Bill Katsianos
3 courses · 20 reviews
Courses
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This individual does not understand WashU values. The lack of being able to think for yourself and bring in outside materials shows a lack of openness to learning from students on his part. An only use my lectures slide mentality is not a WashU value. As a student who loves rigor, this class is unchallenging and lacks depth of learning.
5/12/2026
(This is for 4030) The materials are crazily difficult compared to SDS 3030, and his lecturing styles make it worse. Going to lectures are highly recommended (self-taught is impossible). Homework are long but doable because you can copy codes from lecture slides. Exams are similar to practice exams, but still difficult to do in 50' and take 50%.
5/5/2026
Singlehandedly the worst professor I've had at WashU. While the content was quite manageable, I cannot overemphasize how unreasonably difficult his exams were. The lectures were 0 help, as he just read directly off of the slides. Prof Katsianos singlehandedly made me not want to do a stats minor, or ever take a stats class again. Avoid at all costs
5/4/2026
The way he respond in piazza is not helpful. Students asked question about which method should use, and he responded as "you can use whatever you want as long as it is correct". And this class has no replace in midterms which have lots of percentage, make it almost impossible to get an A if you did bad in one midterm....
4/30/2026
Super nice and responds really fast on piazza! Assigns a lot of homework questions but is not a harsh grader (on homework and on exams). highly recommend taking a class with Bill!!
4/28/2026
Bill was a good teacher throughout this semester, I honestly felt like I learned in his class. There were 2 exams both 25% of your grade, so if you messed up a little bit your grade suffered greatly. He graded nice on the exams though, in my opinion. He gave such long homework though, make sure you start a couple days prior to the due date.
4/15/2026
Very difficult class, especially if you miss class, good luck understanding the slides. Lectures are boring and hard to follow. Topics are taught at a high level without much intuitive explanation
4/9/2026
Professor is very nice and helpful when asked questions, but exams are 70% multiple choice which does not provide a lot of room for error given that the class is mostly graded on exams. Really nice professor though, but mainly just writes down and teaches the slides exactly.
1/12/2026
The exams in this class were quite difficult and often had a curve, and though I enjoyed the content, I think the lectures/teaching could have been better.
12/22/2025
Very passionate professor, and he cares about his students' success. The exams are mostly multiple choice (each question is 4 points) with no partial credit, so little room for error. The difficulty in content increases quite steeply after the first exam. Go to office hours and ask question- he is very accessible if you just make the effort to go.
12/21/2025
Bill has good slides and lectures overall. Homework is a little time consuming but is fair. Exams are generally fair but a little hard to do in the 50 min time frame and have some tricky questions. The final project which in theory should boost your grade is graded incredibly harshly on top of being time consuming which is rather counterintuitive.
12/17/2025
He makes good slides, but the exams are UNREASONABLY HARD. For the second midterm that counted 25% towards the final grade the average before curve is 63% (he curved 10 points, but it is useless). For the final, he said it was really easy and it turned out that the average before the curve is 70% (he curved 5 points up).
12/16/2025
This course starts off fairly easy for the first month, but immediately gets more difficult until Exam 2. The slides and notes are incredibly useful. Bill teaches really passionately, but is a bit slow-paced. Be prepared for calculation-heavy homeworks and exams.
12/14/2025
Bill is very chill, and his exams are sometimes hard, but he also gives out extra credit sometimes.
9/16/2025
Really kind and caring professor that gives fair exams, it isn't difficult to do well if you do the homeworks and study
5/1/2025
493 Probability is a hard class. Bill is a new instructor, obviously he needs more effective teaching methods instead of just copying from the slides. The slides he provides are clear and you can basically learn by yourself. Tests and hw are not easy. But Bill tries hard to raise the average, such the nicest grader ever. The final is easy.
2/5/2025
Really good professor who takes the time in class to not only teach concepts clearly, but go over plenty of proofs and examples in class. He does a great job of teaching you the concepts underlying everything, but not demmanding perfection on the exams. He is a very fair grader and puts out practice exams which are reflective of the real exams.
12/18/2024
exams are a lot easier than hw, both are pretty reasonable. grading is fairly lenient imo, also he's hot
11/15/2024
The averages on the midterms were 89% and 84%, grading was very lenient and the exam Qs were very easy compared to the HW and content covered in lectures. Bill is a very intelligent and caring teacher and imo this class is only slightly harder than SDS3211. If you are paying attention in class and not ChatGPT-ing the HW you will probably get an A.
11/15/2024