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.

He makes the exams virtually impossible to complete and largely unrelated to the course material or homework. He openly acknowledges that past exams were poorly worded and confusing, yet continues to write them the same way. He also refuses to release a grading curve until the end of the semester (even with the exam average as a 50%).

Actually the worst test I have ever taken in my life. He is a pretty good professor, but the stat 340 curriculum needs a change. The homework has no correspondence with the tests and even knowing probability theory the test was straight-up unfair. The midterm average was a 50%. I would say the course teaches R very good, but the exams are unfair.

He just hit us with the worst test I've ever received on campus. This guys tests are near impossible. Nobody leaves the room until 2 minutes left on the test because everyone is fighting for their lives. Many just straight up leave their short answers blank because of the amount of time pressure this man put on us.

While he does care about is students and is very accommodating, he struggles to lecture in a way that gets the point across easily and quickly. I found the lectures to be tiresome and we didn't gain much from attending. This course was definitely made harder than it needed to be by the bad lectures, hard tests and test-heavy grading.

Dr. Powers is a standout in the stats department, especially compared to the other STAT 340 & 240 professors. He genuinely cares about teaching and goes out of his way to ensure students understand the material. Stat 340 is a challenging course that requires significant effort and study time, and I found the exams to be unnecessarily difficult.

I loved Dr. Powers's lectures and appreciation for the subject. He was very personable from the first day and I felt comfortable asking questions and supported in his responses. He is one of the more fun professors I have had, and highly recommend him for any Statistics course.

Dr Powers is a welcome exception to the rest of the stats department at UW Madison. Compared the other stats professor I've had, he cares way more about educating his students. He answers all questions very thoroughly and was able to answer inquiries well beyond the scope of the course curriculum. His exams are also written very fairly IMO.

Professor Powers is a great mathematician, explains well, gives examples... If you like mathematics/statistics you would like the way he teaches. In my opinion Stat340 is slightly easier than Stat240.

Super nice professor, but does tend to go off on unrelated tangents quite often. The class is not designed well. Tests are largely unrelated to lecture topics and the final doesn't even have a coding portion, which is at least half of the class, and most of the homework.

Dr. Powers is an excellent teacher. He is very passionate about statistics and he does go on tangents but he makes stats easier to understand and fun with his light-hearted jokes. He is extremely accommodating and helpful to his students and genuinely wants you to succeed sadly STAT 340 is very poorly designed to make the student struggle :(

Powers is an approachable, funny person and a decent lecturer. He tends to go off on tangents that waste time but his explanations are solid overall. His canvas page has additional resources and is organized better than Bi's, so I recommend taking him for 340 if they are the professors teaching it.

While he clearly cares about his students, I don't feel like this tests (midterm and final, cumulatively worth 60% of the grade) reflected the course material we learned. Additionally, doing the homework and discussion assignments only gave a very, very loose understanding of the course material. Not sure if this is a problem with Powers or Stat340

good guy. will def help u out if you need it

This professor did a terrible job at explaining things and assumes you have knowledge of stats already. He is very smart and knows what he's doing but does not explain anything in the lectures even when they are 2 hours long. I took this class over the summer so it was very fast paced, but I hated the layout of the class.

He is clearly a very skilled statistician, however his lack of teaching and content creation abilities are apparent. He struggles to stick to a line of reasoning and often loses track of his own sentences as he speaks. His tests are simple but a quick 10 minute video can often explain what Powers tries to cover in 2 hours.

Brian Powers may be the worst math professor I have ever had at UW, and I have seen a vast variety. It is apparent that Brian has absolutely no idea how to effectively communicate and teach his class through lectures, and assumes you already know quite a bit of statistics. This class has guaranteed that I'll never take another stats course.

Professor Powers is most definitely a very gifted statistician, however he struggles in communicating the material in an effective manor. His lectures are defined by chaotic slides and tangential topics of discussion, often leaving the actual lecture material diverging massively from the material intended to be covered by the course.

This class was not very well taught, everything was easy to follow. The notes were posted, and they were easy to follow and refer back to when doing the homework. Maybe the best professor I have had.

he's great

Powers is a great lecturer, always willing to and great at answering student's questions, seems to genuinely care that we understood the material, would even use lecture time to answer questions about that week's homework, was very transparent about the exams, overall a fantastic professor. Also clearly enjoys the subject, which really helps.

I really liked how the class was taught. The homework, quizzes, and exams all closely followed lecture material so they were not difficult. Exams were open-note and online which was very helpful. Also, all of the notes were posted as well as the lecture recordings.

Dr. Powers is the best! He genuinely cares about his students and wants us to succeed. His lectures are good and he takes time to explain things when questions are asked. He is accessible outside class, active on piazza, and very understanding. A big part of your grade is from homework, but if you do it the tests are fair and not overly difficult.

I have loved taking statistics with Professor Powers so far. He has made statistics so much easier for me to understand. He teaches the material so well and is a very genuine and caring professor. If you're planning on taking statistics, I highly recommend choosing him as your professor. He is one of the best professors I've had at UW-Madison.