Hey everyone!
Time for another review... Statistics 1CC3. I was taught this course by Dr. Childs, who is an awesome teacher! He is funny, intelligent, and most importantly, an effective communicator. Anyways, about the course...
I found the course to be easy, especially because a lot of the material covered (such as permuations, combinations) was a review of my grade 12 Data Management course. However, I strongly believe that I owe my success in this course to practice! If there is one word of advice that I can give someone who is enrolled in this course, it would be to
practice! After doing the questions in the courseware, I noticed that the questions would show up on the tests (obviously with different numbers). So, if one knows how to do the questions in the courseware, he/she will be well-prepared for the tests and the exam. I also used the textbook as additional practice.
In terms of calculating the final mark, there are five assignments/labs, worth 3% each. These labs could be completed by going into the computer labs or on your own time (at home/residence). Students who had the Minitab software to complete the assignments would do it on their own time, while those who did not would go to the labs and work on the computers. Also, the labs have TAs present, who are willing to help students complete the assignments. If you put in the effort, these assignments should definitely help boost your mark. Also, before submitting my assignments, I always checked over my answer with friends to ensure that I was doing the right thing.
There are also two tests, each worth 20%. I found the first test to be much easier, primarily because the information that it tested was not too difficult. The second test, on the other hand, as a bit trickier, but it was still possible to get a good mark on it.
The exam was worth 45% of a student's final mark. The good thing about the exam was that we were allowed to take formula cards (either present in the textbook, or can be printed via the Statistics website). This was especially helpful because by the end of the course, we were exposed to a whole bunch of formulas. Memorizing all of them would just be crazy! The exam was fairly easy. There were a few tricky questions, but not too many to consider the exam as "hard."
Oh, one thing that I forgot to mention is that the midterms and exam were solely multiple choice. Although this sounds very easy, it can actually be really hard. The reason is because the choices are such that if a student misses one step in a calculation, he/she will end up with an answer that he/she believes to be right
and which co-incidentally shows up as one of the multiple choices. So, just make sure that you look over your work once you finish answering the question to make sure you haven't missed a step or two.
Overall, I really liked this course. But, I guess I really like all Math courses (even though I have taken only two... this one and Math 1A03) and the fact that they are so concrete/objective.
Good luck to those taking this course!