beware of Tim Shady's marking SCHEMES

He prints out the notes then comes to class and reads them.. His lectures are bland and uninformative. there are no reccomended problems to study, so you're on your own to study. you're better off reading the text than going to class.

bad guy

His tests are brutal, his notes suck. He writes with an overhead marker on paper and then photocopies it for us to download. Barely legible when you print it. His tests are way too hard because the questions are vague. the class average on every test is well below 50%. I dont understand why they have to be so difficult!

Very hard course. Class average for every quiz was below 50%. His notes are really hard to read because he just writes them out by hand puts scanned copies onto the course website. I would not take a course with this instructor again.

How can a prof like him still teaching in SFU? I don't think students would like to study stats anymore after taking his class. Exams are super difficult (avg 30-40%)~ and he treats Dis Ed students like nothing (zero help) His text book exercises are quite useless because there no answers, so you don't know you do them right or not.

Do not take the distance education class. I read the comments, and thought "oh I can handle it" No. You can't. Just save yourself the trouble and frustration. DO NOT TAKE. I MEAN IT. DONT DO IT.

Super super hard final exam like you had learned nothing in the previous 3 months when you see the questions with a super super useless textbook so, avoid him as possible as you could.

Not a very good professor. What are you doing teaching if you refuse to answer emails about what it's like to be a Statistics major?

Guys never take STAT270 online from this prof. I took this course online. On campus there is a 3 hour class every week but he will just give you 20 min. online videos a week. You have to do everything on your own. You also have to buy a textbook which is written by the same prof. but I will say don't buy that. Go for other books.

If you want to take a class where you have no communication with the prof who does not want to be contacted in anyway or care about your success; this is the class for you. Assignments were a breeze and midterm fairly easy. The 70% final is extremely difficult every third answer wrong he takes an additional mark off. Run from him and take in person

Final exam worth 70% and an added penalty for wrong answers had 10% of questions that were specifically omitted from the reading. It's like he designed the course for students to fail.

You need to teach yourself everything because there are no online lectures available. The assignments and midterm were straight forward but are only worth 30% of grade. The final, which is worth 70% of your mark, was extremely difficult and had a penalty for wrong answers. Tim is also not very involved in the course; the TA does everything.

There are a number of factors that might leave him as the least professional and possibly worst teacher I have encountered at SFU so far. One being that he has been teaching for MANY years and appears to have made zero effort to learn how to use any of the tools provided for teaching.

Terrible class. I took this class online and the professor was very lazy and did not engage with the class at all. Further, no lectures are added only silly notes that hardly outline the lessons in the chapters. IF YOU TAKE THIS CLASS, YOU WILL BE LEARNING EVERYTHING ON YOUR OWN FROM THE TEXTBOOK. No help from TA or professor.

He has an unprofessional attitude towards students and lacks compassion. He should never be in a position of authority because he lacks the ability to respectfully engage with students and empathize with their situation. I wish he was more student-oriented and honestly, human-oriented. Students are people too!

I thought I would never say this about a prof but Tim Swartz is an absolute waste of oxygen. Hands down the most lethargic instructor I've ever crossed roads with who has probably taken his career for granted as he makes no effort to help his students. Could not ask him for help during the whole semester and could only contact the TA through email.

avoid at all costs. final is in less that a week. the grade distribution is still unclear. the TA doesn't know what's going on

He managed to completely automate his own course: Each week he had pre-recorded 10-minute videos working through a handful of problems, apart from that he was not involved in the course. I essentially had to teach myself all the material, using the textbook he wrote. By far the hardest and worst course I've ever taken. Avoid this professor.

- Boring, unenthusiastic, and uninspired. - Doesn't know how to help. - Fully reliant on the textbook. - Skims through lecture slides and complains about wordiness when the exams are incredibly wordy. - Wouldn't allow us to review our midterm results and see what we got wrong. - Final exam extremely early compared to midterms. - Avoid him.

He seemed very unenthusiastic about the course and the material in general, and for better or worse is very blunt when replying to students during synchronous lectures. Tests had poorly designed questions, and he seemed all too willing to accept the fact that most students would get sub-50% on tests.

His lectures are almost useless, regurgitates textbook information. Complains too much about the lecture slides that he didnt write. Tests are extremely different from practice questions, and are unreasonably wordy. Doesnt show what youve done wrong on previous midterms, no way to see if you were marked fairly. Do not recommend!

Testing was all multiple-choice. Ample opportunity to know the material perfectly but slip up on poorly worded or vague questions.

Avoid Tim if you aren't naturally good at stats. Lectures are vague and not engaging. Midterms are very different from assignments and did not reflect competency. Textbook is an alright resource but not all answers to questions are provided, definitely buy the online version. Youtube will be your best friend and avoid online stats at all costs.

Tim is a horrible professor. His lectures are uninformative and unengaging. He has absolutely no passion for the material. Exams are designed to trick students, rather than testing them on their knowledge of the material. I should've listened to the previous reviews. He was so bad!!! Do yourself a favour and avoid this professor.

The course already has slides so he just reads off them and posts a zoom recording for lectures. He isnt bad at explaining new concepts, but his tests are almost comically difficult. He curves the test averages to be at 8 or 9/15, and gives multiple choice questions with answers A-P Hes clearly been teaching for too long and is so out of touch

Would not recommend taking this class, unless you want to teach yourself everything. The lectures are of no use and you'll probably retain the same information if you just go through the slides yourself. Majority of your grade is made up of the exams (80%). Also, the midterms are nothing like the questions in the assignments.

Tim is the worst professor at SFU. He's so out of touch with reality that I'm unsure how he still has a job. Everything in this course is self taught. Exams are way different than practice and assignment questions. Course averages are low and test grades are based on luck rather than knowledge of material. Do not take this course with him!!!

Tim has got to be one of the worst professors at SFU. His lectures aren't good, basically a self-taught course. His practice questions are nothing like his exams. HIS EXAMS ARE INSANELY HARD, despite easy material, he purposely sets up students to fail. You cannot even ask him questions during his exam. AVOID AT ALL COSTS SAVE YOUR SANITY AND MONEY

STAY CLEAR! The exams are made for failure, not like practice or textbook questions. You can't go back after you finish a question and most of your time is wasted trying to read his poorly written questions. This course is more difficult than it needs to be, if only Tim would actually teach the material and not just read useless pre-made slides

Tim radiates apathy. While I went into the course fully expecting to do a lot of independent study, I didn't expect his lectures to be so uninformative, low-effort, and pointless. The quality of teaching in this course was an absolute joke and I would not recommend taking it with Tim unless you are fully prepared to teach yourself.

Swartz does not care at all. He will not answer questions during class and if he does his answer is so convoluted it just makes students more confused. Exams are designed to trick students, not test understanding of materials and assignments are dull and overly long. 0/10 worst experience of my life

First things first: The final exam is absolutely ridiculous. Even after spending days upon days studying the course material and doing the sample finals that he gave, the final was so detached from the rest of the course and was based off of luck, not knowledge. Save your money and GPA, do not take a course with Tim. Worst experience of my life.

not recommend this prof. He is cool himself but teach bad and his exams are not fair. even by studying hard you can't get a desirable mark.

The hardest class I've ever taking thus far. He has optional lecture videos that are confusing and barely relate to the content. He provides weekly review worksheets however they are easy compared to what's on the exam. He does not prepare you for his exams at all and they are quite theory based so even the textbook can be little help.

Like others have said, the exams are designed to trick you and are not representative of your knowledge (who gives a multiple choice question with 17 possible answers?). Both live and recorded lectures are unhelpful so you will have to teach most of the material to yourself. Just do yourself a favour and avoid if possible.

This class was awful! His online lectures are unhelpful so you're left to teach yourself with the textbook. His multiple-choice tests are a-k, they're wordy and confusing, and you don't get them back so you cant see where you went wrong. He doesn't offer relevant practice and is satisfied with a 40% class average. Worst teacher ever!

Textbook bad prof. Time to retire Tim. He's a 15+ year, and its getting to his head. Felt the need to use lecture time to ensure we were calling him Dr. Lectures aren't in any which way engaging, interesting, or beneficial. YouTube taught me this course. Wont talk to students, makes no effort to explain material. Classic line: "Use the TA's"

Tim is the worst prof I've had so far. The final exam was worth 60% and covered material that was never taught. This prof is unbelievably lazy; he wasted our time with telling silly stories during lecture, and even said he wouldn't be responding to any emails for the semester. Any class with this prof is a GPA destroyer.

If you are looking to maintain a high GPA or improve your GPA, NEVER take a class with Tim. Even if you put the work in you'll get a mediocre grade since the final exam has nothing to do with the rest of the course and is completely luck-based. It honestly amazes me that this man is allowed to teach.

The exam of this class had nothing to do with what was in the textbook and was designed to fail you. I have a 4.0+ GPA, self-taught myself the entire textbook, got good marks on assignments, and only got a B.

Dr. Swartz is by far the worst professor I've ever had. He seems bored with the course contents, spends large portions of lectures complaining about his own slides, and does not give any detailed examples. Students are expected to figure out how to actually solve problems by reading the textbook, which is also not helpful. Avoid if possible.

Tim Is an intelligent man, but he clearly lacks the ability to convey that knowledge onto his students in any meaningful manner. Literally I have nothing else to say. I attended every lecture and did all the assignments, asked for all the help I could get and I still got a bad mark. There was no avenue he provided to help me improve.

Useless confusing textbook that is mandatory but makes absolutely no sense

forced against my will to buy, read, and "learn" from his textbook. worst textbook in the world, poorly written and doesn't explain anything well. somehow i know less about stats after reading it.

Worst professor ever, please avoid at all costs if possible. TAs don't care for your learning, you basically have to teach the whole course to yourself, and the textbook is useless. Exams are weighted so heavily, and he adds a penalty scheme on top of it all (deduction for the incorrect answer). One of the toughest profs ever.

Just know that for his online class, the lecture videos are of no help and the exams are completely different from the practice questions in the textbook. You are basically teaching yourself so don't expect any help from the prof or TAs bc they do not care! On top of that, he barely gives time for the exams so many students did not even finish it.

Worst professor I have ever had. Online provides 6 min videos per chapter, no practice exams, or power points, or examples. Doesn't teach anything, had to teach myself and get a tutor. Exams are extremely difficult and contain material that was never taught. Has penalty scheme that deducts points for wrong answers, making it impossible to pass.

Your main source of communication are your TAs, but with them going on strike it became very hard to get help. Provides pre-recorded lectures but they are less than 10 minutes and aren't that helpful. You would have to teach yourself most of the concepts if you are taking the course online. Avoid taking online course if you can

It is unconscionable and unfair to students that this online class, which is entirely reliant on TA's for any engagement or teaching, is going ahead with a midterm in spite of the TA strike. Brief prerecorded videos are of little to no help in teaching how to solve problems which make up the body of the course content.

In his videos, he skips important topics despite them being very significant for the course. He doesn't read the PowerPoint before presenting. Teaching yourself.TA is on strike yet he is doing. Your main support for questions is not there, he sent an email to everyone saying do not contact him unless you are sick or in dire need.

I've noticed the course materials and readings provided are somewhat limited. Having more diverse and comprehensive sources would greatly enrich our understanding of the subject matter. I felt certain concepts were not adequately explained in lectures. Providing more detailed explanation would greatly help. This course is frustrating.

No Powerpoints, practice exercises or resources. Textbook contains very little Rstudio codes. In the syllabus, he says you will have to teach yourself codes through "googling." TA is very slow in answering emails and providing feedback. Good luck!

Worst prof ever. He has terrible lecture videos, doesn't even go over anything, and our exams are nonsense. He doesn't even have office hours. Don't take the class with him.

Terrible professor, don't take this course with him. He will not help you, did not even come to midterms, and we couldn't even clarify questions with anyone because of the TA strike, and random volunteers were helping out with the midterm with no professor. He expects you to learn alone with no external help.

I'm pretty sure this guy just records his videos, posts them for his online class, and then just hides somewhere and let's the TA do the heavy lifting. Don't ever take this class. Only saving grace is the P/C/NC means I won't tank my GPA, though I'll never get my money back and I certainly won't take a class with him ever again.

Professor provided very little resources and help apart from posting short video clips skimming over textbook material. TAs were slow to respond and the entire course was essentially self-taught. There is a penalty scheme for the multiple choice final exam. I would recommend taking this course with another professor and in-person.

Horrific professor, took online but not accessible at all + TA is useless (no email provided to contact). Lectures are 6 mins and 1/2 of the time was him talking about his outfit?? Wrote the textbook so believes it will be enough, but extremely difficult to understand w/o support. Exams are difficult + lots of assignments. Don't waste your time.

Paying tuition and self-learn the whole course. No slides for the course and the lecture video barely talks about the content from the textbook. Self-study the whole textbook and make sure you do well in assignments as they count for 40%. The final Exam with 60% is stressing people out and no one finished the final exam within the time limit

his recorded lectures were terrible. The squeaking from his dry erase marker made it 10x worse to watch. It came to a point where i just relied on the textbook only, goodluck

No lecture materials aside from very short (under 6 mins) videos, self-study from the required textbook. Assignments are from the book but no feedback given. Got a 0 on a question? Go read the book again...

I have a midterm with this guy tomorrow. He never told us what is on the exam (I just have to guess which chapters it is on), a 6 minute video per chapter, which is a glorified fit check with different jerseys and doesn't even have the courtesy of even giving us a practice test for what our midterm questions are going to be like. AVOID AT ALL COSTS

Took this class online - it was a struggle. Short, unhelpful lecture videos and not much support from the professor or TAs. Unstuckstudy and the textbook were lifesavers for studying, but the exams were brutal. Not recommended.

Created an account on rate my prof just for this. We have our final tomorrow and we haven't even had the opportunity to view our midterms (average: 15/40). No sample finals are given, and he sets very difficult exams. The book (he wrote) is pretty much useless but all assignments are from it. Don't repeat my mistake and save yourself.