Last Class!

Since this was the last class, there is a lot of reference to the final exam...

Prof: "Closed book, bring probability tables."
Kid: "What if the probability tables are in the back of the book?"
Prof: "Make copies."
Kid: "There's no where on campus to make copies."
Another Student Getting Frustrated: "Can we just move on?"

Prof: "You do not need to hand in the homework for today's lecture on Chapter 11."
Kid: "Does that mean it won't be on the exam?"
Prof: "No."
Kid: "So we won't be tested on Chapter 11?"
Prof: "No, you will. Just because you don't need to hand in---"
Kid interrupts: "Are we responsible for Chapter 11, yes or no?!"
Prof (and nearly everyone else in the class): "Yes!"

Prof: "The final is in the ARC building. Everyone knows where it is, right?"
Kid: "I've never been on the 2nd floor though..."

Prof: "So, what is Discrimination and Classification?"
Kid: "Racism..."

Prof: "What is the cost of getting a bomb in the U.S.?"
Kid: "Very very very very very very very very astronomically high." (I tried to count the # of times he said "very" and I think it was 8.)

Prof explains the Expected Cost of Misclassification (ECM) and uses an example about how the cost of having a bomb get into the U.S. is much more costly than the amount of effort and time it takes to search everyone.
Kid: "Which is why I don't understand why some people are against profiling."
Prof: "That's another story."

Tourette's?

One of my co-workers who reads this blog mentioned that this kid might have Tourette's syndrome (not the type that spews out curses). I thought this was a possibility, but he doesn't have any tics or twitches in muscle. His voice sounds somewhat normal and he doesn't make any strange sounds. There's also nothing unpredictable about him - well, now the whole class has found his outbursts quite predictable.

Prof: "The exam is in 2 weeks."
Kid: "Wait, the exam is when???"

Prof: "So what are principal components?"
(kid interrupts and jumps in before anyone else could answer)
Kid: "Principal components is where you want to find the principal components of a data set to simplify your data."
Prof: "You're using the words 'principal component' in your definition of 'principal component'?"

(after lecturing about topic)
Prof: "Any questions?"
Kid: "I don't think we ever went over how to find L."
Prof: "That's what we're going to talk about next. I just went over the theoretical model, now we will discuss it's use."

Kid (interrupting prof): "Well, for those of us who took 586 last semester, we did factor analysis for the final project."
Prof: "That's good... good for you."
(The funny thing is: I'm sure not too many took 586 the previous semester because it's not the typical course progression, e.g. you wouldn't take Advanced Physiology the semester right after Intro Bio, 586 is one of the basic requirements while this class is more advanced and requires many pre-requisites.)

Prof: "I only have half an hour... should I cover this or ask you to read it?"
(prof flips through his notes)
Kid: "Cover it next time."
Prof: "Nice try."

Midterm Scores Returned...

We had a midterm exam on April 8th and the professor promptly returned our exams the following week, April 15th.

Of course, the kid keeps blurting out to the entire test his exam grades and how he felt about the exam, with no one asking him. The professor gave us the range, low 10, high 59 (out of 60), mean 46, median 48, and the kid kept blabbering on about how the student who got a 10 really had to try to fail to score that low. I felt bad for whoever scored the 10 (it wasn't me). How insensitive...

(beginning of class)
Kid: "Can we do numerical examples today? I feel like I did worse on the 2nd exam because we don't do numerical examples in class."
Prof: "This is a grad level class, not undergrad. I cover theory in class and you can do examples at home."

Professor is lecturing about topic and kid interrupts him...
Kid (reading notes on the blackboard from the previous class): "Area under sheer, what??"

Prof: "I probably can't finish this chapter this lecture."
Kid: "So finish it next time, duh."

Prof: "Everyone knows what correlation is, right?"
Kid: "What are you doing in statistics if you don't?"

Prof: "Sample PCA - imagine a supermarket that collects information with many variables, such as household income, etc..."
Kid: "That's how they know what coupons to send you."

April 1st Post

I took these notes down 2 weeks ago but forgot to post, so these were from the April 1st class.

Prof: "Usually midterms are easier than final exams."
Kid: "JESUS!"

(Prof talking about new subject)
Kid: "Some of us already completed the Chapter 6 homework, you don't need to cover this because we can learn from doing the homework examples."
(I found this funny because Chapter 6 was supposed to be assigned after this lecture and he's "speaking for" 50 other students)

Prof: "What's the dimension?"
Kid: "It's 1x1!"
(pause)
Kid: "It's a statistic."
(pause)
Kid: "It's a number..."
Prof: "This one is 1x1?"
Kid: "Yes, it's a number."
Prof: "You're right, it's 1x1."
Kid: "I knew it! He's pulling our chain."

Kid: "I mean, all these equations are going on our formula sheet anyway."
Prof: "Well, you should still be able to derive it."
Kid: "And the chances of not making a mistake is... 0."

(this kid said something like this 3 times during the lecture)
Kid: "Is Chapter 7 really that short that we can cover it in half a class?"

Kid: "Don't you mean the y-hat?"
Prof: "That's enough! Okay?!"

Week After Spring Break

Last week was Spring break, so we didn't have class. The kid did not show up to class the week before that, so it was actually quite enjoyable. Well, in tonight's class, he more than made up for the missed class with a double dose of outbursts.

Kid: "Is this a multivariate Bonferroni?"
Prof: "No, it's a multivariate ANOVA."
Kid: "Oh, DOH!"

(during the break)
Kid yells to another student walking out: "You're leaving already? What about the second half of class?"
(other student ignores him)

Prof: "The final is cumulative."
Kid: "So can we have 3 cheat sheets?"
Prof: "No, squeeze the formulas into 1 sheet."
(kid holds up fist as he says the next line)
Kid: "SQUEEZE the fun out of it!"

Kid: "What happens when you have 3 populations?"
Prof: "That's ANOVA, we'll talk about it later."
Kid: "Tonight or next week?"

Prof: "This is an open problem in Statistics."
Kid: "Hasn't anyone's dissertation addressed this yet?"

Prof: "If you think this is the right formula, raise your hand."
(4-5 students (out of ~40) raise their hands)
Prof: "If you think this other one is the right formula, raise your hand."
(1-2 students raise their hands)
Kid: "If you're lost, raise your hand!" (he raises his own hand)

(near the end of the class, the prof looked at the chalkboard realized...)
Prof: "Is the handwriting too light today?"
Everyone: "Yes"
Kid: "No"
Another Student: "You're sitting in the front row, so you won't notice."

(about 5 minutes later)
Kid: "Could you write a little harder on the board? I can barely see it."

Snow/Midterm

Last week's missing post was an interesting case. I experienced a dream which every student wishes to have: a snowstorm that cancels your class when you have a midterm scheduled! So there was no class last week, therefore nothing to post about THAT KID.

This week (yesterday), the class was broken up into 2 parts. The first hour and a half was a review session with the T.A. The second half of the class was the actual exam.

At the beginning of class:
A.C.: "I feel like I've learned nothing in this class, it's almost like a business class!"

A.C. asks a question to the T.A. during the review portion, then shushes everyone else because he can't hear him. How ironic.

WEALTH!

The kid was quiet today... I guess the further we progress into technical material, the less creative his outbursts can be.

Prof: "Midterm is next week."
Kid: "Doesn't feel like we've done much."

(Prof wrote on board "better way: sqrt n")
Kid: "What's that square root of n doing next to 'better way'?"

Prof: "How do you detect outliers in a multivariate case?"
Kid: "Why don't you look at it?"
(silence)
Kid: "Plot it!"
(class laughs)
Prof: "How do you plot multiple dimensions?"
Kid: "Oh... right."

Prof: "So, what are outliers?"
Kid: "You know it when you see it."

Prof: "When are outliers good?"
Kid: "WEALTH!"
Prof: "Huh?"
Kid: "Wealth! If you are a wealthy outlier, than it's good."