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Learner Reviews & Feedback for SQL for Data Science by University of California, Davis

4.6
stars
16,503 ratings

About the Course

As data collection has increased exponentially, so has the need for people skilled at using and interacting with data; to be able to think critically, and provide insights to make better decisions and optimize their businesses. This is a data scientist, “part mathematician, part computer scientist, and part trend spotter” (SAS Institute, Inc.). According to Glassdoor, being a data scientist is the best job in America; with a median base salary of $110,000 and thousands of job openings at a time. The skills necessary to be a good data scientist include being able to retrieve and work with data, and to do that you need to be well versed in SQL, the standard language for communicating with database systems. This course is designed to give you a primer in the fundamentals of SQL and working with data so that you can begin analyzing it for data science purposes. You will begin to ask the right questions and come up with good answers to deliver valuable insights for your organization. This course starts with the basics and assumes you do not have any knowledge or skills in SQL. It will build on that foundation and gradually have you write both simple and complex queries to help you select data from tables. You'll start to work with different types of data like strings and numbers and discuss methods to filter and pare down your results. You will create new tables and be able to move data into them. You will learn common operators and how to combine the data. You will use case statements and concepts like data governance and profiling. You will discuss topics on data, and practice using real-world programming assignments. You will interpret the structure, meaning, and relationships in source data and use SQL as a professional to shape your data for targeted analysis purposes. Although we do not have any specific prerequisites or software requirements to take this course, a simple text editor is recommended for the final project. So what are you waiting for? This is your first step in landing a job in the best occupation in the US and soon the world!...

Top reviews

NK

Oct 5, 2022

Amazing course for beginners! The entire course is well structured and has good hands-on assignments. SQL is extremely essential for Database management and fun learning so please do try this one out!

JG

Aug 22, 2021

I thought this course was great! Great introduction to Relational Databases and SQLite. Highly reccomend for anyone new to SQL, Databases, or someone looking to get started with a data science career.

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4176 - 4200 of 4,274 Reviews for SQL for Data Science

By Scott F

Feb 20, 2024

I did not care for the presenter, Sadie. She needs to work on her presentation skills. Additionally it seemed that some of the slides had errors. I didn't keep track but I remember thinking it was an issue. The class needed a way to practice along with the lessons. I ended up buying a book to learn sql that, luckily, was excellent. I also felt that the Yelp dataset was very difficult to use. It would have been nice if it had been accompanied by some description. I felt like I knew what I was doing (and I did) before I started working with it but it was very frustrating to work with the yelp dataset. I would not recommend this class which is a shame as I really liked the Python for Everybody class and python is much more complicated than sql.

By Brennan M

Jul 16, 2021

This course covers topics in passing and expects you to internalize that topic. If this is going to be the pace, there really should be slides to review.

Also, if you're going to have someone just read off a teleprompter, hire an actor. The jarring cadence of this lecturer, the frequent tripping over words, or finishing a sentence only to realize there are three more words, it's brutal.

There are a ton of mini-quizzes which is fine, but it also has a "check all the right answers" which is both wildly pedantic and in many instances neither provable nor educational. Most courses I take through Coursera offer the "10 questions at the end" feature which is less disruptive and the questions feel more substantive.

By Bridget M

Jun 22, 2022

This course in my opinion was not beginner level. I was expecting basic sql coding, and it quickly took a deep dive into more advanced and in depth coding. The video lectures had a lot of information, but not enough practical examples, and then when getting to quizes I felt like the quiz material did not match up to what was talked about in the videos. The run windows for the coding quizes were also glitchy . It took way longer than approximately 14 hours to complete this course. I also did not appreciate the final assignment needing to be peer reviewed to get the certificate for the course. It should just be self checked like the rest of the assignments. I won't be recommending this course to anyone.

By Noel C

Sep 30, 2019

The first two weeks were easy to follow along with. Unfortunately after that the course was severely lacking. There were not good explanations of things and new things would be added in that hadn’t been covered. When you post questions the mentors aren’t much help and the students will try to answer if they can. There’s also no way to practice. I also would’ve found it nice to see the tables they were pulling their “examples” from. I had to use other resources to actually study and learn SQLite. I’m assuming the people who gave this course a high score are already familiar with SQLite and just wanted the certificate.

By Helena B

Mar 3, 2021

First thing the instructor said was this course is for beginners. I am a beginner so I signed up. There are so many references I did not understand, no step by step explanation of how to find the data required to pass the exams so ended up looking for answers on the forum. Only way I managed to get through the third week was because my husband new how to use python and he helped me find correct answers - which were different to the ones we were given.

New steps were brought in without any basic explanation, again an indication that prior knowledge is needed.

Awful and disheartening

By Jay P

Jan 16, 2021

Pretty useless course, especially for someone looking to audit (learn for free). Well I would be livid if I actually paid for this.

Without a text editor in the course, you are trying to learn SQL via slideshow basically. There is no way to learn SQL without practicing. I switched to Codecademy's SQL course as it's much better because of the the text editor. They teach you and you practice with actual syntax and commands rather than stupid quiz questions. I still use some of the videos to better understand some concepts but only after I practice/learn them in Codecademy.

By Brian K

Nov 23, 2020

This course really stinks. If you already know SQL and just need a certification, a course like this would be fine. But for complex subject matter like SQL, it needs to go Concept->Practice, rinse & repeat. Instead, it's Concept->Concept->Concept->Concept->Concept->Concept->Practice. Sadie, it's real shame. She lures you in week one thinking this is going to be doable, and by the end of week 2, the writing is on the wall. It's too bad because a good SQL course could do a lot of good in this environment and they clearly have the infrastructure to do it.

By Marcos S

Nov 13, 2021

The content covered on this course is helpful but this is getting one star for the instructor. Very clearly she is reading a script and 1/3 of her sentences make no sense. On top of that, she often says variable names that are different from the written example she is referring to. These three factors make this course extremely difficult to follow and stick to. I find myself having to use YouTube videos on the same topics to try to get an understanding of what I just watched. At that point, it's not worth having paid the $399 annual membership.

By Christine S

Jan 3, 2023

I don't have much to add to the other negative reviews, but to summarize - the presentation is awkward, the curriculum moves through very complicated concepts with no practice, and the final project is a HOT MESS. You will learn a lot about bad data, at least, but the combination of old data and the limitations of the online SQLite editor make it impossible to complete the last section of the assignment.

This wasn't my first introduction to SQL, and I didn't pay for it, thankfully, but if you are a true beginner, find a different course.

By Debaseesh S

Jan 24, 2022

These static slides are only helpful for live interactive classes. It's not easy to follow the instructor along with the code snippets. This could've been easily solved had the instructor(or UCD actually) had used a pointing device to show which part of the code they were referring to. And the final exam is not even worth it- questions are not clear and the submission mechanism could be improved. Not worth the money/enrollment/time. Better look for an alternative for this particular course(and for free!).

By Brennan P

May 13, 2022

The quizzes are fine, but the copy is terrible. The instructor isn't very clear in explaining what the steps she describes are used for, and often just repeats the first half of her sentence. It feels like the writing for the class was rushed. Also, the instructions for the final assignment and lab aren't very clear. I was able to learn the basics of SQL thanks to this class, but I relied on multiple outside sources and tutorials to do so.

By Alexander B

Oct 29, 2020

Didn't like it. Too simple content (could only bear it with speed>1.5). Too many errors in the videos. Peer review is stupid b/c the tasks were simple but time consuming. Some of the works I had to review were simply copies from the internet (I can tell b/c some solutions you can find on the web contain answers to questions which have been removed). Teacher, however, did a good job. Clear, easy to understand explanations.

By Metronicle

Sep 27, 2022

This has been a very frustrating experience with Coursera and with this course specifically. I have been unable to access any repositories associated with the course so I can learn from either through the terminal (lab) or through visual studio. I am restricted from contacting the professor and none of the limited documents give any instruction for the assignments. I am very disappointed at Coursera.

By F B

Feb 17, 2018

The course does go through the relevant topics. But the assignments and moderator attention (and quality of responses) are well below standards compared to other coursera courses. I would not recommend paying for this course, but rather just audit it. This way you will still get the material, but you won't have to go through the really bad and frustrating assignments (unclear/ambiguous/wrong wording).

By Zehra D

Nov 3, 2024

By far the worst course I have ever taken. There is no practical application. Instead of engaging us with hands-on coding or demonstrating how the code functions, the instructor simply reads from slides. At the end, we're left to grapple with the challenging material on our own. If the expectation is for us to learn independently, it raises the question of why we’re even enrolled in a course.

By Songul A

Mar 22, 2021

Videos are not helpful. Going over the concepts with some codes and hypothetical examples are not useful. It would be great if we see the codes run and some of the results. Also, explanations are inadequate. The notions are oversimplified and rushed through. I learned the topics by doing the assignments which are very good for self-learning but mostly not covered in the videos.

By Brian

Nov 19, 2020

This class does not go into enough detail. The lectures are not particularly helpful. The final assignment is mislabeled in terms of time it will take which leads to poor time management. Some of the questions are also considerably more difficult and require skills not taught or practiced well enough during the class. I wish I had done a different class.

By Shervin L D

Dec 20, 2019

Worst MOOC I fell across on web. Lot's of bugs in the assessment, lot's of incompleteness, teacher does not go deep in subjects, ends with a peer review letting you no guarantee it will ever be review, certainly not within the Free Week. I feel like I lost a lot's more time then I should have for the content I learned, overall very frustrating experience.

By Vera C P

Jan 24, 2021

It's so hard, not enough examples to refer to when doing quiz. You should provide a variety of examples prior, similar to what you will ask in the quizzes. For someone like me, new to coding, it's very hard to remember how to respond to similar questions by the examples. People need to get familiar with the examples first, then move on to something new.

By Eric F

Oct 6, 2024

Need better instructions for final project, especially loading the cvs portion. I kept getting weird results when loading and having to spend alot of time of troubleshooting. Like how can a integer datatype end up with a comma in it, that made no sense. You should have provided step by step instructions with screenshots using DBeaver.

By Noemi A

Dec 27, 2020

To be honest, i don't think this is for beginners.

Many things you need to find our for yourself and as per today, i don't know which tool to use for doing the queries? How to make the tool go and take the data for the spread sheets? This is basic.. so now i know the queries but i don't know where to use it.... Did i miss something?

By Wayne b

Aug 23, 2023

I honestly am very disappointed with this course, no live coding in action just lectures and slides.

I shall stick to Udemy and Data camp as they show the instructors writing the code live as they teach it in some editor such as MYSQL or PostgreSQL.

Instructor is great at explaining but no live video showing them writing the code.

By Nicolás S V

Mar 4, 2018

Interesting course, it made me remember some things I learnt in college. Final assignment is too bad, simple queries for getting the info we are being asked to look, repetitive code to be implemented, a lot of ambiguity in the description of some points. I would call this course "SQL for newbies", or "First approach to SQL".

By Jean-Philippe M

Jun 1, 2020

The course compared to other data science or programming classes I took was not effective in demonstrating how to use in a practical way the foundation of sql. No files were provided for exercises, exercises and lecture were read, no documents or link to install sql lite were provided. This is not a professional class.

By David R

Jul 17, 2024

Once I got to Error Codes exercise 2 nothing made sense. Get what from where that doesnt exist. I had to dive into the discussions to only find people like me complaining about how disjointed this all is. This course does not have any continuity between the exercises and what i am seeing in Mode.com