‘18.600: Probability and Random Variables’

Table of contents

1. Course Info
2. Realistic Prerequisites
3. Subject Matter
4. Course Staff
5. Lectures
6. Problem Sets
7. Exams
8. Resources
9. Grading
10. Advice to Future Students

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Course Info

Class Size	229
Hours/Week	8.9 (64 responses)
Instructors	Jonathan Kelner
Overall Rating	5.8/7.0

Realistic Prerequisites

• Students believe the content of 18.01 and 18.02 is required.
• Students recommend having some proof-writing experience, but that this isn’t required.

Subject Matter

• Most thought it was largely applied, foundational and useful.
• Students thought it would be helpful for further work in math, physics and computer science.

Course Staff

• Course staff were engaging and approachable.
• Prof. Kelner was willing to talk with students extensively after class.

Lectures

• Most students found lectures well paced, and concepts were explained thoroughly.
• Students said office hours helped them reinforce the lecture content.

Problem Sets

• Students found the psets interesting, and not too challenging.
• Students found the lectures prepared them well for the psets.

Exams

• Students found that the exams were tough to complete in the given time.
• Grade cutoffs were adjusted due to low exam scores.

Resources

• Students used the textbook, lecture slides, and class recordings.

Grading

• Grading was fair
• Harder exams were curved to reflect the difficulty.

Advice to Future Students

1. “Take with friends! Good content”
2. “The class is much easier with pset groups.”