Reviews for Radu Lazar
Average Rating:| Anonymous Course: BMGT230 Grade Expected: B April 2, 2012, 5:04 pm | Something you need to keep in mind before taking this class: Statistics as a field is unlike anything a normal student will have encountered in high school before taking it in college. The rules and ways of thinking that apply for math and other sciences are not the same that you need to develop for statistics. So don't think you'll be able to ace the class because you're a math whiz (although that would probably help.) The second thing you need to know is that this class is a gateway course for the Smith School of Business. What does that mean? It means that this class is inherently difficult to weed out the kids who don't want to work as hard or aren't as good students. There are reasons that not everyone gets into the business school. This class is one of them. The third thing you need to know is that this class is entirely what you make of it. If you put in the time to go to class, listen to Radu, take notes, go home, review your notes once or twice a week, do the homework, study for the tests (ACTUALLY study), you'll be fine. You need to put a lot of effort to get that A, but the curves should help you. That being said, I would rate Radu as an above-average teacher. He's definitely not the best I've had, but he's absolutely not the worst. Almost all of the complains that have been posted here are problems with the class itself, not with Radu's teaching style. HIS ACCENT DOES NOT GET IN THE WAY OF HIS TEACHING AT ALL. If you think his accent is hard to understand you need to wake the fuck up, get your head out of your ass and welcome yourself to the real world, because in real life there are people who are a lot harder to understand than him. Radu does teach quickly, but again, this class is hard and there's a lot to cover. His handwriting isn't the best but he'll always clarify what he wrote or any question if you just have the balls to ask it in front of a lecture of 150 people. Sit close and you can read everything. The power-points are hit-or-miss in terms of helpfulness. If you don't understand something, though, Radu will always meet with you during office hours and is pretty good at explaining things one-on-one. YOU need to take the initiative and go ask him, though. If you resign yourself to failing in this class that's exactly what will happen. A new calculator will not help you at all. The math in this class is pretty basic-it's the concepts that are hard. The book is not really helpful, and is most of the time more confusing than the way Radu teaches it. Ask yourself honestly if you're willing to put the time and effort into taking the class, because the majority of you reading this don't have a choice. It's really not that bad, but your only alternative is taking it at community college. The rest of you shut the fuck up about hating on Radu and just accept that your lazy, retarded asses didn't try hard enough to get a good grade and move on with your life. Sheesh. |
| Vinayak Ramaswamy Course: BMGT230 Grade Expected: A+ December 25, 2011, 10:59 am | I really don't know why people ride Radu so hard. Yeah, he has an accent, but it's not a detriment to his teaching. He goes fast, but that's because there is such a large breadth of material to cover. Plus his curves are absolutely ridiculous, which overrides the difficulty of the material somewhat. Tips to do well: 1.) Come to class. You don't have to show up all the time, but at least once a week, just to keep up with the material that he emphasizes. 2.) Do the homework. You can use the View an Example tool, but don't rely on it to get the answer. It can help you understand the process for sure. 3.) Make a kick-ass cheat-sheet. Seriously, this is all I really did to study for the exams, and there's plenty of room to really have everything you need. 4.) Do well on the first exam. He didn't curve it at all. I got 100 on it, and it gave me some nice cushion. Second exam is the hardest, but he also curved it by 18% this semester, and he curved the final by 14%. Additionally, 88% and above got an A I think, so the curves really help, so much that I actually ended up with over a 100% in the entire class. The class is doable, if you pay attention when you do go to class, really try to the understand the material, and make a good cheat sheet. Good luck! You can buy a TI-84 calculator if you want, it can come in handy in a pinch. |
| b97820 Course: BMGT230 Grade Expected: C December 22, 2011, 8:48 pm | Professor Lazar is hilarious, and a VERY nice guy. He was very understanding of my situation, (I'm a commuting student who worked two jobs this past semester), and switched me to a different discussion mid-semester because of a work conflict. I'd recommend this class to anyone because of the curving. I'm just terrible at math as it is, and was not trying to get into the business school. I wanted to "challenge" myself by not taking elementary statistics- and I'd call that a big mistake, if not for the curving Prof. Lazar did. The required avg. GPA for the class is 2.7-2.9, so grade curves are adjusted based on that. Learn how to use a TI-83 or 84, because it'll save a LOT of time. Do all the homework, too, and never miss discussion, and you'll be golden. |
| Anonymous Course: BMGT230 Grade Expected: C December 21, 2011, 11:33 am | This was arguably the hardest class I have ever taken in my life. Radu didn't really connect with the students that well so it was hard to follow his lectures. His writing was incredibly sloppy so it was another reason that it was more challenging. The only positive thing I can say is that his curves were incredibly lenient. |
| Anonymous Course: BMGT230 Grade Expected: C December 20, 2011, 9:12 am | Overall I thought radu was good at presenting the material, after each class you kinda get a idea of what he's talking about. hw and discussion are meant to boost your grade so make sure that you complete all those. The only problem I had with this class are the exams i thought they were extremely challenging. I studied hard for every test and pretty much knew all the concepts and barely passed every exam. the important thing is to not fall benhind in this class. even though radu curves like crazy, if you have no idea what your doing you will fail. The exams consitute pretty much your entire grade so try not to fail too bad. Studying from mymathlab seldomly works. study the worksheets from discussion and review questions he gives on slides this is why going to lecture is imnportant he gives you answers to the review questions. The most important thing to study are the past exams that he gives you that's the only thing i felt helped. The problem with this class was that I felt as if i was never prepared for the exams no matter how much i studied. |
| Anonymous Course: BMGT230 Grade Expected: C December 14, 2011, 12:29 pm | This class sucks so much. Professor Lazar has good intentions and trys his hardest to help you understand. But the fact of the matter is that you can barely read what he writes on the board and you won't understand any concepts he explains in class. He goes off of his power points which are long and full of information which is impossible to write all down. He tries to put up the equations on the board, but he never explains what certain variables and symbols really mean. If you have to solve one variable to put into a second or even third equation for an answer, you have no idea how to find or compute the first variable. He also never gives examples to problem sets. He just shows you an equation and moves on. Extremely confusing class, and his tests and just as bad. I do not recommend taking this class to anyone who doesn't have to. Its boring, and might be the hardest class i've ever taken throughout my whole time in school. |
| devinjackets Course: BMGT230 Grade Expected: A December 11, 2011, 7:16 pm | First of all, this class is horribly dry and boring. That being said, Prof. Lazar MAKES THE BEST OF IT!! There is only so much you can do to make business statistics exciting and engaging. He has a lot of material to cover in a really short period of time, so class seems like it is constantly rushed. Which is pretty much is. Also, his accent is not that bad. People on this site are just whining because they didn't put the effort in and they didn't get good grades. Seriously, I don't feel bad at all because it's not impossible to get an A or B in this class! ***NOT TO MENTION HE CURVES AN UNBELIEVABLE AMOUNT*** I am not one to cut corners when it comes to studying because I actually want to make something of my $32,000 a year education, so I put in my fair share of work and I will definitely get an A in this class (WITHOUT the curve) and I've never seen stat before this class in my life. ***IT IS POSSIBLE TO GET AN A IN THIS CLASS WITHOUT THE CURVE IF YOU DO THE WORK**** My advice: 1. Attend lecture. He sometimes gives out helpful hints about what to expect on the exams, and he always does extra examples on the board -- MANY of which are similar to exam questions. 2. Do the homework, and try not to use "show an example." It sucks, but think of the extra hour or two on stat as time put forth towards studying for the exam. Because that time will add up, and it'll be 20 hours you already put into trying to learn it over the course of the semester rather than the night before. Easy solution. 3. I know a kid who never went to class, (took AP stat though in high school), knew how to use his calculator, and passed every exam with an A - no curve. So... I guess if you've taken it before in high school, you won't have to work as hard as the other students who've never seen stat in their lives. Good news for those kids. 4. Read the chapters before class! They are usually pretty short and they make his lecture soooooooooo much easier to follow. 5. Study using your cheat sheet so you know where to find the information quickly on the exam. 6. I used a basic scientific calculator on every exam. You'll probably spend more time learning how to use a TI-84 (if you're not familiar with it) than learning how to do the material by hand.... which isn't that much. I can't help but laugh at people who seriously think a TI-84 will help them pass this class when over half of the exam is testing concepts and understanding, not hard math. I never once used a TI-83 or TI-84 in this class and I got an A without the curve. Seriously, this class is doable. Also, he makes corny jokes in class and they're actually kind of entertaining so it isn't so bad. Again, people who complain about it are just admitting they're lazy students! THIS IS A REQUIRED COURSE FOR THE BUSINESS SCHOOL, SO YOU MIGHT AS WELL GET IT OVER WITH AND BE PREPARED TO WORK HARD! The book is super helpful, his accent has nothing to do with people failing this course, the class is terribly boring, but it's NOT impossible! |
| Lunar01 Course: BMGT230 Grade Expected: C December 10, 2011, 11:45 am | First thing you need to do: Buy a TI-84 Calculator. Just in case that wasn't big enough for you to see... BUY A TI-84 CALCULATOR!!! Your grades in this class will be directly correlated to how well you can use the TI-84 to do the problems on the tests. If you do not know how to use the calculator, take the time to search for tutorials online or ask a friend who knew how to teach you. I wish I was kidding about how much you will need the calculator for the tests but I'm completely serious. Now that the most vital piece of information is noted, let's move on to the structure of the class. The lectures will start with some very easy statistic stuff in the beginning but the difficulty will ramp up steeply after the drop date is over, no coincidence there. Try not to miss the lectures even if you are bored in the class, missing one will put you behind significantly. Learning stuff from the lectures the first time will be difficult so make sure to do practice problems from the book to understand the concepts right away. Discussion sections are NOT optional. You need to go to all of them. Although he will give you 2 free days, I recommend saving them up for when you REALLY need to skip them. You're going to need every points you can get. Same goes for homeworks, he will drop the lowest 2. The thing with homeworks is that you do them online and can view similar problems that basically tells you how to do the problem. So there's no reason you should get anything other than at least 90% in every single homework. Now we come to the most important part of the class, the exams. I will tell you now that the exams are VERY HARD. He will give out a sample exam before the exam and I highly recommend you understand everything in the sample exam. If you do not understand some questions, DO NOT put them off. Try to learn how to solve them as soon as possible. This is where the TI-84 will be your savior. If you try to do problems manually from the way he teach, you will waste a lot of time and prone to making errors. The TI-84 is designed to solve those problems, USE IT! The good news is that he curves the exam and it should help out with your grades a lot. If you didn't bother to read my review, here's the shortened version: BUY A TI-84 AND LEARN HOW TO USE IT!!! |
| Anonymous Course: BMGT230 Grade Expected: December 7, 2011, 8:48 am | I'll make it short and simple with a full list of pros and cons. I hate to sound like a snobby *$#!, but I'm a pretty smart guy who currently has nearly a 100% in the class, and this is just how I see things: PROS: -Knows his material -Homework helps a lot -Tests are unimaginably simple -My TA was pretty good, idk about the others -Actively uses boards and powerpoints at the same time -Open to questions, help, convenience, etc. Cons: This will be a long list. -Strong accent to get used to -Absolutely horrid handwriting. He writes small, slanted, crooked, even when paying attention it's hard to concentrate. -Stat Crunch is useful if you know how to use it. Plenty of people go through the class without knowing how to use it at all, and as a consequence, they don't do well. He needs to teach you how to use this instead of rushing through it in class and not showing you how things work. -Knows material a bit too well, sometimes what he says doesn't make sense at all. I can read the book for 5 minutes and understand more than what's taught in 35 minutes of the lecture. -Homework is online and has many glitches. You could end up losing points on bad rounding, missing symbols, or things that shouldn't give you no credit for. And finally: This class doesn't help much at all. Since he allows us to use one page cheat sheets (two page for final) front and back, I can make a very elaborate cheat sheet, give it to a 5th grader, and that 5th grader could probably get an A or B. At the end of this course, most people won't walk out with much knowledge of statistics. They'll know a few things, but they'll learn them [b]using stat-crunch or technology, things we can't use in the real world without looking like an inexperienced college student.[/b] Though sometimes tests focus too much on small things. Half of one of the midterms focused on something we spent 2 classes on. The other half is something we spent almost 10 classes on. |
| mkoebel Course: BMGT230B Grade Expected: C November 30, 2011, 5:32 pm | He's not a bad teacher, Radu curves things like crazy. It's mainly on the student to learn the material though since he cannot take too much time to cover it in class. There's a lot to learn, so he flies during class. -There's nothing he can do about it.- Word of advise, DO NOT GET BEHIND ON READING. I failed the first midterm with a 53% thinking I would be good with my reference sheet. WRONG. I had no idea how to use the formulas. AP stat is nothing like this, you can get an understanding of the material from prior stat classes, but do not understand it to the degree he tests you on. Read the book daily. He is not kidding when he tells you to study at least 5 hours a week. Just read the book, take notes, and do the mystatlab homeworks and a few practice problems and you'll be good. Be prepared to work. Learn how to use your calculator for all of your T-test, and interval tests, it's your best friend. |
| Anonymous Course: BMGT230 Grade Expected: C November 20, 2011, 3:52 pm | Radu is not only a terrible professor but also a terrible person. He breezes through material in class, and though most people blame his thick accent, it is his indifference to his students success that makes people hate him. I went to his office hours countless times and he became offensive about my character and commitment to success. The TA's were terrible. Mine did not add any sort of help whatsoever. AVOID HIM TAKE THIS CLASS AT COMMUNITY COLLEGE/ELSEWHERE HE SUCKS. |
| duca237 Course: BMGT230 Grade Expected: A- May 20, 2011, 3:38 pm | Most people complain about this guy, though he is really not that bad. Sure he has an accent, but he knows what hes talking about. Hes definitely not the best professor but certainly not the worst. Actually, he's really generous when it comes to grades. Like people before me said, make sure to do well on the first test, it can carry you the rest of the semester. I got a 100 with the curve on the first test and 60s without the curve on the second test and final and managed to come out of the class with an A-, so really anyone can do it. The class is hard, just read the book, know how to use your calculator and write everything on the reference sheets! |
| Anonymous Course: BMGT230B Grade Expected: C+ May 19, 2011, 10:14 am | I hated this class. Honestly the WORST class I've taken at Maryland, and that is saying a lot. His notes in lecture are so sloppy you feel like you're looking at a 2 year old's writing The exams are so hard. Actually, they are extremely hard - and that is because he bases them off whatever is running through his mind at the time. They do not relate to the homework, and do not relate to the discussions either. I never took statistics prior to coming to this class, but was told that its not that bad of a class - that was until I got Radu. His accent isn't bad, you can understand him well, that's not the problem. It's just his tests. Even the cheat sheets that he allows does not really help because yes we can have formula's on there, but the way he writes his questions makes it hard for us to know when to use the formula's. I went to every class, BUT fell asleep 8 out of 10 times. Glad I never have to take statistics again *wipes head* |
| Anonymous Course: BMGT230 Grade Expected: A- May 16, 2011, 9:42 pm | One of the big themes you may have realized by reading other peopleâs reviews is that Radu frequently complains how all of his students think heâs bad/horrible at teaching. In my opinion, heâs definitely not the best professor at teaching, but heâs certainly not the worst. To his credit, Stat is a difficult course to teach and learn, because Stat is ALL formulas and numbers, so unless students devote some attention to the class, thereâs no way to do well. However, because students often donât give a lot of attention to classes, students typically do badly, and then start blaming the professor for their performance. Also, I think a huge thing that contributed to peopleâs bad review about him first semester was that he didnât give practice exams because it was his first semester teaching at UMD. In my semester though, he gave our class first semesterâs exams, giving us a good idea of what the exams will be on. Having never taken Stat before in my life though and getting an A (and Iâm not good at math or anything), I can personally say that Radu is not bad. One thing Radu is REALLY good at is CURVES. He curves A LOT. My semester, he curved the first exam by 3/35 points (~9%), the second exam by 3/25 points (12%), and the final exam by 3/30 points (10%). On top of that, he even curved the entire class, making an A anything above 87% in the class, a B from 78-87%, a C from 64-78%, a D from 48-64%, and an F below 48%. With this much curve, he certainly eliminates any wrongdoing on his part in my opinion. I certainly donât think that heâs so bad that even with his curves itâs still his fault of doing bad. He actually really does respect his students performance and cares about how well his students do. In terms of what youâll be doing during the semester, the three things that make up your grade are homework, discussion, and the exams. Homework is due every week, with 11 assignments in total (the lowest two are dropped). The homework can take anywhere between 30 minutes for easy ones and 90 minutes for hard ones, average is about an hour. The homework is REALLY easy to get a 100% on by looking at examples, therefore you should automatically get 10% of your grade. Discussion is also really easy to get 100%, but it is mandatory. Youâre two lowest grades are dropped (so youâre able to not go twice), but after that youâll start losing points. So as long as you go every time, youâll get another 10% of your grade. That leaves the rest of your 80% of your grade to exams. Since there were a total of 90 questions between all 3 exams and the exams are worth 80% of your grade, each question on an exam is worth slightly less than 1% of your total grade. By doing the math, that means the class is ultimately curved by about 11% (8.137% from exams and about ~3% by lowering the grade requirements). To do well in this class, I HIGHLY recommend you follow these tips: 1. DONâT EVEN TRY TO LEARN STAT THE WAY HE TEACHES IT. BY FAR THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO LEARN IN THIS CLASS IS HOW TO USE A CALCULATOR TO DO ALL THE THINGS HE TEACHES. I cannot stress how important this is. You need at least a TI-84 to do everything he teaches, I bought a TI-Nspire though which was really helpful. What calculator you have is critical. If you only have a TI-83, BUY a new calculator. As a matter of fact, I would definitely say that you should buy a new calculator before you buy the textbook. If you want to try and learn stat the way I did (by just learning how to use a calculator) then you wonât need the textbook at all. However, the code to get access to the homework comes with the textbook, so sometimes itâs worth it to get the textbook too. To be able to learn how to use a calculator though, it is really helpful to have someone you know who took AP Stat and can help you with how to use a calculator. It would be REALLY difficult to teach yourself how to use a calculator without someone helping you. Even more difficult would be teaching yourself stat the way Radu has to teach it (obviously he canât just teach students how to use a calculator). I donât think I wouldâve had ANY chance at all getting an A by learning stat the academic way (by using formulas and stuff), I would've probably actually gotten a C. 2. Make sure to do well on the first exam. This exam will require the least amount of calculations and is mostly conceptual (making it the easiest exam for most people). Because itâs the easiest exam, Radu curves it the least. Thatâs why itâs important to not screw up. 3. Even if you want to teach yourself by just using a calculator, you should still sometimes go to class. For some reason, it definitely helps to go to class. You certainly donât need to go to every class (unless you want to learn stat the way Radu teaches it) but you should at LEAST go to class 50% of the time if youâve never taken stat before, trust me, it helps. And just to give some other miscellaneous information, you get to have a reference sheet where you can put anything on it (front and back) for the first two exams and for the final you get to have 2 reference sheets. Also, you get to write your answers down on those reference sheets while taking the exam and then he emails the exam answers an hour after the end of the exam so you can instantly see how you did on the exam. He uploads all the powerpoints during lecture in class too. |
| Anonymous Course: BMGT230 Grade Expected: C May 14, 2011, 10:36 pm | He is a good guy but the class is very hard. He does make a good amount of effort to teach the material to his students, though. You really just have to go to class and read the book constantly to get a good grade, but if you do not have time because of other hard classes, you may fall behind like I did |
| Anonymous Course: BMGT230 Grade Expected: A+ May 14, 2011, 3:43 pm | This guy is an incredible business statistics professor. The guy knows his stuff by heart and can spell everything out for you on the board, which he does daily in class. He's got a romanian accent so he can sound like he's yelling sometimes but as he says on the first day of class and many days after, he's not yelling its just his accent. Another thing that he says many times over is that this class takes effort and honestly he's right because this is probably the hardest of the business school prerequisites to master and understand. He posts all of his lectures online on ELMS before the class so definitely print those out and bring them to class, it's so much easier than trying to write it all down and it's how I earned my A. Tips to pass: 1. Do all of the homework even though he drops the lowest 2, you'll understand the material much better 2. Come to every class and pay attention. Like I said the man knows his stuff and if you want to do well, he's the guy to pay attention to. 3. Make good reference sheets for the exam! These are very important since he lets you use sheets front and back for the tests. I made me reference sheets out of the review sessions that he did before each exam and earned As on every test. They make the difference 4. Most importantly, do the practice/old exams! These pretty closely resemble the current tests and help show what you need to know greatly! Make your reference sheet first and then use it to take the practice finals and to do practice problems. It's not cheating or not helping you study since you are going to use that sheet when taking the test anyway! Overall, this guy is great and since you gotta take the class to get into the business school, you might as well take it with someone who cares and writes out everything you need to know. Be prepared to work hard and don't fall behind. Good luck! |
| Anonymous Course: BMGT230 Grade Expected: A May 13, 2011, 10:17 pm | People need to relax with all the bad reviews about this guy. Dr. Lazar is a really chill teacher who really wants to help his students out in this class. Business statistics is really boring and can be a lot of material at times, but it's not all that bad. The two midterms are difficult compared to other classes, but there were 8%-12% curves. There's weekly homework which is a really good way to review and make sure you understand what's going on. Be ready to work when taking this class. |
| CiciW Course: BMGT230 Grade Expected: A May 13, 2011, 11:43 am | The work I put in this class is average compared to other students, but I end up getting high As in both midterms and the final, I think this is because I went to 98% of his lectures. You can't just think oh his accent is horrible so I'll skip class and teach yourself the materials later. Unless you are a super genius, it is very very hard to self-teach Stat especially after the first midterm, the long formulas in later chapters are throw you off. Yes his lectures are dry, and I didn't quite understand any concepts during lectures, I kinda just blindly copied down his PowerPoint and his side notes, but these notes help A LOT for me to refer back when I do homework. Tips for this class: 1. Go to as many lectures as possible and write down not only the slides but also his comments on the slides (sometimes he'll say "this type of problem will definitely be on the exam" and it is true) 2. Try to do at least part of the homework before you go to your Friday discussion so you don't feel like an idiot staring blankly at the practice quiz 3. Make sure you know how to do every practice quiz because they are very similar to the problems on the actual test. 4. Make GOOD reference sheet for the test. It's the worst feeling when you leave some formulas out and then you find yourself in desperate need of those formulas for a bunch of problems on the test. The class isn't that bad. People really complain too much. I think Professor Lazar is fine, he IS trying his best to teach, so give him a break and use that energy to find out what you wrong. |
| Anonymous Course: BMGT230B Grade Expected: C April 26, 2011, 5:49 pm | Radu is a really nice guy and is sincerely interested in his students but he is just not a very good teacher. I do almost everything I can do to do well in the class but the way the homework and presentations are given there just doesn't seem to be a way to study efficiently. When you do the homework try not to use stat crunch or the examples because you will have neither of these on the exam. Try not to study from mymathlab and use the ta's office hours instead of radu's because he will just talk to you about all the terrible reviews he's gotten online. If you must take this class then go into it knowing that you will have to work extremely hard just to gain a basic understanding of the material. Good luck, you'll need it. |
| mellow Course: BMGT230B Grade Expected: A December 17, 2010, 7:20 am | 1) I have never taken Statistics before. 2) I went to 70% of the lectures. He's new, and really does care about his students. STAT overall as a subject is dry, but the discussion problems and annoying homeworks really ARE related to the exam. I have fallen asleep. He moves FAST in lecture, yes. But there is too much material to cover. If you manage to keep up, it turns out he makes a lot of sense. So pre-read AND post-read and review his informative slides! The Honors version of STAT gives out much, much more work. Tips to pass: 1) COMPLETE HW without "viewing example" or notes. If you can do that, you're set. Although, I almost always completed with notes. 2) SIT IN THE FRONT. I fell asleep a couple times, and 97% of the class stares at him vacantly/on FB. Stay engaged from minute 1 and be ready when he asks for an answer. 3) My TA was not good, but the discussion was great. Discussion, you work on problem sets in groups for points. Get someone smart/who took AP STAT in group. 4) THE BOOK helped me close to the final. It gives a different perspective from what Lazar gives in class. 5) Score big on the 1st exam, it gets harder after that. Good luck! If you do all this, with his curves you'll do fine. |
| Anonymous Course: BMGT230 Grade Expected: C December 14, 2010, 12:31 pm | Worse class I have ever taken in my entire life. Unfortunately it is a Gateway course otherwise I would have dropped it. Professor Lazar does not follow his lecture notes and writes sloppy notes all over the board during lecture. He flies through material making it impossible to follow what he's writing. You cannot write and listen at the same time because you're trying to distinguish what it is he's writing. The second test and final are ridiculously difficult. Yeah you're allowed reference sheets but that means nothing when you see the test. The only bright spot in the class is that showing up to discussion gives you points and you're allowed 2 tries on each homework problem online. I went to Lazar himself for help at his office and he makes it seem like you're inconvieniencing him. When I asked a question he talks to you like you're retarded and should know the answer already. He means well but in reality he doesn't do much to simplify the material, just throws it at you and expects you to retain everything. |
| Anonymous Course: BMGT230 Grade Expected: December 14, 2010, 10:05 am | Terrible professor. Poor lecturer so retaining hardly any information is nearly impossible. If you take this course read every chapter and go to every single class. Whatever you do DON'T STUDY FROM MY STAT LAB. RADU makes the test in a manner in which there are almost no useful ways to study because the test questions are so different from the homework and stat lab problems. Overall one of the worst classes I ever taken with one of the worst professors. |
| Anonymous Course: BMGT230 Grade Expected: B December 13, 2010, 8:02 pm | Radu cares about his students, but he FAILS in all respects. The test questions are completely different from what is assigned for homework or given in discussions. Therefore, you can study as long as you like, but since you don't have the proper resources to prepare (no study guide or recommended problems!), it is FUTILE. In addition, the class has a focus on completing random formulas and doesn't actually enhance understanding of business statistics. It needs a major restructuring. Lectures are an incomprehensible waste of time, so don't bother going. It won't help you out on the tests. Advice: avoid him at all costs!!! This man doesn't know a thing about teaching and really won't help you understand statistics, which is truly an important thing to understand in the business world. If you are in honors, get into the honors section. |
| Anonymous Course: BMGT230 Grade Expected: A December 12, 2010, 11:32 pm | Lazar is not great, but he is not awful either. I found his lectures somewhat useful, once you got passed his thick accent. The course starts out very slow and simple and finishes at a rapid and difficult pace, so you have to keep up and not fall behind. His first test was very easy, but his second had an average around a 60, which he curved to an 80. He responds well when students do not too great. Homeworks once a week were repetitive and did not offer much help for his exams, which were fairly tricky. Overall, the dislike expressed toward Lazar is more of a product of BMGT230 and not him. |
| Itzahckret Course: BMGT230 Grade Expected: C December 10, 2010, 10:04 am | HARDEST CLASS I EVER TOOK! At first it seemed easy, then I realized the class covers a chapter ever week, next thing I knew we had all these equations to know which made no sense to me. The homework is not hard, but completely useless because you use stat crunch which you are not allowed to use on the exams. Luckily the class grade is curved, so even though I earned a D I will get a C. Radu goes very quickly, and you need to sit in the front row to be able to read what he writes on the board. Attendance is not mandatory which is good for those who like to skip class. |
| Anonymous Course: BMGT230 Grade Expected: B December 9, 2010, 5:46 pm | Worse. Professor. Ever. It's so hard to pay attention to this guy with his accent. He takes a long time talking useless stuff to get to the main concept and when he does, he blazes through and expect students to understand. Everyone in the lecture is either 1. Sleeping, 2. Have no clue what's going on, 3. Feel dumber every lecture Oh and the homework is very annoying. You have to Stats Crunch, a very difficult tool that you have to use to calculate some answers. What's the point of using stat crunch when you can't even use it on the exam? Why bother require students to use stat crunch at all? The only way you learn in this class is by teaching yourself. This guy is horrible at teaching. I've had enough with Business school professors. |
| jhmaple1 Course: BMGT230 Grade Expected: AB December 7, 2010, 5:08 pm | Professor: Radu really knows his stuff and he's always repeating that his office hours are open. He doesn't really try to engage the students during class though. He puts powerpoints online as well as review problems for that chapter. Answers are not posted online so you do have to go to lecture to get those if you want. Somedays he'll go through the powerpoint fast and it's hard to learn that way but it's manageable. Course overall: I really took a liking to stats and Radu really brought that out of me. The course overall isn't that hard if you read the textbook or find some online supplementary information regarding the lesson he's covering. Stats overall is concept wise and isn't much of a equation-plug-and-chug course. Grades/Exams: There are 2 exams, both of which were not that hard as long as you really read the question carefully and know the concepts. If you don't know the material, it's somewhat doable as some of the questions are 'common sense'. (Ex: chances of getting an even number on a dice) He curved the second exam though because the ranges were so widely spread. Helped a lot. He also allows a 'cheat sheet' where you can post any equations or concepts on a loose-leaf paper but no example problems. Comes in handy during the tests. There are also online homeworks but he drops the lowest 2 grades out of either 11 or 12 assignments. (Right now we have 11 total). These online homeworks have a 'view an example' which is almost exactly like the problem you have to solve and really helps to give you guidelines as to how to solve the problem. These really helped me in studying for the exam. Discussions are mandatory because attendance is taken but as long as you show up on-time to 10-15 minutes late, you can get the full attendance points. TA's also give you a worksheet you get to keep and go over it in class. These worksheets helped a lot too in studying for the exams. Daily class life: Looked at powerpoints as he went through them during class and took notes on that specific slide. Although I recommend bringing paper and pencil as well for any graphs or tables which may be hard to type at the speed he's teaching/going. Overall impression: I learned a lot and I know that I'll be using statistics later on in my academic career. Radu really knew his material and I'm glad I took it with him. To me, this is one of those work decently hard classes and get an A. Fall behind a little bit, 1-3 chapters, and you could still manage a B, granted you catch up before the exam. |
| Anonymous Course: BMGT230 Grade Expected: C November 23, 2010, 9:38 am | statistics in general was very hard for me to understand at first, especially because of the wide variety of notation. Radu moves fairly quickly through his powerpoints. several times i had to go online to check what i hadnt had time to write down. BMGT230 took alot of work but he curved both the second midterm, which most of the class bombed, and the final grade. he wants you to do well, but the subject is very tough |
| ebednarc Course: BMGT230 Grade Expected: A- November 7, 2010, 1:26 pm | An online homework is assigned each week for 10% of final grade, it's difficult to score under a 90%. Just showing up to discussion every week is worth 10%, and he allows you to miss 2 without a reduction of the grade. 2 Midterms account for 23% each, and a final for 34%. Radu allows students a double sided 8.5x11" reference sheet for each exam, and 2 for the final. Overall, with decent amount of input and good work ethic, an A shouldn't be out of reach. |