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| Topic |
Issue |
| General |
Q:
I sent an email to my instructor/TA and there was no response
A:
Chances are that I won't respond to you for the following reasons:
-- Your email's subject does not tell me what you want:
-
Bad examples:
"Math 148", "Missing Class", "Missing Monday", "" (no subject!)
-
Good examples:
"Math 148: Missing class on 8/31 - Family emergency",
"Math 148: Missing class on 8/31 - Athletic competition",
"Math 148: Request makeup for exam 2"
-- Don't be cute and mask your sender's address.
If it does not show me that it comes from a @binghamton.edu address
then I consider it poisonous and won't open it,
regardless what the subject says.
-- The issue concerns your section and you did not put your
TA into the cc.
Such emails should be addressed to your TA and cc'd to me.
-- Show some respect: Chances are I am a lot older than your mom and dad
and I am not one of those cool grad students or post docs.
Please address me as Prof. Fochler, Professor, or just Prof.
Not as Mr. Fochler or by my first name.
-- You asked me something whicn is answered on this web site
in the home page, syllabus, announcements, or this Q&A page.
If I make an exception, chances are that you will see a one-liner
such as "Syllabus -- MF --".
|
| General |
Q:
I am a student with a disability/an athlete
and need special accommodations.
A:
Send me an email and bring the signed form
(athletes: your coach or team director,
Students with disabilities: see the syllabus,
"Students with disabilities" paragraph)
to me.
I'll take this form with me and will review it before I sign it.
If there are no issues I'll bring it to my next lecture
or give it to your TA if your email tells me your section.
If you have a disability, chances are that I want to talk
to you in person to understand better how I can accommodate you,
possibly in excess to what your form requests.
|
| General |
Q:
I found this cheaper version of the text: ________________.
Is that OK?.
A:
I cannot judge this.
You will run the risk that the exercises I assign as homework may
not match 100%.
You probably are OK if you have someone who does have the official
version and you can check whether the problems in question
exactly match what's in your version.
Note that any trouble you might run into is your responsibility.
|
| Absences |
Q:
I missed/will be missing class on --/--/----.
What did you/will you teach?
A:
-- The schedule shows you what I teach on a weekly basis as far
as the text is concerned and you should finish reading the chapter
on which I lectured before your absence,
then read the subsequent one.
-- For the other things you may have missed:
Ask someone else who attends this class..
There are about 200 students and I expect you to form a working
relationship with at least one of them, preferably
someone in your section.
-- You can always talk to me during my scheduled office hours.
|
| Absences |
Q:
I missed/will be missing class on --/--/----.
What about attendance?
A:
-- First off, I do not penalize you for not showing up,
so this does not matter: the worst that might happen is that
you miss attendance which is a bonus and you won't get those
points no matter why you were not around.
This having been said, I won't take attendance on the day when,
according to the BU academic calendar,
classes will recess in the afternoon.
|
|
Absences |
Q:
What about makeup exams/quizzes/homework?
A:
Be sure to review the syllabus and what it says in the
"Attendance Policy and Make-up Policy" and "Exam dates" paragraphs.
|
| Final |
Q:
Is the Final cumulative?
A:
Definitely. Be sure in particular to review regression and probability,
two topics that are taught rather early in the semester!
|
| Final |
Q:
What chapters do we not need to worry about for the final?
A:
Excluded from the final:
ch. 7 on points and lines in the plane (but be sure you understand
how this material is used in the chapters on regression),
ch.25 on genetics,
any specific knowledge about
ch.19 (Sample Surveys) and ch. 22 (Unemployment, CPS) but be sure to
understand the connection between SRS and SE formulas!
No decision has been made yet what material, if any,
we guarantee not to be on the final.
|
| Final |
Q:
What will be on the Final?
Everything not excluded in the previous question is fair game.
Some specifics will be in one of the last lectures but here is a
list of particularly important topics:
Ch.1-2 (Experiments):
-- Bias and confounding factors in experiments and surveys
Ch.3-5 (Histograms):
-- density scale, class intervals, left/right tailed histograms,
-- outliers, geometric meaning of average and SD,
SD vs SD+
-- Normal curve, standard units, change of scale, percentiles
Ch.6 (Measurement Error):
-- All concepts, e.g., chance error,
repeatability, outliers, bias
Ch.8-12 (Regression):
-- SD line vs regression line (formulas), formula for r, residuals,
change of scale
-- Regression line as approximation of y-averages
of small intervals about x (ch.10, Fig.1)
-- Association vs causation, regression fallacy
-- r.m.s. error of the regression line (standard error of the estimate)
-- homo/heteroscedascity
-- Least squares and regression line
-- Probability: all of ch. 13-15, incl. the binomial formula
Ch.16-18 (Chance variability):
-- box models and chance processes as a means to draw samples
-- counting boxes and shortcut formula for SD of 2-ticket value boxes
-- SE for chance processes vs SDs for lists like boxes and samples
-- SE and expected value for sums, averages and percentages
-- square root laws for SEs
-- approximation of normal curve by the probab. histograms for
observed minus expected divided by appropriate SE
-- continuity correction
Ch.19-24 (Sampling):
-- Need of a probability model (the box) to cut down on bias
-- Importance of independent or SRS sampling from a box, correction factor
-- Inferential statistics,
reasoning from the box to samples vs
inferences from the sample to the box
-- Connection between SE and confidence intervals
-- Gauss error model
Ch.26-29 (Hypothesis Testing):
-- Null hypothesis vs alt. hypothesis, role of box model, SRS, ...
-- z-test, t-test, 2-sample z-test, when to use the t-distribution
-- chi2 tests for box composition and independence
-- left tailed chi2 tests for unlikely accuracy
-- P-value, level of significance, significant vs highly significant,
test statistics (z-statistic, t-statistic, ...)
-- one-tailed vs two-tailed tests, data snooping
-- real world relevance of hypothesis tests
|
| Final |
Q:
How do I start preparing for the final?
A:
a. Start out by reviewing all chapter summaries in the FPP book.
They are short and give you an overview of what's important.
b. Review the completely worked examples in the text book.
c. Solutions for one version of each quiz will be posted
You should review those.
|
| Exam |
Q:
1.Can I write on both sides of the index card?
2.Can it be anything?
A:
Yes to both questions.
|
| Exam |
Q:
What calculator do you recommend?
A:
Suggested calculators (August 24, 2016):
-
TI 30X IIS scientific calculator:
I have seen that one for less than $10.00 at Walmart.com with
no S/H cost if you pick it up in store.
-
TI BA II Plus financial calculator:
Costs a little bit more than $30.00.
This calculator has statistical functions but they won't do you
a lot of good because you are required in your exams and quizzes
to write down the actual formula with your specific data
to get credit (see next item).
|
| Exam |
Q:
You recommended the TI 30X IIS and TI BA II Plus calculators.
I bought a different one. Can I use it?
A:
A recommendation is just that. You can use a different calculator
as long as it does not have a graphical display and is not programmable
(see syllabus).
|
| Exam |
Q:
What is the format of the exams?
Will there be multiple choice and fill-in-the-blanks questions?
Must we write down formulas?
Will table lookup pages be provided or can we use
our calculator?
A:
My intent is to reward those who understand more
of the course material than those who understand less.
Everything else is a consequence of the above:
You should have some judgement about subjects which are
of central importance and those that are peripheral.
One item that I'll be happy to clarify:
If you are asked to compute a number such as
the standard deviation of a list of, say, 5 specific numbers,
then you must provide the formula where those numbers are plugged in.
That will get you most of the credit whereas
just writing the result (which you might have gotten
by pushing a couple of buttons on your statistics calculator)
will give you very little credit.
And, yes, you are expected to know definitions such as those
of the SD of a list (how else could you write down
the formula with the values plugged in?)
or of a histogram or of an SD line so you'll be able
to graph them in case you are asked to do so.
And yes, some questions will be multiple choice and fill-in-the-blanks.
Table-lookups:
If you need to get numbers that are associated with
the normal curve then you must do the look-ups in
the z-scores table on page A104 of the book
(it will be attached to your exam) and write down those numbers,
even if they are not the final result.
That way we know that you know how to do a table look-up
without the help of a calculator.
|
| Help |
Q:
I cannot get a tutor in my time range so I was wondering
if I could possibly meet with you and get some help?
A:
You are welcome to come to this instructor's office hours.
Remember that the Math 147/148 help room (WH 234)
is open most of the time on weekdays,
probably starting with week 2 of the semester.
This is also the place where your TA holds his/her office hours:
Check the
Helproom 234 schedule
.
I understand that you can ask anyone manning the helproom for assistance.
|
| Help |
Q:
I wasn't able to make my statistics class this morning.
Can I have a brief summary of the topics we went over today?
A:
There are more than 200 students in this class
and close to 25 or even more in your section.
At least one of them should be your best friend,
happy to let you ask them for lecture notes.
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