The UofT Course Calendar is practically my bible. I feel that I know all the course codes; at least for subjects that interest me. And I bet I'm not the only one who feels this way. It is just something I always find myself browsing through and inevitably discovering more and more interesting courses. Did I mention that there over 2,000 courses in just the Faculty of Arts & Science? And most students take around 35 courses throughout their university career. Better make the four years the best they can be.

Now onto the point of this entry. I came across a rather interesting (but mostly aberrant) description for a statistics course - specifically STA257 (Probability & Statistics I) for those who care. Take a look.

Course descriptions can be all to generic in their brevity. Suffice to know, then, that this course, and its sequel-in crime, STA261H1, is mathematically quite challenging, the target audience includes those proceeding directly to a specialist degree in statistics, as well as anyone with serious and special interest in some other of the identifiably statistical-physical sciences. Topics, albeit very rigorously covered, are, nevertheless, very standard introductory fare: abstract probability and expectation, discrete and continuous random variables and vectors, with the special mathematics of distribution and density functions, all realized in the special examples of ordinary statistical practice: the binomial, poisson and geometric group, and the gaussian (normal), gamma, chi-squared complex.

It definitely summoned a chuckle, but I couldn't complain since it does the job; it tells you what the topics are. But I reckon that the haunting introduction was used to scare off those who want to take the rather difficult (as they claim) course merely out of prestige. Perhaps they want to alleviate the number of over-dependent students who continuously present themselves at office hours. Not like there's anything wrong with that, but I don't expect instructors to be particularly thrilled to see the same student over and over because it seizes their solitaire time! In spite of the reason, it was worth sharing because course descriptions are traditionally bland.