By Sai from Tokyo 5 months ago Completed

This is a very introductory course and maybe best suited for high school students. There was a harsh criticism of this course by a college math teacher (http://www.angrymath.com/2012/09/udacity-statistics-101.html) and Dr. Thrun is going to address some of his concerns in the next version (http://blog.udacity.com/2012/09/sebastian-thrun-statistics-101-will-be.html). MOOC is still in its infancy and I think it is a great attitude to welcome criticism and try to improve based on feedback. Anyway, if you are thinking of taking this course, make sure to do so after the major update.

By Dan from Vancouver, British Columbia 35 days ago Completed

Sebastian Thrun is an excellent instructor and his well-designed course included fun, diverse, and engaging example problems to apply Python to statistical analysis.

Having used statistical analysis for work for the last five years (although not applied with code), having taken CS101 and Web App. development (both through Udacity), and coming from an engineering background, I didn't learn new concepts, but it was a good refresher for basics and an excellent way to improve code-writing fluency -- important in the working world where efficiency trumps technology in many situations.

I had hoped the course would delve into some more advanced topics in data analysis, but in hindsight it is probably best left quite basic for the greater audience of beginner programmers with little or no background in statistics.

The course is definitely worth taking to learn or refresh basics concurrent with applying it effectively in code. At a bare minimum, it will improve the critical thought process for the type of information we are exposed to each day by the spectrum of media. I would also recommend it for professionals not coming from a math background who want to develop practical skills for many types of consulting. IMO most work out there isn't about the ability to apply cutting-edge theory, but instead is about mastering the application of fundamentals and the ability to quickly perform 'back-of-envelope' estimates as 'reality checks'.

By Keith Thomas from Chicago, Illinois 5 months ago Completed

Thrun will be updating the class shortly, but I'll still share my experience on the first version. I thought it was a very interesting class, engaging much more than a class at college usually does. His examples are really nice and those are what I remember the most after the fact.

At the time, the difficulty felt just right, but now that I've taken a university-level statistics course, I see that this course only really covers about a quarter of what we covered at school. If anything, this is more of a high school level course.

Stay Udacious!

By Jonahlyn 6 months ago Completed (Partially)

This was a great class. Really helped me get ready for more advanced statistical topics.

By Bharat Krishna from Seattle, Washington 6 months ago Completed

It was a nice course. I expected more advanced topics to be covered. But as it is a beginner course they weren't. Optional programming exercises were good.

By Doug from Kansas City, Missouri 7 months ago Completed

Course seemed like it was rushed and incomplete (although I know there have been revisions). Material was not university-level.

I appreciate the attempt to make it intuitive and not too hard. But, the interactive quizzes were sometimes repetitive and too easy. There are much better options for learning Stats from Coursera.

By Lawrence 7 months ago Completed (Partially)

Great class.