Current instructor

Brian Powers

/5Adjusted rating
/5RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 3.17/5 from 29 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

What students say

Original student reviews · all captured dates

STAT 324
Quality 1/5Difficulty 3/5
This professor cannot communicate information effectively by any means. Lectures are often 2 hours when everything could be said in a quarter of that. He obviously understands statistics, but he also assumes that students already have experience with coding in R and makes zero effort to teach how.
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STAT 340
Quality 3/5Difficulty 5/5
tests so hard bro. not even like the midterms. that curve be super high. he a nice jolly chill guy tho always smiling. js the tests bro sheesh.
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STAT 340
Quality 3/5Difficulty 3/5
The course was ran very poorly. Lectures were a mix of typed out slides and coding, then homework was all coding, but then the exams were hand written questions. Made no sense. Why teach us how to code if we're going to be tested on solving problems by hand? Don't expect Piazza answers within a few days either. Nowhere to be seen before the final.
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STAT 340
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
GREAT explainer! You can tell he is passionate about the topics and is a master at breaking them down. Also super nice, patient, and helpful at office hours. I learned so much from going to his office hours just once. He also made the 340 slides that other profs use so he really understands them and the examples used in lecture.
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STAT 340
Quality 3/5Difficulty 3/5
I actually think that Prof. Powers is very knowledgeable about stats and programming, and he's actually a good teacher if you listen to lecture and ask questions. The tests in both STAT 240 and 340 are very hard (and sometimes unrelated) compared to hw, and I do think it's odd to not release the curve until end of class.
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STAT 340
Quality 1/5Difficulty 5/5
Worst class I have taken in college. It is a complete mess. We do all of our assignments in R and then take the hardest exam known to man on paper -- we got 50 minutes to do it which was no where near the amount of time we should have been given to complete that monstrosity. Given the amount paid in tuition here, this course needs a re-evaluation.
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Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.

Classes with Brian Powers

STATISTICAL METHODS FOR BIOSCIENCE I covers statistical inference, ANOVA, regression, and diagnostics for bioscience applications.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 3.35 GPA, 60.9% A/AB (n=46 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.47 GPA, 61.5% A/AB (n=78 letter grades).

historical GPA · grades

Fall 2022–Fall 2025

STAT 340 teaches data exploration, modeling, and analysis using R, covering probability, simulation, hypothesis testing, Bayesian inference, regression, and machine learning techniques.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

Brian Powers is approachable, caring, and a clear explainer who answers questions thoroughly and maintains organized Canvas resources. Reviewers appreciate his passion and helpfulness during office hours, noting he is a standout compared to other department instructors.

historical GPA · grades

Spring 2022–Spring 2026

Introduction to time series analysis covering stationarity, AR/MA models, and forecasting applications.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

historical GPA · grades

Fall 2022–Fall 2025

Recorded teaching history

Explore courses taught by this instructor →
Browse recorded courses
TermCourseTitle
Fall 2026F&WECOL/STAT 571Statistical Methods for Bioscience I
Fall 2026STAT 340Data Science Modeling II
Fall 2026STAT 349Introduction to Time Series

Teaching history may be incomplete. Course pages contain course-specific feedback and citations.

Instructor identity & provenance
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