This subject isn't as difficult as other people make it out to be. The teaching staff where really helpful and attentive, I also found that the feedback I received on assignments was really helpful, sometimes the question on the quizzes where a bit difficult, but it being open book it wasn't to hard, and the exam was fair. I felt that the online lectures meandered way to much and could have been more direct, the content really isn't that difficult, but somehow due to the amount of additional random information (which we don't need to know about), it was way to complex. As other people have noted this subject can be REALLY time consuming, so be aware of that, make sure to keep up with study and go to tutorial/practicals.

Don't do this subject!

This sucked, as much as the teaching staff were really nice it is just really poorly executed for such a complex subject and one that is required as pre-req for many major subjects. This has been the worst subject I have enrolled in yet and only did it as I needed to for my major. I just wanted to make this review so people aren't as unprepared as I was for this subject. First, the online pre-recorded lectures are so vague, they include so much unnecessary maths as they are made by a maths stat person who adds complex formulas 'to help your understanding'. Second, you have to know how to use Rstudio as it is required for all of the assignments, I had to teach myself and still was not very good at it because I had never used anything like it. Third, going into the exam just do as many practice exams as you can, the questions are so similar and that way you can see how they want the questions answered but beware! often the answers they provided were not correct so be sure to ask questions! There was just so much self-teaching needed for this subject which is not right considering we are paying all this money. I am usually a very proficient student, I perform well, this subject was hell for me. Do not do this subject unless you seriously have to.

The subject tells a lot of practical data analysis methods in scientific researching, but better to mention that a lot of things are badly taught and few are explained on lectures. So many stuffs need self-teaching and in the period of global pandemic, the course needs more consideration to deal. Also, the practice exams provided are full of, I mean with plenty of PARADOX!!! That the answer could hardly match the solution provided, what is wrong with this course, seriously if this course is not your major core, keep yourself from it, it ruins your experience in unimelb.

This subject isn't as bad as the other reviews have made it out to be in my opinion. The teaching staff for sem 1 2020 (Paul, Luke and the tutors) deserve a shoutout for being really considerate especially with the pandemic situation. The content is also much easier compared to other MAST subjects but you might find it hard if you're not used to working with numbers. The workload is pretty heavy but you don't need to understand everything in the online lectures just make sure you understand the examples in the interactive lectures and tutorials and you'll be fine for the final exam.

Pretty bad subject overall. Online lectures were often too complex and provided unnessacry information that was just confusing. The normal lectures and tutorials are ok, but made worse by covid (not really their fault). Assignments were at an ok level of difficulty, but the answers they provided were way more complex than is reasonable for a student, making it hard to see where you go wrong. The practice exam answers also had issues, with some of the answers given being straight up incorrect. Would not recommend unless you need it as a prerequisite, most useful thing they teach is how to use R, which I'm certain could be self taught.

Not recommended unless you are really good at statistics and is able to learn BY YOURSELF. my recommendation is to only take this subject if you really need to. the lectures are a mess. They separate a lot of stuff which is unnecessary. Normal lectures are given online, meaning that they have an interactive lecture which is somewhat useless if you fully understand the online lectures (not to mention the online lectures were a mess as well). Tutorials (listed as lecture 2 in your timetables) are somehow useful, just that you need to pick the right tutor. I went to two different tutorial classes, both are completely different. Choose wisely. The workload is too high to catch up, so basically, you will spend more time than the coordinator told you in one week (e.g. they told you that it will spend 4-6 hours per week, nah, a joke. It takes around 8 hours if you really want to understand the whole thing). In short, take if you need, not recommended if it is only a recommended background subject.

This subject is like doing 2 subjects at once. In order to do well you have to put in a lot of work hours. The workload is too high - there is a one hour prac, a one hour tutorial, a one hour lecture and up to 2.5 hours of online lectures to do every week. The exam is so poorly written you have little clue what on how to answer the questions. The subject is so poorly organised that they are always having to scale quizzes, change assessment due dates, and only have 2 hours for consultation with coordinators........ which is on Friday at 6:15 pm. The subject should be completely scrapped and syllabus re-written.

This subject is like doing 2 subjects at once. In order to do well you have to put in a lot of work hours. The workload is too high - there is a one hour prac, a one hour tutorial, a one hour lecture and up to 2.5 hours of online lectures to do every week. On top of that there are fortnightly quizzes that are worth next to nothing but take up all your time and most of the time they are so poorly organised that the answers are wrong or the questions are worded too ambiguously to answer. There are then 3 big assignments throughout the semester that take a lot of time and effort to complete but again, are worth way less than you'd expect for the effort required. This subject is more stress than it is worth.

The 'interactive lectures' were pretty awkward and unhelpful, but easy enough to do the problems on your own time and rely on google. This subject definitely requires consistent work to do well in (which I did not do), but it wasn't too hard, you just have to be dedicated enough to do a lot of it on your own as the lecturers aren't the best. Coding could be pretty cool too. Don't take it if you don't have to, but if you do have to there's definitely worse things.