UofT Course Review-STA257

Taken: Fall 2024

Prerequisites/Co-requisites: First year calculus (137/157), linear algebra and multivariable calculus (237/257)

Course Average: B-

How I Did: Above Average

Workload: Average

Content Covered

A mathematically rigorous introduction to probability, with applications chosen to introduce concepts of statistical inference. Probability and expectation, discrete and continuous random variables and vectors, distribution and density functions, the law of large numbers. The binomial, geometric, Poisson, and normal distributions. The Central Limit Theorem.

Lectures

Lectures were twice a week and moderately paced. The professor was incredible; he had clear organized notes as he went through each topic and explained in a very concise way. There were also a few online polls during each lecture, but more on that later. His office hours were also fantastic; he was a great guy to talk to not just about the course but beyond, he’s extremely passionate about what he does.

Tutorials

Each week, we had a tutorial right after the lecture where we went through a few questions related to the week’s topic. To be honest these were a bit hit or miss; some were really useful while others were a bit boring and redundant. But the TAs were good at explaining and had lots of office hours closer to exam times.

Evaluation Methods

Poll Participation, Midterm Exams, Final Exam.

Poll Participation

Every lecture, we had a few polls in the form of multiple-choice questions about questions based on certain topics. We had a few minutes to discuss the question with our neighbours before inputting our answer. He would then go through the question and give the answer. We had a little over 100 questions total by the end of the semester. 

Midterm Exams

We had 2 midterms throughout the semester. Each were 100 minutes long and tested material up to that point. They were a mix of computational and proof based, but a little skewed towards computations. The first one was not too bad, all the questions were not bad at all. The second midterm though, well, let’s just say that it wasn’t the best (integrating that absolute value pdf will forever haunt me), but I ended doing better than what I expected.

Final Exam

The final was 3 hours long and was a dead average between the first and second midterms in terms of difficulty. All the questions were very fair, and I am forever grateful that the one topic I did not like had a pretty simple question on it which I was able to do.

My thoughts on the course and how to do well

This is my favourite course taken to date; I love the entire theory of probability and studying the odds of things happening, and this course definitely gave me a strong foundation in that. The one topic I mentioned that I didn’t like was the idea of convergence, more specifically ‘Convergence in Probability,’ which has made a few appearances later in my statistical journey, so I had to get used to it, but now it’s not that bad. Don’t be scared by the description of ‘rigourous’; it does have some faster paced sections, but overall, it’s very manageable if you do all the practice problems and go to all the lectures. An absolutely goated course that I would recommend to anyone who needs stats for their degree.