2.7
Quality4.0
Difficulty36%
Would Retake82
Reviews36%
Would Retake
82
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
24
4
7
3
6
2
11
1
34
What Students Say
“Grad students had a more wonderful life than he imagined)”
STAT6202 - 1.0 rating“The professor claimed student questions for mid-term”
STAT6202 - 1.0 ratingClass Info
Attendance Mandatory
64%
Textbook Required
100%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Improving
+0.65 avg changeRatings by Course
STAT53
5.0
(2)STAT053
4.3
(3)STAT1051
3.9
(9)STAT4158
3.7
(3)STAT051
3.3
(11)Difficulty by Course
HONORSSTATS
5.0
STAT187
5.0
STAT3197
5.0
STATS1051
5.0
STAT6202
4.8
Reviews (82)
He speaks very quietly making it very hard for everyone to hear him, much less comprehend what he's saying. not good with partial credit when he grades instead of the TAs. recitation is much more helpful than lectures
he seems like he MIGHT be a nice guy, but he literally cannot be understood (what with his thick accent, quiet tone, and ignorance that he's teaching in an auditorium). His quizzes & tests are managable but you have to teach yourself - and dont think of asking questions, he'll think you're stupid.
Unquestionably the worst teacher I have had at GW. He cannot be understood, and gives no clear answers to individual questions. Not at all helpful and a completely unfair grader. The TA's are the only relief, and they aren't even that helpful. Avoid if possible. No point arguing, he is the dept head
clear and helpful
I understand that he is a very bright man, but that does not mean he can teach. His lectures are not clear at all, very much the opposite. Very discouraging professor to have.
Worst teacher I have had at GW. Impossible to understand during lecture, there is literally no point in going because you sit there confused as to what he is saying as well as how he comes up with the answers to the examples he does during class. You will have to teach the class to yourself.
Prof. Nayak is without a doubt the worst educator I have ever had. According to him, students are supposed to learn 80% of the material in class, 20% from the book. But with his thick accent and quiet speaking voice, you will be forced to learn the material entirely from the textbook.
I keep an open mind to profs., but this guy made it impossible to learn anything. Can't understand him at all. despite many students asking him to speak up, you still couldn't hear him. lectures were pointless, hard to follow, unclear. DO NOT TAKE THIS PROFESSOR!
Masochists only! Do not take this class under any circumstances. He is the worst teacher ever and if you don't have a TA you will not understand anything. There is a big curve but it is not worth tortuing yourself for a semester.
Avoid this prof. I admit that I don't really have a mind for the subject matter, but he made it very difficult. Impossible to understand. He's a smart man, but not a good teacher. He does his best to be helpful (go to his office hours) and he is a very kind person, but it just seems like a lost cause.
He is awful! Avoid, its impossible to understand a word he says and he doesnt even teach the material well. If I didnt have my unbelievable TA Hiro Hikawa, I wouldve done horribly. Try and get a different teacher unless you have some background in Statistics.
WORST PROFESSOR OF LIFE. lectures were ridiculously boring, he didnt teach the material well, horrid accent, and unhelpful after hours. my TA didnt know the material and did a bad job of explaining it. he gave an impossible quiz for a "confidence boost" and i didnt know ONE person who wasnt thoroughly confused unless they knew the material beforeha
This class was the worst experience of my life. If you are taking this class just to fulfill a requirement, look elsewhere. You can barely understand what he is saying and class is a waste of time. This has been my worst class at GW.
Nayak is by far one of the worst professors there are at GW. He has an accent that is incomprehensible so going to class is a waste of time. His midterm is hard and his final is impossible. If you go to office hours it is like talking to a brick wall. He refuses to help students and thinks they should know everything. Even a good TA wont help.
Oh My God, a horrible professor. Just read everyone elses, he does stink, if you are in his class, hold on to the TA's every word and for your own grade, just ask them all the questions.
While I agree with what everyone else has commented already about Nayak (yes, his accent is horrible, you don't learn ANYTHIHNG in lectures, he's horrible at explaining concepts, and I found the TA's are just as useless), I managed to pull through his class with a B (he curves). The textbook was the only way I understood anything. READ THE TEXTBOOK
Absolutely shocking that this man is allowed to teach. He barely speaks english and he's the head of the dept. Yet another reason why GW is the biggest regret of my life - the terrible teaching. This class broke the back and made me transfer out. Obviously here for the money and distinction, not because he loves to teach. Never register for this.
Worst Professor I've ever had. Absolutely useless. If you ask questions, he becomes angry with you, and if you don't, he doesn't teach. Don't take any course with this professor, you'll regret it
Take this class with an American or someone who can talk properly. Just avoid Tapan. his lectures are unclear and gives only 10 mins or less on quizzes that require at least 20 to 25 mins.
Horrible professor. Doesn't care about his students. never answers direct questions. The worst stat professor I have ever had... and I'm a stat major. avoid this man at any cost. Aside from just being hard, he writes small, mumbles, talks quietly, and has a heavy accent. Also is incredibly rude.
Good professor; systematic and clear. The course improved my logical thinking. Many students find him hard because he expects you to study and think.
Not bad. He's not that evil as other people said. Go to the lecture and do the practice problems would help a lot. He might not be the best teacher but learning is your responsibility. Read the book and do the problems. You will do well.
Well organized, clear and very helpful. One of the best prof I ever had.
Excellent prof. I learned mostly in class. Attend all classes and pay attention. You will get good education.
Very engaged and sincere teacher. Helped me a lot during office hours. I learned a lot
One the best teachers I ever had. Very knowledgeable, caring and patient. He explains, not preaches like many others! I had no interest in stat but after taking this course I decided to add a stat minor.
Nearly impossible to understand, heavy accent and speaks very quietly. Refuses to answer any question and is incredibly condescending. You are forced to learn everything from the textbook yet you have to come to class since he has pop quizzes. Also so mean that it's funny.
He is very soft spoken and his accent is a bit difficult to get used to but he is not a terrible teacher. He would be better if it was a smaller class size as he seems to have trouble connecting with the students in the large lecture hall. I had a hard time paying attention in class but very helpful during office hours.
He is just so incomprehensible. Has pop quizzes that are hard as hell. Really unhelpful. Don't take Professor Nayak I heard Nathan the other professor is a lot easier.
Luckily, I had a background in stat when I took this class. He is very hard to understand, and is not helpful if you ask questions in lecture. His quizzes aren't horrible; it's the practice sets and homework that are hard and very confusing. If you have never taken stat before, I would not recommend Nayak; find someone else.
The course is hard; conceptual and lots of material. But the professor is excellent. He made it intuitive and practical. If you want to learn, he is very helpful.
Prof. Nayak could be easier to understand, and his lectures sometimes make things more difficult than they need to be.Sit in the very front,ask questions, read the book,and a quiz will be given every other week, do that and you will soar through this class. It is hard, but you will be rewarded if you put the time into it!Very real world and useful!
Very clear and very helpful. Great teacher. Not an easy course. Go to class and pay attention; that helps a lot.
He is very clear and gives ample opportunity to do well. Do the practice problems and engage in class discussion and activities.
The professor is very good at breaking complicated material into little pieces and explaining them well. That helped to learn the material well. He is also eager to answer studnt questions. Very helpful.
The professor brings up practical issues naturally and in answers them logically. You cannot be mechanical; you have to think along. That makes the course challenging but you learn a lot. Very powerful and helpful teacher.
Very talented teacher; he easily discusses difficult concepts that other teachers simply skip. Take him if you want to learn. His exams are tough if you don't do the practice problems on your own -- and with understanding.
I enjoyed the class. The material is not easy but useful. The professor is very good and helpful.
Although he tries hard to be a good professor, he fails profoundly. The lectures were not clear, he focuses too much on concepts, but the quizzes and exams are on computation, of which he teaches and re-enforces little. The class seemed confused most of the time and I retained very little information.
I took this course to fulfill an elliot requirement. Worst decision of freshman year. the class requires far too much work for an intro class and is impossible to boot.
He's a really good professor and he applies the information to real life events which helps make it more interesting and slightly more interesting to learn. the exams are open book so you can learn things if you don't know it but they are tough.
The course is demanding, but the professor is wonderful - very clear and caring. I like his conversational approach, but you need to participate in class activities to benefit from his lectures. I recommend him highly.
The best math professor I ever had. Made difficult material clear and relevant. Great teaching approach; really helps you to learn naturally. Take his class.
I found the class really hard coz I'm not really a stats person. He really wants every one to understand but he can sometimes be a bit vague. I did terribly on a couple of the quizzes and got a C+ on the midterm. here's the big plus point: he curves BIG TIME!! with all of my low grades I ended up with an A- in the class. plus open book exams help!
I had very little interest in statistics and laughed when Nayak said the course would be one of five most valuable courses we would take in our undergraduate program. Now I say he is right! He is great at motivating and making the subject relevant. Very caring, helpful and respectful.
An incredible professor. Very flexible and reexplains in different ways to ensure the whole class understood. Genuinely compassionate and helpful.
As a stat major, he was the worst professor I've ever had, and that's saying a lot considering that GW is known for a good statistics program. Extremely condescending to students even when they asked for clarification, refused to give concrete examples to aid understanding of concepts, and contradicted himself many times. AVOID at all costs.
As a stat major, he was the worst professor I've ever had, and that's saying a lot. Extremely condescending to students even when they asked for clarification, refused to give concrete examples to aid understanding of concepts, and contradicted himself many times. Avoid at all costs.
LOVE Nayak but the first month I despised him. He''s a tough grader and does not go over concrete examples in class. Go in to office hours he loves to help and will sit with you for hours. He genuinely wants you to learn the material not just learn to answer test questions. I learned more in this class than any at GW but be ready to WORK for it
Professor Nayak's lectures are difficult to understand and disorganized. The exams and quizzes go beyond class material. I wouldn't recommend this class for students who don't have a good grasp of Statistics. I have a good understanding of the topic, and I struggled in class. He does curve at the end of the class, but don't expect an A.
He's a really great teacher, is invested in his students, and his lectures are very clear. However, the class is (surprisingly) hard. The homework takes time, but he's willing to talk about it in class if you ask. The tests are hard and require a good amount of critical thinking (beyond the lecture content). He curves at the end though.
Extremely hard to understand, and his accent makes it worse. Doesn't clarify things in class, and just goes over textbook problems. Nothing is clear in his 1053 class, and you have to learn *everything* on your own in order to pass. You would be able to skip his class and just learn on your own, but he gives pop quizzes to compel you to attend.
Nayak is a really great professor! Sit near the front, so you can hear him, since he speaks quietly. If you do the practice problems at home and pay attention during lecture, you should do really well! All of the testing is really straightforward. Nayak gives "pop" quizzes, but he won't quiz you on anything he hasn't covered extensively.
The lectures are very confuse, long and useless besides for those 5-6 quizzes he does per semester. He doesn't care about the students and his office hours explanations are the same as in class. He never sends homework and he only suggest you to do some exercises from the book, but you only have the odd problem solutions. Avoid at all cost!!
He is barely audible in lectures and very unclear. Strict no technology policy. Gives around 5 pop quizzes which are easy, but the midterm and final are impossible. The homework is also impossible, but the TA's grade very leniently. Huge curve. Midterm and final are open book and you're allowed 2 pieces of paper for cheat sheets.
For me this class was remarkably straightforward. Just keep in mind that the recommended questions are not really "recommended"; if you want to score well, you'll have to work hard on these practice questions well before the exam, because Tapan basically grafts midterm and final questions from the textbook. Otherwise the material is pretty light.
I came in with no experience with stat but overall, Nayak was not a bad professor. Sit close to the front because he speaks quietly and can be hard to understand. Not the most helpful in class and finalmidterm are tough but he does curve!I think it helps if you show improvement. Pop quizzes in class but similar to "suggested problems".
Professor Nayak is by far the best Statistics Professor I've met at GW. Some claim that he is condescending, but he was just telling those students who did not pay attention to the class don't make him repeat himself. He was really kind though that he helps you derives from basic formula. Take him if you want to learn something.
So Nayaks goal is he wants you to learn. If you want a great grade your going to work for it. Your studying only takes you so far and the final is class made so make sure you know the material. All in all I struggled through this class but Im glad I took it.
I HATED this class and this professor. Nayak is extremely condescending if you ask questions because he doesn't answer them and wants you to seemingly get it on your own. You need to work HARD in this class to do well. HW's aren't bad but the quizzes and tests are HARD. Class is heavily curved but it's still awful. Take what you get and get out.
If you hate him, you probably expect to be pampered. He takes absolutely no prisoners but if you get past that you can see that he is a genius amongst professors. Instead of just finding and plugging in formulas like a monkey, he makes you ask yourself what you should do and why. If you really struggled, you just don't understand statistics.
Do not take this class with him unless you are extremely smart. This is a really hard class. He does not make students understand it but rather confuse them.
GW has many professors that know their field, but don't know how to teach their field. Professor Nayak is one of those professors. Even if you understand the material, you won't understand him. Constantly reading to make up for a lack of teaching. Do not take his class.
Prof. Nayak is one of the best stats professors I've had at GW. His class is hard because he forces you to actually understand the stats tools you learned in earlier classes. Definitely have to work hard + engage with the class material to succeed, but I felt the material was fair and taught well.
Terrible dude. Treat grad students like elementary school kids. Threatened students they would fail. Told students they should work harder, discuss homework and study materials when in campus instead of playing video games. (Who told him we play video games? Grad students had a more wonderful life than he imagined)
The professor claimed student questions for mid-term. But he changed most of the questions. I prepared hard but still got a very low grade, which is demotivating. The median of mid-term exam is 30 out of 70 points. Also, homework every week can really kill you.
I would say Professor is responsible. But the course is awful. For those who want to find a DS position in work(most of us),6201&6202 do no good. They are only for those who want to continue phd research program. Shame they are mandatory. The stat program claims it’s an academic program, but school ranking is only like 70 in US?
I want to do a retrospect before the final exam. I really hate this course overall. Stats is one thing, mathematical calculation is another. This is like the Olympic Maths bootcamp in primary school, where you need to be savy enough to solve maths. In this course, Stats knowledge is only a tiny tool. This has gone wrong.
Nice to see so many negative reviews already. I failed the course. But all my grades before the final exam are above median level. The professor did not grade equally and had a strong bias. Just be careful to take his course. Oh, did I mention this course is a joke?
No pain no gain
Worst Professor ever. You get good grades because you have a strong mathematical background. You get good grades because he favored you. But you are not representative of the majority. Support victims and stand with them.
All pain, no gain (smile)
He is a very responsible professor for people who want to really learn something. He has good mathematical ability, so he will be more demanding of his students. I like his way of teaching, although he does have too much homework and exams.
This professor is very horrible. Because the lecture and test are very hard and difficulty. For final grade, professor only curve little. Have no idea how he grade each test.
Professor Nayak is very helpful, and always willing to explain further and answer questions. I really feel like I learned the material. However, your experience (and often grade) in his class often depends on your luck in assignment of group for group work, as most most homework is group work.
If you commit to Prof Nayak's way of learning, you will find success in his class and actually learn a lot. He teaches for you to understand, not to memorize formulas. He provides many opportunities to improve your grade and goes out of his way to be available to help students outside of class. You will have to prove you learned to get your grade!
He did offer extra credit on the midterm and final (only because most of the class was failing). Biased oral examination for extra credit. Disrespectful to students. Always says that his office hours will help you but he just tells you to read the book if you have any questions. It's a miracle I passed this class. If you can, avoid this course.
A true educator who focused his efforts on course enhancement and caring about student outcomes. His approach to the class was somewhat traditional, expecting students to take handwritten notes. But the way he teaches and his willingness to adjust to the needs of his students makes me think that the learning experience reaches the highest heights
I took this class in my final semester of college after putting it off due to tough reviews and my weak math background. Despite my low average, I ended up really enjoying it thanks to Professor Nayak's teaching. He made a challenging subject engaging. He truly is an amazing professor. I don't think I've ever learned this much in a class.
Always difficult
Tough professor. Grading is sporadic. Does not have any course material and at times says you cannot use the textbook. Tries to each in a unique way but does so ineffectively. Cold calls in class. Does not create a classroom environment where you feel comfortable asking questions.
Bro this guy is on a different level, he gets mad at students for not engaging and then chews you out when you say the wrong thing. DO NOT ASK QUESTIONS IT'S A TRICK FOR HIM TO EMBARRASS YOU. also in class material is pretty different from the test so it's hard to do well, very tough grader, avoid for your mental health
Class Info
Attendance Mandatory
64%
Textbook Required
100%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Improving
+0.65 avg changeRatings by Course
STAT53
5.0
(2)STAT053
4.3
(3)STAT1051
3.9
(9)STAT4158
3.7
(3)STAT051
3.3
(11)Difficulty by Course
HONORSSTATS
5.0
STAT187
5.0
STAT3197
5.0
STATS1051
5.0
STAT6202
4.8