Statistics s131a

Spring 2016

Instructor: Nusrat Rabbee, rabbee@berkeley.edu.

Office: 309 Evans.

Office hours: W 3-5, or after class or by appointment

Graduate Student Instructor: Andy Wang, andyatcal@berkeley.edu

Office hours TBA

Website: http://www.stat.berkeley.edu/users/rabbee/s131a. We will post announcements, homeworks, lecture notes etc. on bspace.berkeley.edu. Check regularly for updates.

Schedule: There will be lectures two days a week, MW 5-6:30, in 150 GSPP. I don’t allow cell phones, iPads or laptops in lecture. If you want to use a device to take notes – please speak to me. There will also be weekly sections, scheduled MW 12-1p or MW 1-2p, starting 1/25. Attendance to both lectures and sections is required.

Textbook:

1. Moore, McCabe, and Craig, Introduction to the Practice of Statistics, seventh edition, available in the bookstore. This is the required text; the lectures will follow it, and homeworks will be assigned from it. Note that older editions will have different homework problems and problem numbering system.

2. Optional: Text: Freedman, Pisani, and Purves, Statistics, 4th edition or the international edition. This book has more conceptual treatment of same concepts. We will do problems from this book during sections.

Exams and grading: There will be a midterm (M 3/7 during class) and a final (F 5/13 3-6 pm loc: TBA). There will be no make-up midterms or finals; do not take the class if you are not available at these dates and times. Your grade will be 5% GSI evaluation, 10% homework, 25% quizzes, 25% midterm, 35% final.

Homeworks: There will be ten homeworks. They are announced in bSpace on Mondays, and due in section on Monday the following week. No late homeworks will be accepted, except due to special circumstances e.g. illness.

Academic Integrity: You may collaborate with others in working out the homeworks, but must write up your own work. No collaboration is allowed in the exams. Penalties for cheating will be severe. Here are more details.

Communicating: Questions about lectures should be directed primarily to me, about section and homeworks primarily to the TAs. Emails to me should be brief, marked “stat 131a” in the subject and crisp for a good chance at being answered. Regardless, you are encouraged to come to any of our office hours: talking is usually more effective than sending email. Feedback is always welcome.

Prerequisites: One semester of Calculus. If you do not know calculus, you may still take this class. Speak to me after class.

Data Sets for our Class:

· For Homework 0: HSB data set from UCLA (Source: http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/r/dae/mlogit.htm)

· Description of the HSB (high school student) data set

· Exploring the HSB data set with graphics

Using R in Data Analysis:

· UsingR.Rdata from J H Maindonald of Australian National University (Source: Using R in Data Analysis)

Useful links:

· David Friedman's histogram of the Manhattan skyline

· What your doctor should know about Statistics by Nick Horton at Smith College

· Teaching Statistics with Sports Examples

· Thirteen ways to look at the correlation coefficient

· Jeff Frankel's weblog on political science and data from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard