Warning About the Final

If you don’t listen to the lectures and understand them very well you will get a bad grade in the final or even flunk it. See the grades of the fall of 2008 when students expected an easier exam so many students did not study for it. (Look here for the justification of this claim.)

Among the things that you need to understand to do well on the final are:

1. The statistical concepts taught. Mastery of these deceptively simple concepts demands much study and thought since they are not part of one’s natural way of thinking. (When I switched from the objectivity pure mathematics to statistics I had considerable trouble adjusting for this reason.)

2. The correct use of the statistical terminology. Without this mastery I will assume (know!) that you don’t understand how statisticians need to think to be able to draw valid conclusions from data. (Significant points are deducted for the incorrect use of terminology.) This also demands much study and thought since using this terminology requires a deep understanding of statistics.

3. What each statistical procedure is for

4. What assumptions are needed for the valid application of each procedure

5. How to check these assumptions