Smidt, Robert  

Prof Smidt tries hard to make probably the most boring material interesting to students. He requires a lot of work : 11 projects, nightly homework assignments, and two exams, and he grades hard. There is an opportunity for extra credit, and you need it just to keep up. If there is anything you don't understand, it is key that you talk to him about it immediately, because he moves very quickly, and the material is ongoing.

I think Mr. Smidt is a great teacher. He understands that most students are new a statistics, and is always willing to answer questions. He wrote the book, so he's extremely knowledgable about the subject, but he's also a down to earth guy who makes class interesting. He assigns homework everyday and give pop quizzes every week, but its good because both are relatively easy. He also lets you drop a quiz and four of the quizzes are take home mini-projects that are really easy to get 100% on them. He also gives a ton of extra credit, so its pretty easy to get a good grade, even if you aren't the greatest test taker.

Dr. Smidt was a great teacher. To be perfectly honest Stats isn't exactly the most interesting subject. But he did a great job at making it interesting and even somewhat fun with his examples and easy-going attitude.

I took the class over the summer, which meant it was a lot of information in just 5 weeks. However he was still able to make STATS fairly understandable, it being a difficult subject to get excited about. He's a good lecturer, and always answers questions before moving on. Be sure to go to class, do the homework and talk to him if you don't understand anything. The homework wasn't too hard, nor was it too much. It was beneficial to my grade to do it. Overall he is a good professor who grades fairly and is very approachable if you ever have any problems. And from what I've heard, the STATS department is lacking in good instructors, in my opinion he's the exception.

Smidt is a great teacher if you are an attractive woman that doesn't mind showing some flesh or making conjugal visits during office hours. Otherwise, his class sucks. He assigns 3-5 hours homework per night and is just nails on the chalkboard to hear talk. This fool sucks. If possible, take the class at a community college. It does transfer.

Pass on this class.

See, the bad thing is that Smidt knows exactly what he's talking about, but none of his students do. He's a very knowledgable man, but doesn't know how to teach the material to his students. He does give a shitload of extra credit in projects and whatnot, which will definitely help you to pass his class. he's a cool guy too, and the things people say about him and girls I'm not too sure about. I'm a guy and I didn't witness any of that shit! He's cool, but has difficulty relaying his knowledge of stats to his students. It's up to you...

He was an alright teacher. I failed the first two midterms and still ended up with a B. I don't think he shows partiality to just females, if your having trouble, go to his office hours and I highly recommend going to class. I tried to read the book instead of paying attention in class and I ended up stressing at the end of the quarter. Oh yeah, do the homework and projects, THEY HELP OUT A LOT!!!

Uh, what? Dr. Smidt does not show partiality to females. His classes are made up of 80% females (this is the joy of classes full of liberal arts students), but that's the only way I see that anyone would think that at all. He's a great prof that puts time and effort into his lectures and has great experience to help explain concepts to his students while involving them in examples. I had taken a stats class before this one but the prof was pretty bad and I learned almost nothing. Dr. Smidt is a great prof that really takes the time to explain things, and any student that is willing, will really get a lot out of his class. He's fair, and he understands that his class is not the only class his students are taking. The homework is helpful and it's an easy supplement to your grade, while his tests are straightforward and not based on math and numbers, but on concepts. I highly recommend Dr. Smidt for any student who has to take stats, but especially for students who want to do so by having a little fun and learning intersting things about your classmates. :-D

One of the best, most thorough professors I have had. He took the time to explain difficult concepts, and demonstrated a real concern for the well being of his students. The guy was just great. If you have to take statistics, take this professor!

Smidt is a pretty solid teacher. He does his best to make the usually boring subject of statistics at least somewhat interesting. He collects fun data from the class and his lectures aren't too bad most of the time. His tests are fair, and you get a cheat sheet. Homework is pretty tedious and time-comsuming sometimes, but it isn't too bad. Overall a good teacher.

Dr. Smidt is one of the best teachers i have ever had! you get a book with all the class notes which helps alot! he tells you what to study for the tests, the homework actually prepares you for the tests and he gives extra credit. his lectures are somewhat boring, but easy to follow along with because of the class notes. it's hard not to get an a in this class!

Smidt is a really nice guy and probably a good teacher but i did a have a few problems. I am not a math student first of all. I'm used to just solving the problems without thinking deeper into them. If you like math, you'll enjoy this class but if you don't, it's gonna be a pain in the ass. No real math involved, just in depth critical thinking.

Lots of homework daily! I took this class in the summer and barley got by. My mistake was traveling too much and missing class. Don't get behind in the begining! Learn to speak the stat language because it is foreign language go to his office and if neccesary get a tutor. You'll make it.

Not a good teacher, he doesn't understand that students don't know much about statistical concepts. And, his lectures are not clear, most students get really lost, no question asked in class is because we don't know what to ask. However, he is good as a person but doesn't do a good job as a teacher.

dont worry about this class. i failed both midterms miserably but still passed. the class is hard if youre not a math person- and there are lots of notes to take as well as nightly hw assignments. BUT! dr. smidt gives extra credit which saved many lives in this class! though his sense of humor is dry, he is approachable and more than willing to help you- you just have to make the first move. overall, smidt is a nice guy, good luck!

This class can be a breeze or a nightmare depending on what you are willing to put into it. I took it twice, the first time, as a freshman, I never went to class, half-assed the homework, and never once went to office hours. The second time around I put forth a lot more effort and it paid off. I ended up tutoring the other students! Smidt is a great professor and he gets the material across in a way that it is clear and easy to understand. My advice is to DO THE HOMEWORK and don't be afraid to ask for help if you need it!

Just an average prof. I felt that there was a bombardment of lecture notes and homework assignments which were not applicable to the tests.

He's a great professor, I learned soo much by taking him. He might go a little fast at times but just tell him and he'll slow down. I highly recommend him to anyone.

~217 Summary My first Cal Poly teacher, and compared to many of my math teachers in high school he is a pretty good teacher. I was not used to this type of math where everything is analytical rather than mathmatical, but its easy to get used to. The content of the class is fairly basic, so focus on the main points so you don't make careless mistakes on tests and quizzes. The green book of notes is a lot of help, but the MINITAB homework with a few exceptions is useless for tests and quizzes. Almost a quiz every monday. The Midterms were all based on the notes and the quizzes. Don't be afraid to ask questions. Mostly Liberal Arts students in this class so the questions asked in class may seem completely common sense to you, but smidt answers them like they were intelligent questions. Have not taken enough math classes to recommend this teacher or not. But it's not a difficult class for anyone that is fairly literate in math.

This guy is great!!! He's an awesome teacher and is very fair

WOW! This class is the best class ever! He wrote the book so he knows what he is talking about and gives enough examples so that everyone can understand. He is the best professor at Poly cause he cares about his students and wants everyone to be able to use Statistics in their field. His tests are easy and reflect what he goes over in class. Take him, he is the best, and you'll love Stat after you have him!

smidt is a good guy. he tried to be funny and we ended up laughing at him rather than with him. he collected homework, which kinda sucked, but i guess forced me to do it, which didnt hurt. If you have a mac and take this class you'll have to do all the homework in the library because minitab only works on PC, which sucks a lot. Hes pretty leniant as far as homework and attendance go, but i would have failed if i didnt show up because he explained things that the book didnt get across. The tests are pretty hard and get progressively harder, so an A- on the first one means study harder next time or you'll get a B-. He makes the class interesteing and explains things so that even liberal arts students can grasp them.

one of the best professors ive had. if you go to class and do the homework this class is super easy. homework everynight but only takes about 20 minutes. he knows what hes talking about and presents everything clearly. the two midterms are very straight forward if youve done the homework and understand. hes very helpful if you go to his office hours. definitely take this teacher.

He was a pretty good teacher but there was too much work, wayyy too much. the homework would take me forever and if you have a Mac good luck running minitab. this class was a pain in the ass because of the work, weekly quizzes and how boring it was. He gives you all the notes for the class, but cannot really present the information clearly. I studied my ass off for the final and thought I got an A but it wouldn't raise my grade enough because of all of the homework assignments and quizzes. If you are a GrC major wait to take this class until you have to and take it right before the class that it is required for (a three hundred level course, I believe) otherwise it wont do you much good because you won't remember the material and you do need it.

Smidt is the best teacher that I've had at poly so far. He gets the students involved and presents the information in a way that is easy to understand. The homework is very helpful and he goes over any questions about it the next day. His tests are very straightfoward and he grades fairly. He's also willing to change a test grade if you discuss any missed points with him.

Let me start off by saying that this was the second time I enrolled in stats 217. I hate math and I was terrified to take this class. Smidt was able to put a lot of those worries behind me. No, the class wasn't magically easier-but he did make it fun to go to class. He's funny, and seems to recognize that statistics isn't something that everyone enjoys. I recommend him, but it's not because he's easy; it's because he made me not hate math as much as I did before.

Smidt is such a good professor. he gives you the class notes so that you dont have to worry about jotting everything down, instead you get to listen to him and get a better understanding. First he explains all the technical bs and then backs it up with a really interesting example that helps you fully comprehend the topic. He gives you plenty of direction and when the hw seems to be too difficult he will give you another night to grasp the idea. The tests are a little difficult to study for because its hard to predict what will be on them. He is easy to trust because well, he wrote the damn book. but by far the best part of his class is that he researches everyone's majors ahead of time so that he does not teach you something you will not need to know.

2 midterms, a final, nightly hw, lecture notes provided - overall this course was a fair amount of work, the reading and hw took me several hours usually but Professor Smidt gives his students a fair chance to get a high grade - in the back of his class notes are midterm prep questions and his tests resemble those questions and the homework problems. He lets the class decide when to schedule midterms and when each is scheduled determines how much material will be on them, if enough material is left for the final, it is not cumulative (except that the basic procedures and concepts are inherently cumulative)- so scheduling can be used strategically to the class's advantage. Overall I thought this was a fair class and from what I read on Polyratings about other Stat classes, it seems like the prime choice.

He was a nice guy and it was an okay class but I felt like he relied way too much on the computer to teach.

i really liked smidt's teaching style; this was my first statistics course ever, so i had no idea what to expect for the class. i noticed very quickly he's very good at noticing when students aren't getting the material, and will spend extra time explaining something a million times a million different ways in order for the students to understand it. the midterms are very straightforward, and he allows you to bring notes in on two full sheets for a midterm, and four sheets for the final, so you can take in everything you need. overall a great teacher; i'd definitely take him again

I'll start off to say that smidt seemed like he was going to be an amazing professor by the reviews i read. I should have never relied on this because they were far from the truth. First of all he is extremely unapproachable and gives off that vibe like he doesn't have time to talk to you outside of class. He will help you during class but if you have a question afterwards it seemed like his goal was to run out the second he stopped lecturing. He is a very busy man as he is the HEAD of the statistics department and rarely had office hours that did not conflict with my schedule. He seems to only have office hours extremely early in the morning and then he teaches and then goes home. But who knows if that changes quarter to quarter. O and did i forget to mention...HE WROTE THE BOOK. ya thats right he wrote the statistics book so who better than the author to teach the class right? not exactly, he obviously knows statistics well and gets it pretty easily. But when it came to understanding the concepts in DETAIL it was extremely difficult. I thought that I understood how to do everything, but on the tests he more asked questions that were way over your head and you had to critically think about multiple things and somehow come to a conclusion what the hell he was asking. So to conclude this all I recommend that if u are going to take him you better be really good at statistics to start off with or put A LOT of time into hw, studying, group studying, and trying to get his help or a tutor. Statistics is like a foreign language and it takes a lot of time and effort into taking this class so loading up on other difficult classes at the same time I would NOT recommend. BUT everyone is different so he may be your teaching style and he may not be. GO TO CLASS DO YOUR HOMEWORK AND STUDY. this is not a class you can get away with missing all the time. In fact one lecture missed and you'll be completely lost. especially with smidt he goes quickly and goes over a lot of information in one class

This professor came off as arrogant and misogynistic. His lecture style is disorganized and difficult to follow, which means that his tests are equally if not more chaotic. As someone planning on attending graduate school, I wish I had dropped the class at the first signs of this professor's incompetence. Fair warning for those considering his class!

The homework load was reasonable, yet the textbook (which he wrote) was a bit disorganized compared to other textbooks I've used. I felt that his grading policy was fair in theory, but unfortunately he did not clearly explain the material to his class. Perhaps he is better in a smaller class, but he was not impressive in the lecture I took. He did make lots of stereotypical comments about women which made me uncomfortable--that could correlate with my lower scores in the class. Which, I suppose would lead to confirmation bias on his part. At any rate, I would encourage you all to try and get another professor before settling for Smidt.

Dr. Smidt is pretty funny. He's got a couple stories, anecdotes, and a New Jersey accent that will get you laughing in class occasionally. He's a little old-fashioned in terms of how he reinforces traditional gender roles in class, but it's not a problem and I don't think he offends anyone. He was helpful in office hours. Despite the occasionally entertaining nature, I found myself getting pretty bored of the material and spacing out about a third of the time in lecture. Maybe that's just cause Stats is boring though. There could certainly be far worse when it comes to stats. Smidt was an acceptable professor in every way.

Hes a good funny guy who tries to make stats as simple as possible. But if you have a mac do not take his class. Minitab, the statistics software that is used for his class, does not work as well on apple computers and the last couple weeks of the quarter i couldn't even do most of the functions.

Professor Smidt is a really nice guy! I took AP stats in high school so most of this material was review for me, however he did make it a little more difficult to understand. We do multiple examples in class, but actually doing the homework does help a lot. Using Minitab was more difficult on a Mac, but once I figured it out, it made everything much simpler. Overall, I recommend taking stats 217 with him, but a decent amount of work outside of class is required to fully understand the subject matter.

Amazing professor!! Teaches material perfectly and makes the test pretty simple. Pay attention in class and do the sample problems before hand. You should easily get an A in the class

Do not take Professor Smidt for Stat 217. While he clearly knows his stuff and isn't a bad guy, he's a terrible teacher for an intro class. He's retired and only teaches part-time, so it feels like he's just coming in for an easy paycheck. Every lecture feels like it's on autopilot. He's been teaching at Cal Poly for 20+ years, so he recites the course material with such a banal detachment it's easy to forget what he's saying and get lost halfway. This is a big problem in his class because he teaches it in such a linear fashion, with most concepts building on the previous ones. He gives almost zero time to review or going over tougher ideas. All this means that if you disengage even slightly, miss a class or otherwise don't understand something, you're kind of screwed and will have to spend a lot of time going over the topic on your own. He'll assume everyone knows exactly what he's talking about at all times, and will act very condescending if you ask him to slow down or go over something again. Absurdly, when asking students questions to make sure we 'get it', they won't have anything to do with the subject matter, but will usually be really simple addition-related stuff. Complete waste of time. But if you like homework, this is the teacher for you! He sets two assignments a week, each of which will usually take a few hours each, so be prepared to put in time. He'll make you buy his lecture notes which is a total con. Also, the $30 textbook required for the course was written by him. Funny coincidence! Overall, smart guy, very bad teacher. Don't take this guy unless you have a natural affinity for statistics and don't mind a ton of work each week.

Smidt is completely uninterested in teaching the class or answering questions.

Smidt is completely uninterested in teaching the class or answering questions.

Passed the class... barely. Smidt is totally arrogant and dismissive of any students that don't understand the material. We were going over the content of the then-upcoming final, and two people had to ask him to slow down. He then started talking in a super-slow, sarcastic tone as if it was a ridiculous question. The guy doesn't know how to teach, and makes you buy his class notes and textbook. Awful, awful, greedy teacher who you should never take.

Smidt stinks with "I am a stat professor mainly for engineers". Or at least his example problem he gives in his notes seem like it. My opinion, you don't need to buy the textbook. However, class notes are somewhat essential for this class. The only time you need the pretty expensive book is for homework problems. (which you need to turn in for a part of the grade) (which is NOT for completion). I would just do the homework in the library where you can check it out and return it after you are done. He is a pretty funny guy IMHO, and he is understanding. He will try to explain the concepts further in detail if you need to. Midterms and the Final are straight forward, so there should be no problems if you do the homework (which is just a tad of busy work). Also, he gives you MINITAB and the data sets for the larger and longer data for the homework problems.

I took this class twice because I was so unhappy with the grade he gave me. After he accused me of cheating right as our final started I was so distraught I did horribly on the exam and it brought my grade down over a letter grade (my phone was in my backpack but he called me out and moved me in front of the whole class). I had already struggled in his class despite taking AP Stats just because he does not pay attention to students needs and is very behind the times in his terminology as well as what is deemed appropriate for classroom talk. I ended up taking the class later with Jimmy Doi and got an A- if that shows the difference taking someone that’s NOT Smidt can make

I'm not sure what some of the students below are talking about but I thought Dr. Smidt was a great teacher. I'm a guy and can gurantee you I have not cleavage to show, yet I did really well in that class and found him to be really nice and helpful. Are they talking about the same teacher? I took Smidt in a 5 week course so it was relatively tough, but all the people I talked to liked having him as a teacher. Just pay attention, do your homework (he likes giving surprise quizes), don't wait till the last minute to do your projects, study for the midterms and you should be fine. He even gives extra credit.

He tends to think that stats is the only class occuring at Poly. However, he has lots of projects and homework, and extra credit, so if you if you don't test well, then at least your grade doesn't die. I would recommend him to my friends.

horrible teacher..i thought he was going to give his students credit for homework and projects, he didn't give us anything to obtain extra credit in the class, so ignore the people who said something before me. terrrible professor, go somewhere else...

This class turned out to be much easier than I expected. He has changed the format of this class a lot since previous ratings. There are no projects, just 2 midterms, a final and pop quizzes that are made to help you understand the material better. He only counts 7 of the quizzes, but gives way more so that you drop your low scores. He assigns nightly homework, but does not collect it. I did not find doing to homework helpful because it was different format than the test questions. The best way to study for his tests was to review old test questions that he gave us. Plus, you get to use notes on his exams. I think Dr. Smidt is a good choice for this class.

horrible and a jackass..such a prick. I expected to go into this class getting some kind of credit for attendence or projects to help out in my final grade. But in the end he turned out to be some what nice but then a really really bad teacher. I had some friends who went into his office hours and they were treated like crap, please avoid this professor at all costs. very rude. In this class you only have 2 midterms and a final, but if you get lost, you get lost there is no way to learn everything you missed. He does not present the course material clearly, so if you get lost and have no idea what you are doing, then you are screwed. But yea no projects, no attendence credit, and no homework credit- just TEST SCORES AND PLEASE DO NOT TAKE THIS TEACHER!!!

Take this class or any other from Smidt if you can! He is simply a great teacher. He has tones of experience in doing Stats (leading to some good stories), co-authored the textbook, and you buy the notes. He assings homework but doesn't collect, so you only have to do as much as is necessary to understand the material (which isn't hard at all). There are some "pop" quizzes, but he only takes half of your best grades and the questions from them appear on the tests. This class is designed for people who hate math, so if math isn't your thing or you just want a good teacher, take Smidt.

If you study from the beginning you should not have a problem with this class. Dr. Smidt is a fair professor and a fair grader. There is a lot of work in the class but I learned a lot. The projects helped me understand the homework and do much better on the tests. The SI class is a must in order to get a good grade in this class. If you have any questions, Dr. Smidt is very helping in his office hours. He passes out a study guide before the tests which are extremely helpful. Stay up from the beginning and you shouldn't have a problem.

This class would have been a lot easier for me if I had kept up with my work. The SI teacher I had was excellent, so I highly recommend either taking the SI or at least just going to it every once in a while. Something I wish I knew before the class: turn your projects in two class periods earlier, because he tells you how to get extra credit for the real due date. The extra credit on the projects I got really boosted my grade.

The only reason some students did so well was because they showed their clevage in class. Any male that wants to do well should not take him, he caters to the good looking women. I studied and tried very hard, even tried making his office hours. He blew me off for another girl that was hot!! What a jerk, women take him if you are hot, guys go take another instructor.

Pay no attention to the male's who complain about sexual discrimination. I'm a guy and took him in the summer 5 week session. This class was seriously a joke. If you go to class and take his quizzes (go to office hours if you miss something to get the right answer) you'll know exactly what's on the exams. His projects (JUST data collection) are equally as easy and he's even willing to give you extra credit (though, trust me you dont need it if you spend any time on this class at all) for an analysis of your project. The majority of people who take 252 are business sophomores who aren't used to having to TRY in a class since every single major course till you're a senior is cake. If you want the easy way out, take Smidt during the summer 5 week session.

He is definately easier in the summer from what I have heard. He is a good teacher.

I recommend taking smith if you are taking stat 252 for your SECOND time. I think as a first timer it would be hard to understand the material and you would have to spend a lot of extra time teaching yourself stuff. BUt smith is really nice and grades with a curve like no body's business.

This can be a tough class buy Smidt makes it pretty easy. The best thing about his teaching style is that he doesn't make you do meaningless calculations by hand. You wouldn't be doing that in the real world. He requires that you be able to read the computer output, interpert, and make inferences about what it means. This saves a great deal of stress when it comes to memorizes equations and then hoping you don't hit a wrong key on your calculator when computing them.

Smidt is a great professor. He literally wrote the book on statistics, and excels at transferring the knowledge to the students. You can go to him and work something out if you're having problems. I totally screwed up one of the mandatory projects, and he gave me an extension without docking any points. If you want a professor that knows their stuff, and is passionate about what they do, take Smidt.

Dr. Smidt is an excellent professor. I never thought that I would actually end up enjoying a statistics class. He made is lectures as interesting as possible, and prepared us very well for the midterm and the final. The class was held in a "smart room", and he walked us through all the ins and outs of the statistics program, 'MiniTab'. I would recommend this professor to everyone.

Smidty is sweet. do the homework, it is easy, and he lets you do it in groups. i turned in maybe one assignment with only my name on it and i got full points for homework, and the longest assignment was an hour long, tops. do the projects, they are easy and dont take much time at all. the midterms and final were pretty hard compared to the homework, but still very doable. smidt is an awesome guy and loves what he does and is the most knowledgeable stat professor here. garaunteed.

Dr. Smidt is a great teacher! Stats is not the most ineresting of subjects, but he is very helpfull and tries to make the class interesting. He literally wrote the book, so he knows his stuff. His tests are very dueable, just watch out with the final. I went into the final with an A and look what happened!

I have never really taken stats but this professors teaching ability is great, i had a a hard time in the class just cause i was taking way too many units this quarter. Like this class is more like a writing clas there really arent no calculations on the test but there are on the hwk so if u want to do great in this class get together with someone its like the only way the class is quite difficult others find it easy, its just two midterms and a final, ur allowed a sheet of notes for every midterm and four pages for the final. Well good luck for those who have to take stat 312 im gonna have to take it agan i believe well whatever ill be the one screwing up the curve cause those ho took it a second time were the one s who screwed up the curve cause they got really high grades so do ur best

Great teacher, and a fun guy. Makes the class interesting through lots of examples, often involving the class. He presents the material well, and his class notes are incredibly helpful, since if you buy them, you don't have to divide your attention between focusing on what he's saying and writing it down at the same time. The tests aren't very hard, and although a lot of the material is confusing at first, he goes over it enough so that it all makes sense in the end.

Smidt is awesome. Although I've had a ton of stats and this class wasn't exactly challenging, he made teh material really easy to grasp and made a 9AM class worth going to (most of the time ;) ). Two tests and a final plus 10 "projects" (you just find an article relevant to the material and write 3 sentances about it) make up the grade. Homework is optional and he'll even compute your grade with and without it and give you the higher. He co-wrote the books o he can answer any questiosn you might have. For sure take this class (or any stats class I'm sure) with smiddty, he knows what he's talking about!

Highly recommend for Stats 312. Class was very straight-forward. Homework, mini-projects where you just find an article on the topic discussed in lecture that week, 2 midterms and a final. For the midterms and finals, if you can work through the samples on his website, you'll be fine. Funny and entertaining guy which was great for a subject like Stats---one of the most boring subjects ever. Dont pass up on him

I loved Smidt and would definitely recommend taking him. His class notes that you buy at the bookstore are way better than the book and are really helpful. Homework is optional but a good idea to do because of the extra points. Projects are mandatory and kinda hard but again extra points. Study the old midterms online those help A LOT. He is such a great teacher and take him if you can!

very good teacher. He definitely knew how to present the material in and understandable and fun manner. He gets the class involved and it really helped to keep me awake in the morning. Lecture was almost never boring and he was very good about choosing his examples, especially ones from his personal experience. I still remember his funny story of the broken typewriter. He did help write the book and it is helpful, as well as necessary in order to do the homework problems. Homework is optional, but definitely recommended in order to better understand the material and the grade boost. Also, careful not to miss any projects! Highly recommended teacher.

Smidt takes a very dry, boring subject and does his best to make it fun. For the most part, he succeeds, but it's statistics, so there's only so much you can do. There is a LOT to learn, but he's fairly good about letting you use extensive cheat-sheets for his tests. Smidt is a fair grader on his tests--not overly lenient, but not too strict, either. There are also a few out-of-class projects required, but most take a half hour, or perhaps an hour at most if you're a perfectionist. Fairly easy and fun, plus he gives you everything. One thing to note: for required materials, it lists his class notes, but those are all available online. Probably best to buy them anyway, but if you use a computer for class (gotta love tablets), not necessary.

He is pretentious and not a good teacher. The class is convoluted, and I'm not even sure what I was supposed to be learning.

Dr. Smidt is one of the best professors that I've had so far at CP. He is organized, straightforward and helpful. You purchase his lectures binded, so during lecture you add some notes, but mainly he engages the whole class. He likes everyone to be involved, but he didn't make me feel embarrassed answering questions. I felt that his objectives of the students was always clear.

Best professor I\'ve had at Cal Poly! He took a subject that didn\'t sound particularly interesting before I took the class and showed me how relavent statistics is in the real world. Great use of examples in class. Highly recommend this guy!

Smidt is a very straight-forward professor. He presents the material pretty clearly. However, if you\'re like me and are bored by stats, the issue is staying awake and focused so that you can actually understand what he\'s talking about. He lectures on a projector and you follow along in his copy of the notes (that you buy). I usually started to drift off during each of his hour long lectures. His tests are very difficult. He recognizes where students may struggle with concepts and puts many tricky MC questions on each of his exams. The homework is pretty easy. My advice is that you should definitely go to office hours once you get confused. He\'s very helpful and doesn\'t mind spending lots of time with you. If i had gone more often, I probably would have done better in the class.

Statistics is just a boring subject. The only reason I got an A in this class is because I took AP Stats in high school so I knew everything we covered in class. Even then it was hard to get an A in this class. This is definitely not an easy class. Lot of material is covered in this class. There is homework due almost every lecture. Smidt does a good job teaching the material but he does not do a good job teaching the material that he puts on his tests. His tests are half scantron half brief answer. His exams test your test-taking ability more than they test your knowledge of the material. His exams are way too long for 50 mins. The good thing is that he puts up a sample exam on his website which is very similar to the actual exam so you have an idea what to expect. He\'s probably the best teacher for this subject. Never went to his office hours. He\'s a nice guy though. Don\'t expect an easy A.

I didn\'t take STATS in high school and I didn\'t plan on it being hard in college. I was wrong. It\'s hard. I went to class everyday and I always started to daydream because STATS is a boring subject to me. Smidt knows his stuff, but if you don\'t pay attention 100% of the 50 minutes in class, don\'t take him. Sometimes the class was interesting. Most of the time it wasn\'t. Try to take this class with another math class. (My mistake)

Smidt obviously knows his stuff, but stats was boring. The homework he assigned barely matched up to what the tests were on, since at home you\'re doing stuff on minitab, and obviously on the tests you couldn\'t have a computer. What I\'d recommend: Skip class (but turn in the homework), get the notes from el corral and just study out of the book. That\'s what I did for the final and it worked better than anything else.

I would be surprised if there was a better STAT professor at Cal Poly. He is very thorough and sometimes the material is dry but he does a great job explaining the tougher points and quickly covers the easy stuff. There is probably 4-5 hours of HW a week, two midterms (that are very similar to his practice exams), and a semi-cumulative final that is a little tougher than the other tests.

Smidt is a guy who has been teaching for a long time and has got a formulaic approach to his classes. This means that he has been giving the exact same lectures for many previous quarters word for word. This can work, but also means some of the information/procedures/methods provided are a bit out of date. He claims the class is interactive, but its really not. You sit and listen to him give his same old speel for the entire quarter, which is slightly made up for by the fact that youve never heard this particluar speech before, but the copensation is not enough. Prepare for a boring class with lots of formulas.

Smidt is one of the best teachers I've ever had. Some people think he's unapproachable but that's because they are unapproachable themselves. Going to class is generally a must if you haven't taken statistics before; relying only on the course notes you buy is a really bad idea for this class. Take the practice tests before each exam, his midterms/final are very similar to his practice tests.

There's no doubt in my mind that Professor Smidt is a genius in STATS. He has a deep understanding of the subject which is probably because he has a masters in it. He's been teaching STATS for SEVERAL years so his lectures are rehearsed. Mid-terms are TIMED so prepare for that. If you do take his class, try not to fall asleep like I did every so often. Each lecture is important so don't miss it. Overall I can say that I have learned a lot in stats.

Smidt is a great teacher. He has been doing this for a long time and even wrote the book we use in class. His examples really help you understand the material. The problem is that it's very hard to pay attention in class because it's so easy to get bored during the two hour class. Make sure you go to every class because you will have no idea how to do any of the homework if you don't write down the examples in your class notes. The midterms are very similar to the sample midterms he posts online. Some of the questions are exactly the same. Make sure you know how to do the sample midterm and you should do just fine. Definitely recommend taking Smidt.

This teacher is very knowledgeable on the material. This should be the Cal Poly standard for teachers.

Professor Smidt is one of the best professors I have had at Cal Poly. He is extremely knowledgeable on the subject(hell he wrote the book we used), has a great sense of humor, which makes the 2 hour lecture a lot easier to stay awake during, and is very fair through his tests and grading them(on my class's final he gave us an extra 10 points to earn because he thought the first two tests had a few questions which weren't fair). Even though stats can be a very dry and boring subject, Smidt keeps you interested through personal stories, an occasional bad joke and a subtle New York accent. Go to EVERY class and do EVERY homework assignment, which are due the following lecture, this is the best way to understand the material. The 2 midterms are relatively easy(about half MC and half written), but are timed; you get two full pages of notes for each. Prepare for them by doing the practice midterms on his website. The final was cumulative, but not overwhelming because if you ask he will pretty much tell you what will be and wont be on it. Overall, great professor for a somewhat dry subject. Easy to get a B, very manageable to get an A.

Professor Smidt is a good instructor. He is very engaging and likes to tell interesting stories. That being said, I felt a bit of a disconnect between the homework and the exams. I ended up getting A's on all the homework, and C's on the the exams, even though I studied more for this class then any of my other classes. One major problem I had with the exams is that I felt very rushed on both of the midterms. We only got an hour to complete them, and then he lectured for an hour after that. On both midterms, I did not have enough time to double check my answers, and I made mistakes that I would not have made if I had taken my time.

Professor Smidt is pretty good at keeping students engaged. When I first signed up for this class, I thought it would be super boring and hard for me to stay interested in the subject, but Professor Smidt always has a lot of good stories or relevant example problems that help make understanding the concepts easier. He was also really helpful anytime I had questions about the material. I don't know much about the other statistics professors, but he seemed like a good one to me. Overall, it's still a boring class, but he helped make it less boring and somewhat fun.

Smidt is a Baller. Stats is a boring class, but this guy made it as interesting as possible. He constantly involved the class (of about 70) and asked hilarious questions to create in class examples. He once asked all the girls in class how many dates they have been on in the past year. The "zeros" were sad but very entertaining. He also asked how many drinks we had last weekend. Hilarious. We were aloud note sheets on the tests which was clutch. But know that the class gets a lot harder about half way through so stay with it, that's why I ended up with a C+. This guys kills it though, very good at presenting material and helpful in the office hours. Take him and have a good time.

Best professor at Cal Poly? Maybe so. Excellent teacher, excellent at providing examples, very funny, very entertaining, great at explaining and answering questions, very approachable, relational, very intelligent, A+ teacher. Assigns a lot of work, but only enough to make you learn the material! No complaints! Smidt should be the model professor for this school, made me very interested in stats and made enjoy every in class lecture.

Really cool teacher. Great at teaching the material, very approachable, and does everything he can to make the course interesting. He lets us have notes for all of our exams and a solid 50% of the final was from his sample exams on his website. But go to class, the reason I got a C was because I thought the class was super easy (especially for the first half of the quarter) and stopped going for a while but it really ramps up fast.

I am surprised that this professor has such great PolyRatings. It's possible he used to be great, but he has certainly lost that ability. He is very arrogant. I had a hard time understanding him in class. He has terrible handwriting, speaks too fast, and presents the material in a confusing way. In office hours if you ask him a question, he accuses you of not going to class. It seems like he gets defensive because he knows most engineers think of this as a push-off class. His tests don't appear to be difficult, but when you get it back you'll realize that you were docked many points for small errors. I did not like this subject material, this professor's attitude, or his ability to present the material. Do not take this professor. There are better stats professors out there.

This professor is horrible at teaching statistics. He is old and needs to retire. Do not take this professor

Good professor, if you go to class and pay attention (or at least pay attention during the in class examples) you'll definitely do well.

Professor Smidt is a pretty darn good stats professor. Approachable and reasonable for the most part. Professor Smidt started to become a little hard to follow him in the second half of the course, perhaps because it got easy for the students to relax after an easy first half, perhaps because he can be a bit confusing at times. It seemed like I understood the material all quarter and had an A wrapped up but something bad happened to me the night before the final and I did not study much. Then surprise -- bad final and my grade got brought down to a full B. That sucked. So make sure you stay on top of all your work and go to class.

Dr. Smidt is better than the average professor at Cal Poly. While he does not always present the material well to the class, he prepares class notes such that you could teach it to yourself. Without them, the lectures make very little sense. He does present it well. It is just that at times, it seems just too technical. Nevertheless, a knock on him is that he tells the worst jokes in the world, but they are entertaining bad jokes to keep you interested. You will have conceptual interpretation questions for exams and projects. Overall, Smidt is a pretty good professor with lots of experience teaching and in research. The key to learning lies in his professional and detailed notes. They will make your life a whole lot easier in any of his classes.

Dr. Smidt is an excellent teacher. He is not easy, but the subject he teaches is not easy either. Dr. Smidt teaches in a very straight forward way and provides examples to clarify the ideas. Take Dr. Smidt if you are interested in actually learning about statistics. Don't take him if you want to jack around all quarter. The projects and homework he assigns are straight from the lecture material. The tests are very straight-forward and at an appropriate difficulty level.

Dr smidt was and now is my favorite professor. I only wish he would tell more stories and teach more upper division stat classes! But onto the seriousness, his coursenotes are surprisingly good though they seem really long at first. Basically this class consists of Quizzes (one per week), homework (due about twice a week, but short), a midterm, a final, and 2 projects. The exams were both take home which is good and bad, but they were doable if you followed along closely in class. He gives really good examples on the spot to illustrate different types of experiments. Projects were a good way to make sure you really understood what you were learning. He holds the class attention very well and tells great jokes. He really cares about your learning and is always open for business in office hours. He cares about his class, his methods, and his students so much. Dr. Smidt for president. also hes very good by email too, and not afraid to help!