Intro to Statistics

[Farang]

I haven't taken a math class in years and am jumping into an Intro to Statistics course. I am a bit worried because I had to drop my Pre-Calculus course this semester. Not that I couldn't get a handle on things, I was just having to go over every single question and it took me hours to finish homework every night which got in the way of my other 4 classes.

I have a pretty good math mind ( I used to always get A's in high school and was always at the top of my class), but now I'm basically limited to basic functions with a little bit of graphing knowledge from my economics courses. Is statistics too difficult to pick up or have I got myself in too deep?

My course selection is limited (study abroad) so I need this course to satisfy the math gen ed requirement. I would assume most of you are math all-stars so keep in mind I haven't done much of it in the fast few years.

 

[Theb]

Intro to stats is very easy.

 

[SoundTheSurrender]

When I first took stats I was completely lost most of the time. It did not make sense to me until I started taking business courses that used it in a way that made more sense to me.

 

[Farang]

Originally posted by: SoundTheSurrender
When I first took stats I was completely lost most of the time. It did not make sense to me until I started taking business courses that used it in a way that made more sense to me.

I have taken Econ 101 and 102.. is that the type of class that helped?

I'm worried because I don't think I qualify at my home university to take this class, and my assessment is based off of my SAT which I took two years ago. I'm just hoping statistics has more straightforward concepts than precalc did so I can wrap my head around them easier.

 

[BarneyFife]

For intro to stats, the hardest you should go is standard deviations. It shouldn't be too hard but I found that statistics is more of a thinking class because they all tend to be story problems.

 

[xSeongminx]

Econ isn't going to help you with Stats. They are completely different subjects.

Statistics is very quite forward, with no hidden tricks. Just understand the concepts which are similar in all problems and you'll do fine.

 

[moonbit]

Some people find it easy, some people find it hard - and are usually helped by having real-life situations to apply stats to.

To do the actual formulas, you just need to know/remember basic algebra, and have a scientific calculator to help you out with probability. Memorization for which formula is required when is also a must.

You'll probably also be required to use some sorts of stats software, which can be more confusing than doing it by hand. Depends on the software. I haven't had a stats course in five years, so the software is probably better now.

Good luck.

 

[Agentbolt]

Stats is what I took instead of calculus due to my being too stupid math stupid to understand calc. It's a very easy subject.

 

[Farang]

Originally posted by: BarneyFife
For intro to stats, the hardest you should go is standard deviations. It shouldn't be too hard but I found that statistics is more of a thinking class because they all tend to be story problems.

Well I've covered standard deviation in the past, and although I have no idea what the hell it is now I'm sure I'd catch on quickly because I've learned it before.

 

[Farang]

Thanks everyone you've given me some more confidence.. like I said my brain is capable of handling math quite well I just haven't done it in a long time. From what I'm hearing the concepts are pretty straightforward.

 

[Parasitic]

Needs more information. Is this intro to stats for business, or intro to stats for engineers? What's the pre-requisite?

Some schools offer a lot of variants for this intro to stats course, so make sure you check.
For business and non-science majors, the most difficult stuff is probably setting up inference variables and confidence intervals, but more or less algebraic.
For engineering I'm guessing there's probably a heavier emphasis on probability theory than statistics, and you may be asked to evaluate integrals of a bunch of probability density functions.
Brush up on your integrals, however. You'll use them from time to time.

 

[Agentbolt]

Brush up on your integrals, however.

Integrals? In INTRO stats? I seriously doubt it. Intro stats is going to stay far away from that kind of thing and focus more on best fit lines and standard deviations and such.

 

[Parasitic]

Originally posted by: Agentbolt

Brush up on your integrals, however.

Integrals? In INTRO stats? I seriously doubt it. Intro stats is going to stay far away from that kind of thing and focus more on best fit lines and standard deviations and such.

It depends on the school. At Berkeley we have THREE introductory to statistics courses, all are treated as equivalent.

I'm an engineer, and I took the intro for engineers. We had to work with integrals.
My friend a bio major took the business major one and he didnt have to do a thing.

 

[Parasitic]

And email the course instructor or professor and ask him/her what textbook will be used for class. Maybe some of us have used (or know) the book before to help you assess the situation more.

 

[montanafan]

I had to take Statistics and Probability when I was working on my Masters degree. I was worried about it because it had been a lot of years since I'd had any kind of math class, but I found that what I had learned in my high school math classes was all I needed to get it, and all that came back to me once we got started. Several of the people in the class had been out of college for several years like me and they had some problems at first, but once we and the professor (he was very understanding about it) helped them with their algebra in particular, they did okay.

 

[Compton]

Its as hard as the professor wants to make it. My advanced stats courses were significantly easier than the intro course. YMMV

 

[alkemyst]

Originally posted by: Compton
Its as hard as the professor wants to make it. My advanced stats courses were significantly easier than the intro course. YMMV

QFT, I never had advanced stats; but I found more often than not the longer I persued a subject the easier it got and more I learned.

 

[IronWing]

Remember, it's stats, the Prof will grade on a curve. When I took intro stats the class average going into the final was 98%. I was running a 98% going in. That was unacceptable to the Prof. He did something about it. There was a room full of students looking at the test and looking at each other going WTF? I walked out of the class with a C and counted myself one of the lucky ones.

 

[jman19]

Ask StatsManD, er DVK, no no I mean UCDAggies... yea that's it

 

[fierydemise]

I think stats is really straight forward however I know a couple people who are generally very good at math who can't figure out stats. The big thing is memorizing all the formulas and keeping them straight, there are a lot of formulas each with a slightly different purpose that are a pain to keep straight. Also you can't just do your calculations and be done with it, sometimes the answer that is mathematically correct is actually not the best answer.

 

[chusteczka]

Originally posted by: Farang
I haven't taken a math class in years and am jumping into an Intro to Statistics course. I am a bit worried because I had to drop my Pre-Calculus course this semester. Not that I couldn't get a handle on things, I was just having to go over every single question and it took me hours to finish homework every night which got in the way of my other 4 classes.

I have a pretty good math mind ( I used to always get A's in high school and was always at the top of my class) ...

I get the feeling you are not working hard enough. Statistics requires time spent to understand the necessary methods, no matter what the level is. Furthermore, statistics offers a new way of thinking about numbers that is often not intuitive.

You will pass the class if you put the effort and time into it. Just like any other class.

My recommendation is to focus more on your classes and work harder.

 

[Minjin]

My intro to stats was completely centered around pressing buttons on the TI 83/84. So I'd say that these courses can run the gambit from ridiculously easy to very hard.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Stats was a little confusing for me because familiar math symbols were used to mean different things than when used for Alg. or Calc. However, stats was a walk in the park compared to the 12 hours of Accounting I had to take.

 

[DrPizza]

I've seen the curriculum for several courses titled "intro to statistics." Some of those courses are a joke that just about anyone can do well in. Other intro to statistics courses were much much more rigorous.

So, it all depends on the school, curriculum, and teacher.

 

[Farang]

Originally posted by: DrPizza
I've seen the curriculum for several courses titled "intro to statistics." Some of those courses are a joke that just about anyone can do well in. Other intro to statistics courses were much much more rigorous.

So, it all depends on the school, curriculum, and teacher.

I'm leaning towards joke, since that is what I have heard this school's coursework described as. It is a second-rate Thai college.