My major requires me to take a 300-level statistics course in my 3rd year, but since AP credit took out a lot of pre-req courses, I can take this class next semester. However, I’m really worried about the nature of the class because I never really understood probability and statistics back in high school. I’ve gotten mixed reviews about the class because one professor is much easier than the other two professors and another one teaches at a much faster pace. Here’s the course description:
“This course is designed to provide a basic introduction to statistical methods and study design as they apply to biological research. An integrated method will be used to help the student become familiar with methods of describing and analyzing data, apply those methods, interpret results, and evaluate the appropriateness of those methods using data from unpublished and published biological research studies. An appropriate statistical software package will be used for the course.” (ST-310: Biostatistics I)
How hard is a college statistics class? What can I expect from it, and what can I do to make sure I’m top of everything in it? Thanks in advance!
“I never really understood probability and statistics back in high school”
Probability and statistics is really a different way of thinking – some people take to it and some don’t. This makes it difficult to guess how hard it will be. I would be tempted to talk to the professor before deciding when to take this.
@DadTwoGirls the problem is, I actually don’t know which professor I’ll get because the course rosters are all “TBA” for the instructors. I guess what I can do is talk to professors to see how to do well in the class.
I think that I would start off talking to the one that you would like to get. Then after talking about the class, ask “how can I get into your class”. He might be able to help. You won’t know unless you ask.
As a guess, since USciences doesn’t accept AP Statistics credit, most likely the course is a broader version of that. FWIW, it sounds like more of a stats class than a probability class.
The class sounds more stats based. Statistics is very different from probability, and arguably easier as it is often less abstract or theoretical. It also mentions a statistical package, which is probably either R or Python, so just briefly looking at some coding concepts before the class may help.