Z score and More

So this week in lecture I found that I was able to keep up and even make the computations before the answers were given!  I guess this extra time working with the vocabulary and practicing the equations for all of these various "averages" is starting to pay off!  I am still working with the spreadsheet programs to create the equations and get the answers in a much easier way.  I am looking forward to working with my group on the survey and actually collecting our own data for a purpose.  This is what I was hoping for in this class.  I like that the assignment as is asks us for the numbers and how they help us to solve a problem. That I feel is what stats should really get at.  Gathering numbers for a purpose and analyzing what they tell us.  Not merely finding a bunch of averages, but what do those averages mean.  I guess we will see how this plays out in coming week as our group creates and administers a survey and then analyzes what it means.  This could be fun!!!!

Stats and Survey Sites

This week we spent some time taking a look at various sites to do surveys, polls, or questionnaires.  There are some that go well beyond my budget and what I would need from them.  Others are free and meet the basic needs I would have for creating a survey.  What is really impressive is that it is so easy to get a survey completed/created, and have the results in a manageable/professional way.  It actually is the part of Stats that I have been looking forward to.  I like to see what people have to say and think about the topic I am studying.
I am a bit worried again as I listen to the class recording from last week with all of the terms that I do not know.  I have taken to getting pen and paper, writing the term down and hitting pause button.  I then have time to check it out one Wikipedia for a quick reference, then head back to the class to continue.  I know that this information will be needed later in the course and probably program, but I am fearful that I am not getting it all due to my lack of vocabulary knowledge.  As of now I am keeping up and am assuming that with coming classes I will find myself using this same Wiki technique to keep up as to not get lost!

Stats!

So statistics to me are a pain in my side, or so I thought.  In the past stats to me was just crouching the numbers, never really collecting the data.  It was really just math with no real meaning to me.  After watching the video this week and seeing the various ways that stats can be used and are used in the real world, it is nice to know that it is not merely just the numbers and computing!  I guess this class may not be as bad as I thought!
My favorite stat I always heard were a bit funny.  They kind of put statistics in an interesting place.  You can make statistics say what ever you want.  For example.  100% of statistics say what you want 90% of the time.  Just throwing numbers out there means nothing, but the problem is when they are broadcast over a large population, they have an effect.  In high school we were given a pamphlet that let all students know that 100% of successful suicide attempts end in death.  Scary to hear 100% of anything ends in death.  Stats with a purpose there.
The video this week showed that there is good that can come from statistics and that often people do not like the truth behind it.  I am hoping that this course will teach me ways to get and present statistics in a meaningful way.