching style is effective for this course or any. She yells, she forces people to participate and she's mean/overly sarcastic when the kids she calls on don't get the right answer. You can do well in this class by using online resources/book but I wish I got an actual stats class
I've gotten some sort of A at Cal so far, but I got a B- in her class. Despite that, I think she's a great professor who is caring and has tons of OH. A lot of the problems I had had to do more with the limitations of the class than her. This should be 4 units and should meet 3 times a week. Beware, the midterms align with Math 1b's midterms.
Professor Stoyanov is a very interesting lecturer. If you go to her class, you will be fine since a lot of the exam questions are from her class exercises. She gives great practice exams and very helpful outside of the class. Follow the class schedule and you will excel.
Her approach to W21 is pretty hands-off. Office hours kept changing, GSIs weren't particularly helpful, and homework was a grind. If you self study a LOT while doing the homework actually trying to understand it, getting a good overall grade is doable. Either way it's a time sink that could've worked better as an in person lecture.
Personally, I would not take Professor Stoyanov's class. There are those who do thrive in her class, but I struggled. If you are not "mathematically inclined" and want to succeed, you will need to teach yourself and put this class before everything else. In the end though, the curve that was applied brought my final grade up significantly.
she likes calling out people's names in the lecture, be aware of that. also, the quizzes are really strange and are graded really tough. the final project is extremely time-consuming and is graded very toughly.
there was ok prep for the tests but not for quizzes. the hw & section didn't really have to do with either tho, so it was hard to determine what the questions would look like. def sit down w/the textbook by yourself - she makes some concepts super confusing. the curve did help a lot tho, and she does seem well-intentioned, even if disorganized.
Her quizzes aren't difficult at all if you stay on top of homework and don't do it the night before. She is an extremely good lecturer, and she posts the slides of her lectures + recorded videos each time. Class participation is a big part of her class, and she calls on people but always lets them "pass" the question if they don't know.
Before COVID happened, she somehow kept our 100 student lectures amazingly engaging, as she found ways to keep the whole class involved instead of droning on like some lecturers. Shes kind and cares about you, especially if you show up and participate. Fair exams and grading. Highly recommend!
I love Professor Stoyanov! She's such a funny professor and shows that she really cares about her students. The grading for the class is super clear and fair. You have to work for your grade and keep up with the material, but if you stay on top of the class it will be totally fine! Stoyanov is one of few teachers that made me love going to class!
Explains concepts very clearly when you ask for her help (during office hours/privately on Piazza). OH have been moved around/shortened quite often. Lots of errors in practice finals & Qs are subjective/ambiguous. Lots of posts on Piazza are left unanswered. You are on your own in this class with little to no help. Big time sink. Good luck.
The professor herself is ok: she is very helpful when you ask questions on piazza or go to office hours, and she replies to emails fairly quickly. But this class is poorly designed. This is the hardest class I've ever taken, simply because it's so difficult to learn stats online. Huge time sink, sometimes takes a day to fully understand a chapter
Tests contained curveballs, but her grading was justified, and she deletes a bunch of bad tests. Her lectures were so good that the only time I opened the textbook was to do homework problems. The GSI labs help a lot, and the class is well structured. I would give it a 8.5/10. Lectures not mandatory, but highly recommend you go. Really helps.
Lots of lectures but keeps it interesting and engaged. Responsive to emails and piazza and learns students names super well. Coding involved in R but not tested heavily, mainly for the group project. Homework every week but graded on participation.
Nice lady. Honestly pretty cool to make the pass requirements extremely lenient during coronavirus. I didn't even touch the group project and still passed. Probably didn't do well on the final either. Oh well it's my fault I don't know stats now.
Difficult to do well in this class not because the material is very difficult but because of the way it is structured. She is very bad at explaining things. And we have to take weekly quizzes. Even minor mess-ups will bring down your grade. Some questions on these quizzes test concepts we never discussed. Pls drop 3 quiz scores instead of 2.
Discussions are a week ahead, lectures are a week behind. Hands-down the worst class I've ever taken, whether at Cal or any other institution. Avoid like the plague.
The class is somewhat disorganized making it really hard to stay on top of your work and you're left confused most of the time. However, professor is pretty funny and was lenient and flexible for the first half of the online semester. Not a fan of the weekly quizzes, but I don't think the material is extremely difficult.
Prof is nice and wants to get to know her students. However, the class is crazy disorganized and there is loads of work. The weekly quizzes suck and the grading is strict in the class. The discussions are days ahead and lectures are days behind. Doesn't notify anything on time and pretty much assigns stuff last minute. Wouldn't recommend it.
My problems with this class: - No clarity at all about deadlines, upcoming assignments, etc. - Quizzes every week that cause stress and distract from learning. In spite of this, only 2 lowest grades are dropped. - Grading is unnecssarily strict. - She's really unresponsive at times. - She never posts lecture recordings on time. She should do better
She is a very responsible professor. The class is not easy but she explains concepts pretty well. She also tries her best to make the class fair for everyone. For the final exam, if you put effort into reviewing her lecture notes and practicing the past exams, you have a great chance to get good grades.
She was pretty accommodating with difficulties students had and would push back deadlines at times. I also think her lectures were solid. She was pretty good about responding to questions on Piazza. Quizzes are kind of hard, but the quiz drop policies help alleviate this for the most part. Overall, I think she is one of the better profs I've had.
Good policy on dropping lowest grades for quizzes, homework, and final can replace the midterm. However, still a difficult class as you have to learn R and probability etc. Group projects can really help your grade and the professor is pretty understanding when things come up. Probably your best bet for Stat 20, but still eh :/
She is very, very accommodating which was really nice given the difficult times we are going through. She also drops a lot of scores, which really helped our grades. The group projects are interesting and allow you to really learn and internalize the material. Great prof.
Professor is definitely caring, responsive to emails/Piazza, and wants everyone to do well. Her lecture style, however, is not the clearest, and even during OH's I had to ask a series of questions just to answer the main one. The midterm was reflective of what we learned, but not the final or some quizzes. She does curve at the end, which helps.
Professor Stoyanov really cares about her students. I think her tests exams are fair and you just have to attend lecture and complete the labs in order to perform well. She wants her students to succeed.
Professor Stoyanov is very funny and nice, but she is a terrible lecturer. She spends most of lecture calling out students to answer questions in her examples before even teaching the materials. She requires you to understand her class conceptually but her lectures are mostly formatted around examples with equations and little conceptual thinking.
That awkward moment when you take Stat88 and take on dual enrollment with Data 8 to avoid the terrible stats professors and somehow still end up with Stoyanov -- this class has given me depression lowkey. The weekly quizzes don't help me learn - they just stress me out. The midterm we just took was literally all about her DOG miss girl
Her class is the most stressful one I've been in. She gives quizzes every week which gives you too much stress considering students have other classes to study for. Examples in class are not always reflective of hw & quizzes are tricky. Lecture and concepts are gone over too quickly and I've spent more hours on this class than my upper divs.
Adding on to the others, this class has been super challenging and a larger workload than my upper div STEM courses. For a 3-unit/lower div course, the workload is too heavy. Weekly quizzes are wildly stressful and cold-calling in lecture is very reminiscent of high school. HW/lecture examples are not effective for exam prep. Avoid if you can.
Best: Stoyanov is a good teacher, & content is interesting & useful. Worst: midterm is much harder than quizzes/HW, but there are resources available to help (I highly recommend the exam prep sections). A little disorganized beyond (sometimes quizzes/HW content lags behind/gets ahead of lectures), but no reason to avoid the class.
Shobana is a great professor - very kind, and always willing to help. She stayed behind after every single lecture to answer students questions, and had 1:1 meetings with students who had questions about the midterm. The class itself is a lot of work, and isnt set up super well - but thats not a reflection on Stoyanov.
I thought I was good at math. But that doesn't help you with this class. Too much coding for an introductory course, lecture heavy, not interesting, and barely offers help on Piazza. Please DO NOT TAKE her if you can avoid her. It will save your GPA, your time, and your sanity.
Quite disorganized at the start as the stat department couldn't recruit enough TAs (or GSIs at Cal). Class was asynchronous and lectures were uploaded quite late. Touch homeworks and even harder weekly quizzes. Requires a lot of effort and extremely difficult to do well.
Sbe is the best prof I ever take.
This class is extremely disorganized, making it hard to stay on top of work (multiple lectures have been uploaded late). The lectures are also difficult to understand and do not explain the material very well.
AVOID HER!!! Her organization is so complex that it doesn't feel organized at all. She does not announce when new modules are open/quizzes are due/lecture videos are up/homework and projects are due. Her weekly quizzes are EXTREMELY difficult; it's just trick questions not based off discussion or lecture or the text. I've never had a worst class.
Most disorganized class I have ever taken, and she makes me regret coming to this school. She criticizes her students for not working hard enough, but she consistently uploads lectures late. Her lectures are confusing nonsense, and the quiz questions are confusing and poorly created.
PROS - Exams were semi-reflective of classwork CONS - Terrible at teaching. Pre-recorded lectures with terrible audio quality and no camera. Just read the textbook instead. - Weekly quizzes had many errors - Unclear grading criteria (no specifics for curve distribution) - Dry content - Unhelpful responses on Piazza Just take Data 8 instead
She is quite caring and sweet and will make accommodations when things get tough if you communicate with her like an adult. That being said, this course is not easy by any means. It truly is a difficult and rigorous, so be ready to put some work in. Do your practice problems as MUCH as you can! Ask questions. That is how you will succeed.
Boring and work heavy. Professor doesn't really care about our feedback. Sometimes she makes up a random excuse for not posting lectures on time. The grading contains many subjects to let your WORK. Course material is not hard at all, but she makes you do a large amount of work "for your best interest." Don't take her if you have a chance.
Too many lectures to watch. Her quizzes are more brutal than her materials. Very confusing (gradescope, Piazza, B course). She makes her easy material difficult. Horrible experience with Stats
Just save yourself the time. Not worth it at all. Ruined my semester. Read the other reviews and see for yourself
Professor Stoyanov had extremely hard tests compared to what we would learn in lectures. The post-lecture quizzes were pretty easy but the weekly quizzes were pretty hard since they were worded weirdly. We had 3 group projects which weren't that bad but the midterm and the finals were so difficult. She seems like a cool person and is funny tho.
She is not organized with the course contents and always publishes quizes very last minute.
My sleep paralysis demon. Disorganized, tons of busy work, awful weekly quizzes, GSI system is a mess, hellish group projects. Her lectures just make you more confused; taught myself most of the content. Very unclear about class bins/curve (nobody knew their final grades until they were posted curve didnt rly help). Wish I could get a refund.
Not a great professor to be plain and simple. Low commitment, lectures drag on without a sense of purpose. Difficult to follow additionally she is also not necessarily the most kind and understanding person. Her commitment is similar to a seven-eleven retail worker you could tell that they're paid by the hour.
I do got an A in this course, but that because I have a strong foundation in statistics (receive a solid 5 on AP stat) instead of prof teach me well. The lecture was so confusing that I have to read my high school textbook to understand the context (have to learn it by yourself), grading is tough and if you dont have foundation, hard to get A/A-.
Her lectures are a nightmare, she explains the most basic things in detail and then rushes through the difficult stuff. Hardly ever does a full problem in lecture-so frustrating. Inconsistent and generally poorly organized. If you have an individual question or concern she's helpful over email and is perfectly nice as a human being.
The lectures are nonsense, the midterm is fine as long as you do the practice midterms, but the finals are written to make you fail. Weekly homework graded based on completion, first 2 group projects are fine, but the last one is way harder and she made us do it during RRR week and finals week, just go find a study group and self study lol.
I love this professor. The reason why this prof has such a bad reputation here is that she teaches introductory stat courses and most of the students are freshmen or new transfers. Easy A if you attend the lectures and office hours. Read the textbook! Most of her exam questions are from past papers or lecture notes. Final can replace midterm exam.
DO NOT take stat88 if it is with this professor. Lectures do not correlate with tested material on exams, nor are the lectures an efficient use of time. Probably the worst experience I've had at a class at Cal. If you go to lecture as well, you will almost 100% get cold-called too. I would avoid taking this class at all costs tbh
DO NOT take stat88 if it is with this professor. Lectures do not correlate with tested material on exams, nor are the lectures an efficient use of time. Probably the worst experience I've had at a class at Cal. If you go to lecture as well, you will almost 100% get cold-called too. I would avoid taking this class at all costs tbh
The final exam are NOTHING like the homework and the examples she goes through in class. She also puts students on the spot and cold calls. Stay away at all cost.
She's helpful during OH but I personally found it hard to follow lectures, since the pacing is a little unusual (i.e. first 20 minutes is off-topic so we don't get through the lecture slides). Weekly quizzes were fair. Midterm was difficult this semester. Final was fair. Concepts take a while to fully digest. May get cold-called in class.
Stoyanov was clearly trained in statistics and probability theory, so her approach to teaching might be a little bit more rigorous then what you've seen before. And no, that is not a problem. If you are a new learner to these subjects, it is beneficial for you to get the accurate definition of everything before moving on to the next level.
She is an amazing professor and more than that has unlimited knowledge on the current topics. She made the lectures absolutely interesting. Office hours was a great help. Get ready to be cold called if you are not participating well enough, but the opposite will be extremely beneficial.
Good prof overall. Really nice to students, but honestly does not cover enough of what you will need for the final. If you're going to take her for stat 20 make sure to study the notes. stat20 is an easy section overall so it doesn't really matter who your prof is.
the lectures are very disorganized and all over the place, and prof is often late to class. prof rushes over the hard things in lecture and takes a lot of time on simple concepts
Lectures were confusing. Doesn't explains things well.
Would not recommend this professor to students, but the class is definitely manageable. Midway into the semester I began attending Prof. Sachez's lecture who uses a lot of class time & personal time via Ed to help students. Gradining: Labs 60% RQ 5% Quizzes 10% (Avg. of group & individual scores) Problem Sets 5% (Completion) Final 20%
If you already took AP stat, or know some basic stat concepts, and hopes to learn about r, then go take stat20 with her. The grading criteria is on the course mainpage. Labs account for more than half of the grade, do find yourself a study group to collaborate. I taught myself about most stuff by reading lecture notes, and learned coding in class.
shes a great person but not the best lecturer. i had to attend office hours to answer questions that other profs had already gone over in class. shes obviously very smart and passionate about stats but her lectures just didnt cover enough material as other profs did so people in my class were always sort of playing catch up compared to everyone
Professor Stoyanov is lively and intelligent but lectures were hard to follow, disorganized, and didn't finish the scope of material. The focus on derivation and proofs more than application to the course material convoluted lectures. Most of my learning came from reading the textbook, office hours, and discussion. Both exams were pretty difficult.
Professor Stoyanov is a tough professor. She cold calls in class and often goes through proofs/concepts pretty quickly or at least at a pace that many non-stat kids (including me) might feel overwhelmed with. However, she is always willing to take questions and explain/slow down if asked. If you want a good grade in this class, GO TO SECTION.
LECTURE is useless, do not go as it will only confuse you. Make sure you go to DISCUSSION if you seriously want to pass this course. Also, Professor Stoyanov says that she doesn't understand why she is still getting hateful comments like before when she thinks she bonded really well with this semester's class. MAYBE ITS YOUR OWN PROBLEM.
She's a pleasant individual, not an effective professor. Stat20 was poorly structured (all 4 profs): teach yourself the content/complete RStudio labs/ take a quiz with the content you taught yourself/repeat every 2weeks. All of stat20 took the final exam with 7 ungraded assignments including quizzes. Dont take stat20 & if you have to, dont take her
I have no offense on the professor as an individual. stat20@cal is just awful. Moffitt 145 does't have any air circulation, gets hot and easily tired when you sit through 2 hours of lecture. The class structure is more like a high school class than other intro stem class @cal. I feels my precious 4 hours is wasted everyweek on this class.
Her class was so hard. Lectures were incredibly difficult to follow and she did not prepare you well. I tried so hard in the class and wound up with an 89.93% and she gave me a B+. Nice person, for sure, I enjoyed her as a person, but her class itself was very tough. Definitely do not recommend unless you're already great at statistics, I suppose.
Lectures are hard to follow when the material gets tough but her office hours are great. She is a nice person. The quizzes are bad and frequent, but the labs are good as long as you can get plenty of help in office hours and in the GSI/tutor office hours.
Save yourself some time and take a different Stats class, she grades like no other and is very disorganized on what you actually need to do to get a good grade in the class.
super messy teaching style
WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT TAKE STAT 88 WITH HER!!!! Worst class I've taken at Berkeley. Every concept she teaches leaves me more confused than I started with. If you HAVE to take this class, just go to section and OH. The lectures are super unorganized and unhelpful. Highly highly recommend to not take this class.
AWFUL!!! avoid PLS
The grading/quizes/exams are not comparable to the level of difficulty shown in lecture. It's difficult to find good office hours times and some tutors are useful but others are very aloof and aren't interested in helping you learn.
not good very not good
AVOID AT ALL COSTS. DOES NOT KNOW HOW TO TEACH AND HATES STUDENTS.
As a diligent student, I expected fair treatment from the professor. However, she targeted students arbitrarily and her attempts at humor often fell flat, leading to uncomfortable silence in class. This lack of professionalism and fairness in grading and conduct is disappointing.
I love her and I find her hilarious. Ngl, a bit of a tough grader, but it's a tough course, and I feel like I learned a lot. Biweekly notes must be read before EVERY lecture and about 2 problem sets and 1 lab every week (group work) I recommend participating A LOT, ESPECIALLY if you're confused, and ASK FOR HELP!
Very disorganized do not ever touch this class ever don't even consider it
It's the weekend before final, and Ed is a mess. no solutions to old finals, no reference sheet, and gsi not responding to q's-organization is a shitshow. Quality discrepancy of teaching among diff. classes in the data science dptm shows.Lecture attendance is low, and as a backwards attempt to fix, she removes lectures two days after recorded
not organizes/communicative/ me not happy
0 accountability whatsoever. Said she would release materials for final prep beginning of RRR week, then on Monday she says guranteed by Tuesday night when asked. She then responds on Ed that by tomorrow night which is Thursday. She then proceeeds to ghost everyone and doesn't release until Monday night of Finals week... which was a week after!!!
Lazy teacher who does not provide much resources to help students and is full of empty promises while being disorganied
I'm confused as to how to rate her, as she's very caring and understanding but runs the course in a very disorganized manner. Not very responsive unless you reach her in person. Quizzes/exams are difficult/harshly graded and almost your entire grade. Lectures are all over the place and not that helpful without the textbook, which needs more detail.
THE WORST OF WORST. dont really understand how berkeley lets someone like her to keep teaching a fundamental statistics course at Berkeley. Literally never explain any question but rather using demanding and condescending tone to threaten students; doesn'twant students to success, her teaching statistic is literally trying to defeat students
Whatever you do either put off any class you will take with her for a different professor or take an alternative course even if its harder. I've never had to deal with such a disorganized class.
A tough-love kind of professor. I really enjoyed her course and found that going to lectures helped me deepen my understanding each time so I made sure not to miss any. She kept me accountable and even though it was a lot of work, I felt supported and engaged by the content.
Terrible stay away!! We had to cover 12 chapters and only got through 10 of them. Cold calls in class then wonders why students don't show up to lecture. Spent the first 10-15 minutes of lecture doing nothing but rambling about random things. Didn't release practice final answers until Monday of finals week.
She was a decent lecturer (spent more time on difficult course concepts like iterated expectation, approachable, and fair exams). She strongly encourages participation and consistent attendance. There's a culture of putting down professors when you don't get the grade you wanted without reflection upon your personal habits in the course:(
Poor organization and lousy teaching in this class. Don't expect any responses from email or Ed and if u do it will be weeks later. She waited until finals week to give us exam material she said she was going to weeks before. Tests/quizzes were very hard (hence low averages) and i was taking cs61a at the same time & thought this class was harder!!!
After telling the class she's in a bad mood because of the poor ratings she's received, the professor went on to say "Who cares about Game Theory anyway, you'll all the say the same thing about me after the first midterm." Never seen a professor openly say they don't care about a class they're teaching, while making sure exams are extremely hard.
Dont understand the hate. Stat20 is a hard class and she taught it well. One of my favorite professors at Cal so far. Shes funny and lectures are very engaging as long as you do required readings beforehand. Only issues came from course structure, such as required group work, which was the same for all instructors and just a symptom of stat20.
run...........
I do not understand why all her ratings are low. I am weak in math and I find her lectures super enjoyable, she is so kind and funny. She gets to know all of her students, she is super available and willing to help and really understandable. Her lectures are easy to follow and she is all around really likable.
I think people dont like her because she cold calls on students but I think its amazing that she makes such a big lecture hall feel like a small classroom by walking around, getting to know her students, calling people out for answers and making jokes. She is responsive to emails, she explains things well. There is plenty of ways to get support.
constantly late to lectures and then on midterm day she rushed us as if she wasn't the one who was late. then created a really bad redo policy that was very unfair. revised the redo policy but still isn't necessarily better but atleast it's fair. lectures are pretty useless in my opinion. and her handwriting is sometimes illegible.
Professor Stoyanov has a disorganized teaching style, but the course material is manageable if you stay on top of the work. I found Unstuckstudy helpful for exam prep. Lectures can be hit-or-miss, so relying on the textbook and attending study sessions is key.
The professor is disorganized and insists on cold calling, which many students find unproductive and uncomfortable. Although assignments are minimal, the exams are extremely challenging, made worse by the lack of past papers. This class made me reconsider my double major, especially during a tough semester with CS 61B and Data 100.
disorganized
I don't understand the hate. Sho is so nice and thoughtful. Maybe a sociable person is just too much for the nerds here in Berkeley.
Have a final coming up and she refuses to post the discussion worksheets for us to practice because "we should have been to the "discussion." That makes no sense at all. Every class material should be available for students to study. Why dont the CS or DS classes do the same? Also, not everyone could have gone to every discussion.
Avoid at all costs.
Extremely disorganized, most of the lectures are not relevant to homework. Done most of the studying from textbook and sections. Doesn't post any practice exams for the final, and no discussion sheets, almost impossible to pass the class as she gives no support. Would avoid at ALL COSTS.
You are basically in the dark about your current grade in the class until a few days before the final. You would normally have an idea of your grade throughout the semester, allowing you to gauge how much you need to work towards a better grade, but her grading's lack of transparency makes the class feel like a lost cause.
She's a nice person and her lectures can be fun, but they're ultimately not helpful. Read the textbook to pass this class, and DO THE HOMEWORK!
Horrible lecturer. Late to midterm. Misleading prac. midterm. No prac. final. Always screeching about something, even during exams. From Ed, "if you have reviewed all the section problems, quizzes, midterm, hw problems, lecture examples, text examples, and worked as many problems as you can, you will be fine." Yeah, let me review 1000+ problems!
Honestly shes fine. Alow of people dont like her and dont mess with her teaching style but shes decently engaging. Lectures are ehhh but she def changed this class for the better using a better book and introducing quizzes and so and so. Lowkey sometimes has attitude but shes alright dont be afraid of the salty ppl.
extremely unhelpful and often unprepared, leaving many students confused and frustrated. She never provided clear information about what material would be on exams, and her lectures were not useful in understanding the content. I would not recommend this professor at all.
Lectures were not relevant to hw (read the textbook), hw was hard, the course was curved to a B- despite her saying she'd curve heavily, and I dropped the stats major because I genuinely hate math now :))). However, she was helpful in office hours and worked through examples, which was nice. Probably better than the alternatives? but still mid af
horrible professor. cold calling makes many students uncomfortable. during lectures she expects us to solve her example problem within 10 secs and rushes us if not done. inaccessible, UNORGANIZED (comes to midterm late, doesn't release grades until months after, no discussion wksheets, can't answer a question on edstem w/o posing another question).
The people leaving 1 star were trolling the entire class of something because I genuinely did not expect 134 to be this easy. Just read the textbook (which is super good you should check out the old one that she thankfully didnt have us use). Very easy to get a high grade but I will say lectures and some policies not the best.
She isn't the worst professor ever. She has VERY generous exam curves. I do agree that she is disorganized and isn't that good at teaching as the lectures seem "useless" sometimes. In the end, you just have to put in time and effort outside of class by studying the textbook and you'll be fine. Everyone complaining just put no effort at all.
Truly one of the most caring professors I've had She makes an effort to get to know her students and really values feedback To those who say she cold calls, it's not really cold calling; she just calls on the same few people sitting in the front of the class (who are comfortable w/her doing so) Probability is just hard; she doesn't make it hard
Debatably one of the worst professors I've encountered at Berkeley. They say if you can't do teach, but what happens when you're even worse at teaching?
Some individuals the professors checks to see if they are in class. Others she doesn't care at all even if they put in the same amount of effort.
this is the worst class I've taken at Berkeley w/o exaggeration. lectures are disorganized and she doesn't get through all of the material because she was off-topic for the first 15 minutes. homeworks/quizzes are heavy for 3 units. she seems like a nice person but this course needs to be restructured and cold-calling is just evil. AVOID
This was my first professor with a bad rating and I can tell you that she is a terrible professor. She is very assertive and aggressive. I had an 8 am class and she would be complaining to the class about being quiet and to wake up, not a single lecture taught me anything she just reads off the slides.
You will never laugh as much in another statistics class. Lectures can feel slightly disorganized, but you will always end up knowing what you need to know. Really cares about students -- it is so nice to have a prof know your name even in a big lecture. Awesome in OH too, will always answer your question and then reinforce the concepts around it.
the way she structures the class is just horrible. she is very disorganized. i think it's crazy to me when i see students asking a professor if there is homework. main thing to note is DISORGANIZED and lectures are just whatever. just use textbook tbh
Doesn't follow syllabus. Appalling that students have to ask for hw, study guides, grade releases, and exam scope. Mid lectures. Snarky responses to regrades/Ed, doesn't respond to emails, cold calls, late grade inputs. Ur chill for final if u know every problem from everything covered in course. Truly an inspiration for how NOT to be a good prof.
I am sad that this is who I got for STAT134\5 but it's over now :). Avoid her, she's not looking to teach/help. Also her GSI's are particularly lazy. No other course was ran like this.
Makes extremely simple concepts impossible to understand, course textbook is a better source of understanding than any of the lectures, and the professor has no respect for students. If you have to take her course, your grade will be better if you skip all lectures and learn on your own.
every single day i wondered why she and the other stat20 profs were getting paid when i was teaching myself the content.
0 research. 0 teaching skill. She's not looking for the right answer she's looking for what she told you was the right answer which at times was challenging. She has convinced an entire class that a CI represents a (100-alpha)% chance that something will happen. Just look at the stat 135 solutions..
Took her for Stat 134 as well where she was slightly better. Pretty nice person and all but is just very disorganized in running the class. Doesn't respond to a lot of Ed questions, gives way too easy of a midterm and way too difficult of a final exam. Lectures are not that useful and some stuff she teaches isn't even in the book, which is weird.
How is it fair the DS gets the top professors from the stats department and the stats students get stuck with her?
i dont like russians.
I have tears in my eyes!! My first semester without this professor!!! It get's better you guys. Other professors are much more competent.
Idk if I hate here but I don't feel as prepared for my 15x classes as students who took other professors.
No point in going to lecture. She goes on aimlessly....
She is not good as a lecturer, and test heavy.
what's there to say that others haven't..
Lack of focus and attention to the subject. She start going off on random side things.
kept changing the syllabus last minute and just made up stuff as she went on. actually the worst class i've ever taken. so unreasonable and disorganized.
She's not awful, but she's not great. Its a hard course, no matter who you take it with. Though, the constant switch in syllabus was a bit ridiculous.
extremely disorganized! she also changes the syllabus so often, it's hard to know what is expected. tests are really hard and nothing like preparation materials or lectures. this class was genuinely painful, unreasonable, and an emotional rollercoaster with the amount of curveballs we had.
Very bad professor. Changed syllabus at the end of the semester to take away opportunities to improve grades…
This professor would often get sidetracked during lectures and do a poor job of teaching us probability concepts. She would also never take accountability for making quizzes and exams hard. Must have forgotten that what she considers not difficult as a stats lecturer is different than what students are learning for the first time. Prepare to study.
I guess I am not as harsh as some of the other people here, but most of what they said was true. Her class was very disorganized and lectures were not recorded. I would recommend reading the book and watching the associated videos if you want to learn. Tough class overall, historical curve is B-; would advise taking EECS 126 or Data 140 instead.
The syllabus changed a few times because it was the first run through of a new course structure. When the syllabus changed, it was normally something small or making it easier to pass. Good lecturer, fair quizzes and midterm was relatively straightforward. Final was more difficult, but not out of scope per se, just more difficult.
Unclear and often meandering explanations of simple concepts. Tries to crack jokes in announcements during the middle of tests. Blames poor lecture attendance on students' purported laziness instead of her own teaching style. Wrote difficult final significantly harder than midterms or practice exams. Changed syllabus multiple times midsem.
If you need a 9/90 to pass the final, it cannot be a fair final. I defended bamler for Math1A but I can't even defend this.
She is unable to teach students effectively and lacks empathy，and she doesn't care whether students actually learn or understand the material.
Overall probably one of the better profs I've had at Berkeley, transparent, nice, and very fast at responding to any email or discussion post. Also the syllabus for this semester was extremely generous, by giving your grade a lower bound as long as you were able to get a passing grade on the final (13/90). Also her curves are generous
Stat 20 is a very strange class and would certainly not be my first choice. Shobhana is an alright lecturer, keeps classes lighthearted and conversation open, but she can be weirdly controlling about certain things. Content was easy enough for me as a third-year DS/econ, but the way it was presented could definitely be challenging for others.
Nice professor, cares for certain students. However, just use the Harvard 110 lecture playlist for studying. It is so much superior for actually learning the material compared to sitting through her lectures. Passing grade for final was a 13/90. That has to reflect on the quality of teaching somewhat…
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
32%
Textbook Required
12%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.79 avg changeRatings by Course
STATS2
5.0
(1)STAT151A
5.0
(1)STATS20
4.0
(2)STAT131A
4.0
(1)STAT155
3.7
(3)Difficulty by Course
135
4.5
STATW21
4.4
STAT88
4.2
stat134
4.0
STAT2
4.0