if you are taking this class, for the love of god do not under ANY circumstance, pick the class that Dr. L. Nelson teaches, just don't

11/28/2011 3:39:13 PM

Thanks for elaborating.

11/29/2011 12:58:05 AM

he is a retired professor.... his last class was in the 80's. NCSU asked him back, I guess because they cannot afford a new professor (but a new talley center is just fine). Anyway, our class is down to those who MUST take it this semester and have no other options, the rest dropped after the first test. His lectures were incoherent and mostly full of anecdotal stories from his career. We made a study group and we teach ourselves, his tests are remarkably harder than anything given in class, and the practice test was supposed to alleviate our worries, however the test was nothing like the practice test he showed us. Anyway, if you actually need to learn, then do not take it.

11/29/2011 8:57:29 AM

Sounds like you didn't pay attention in class

I'm Krallum and I approved this message.

11/29/2011 10:09:02 AM

alright fine, you take his class. Anyone you talk to will tell you the same, I take school pretty seriously. I usually do not have strong opinions about professors, but I thought I would warn some people who might actually want to know this info.

11/29/2011 10:55:03 AM

I think all grad level statistic teachers are like this. I took st 515 and I had a similar experience. But i've never been one to learn from lectures. I always do examples and read the book a little because I find that easier. And if I do ever have a question the teacher always never explains it well ( in Statistic courses ).


I think you can chalk this up to yourself. But thats just me. Sorry.

12/2/2011 12:49:50 PM

I think all grad level statistic teachers are like this.
I think you can chalk this up to yourself.

So all are defective, but somehow it is the fault of the student who brings it to the attention of others.

12/2/2011 4:27:59 PM

so did you give him a chili pepper on rate my professor?

12/2/2011 5:51:58 PM

Quote :

"grad level statistic teachers are like this"

that may be the case, but my 511 professor was quite competent and coherent. While 511 was a review of undergrad statistics, there were real topics covered in lecture and sensible explanations were given when a student had questions. If you want numbers: we discussed (because the study group we made was preparing to tell the department head if need be) and we decided that we spent roughly 50% of the time talking about the personal lives and idiosyncrasies of statistic professors that he used to work with, most of the stories ended with him telling us they are no longer alive. 15% of the was an attempt at covering a topic, followed by confused students asking questions which took up 10% of the time because his answers are very long and have almost never answered the original question and 15% spent with him trying to figure out the classroom technology(everyday there was a problem that a student would end up fixing) and 10% was shared between (on good days) some SAS examples (ok days) examples drawn on the board (which were always off and we corrected them with him, however it was a different way to learn when you constantly correct the professor) and on (bad days) a rehash of his biggest projects in his career (primarily a 30 yr study on the origin of people traveling to Hawaii and all anecdotes possible). The highest grade on the first test was an 82. Most people were in the 50's and 60's. And these are not stupid people, regardless of your opinion of me. And if you are able to teach yourself, which in statistics I am not (my weaker subject, hence me taking a course), then why do you really need it? other than to fulfill credit hours I guess. I was looking forward to this class because I was going to learn SAS. Instead I bought an expensive book, a really good one "Using SAS for Data Management, Statistical Analysis, and Graphics" by Kleinman $45. That has helped me with my thesis a lot, since I was very interested in knowing where my stats where coming from and the best way to analyze biological datat sets. If you can teach yourself then I suppose he is not that bad then, but I actually was looking for instruction. The lab however (thanks to the TA I had) was useful, and she attempted to answer questions we had from lecture.

[Edited on December 3, 2011 at 8:53 AM. Reason : bc]

12/3/2011 8:43:04 AM

ST 511 is a joke. I wouldn't say that is a grad level class. You are comparing apples to oranges here.

12/3/2011 7:26:58 PM

alright, point taken, I already knew that since I didn't learn new stuff. But I took the class so I could learn SAS. The book that I found online and bought taught me more, I just wanted a bit more instruction.

12/4/2011 8:50:09 AM

welcome to grad school

12/5/2011 6:35:26 PM

fine you can take Dr. Nelson if you want, I really don't care, I was just trying to let some people know. And thanks, I have been in grad school, I don't need you to 'welcome' me with your sarcasm. Also I started attending the other section's lecture, and have learned a lot more, so it is not graduate level statistics that was too hard for me, I just needed a teacher since I didn't exactly major in that shit.

12/6/2011 8:57:36 AM

welcome to tww

I'm Krallum and I approved this message.

12/7/2011 2:32:44 PM

Eh, I took 514 and a bunch of econometric classes (e.g. 561/562, econ classification i believe) that were all fine. I forget the name of the teacher for the stat class but he was a younger guy who i thought was really good. I had some background going in and finished with an A-, albeit due to a botched final as I interpreted his email as sarcasm when it wasnt. Completely my bad though.

12/7/2011 5:30:50 PM

Quote :

"alright, point taken, I already knew that since I didn't learn new stuff. But I took the class so I could learn SAS. The book that I found online and bought taught me more, I just wanted a bit more instruction."

You could just take a SAS class at wake tech for $55

12/22/2011 8:20:40 AM

bump

3/29/2012 3:18:23 PM

anyone of you people have and want to sell the 511/512 book?

An Introduction to Statistical Methods and Data Analysis 6th edition

5/13/2012 11:17:50 PM