SDS 4020
Mathematical Statistics
Theory of estimation, minimum variance and unbiased estimators, maximum likelihood theory, Bayesian estimation, prior and posterior distributions, confidence intervals for general estimators, standard estimators and distributions such as the Student-t and F-distribution from a more advanced viewpoint, hypothesis testing, the Neymann-Pearson Lemma (about best possible tests), linear models, and other topics as time permits.
Instructors
Jimin Ding, Likai Chen, Mark Feldman, Nicholas Syring, Nilanjan Chakraborty, Richard Rochberg, Robert Lunde, Soumendra Lahiri
Reviews
6-8 hrs/week
Chakraborty is super funny. Homework is really difficult but exams aren't bad. Definitely go to office hours.
6/18/2024
Professor Chakraborty is a very fair grader for the few assignments that you are graded on in this course (3 exams for 75% of the grade) and very generous and helpful during office hours for the homework. The fundamentals of the course are covered very quickly at the start, so you may get lost if you have misunderstandings in the first few weeks.
5/11/2024
Extremely condescending, discourages asking questions and grades harshly/unfairly. Absolutely do not recommend.
5/10/2023
If you attend the class, you will find it easy to get A. No heavy workload. Examples are clearly illustrated by Chen.
4/21/2022
As someone who had A/A+ in all other math classes, even A+ in Syring's 3200, I found Syring's 494 the most terrible class I've ever had. The test questions were impossible and completely unrelated to our homework. Plz avoid a professor who threw impossible questions at his students even in a semester when a global pandemic hit so many ppl hard
11/19/2020
Indulges in his student's failure. Makes the hardest stats class at WashU even worse. Bad lecturing: only goes over proofs of theorems and explains them badly. Extremely hard exams: unrelated to what he teaches, involves little concepts mostly calculations (you'd be better-off being a calculator). Doesn't respond to emails. Absolutely merciless.
5/7/2020
An embarrassment to an elite university like WashU, English is barely intelligible at best, lectures are utterly worthless, heard her call multiple students stupid to their faces for not understanding something, the fact that she's teaching this class again next semester is utterly insulting
5/9/2019
She writes everything important on the board, and is usually clear with examples. She seems to genuinely care whether the students are following her, and does her best to answer questions in class and office hours. Has reasonable expectations overall.
5/8/2013
This was the first college class I fell asleep in- and it wasn't just once, either. Rochberg rambles on and does weird things, has weird pauses. Also, the exams were very easy, as was the homework. The only disappointment was that I expected to learn more than I did.
7/31/2009
I have taken several classes from Prof Feldman. As stated, he's a nice man. Think of him as your guide to mathematics; he often presents the view from 10,000 ft and this is a service to his students. His exams are fair, often easy, but yes, you will need the book. But you'll also come out of the class a near-expert in the subject matter.
5/6/2008