O'Brien, Dennis  

Okay, O'Brien seems to be a nice man, but that doesn't mean that he should be a professor. He is a stats guy, it's what he does. But, he is 100% unable to differentiate between the fact that 217 is NOT a upper-division course, and that most students in the class are not stat or even math majors. He had the tendency to explain (if you can call it explaining) something once and then refer to it be its greek name and never again explain what it is. I actually have to take the course over and he is teaching 3 out of the 4 sections offered! WTF?! I really tried in this course, I even met with a tutor twice a week, so I don't really feel that my poor grade is entirely my fault. Good luck if you do take him, and hopefully the dept. will get the message that he is a sucky ass teacher.

Without a doubt, the worst teacher I have had at Cal Poly. I went into his office hours two times, where I was subsequently told to "go find a tutor" for help. I did find a tutor, but this made no difference on his tests and quizzes. If you want to learn Statistics, do not take this professor. If you want to have a headache and experience much frustration, take this old man. FOR THE SAKE OF ALL POTENTIAL STUDENTS, PLEASE FIRE THIS MAN!!

I have the textbook for this class (DEVEAUX,INTRO STATS, 3RD ed, 2009) Cost $102 used, $130 new at El Corral Im selling for it $65 Email me: crum-monster@hotmail.com

O goooshhh obrien is one lousy ass prof. Dont take him unless ur good at teaching urself stats. Hes a nice man but hes so damn annoying and old and geez just die already. you basically have to show up to class every lecture to know if u have homeowkr bc he only lets u know if u have homework when u go to class and he doesnt post on polylearn since hes so old he says he doesnt know how to use it. his class consists of bout 10 hw/quizzes, a midterm and a final. thats it. so u cant fuck up much since u dont have lots of assignments to raise ur grade. the final is 50% of ur gradde and prty damn hard. good luck if u take obrien-ur gonna need it.

O' Brien's teaching style is extremely confusing and boring. During lectures, he will start off explaining a concept, but he will start to trail off and tell stories about his days as a statistician for the government. His methods of solving problems were old-fashioned and hard to perform correctly. Instead of using a graphing calculator to instantly find standard deviation, means, and other values, he wanted the class to use the actual formulas and solve by hand. I found this very frustrating and inefficient. The homework problems assigned were not terribly hard, but if you had no previous statistics experience, you would be pretty lost on what to do. Do not skip class, because he takes attendance when he passes back quizzes and tests. One of the biggest problems I have with this guy is that he put a problem on the midterm that covered a concept that he did not teach or was in the book. As expected, almost nobody got that problem right. When the class confronted him about it, he said, "I want my students to always be learning something new, even on exams." I was furious. The purpose of exams is to give students an opportunity to show what they have already learned! The only positive things I have to say about this professor is that he gives back tests/quizzes very quickly, and he is pretty lenient with grading and gives partial credit for writing anything down for a problem.

10 hw and or pop quizzes, 1 final worth 50% and 1 midterm worth 25%. NOT multiple choice, all short answer. He tries to explain the best he can, but he is not the best. Exams are confusing (especially the final) and I have had panic attacks during them.

DO NOT TAKE HIM. ridiculous class that you wont learn jack in. boring all the time and unfair tests. ask anyone who took him in the fall he is garbage. run far far awayyyy

O'brien is AWESOME! One of my favorite teachers at Cal Poly. Loved the course. Loved his teaching style (full of lots of real world anecdotes). He always talks about how statistics is the most amazing thing ever and how statisticians are gods, and I'm not sure how much I agree with him on that, but I loved the class in general. Just keep up with the homework (not collected) and you'll do fine on the tests and quizzes. Really not a hard class. I DON'T KNOW WHAT THE OTHER REVIEWS ARE TALKING ABOUT!!

Mr. O'Brien was pretty fun because he told a bunch of random stories during class. Be prepared for a quiz about once a week or a minitab assignment to turn in. The quizzes and homework are worth a lot toward your grade. 2 tests worth 100 pts each, and the questions come almost straight out of the book. It wasn't as bad as I expected. His review was a 1/4, and I was so scared for the class but I might even end up with an A-!

First off, if you have difficulty teaching yourself material, just don't take his class. On the first day of class, he tells you he won't be able to teach you everything. Oh but don't worry, it will still be on the tests. The tests themselves weren't too difficult, if you took the time to fill in the gaps in his teachings. He also wasn't the best at the material he did teach you. His style is to answer all your questions about homework, and I mean all of them. So that's nice and all, but there were too many times where he would answer them and then try to fit in an entire lesson in less than 10 minutes, leaving us confused, and asking more questions the next day. Overall, his class is doable, but not recommended.

Honestly, I really like him as a teacher. Although some people complain about how he doesn't teach well, I am learning a lot on him. He is not about concepts, but more about formulas and math (which he does give you). I would highly recommend him if you are looking for a teacher who doesn't really care about how to interpret your hypothesis tests. He's an adorable old man as well!!!!!

I thought he was an excellent teacher. i learned a lot about stats and how to acually use stats in the real world. he knows stats inside and out. his lectures are very clear. his quizzes are very similar to the h.w. plenty chances for e.c. i would say that he has been one of the best professors at poly. I dont know why so many people bitch about him. dont listen to those other idiots who cant do basic stats and so they blame the professor. GREAT CLASS DEFINATELY TAKE IT.

Taking this instructor is like being in a Twilight Zone episode. You just can