Study Tips & Slides

This page of the course website will be updated throughout the semester with links to all slides that we’ve gone over in class, as well as some other study materials as we progress. Slides are also always accessible on the Course Schedule page of the website for each day.

Course Textbook

Study Tips

For many of you, this is your first course in statistics. Welcome! You may be coming in to this course thinking that it’s similar to a math course, and if you treat it as such, you may find yourself struggling to study effectively. You will not be memorizing and applying mathematical formulas for this course.

Statistics courses (particularly applied statistics courses, such as this one), are much more about words than you might expect. We will cover definitions, concepts, and context in great detail. Certain words may have colloquial definitions that you’ll find have very specific definitions in statistics (i.e. “correlated” vs. “associated”, “probable” vs. “plausible”, “significant”, etc.). We need to be careful with our words so that the statistical analyses we end up conducting don’t produce misleading results.

So with all of that, how do you study effectively for Stat 155? There are of course different ways to do so, and you should experiment with what works best for you! Here are a few suggestions (you do not need to try them all at once):

  1. For videos/readings outside of class, take organized notes. One way to do this is with color-coding. First, write down everything from the video. Then:

  • With Color #1, highlight anything that is a definition, or something that you may need to memorize.

    • With the things you highlighted in Color #1, transfer them to a different set of notes that contains only definitions. This will be useful to use as “flashcards” when studying! You could even try literally making flashcards, or using an app like Quizlet to make virtual flashcards.

  • With Color #2, highlight anything that is a key theme or concept. These will be broader ideas that you should be able to connect to other ideas throughout the course.

    • With the things you highlighted in Color #2, consider making a concept map (see Suggestion #2 below).

  • With Color #3, highlight anything you didn’t quite understand. Maybe add some notes in the margins with what specifically you found confusing.

    • With the things you highlighted in Color #3, come to office hours and ask for clarification on those concepts, if your questions aren’t answered the following day in class during lecture / activity time!
  1. Make concept maps (and update them) after each topic we cover, containing broad themes and how they relate to one another. If you are able to connect ideas from the course, you will find it much easier to understand the material, as opposed to needing to memorize separate topics. An example of a simple concept map could be the following:

A concept map containing connections between R-squared, linear regression, and least squares.

  1. Rewrite your notes, when studying for quizzes. It may sound like a waste of time, but the process of actually physically writing out your notes again will help you remember them better. I would not suggest re-watching videos prior to quizzes: focus on your notes instead.
  2. Take notes in class, during lecture! This will help you be an active listener / participant in class, and give you additional notes to study from when reviewing for quizzes.
  3. Ask your preceptors for additional study tips / advice. Ask them what they did when studying for quizzes in this course, or when working on homeworks. While the course hasn’t been 100% the same every semester, general study tips likely haven’t changed much!

Quiz Note card Suggestions

If you need some tips on how to make an effective note card for quizzes, start here! Credit to Prof. Yariana Diaz for many of these suggestions.

A good note card will include information that you need to know but won’t memorize, as well as abbreviated information to help you remember key details from class.

General Guidelines

  • Prioritize clarity: The in-class quizzes are timed, and you probably don’t want to spend that time searching a densely-packed note card for a specific thing. It will be useful to have fewer, more essential details written in a readable size

  • Prioritize efficiency: You may be tempted to include many in-class examples / activities / homework problems. On the quizzes, you will given new contexts and set-ups, so you will want to have access to key terms and skills, as well as a brief, general reminder/description of how to apply them to any situation

  • Take the time to craft a personalized reference sheet: Creating a reference sheet is itself an act of studying! You can begin by summarizing all of your notes and readings/videos for each unit. Then, you can cut and add information to your reference sheet as necessary.

Process & Tips

  1. Gather your study materials! Slides, course notes, videos, … anything you use to study/review on a more regular basis

  2. Plan a method of organization: Organize by topic / sub-topic, etc.

    1. Consider formatting similar details in a similar way. For example: label all definitions the same, or always circle examples vs. underline definitions

    2. Use headings/titles (as you have space) to help you find related information more quickly

    3. Use color to help you visually distinguish between different parts of the note card

    4. Consider the layout of the note card: do you want to split it in half? Have all definitions on one side, and examples on the other? Would it be more helpful for you orient the note card in portrait/landscape?

  3. Write a rough draft that includes all the information you think is important to remember for the quiz. This many include definitions, “word formulas”, or a small number of examples which were especially tricky or informative.

  4. When choosing what to include/exclude from your note card, consider how well you know the information. If you believe you can reliably remember an explanation or detail, consider excluding it from your note card to save space for other things. Try to only include the information that you do not know well or don’t have memorized.

  5. Consider using abbreviations, symbols, and pictures/drawings to more efficiently convey the information you want to have on your note card

Slides

Introduction

Simple Linear Regression

Multiple Linear Regression

Logistic Regression

Hypothesis Testing