<p>Need your opinion, peeps. I'm a freshman going in and I need to figure out which would be better to take first semester.</p>
<p>I'm thinking about 14-15 units, so assume I'm only taking Stat 21 OR UGBA 10 (not both at the same time). The rest of my schedule consists of just 2 easy breadths and perhaps 1 DeCal or some other small, 1-2 unit class.</p>
<p>I'm able to test out of Econ 1 and all the Calculus needed for Econ/Haas, so those are out of the picture. </p>
<p>Which would be a better "first semester of freshman year class"? STAT 21, or UGBA 10? I know both aren't easy, but which would be better?</p>
<p>I took UGBA 10 my first sem. One of the better decisions I made.
Don’t finish all your pre-reqs and then find out you don’t actually like the major.</p>
<p>Also, stats 21 is harder, so you probably want to wait for a good prof or until your 4th sem.</p>
<p>I took stat 21 fall of freshman year with Prof Purves and ugba in the spring. If you excel at memorization and multiple choice, take ugba 10. Otherwise I’d recommend stat. The curve in stat was pretty generous, and it made my first semester much easier than second semester. :/</p>
<p>Stats is pretty hard. I feel like the class is almost harder than math 1b. Hahah. Not in terms of material, but in terms of getting a good grade. However, I can’t compare it to UGBA bc I haven’t and won’t take it. </p>
<p>When you do take Stats however, don’t take it with Purves. I heard some horrible things about him. He gives ridiculously difficult tests (not that Ibser doesn’t but not quite the same degree of difficulty). Ibser is a bit better on levels of difficulty, but the curve is still hell. I also like Ibser’s teaching style; he’s very straightforward, very organized (which I LOVE), easy to follow, writes clear notes on the board and explains concept well. Plus his lectures are always webcasted, which is a bonus cuz in case senioritis carries over and you get lazy, all the lectures you missed will be available online. I think Ibser is teaching next semester. If you feel confident, then take that class.</p>
<p>I haven’t taken stats (in college, have done so in HS) yet but I have taken math 1b. I seriously doubt stats is harder than math 1b because all the engineers/science majors are taking that class.</p>
<p>I don’t think anyone needs to prepare for stat, but I suppose you could read the required textbook (Statistics by Freedman, Pisani, Purves) over the summer, haha.</p>
<p>Also, before each exam, you will be given optional practice problems. Do those to get a taste of the level of difficulty of the exams.</p>
<p>The exams were difficult because lecture gives only the basics, and it’s all application of concepts on the midterms and final. Some students are comfortable only with the plug-in-the-formula type questions when it comes to math.</p>
<p>It’s because the concepts and material are all exactly the same (regressions, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, all of that). It’s just that the tests and homework are much harder and trickier in Stats 20/21 than Stats 2 and probably the UCSC course. I actually knew all the concepts already from AP stats lol, but I still hadto spend a lot of time understanding it and applying it to Stats 21 level problems.</p>
<p>I am actually taking both of those classes right now. My workload is pretty basic, weekly homework and quizzes for stats, reading and tests for ugba. If you are only taking one though, I say UGBA 10 first. stats is harder, and you can decide from ugba if you even want to continue with the biz prerequisites instead of wasting your time and changing your mind (my situation :/)…</p>