Stat 134 Fall 2015 Syllabus
Instructor: Allan Sly sly@stat.berkeley.edu
Prerequisites: One year of calculus. Are you ready for this course? These exercises developed by Prof
Adhikari indicate the sort of mathematics taken for granted in this course. If you cannot do these
exercises quickly and correctly, you must review your algebra and calculus or take another course.
Many students find this the toughest mathematical course they have taken so far so be prepared to
work hard.
GSIs: Jonathan Larson, Wenpin Tang and Yumeng Zhang
Class Time: Tuesday and Thursday 2:00-3:30PM in room 100 Lewis Hall.
Sections: See http://statistics.berkeley.edu/courses/fall-2015/fall-2015-stat-134-002-lec Please attend
the section you are enrolled in.
Office Hours: TBA.
GSI: TBA
Midterm: Thursday October 15, in class. Covers chapters 1-3.
Exam: Tuesday, December 15, 2015 8:00-11:00AM
Textbook: Probability by Jim Pitman
http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-1-4612-4374-8
Overview
This is a first course in probability theory. It is essential knowledge (and a prerequisite) for the statistics
major and should be useful in a broad range of different fields. We will cover basic probability,
sampling, random variables, continuous distribution, joint distributions and dependence. These ideas
are the basic building blocks to statistical inference and probabilistic modeling.
Homework
Homework is at the beginning of each discussion section in class on Wednesday. Make sure to include
your name and SID. No late homework will be accepted, barring major illness or the like but the lowest
homework score will be dropped. The homework exercises are an essential part of the course, and are
necessary for good understanding of the content. If you work in groups each of you should try the
problems yourself first, write your own solutions and list at the front the members of your group.
Copying solutions to the HW problems from your peers or from online rather than working them out is
doing yourself a disservice which you most likely will regret in the midterm and final.
Papers will be graded on a 1/0 scale. Each assignment will consist of 8 problems. A good attempt at 6 or
more problems will receive the score of 1; anything else will get 0. I get to define "good attempt." I will
be looking for your reasoning and detailed work shown – it is assumed that you will show work whether
or not the question asks for it.
Quizzes
At the end of chapters 1, 2, 4 and 5 there will be a quiz in your section (the midterm and final will follow
chapters 3 and 6). These will be closed book and closed notes; no calculators or similar devices will be
needed or allowed.
Grading
Grades will be weighted (after scaling) according to the maximum of


10% homework, 20% quizzes, 25% midterm and 45% final exam
10% homework, 20% quizzes, 10% midterm and 60% final exam
Other resources:
The Student Learning Center offers an adjunct class for Stat 134, as well as extensive drop-in tutoring
and exam reviews.
Slides for the course designed by Prof. Elchanan Mossel
Schedule
Week 1: 8/27 Sections 1.1 - 1.3
Week 2: 9/1, 9/3 Sections 1.4 - 1.6
Week 3: 9/8, 9/10 Sections 2.1, 2.2
Quiz 1. 9/9
Week 4. 9/15, 9/17 Sections 2.4, 2.5
Week 5. 9/22, 9/24 Sections 3.1, 3.2
Quiz 2. 9/23
Week 6. 9/29, 10/1 Sections 3.3, 3.4
Week 7. 10/6, 10/8 Sections 3.5, 3.6
Week 8. 10/13 Section 4.1
Midterm 10/15
Week 9. 10/20, 10/22 Section 4.2, 4.4
Week 10. 10/27, 10/29 Sections 4.5, 4.6
Week 11. 11/3, 11/5 Sections 5.1, 5.2
Quiz 3. 11/4
Week 12. 11/10, 11/12 Sections 5.3, 5.4
Week 13. 11/17, 11/19 Sections 6.1, 6.2, 6.3
Quiz 4. 11/18
Week 14. 11/24 Sections 6.3, 6.4
Week 15. 12/1, 12/3 Section 6.5
Letters of Recommendation
Each year I write letters of recommendation for students. I am happy to do this but there are a couple
of things to bear in mind. Firstly it’s very hard to write a good letter if you don’t get an A in the course
so under most circumstances I won’t and would highly recommend asking an instructor for a course in
which you got a better grade. The more I know you the better a letter I can write so it helps if you
answer questions during the class and come regularly to office hours.