Current instructor

Vivak Patel

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

Raw average: 1.86/5 from 28 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 371
Quality 1/5Difficulty 5/5
Whatever you do, don't take his class—it poses a major challenge to your GPA.
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STAT 371
Quality 4/5Difficulty 3/5
Don't listen to the other reviews he's not that bad. His lecture slides are a little confusing but the tests are very fair. He doesn't do the best job of explaining what you need to know for the test but studying his lecture slides will help you so much.
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STAT 371
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
I thoroughly enjoyed this professor and his teaching style. He explained complex concepts clearly and provided helpful materials like homework, Kahoots, and practice exams. Vivak was approachable, supportive, and offered extra help. He made statistics enjoyable. I highly recommend him.
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STAT 371
Quality 1/5Difficulty 5/5
Super nice guy but his lectures are extremely abstract and take hours outside of class to decipher. Attending lectures is pointless, 90% of what's covered will be far more complicated than what's on the exams and you have to teach yourself everything anyways. Unless you have prior knowledge in stats you likely won't to good with this professor.
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STAT 371
Quality 1/5Difficulty 5/5
I had done stats in high school so I felt confident that I would do well in this class. I was wrong. Every day I left lecture knowing less than I'd known when I'd walked in. He taught in a way that reversed my knowledge on all of the topics. He also only gives 10 assignments, so the 3 exams weigh VERY heavily on your overall grade for the course.
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STAT 371
Quality 1/5Difficulty 5/5
DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS WITH HIM. Literally addressed his bad reviews the first day, and has tried to implement changes; however, for the second exam it contains multiple part questions (select all that apply) and you will get absolutely zero partial credit - making our median a 48/65 in an UNCURVED class. He seems nice, worst class structure.
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Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.

Classes with Vivak Patel

STAT 615 develops mathematical theories and statistical concepts for understanding, predicting from, and criticizing data models.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2020: 3.79 GPA, 92.9% A/AB (n=28 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

historical GPA · grades

Spring 2022–Spring 2026

STAT 698 is a directed study course where students arrange and complete projects with a faculty member.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

No recorded grade history

STAT 699 is a directed study course where students engage in projects arranged with a faculty member.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

historical GPA · grades

Spring 2022–Spring 2022 · limited sample
STAT 990

Research

1–12 credits

STAT 990 is an independent research and writing course for graduate students under faculty supervision.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

No recorded grade history

Recorded teaching history

Explore courses taught by this instructor →
Browse recorded courses
TermCourseTitle
Fall 2026STAT 615Statistical Learning
Fall 2026STAT 698Directed Study
Fall 2026STAT 699Directed Study
Fall 2026STAT 990Research

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

Instructor identity & provenance
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