{"id":22988,"date":"2015-01-23T12:37:50","date_gmt":"2015-01-23T17:37:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/?p=22988"},"modified":"2015-01-23T12:37:50","modified_gmt":"2015-01-23T17:37:50","slug":"a-beginners-guide-to-almost-kind-of-surviving-statistics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2015\/01\/23\/a-beginners-guide-to-almost-kind-of-surviving-statistics\/","title":{"rendered":"A Beginners Guide to (almost, kind of) Surviving Statistics"},"content":{"rendered":"Throughout all the trials and tribulations of university, whether it be cramming for 5 midterms in one week, or starting a 3000 word essay the night before, there is only one thing that actually, genuinely terrifies me:\r\n\r\n<strong>Statistics.<\/strong><strong>\u00a0<\/strong>\r\n\r\n<figure id=\"attachment_22989\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-22989\" style=\"width: 325px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2015\/01\/Photo-on-15-01-22-at-6.42-PM.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-22989\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2015\/01\/Photo-on-15-01-22-at-6.42-PM.jpg\" alt=\"picture of Api with a face palm \" width=\"325\" height=\"221\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-22989\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Stats = eternal face palm \ud83d\ude41<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\nUnfortunately, the introductory statistics courses are required for my major. Of all my courses, it\u2019s the one lecture that I don\u2019t find interesting and engaging. To me, it\u2019s like statistics has become the lone MySpace page in a sea of artfully crafted Facebook profiles.\r\n\r\nI\u2019m not sure why, but I\u2019ve always found understanding\u00a0statistics difficult. Maybe it all the \u201canalysis\u201d or whatever that\u2019s involved, but my brain does not work that way. In the summer, I managed to get through the first introductory statistics course here at U of T (STA220, PSY201 or their equivalents) but I had a very specific system that made getting through the course a little bit easier.\r\n\r\nI thought I would be done with statistics, but my best friend the Course Calendar kindly informed me that I still needed another half credit.\r\n\r\n<figure id=\"attachment_22990\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-22990\" style=\"width: 343px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2015\/01\/Photo-on-15-01-22-at-6.43-PM.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-22990\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2015\/01\/Photo-on-15-01-22-at-6.43-PM.jpg\" alt=\"Api looking disconcerted \" width=\"343\" height=\"232\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-22990\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Statistics. Honestly.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\nThere I was, once again terrified of numbers, so I knew it was time to refer back to my statistics game plan. I\u2019ve also met many classmates who share the same anxious feelings towards to statistics, so hopefully this helps not just me, but everyone who\u2019s tackling the course this semester (and in semesters to come)!\r\n\r\n<em><strong>API\u2019S POSSIBLY FOOLPROOF STATS GAME PLAN<\/strong><\/em>\r\n\r\n<strong>1. PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE<\/strong>\r\n\r\nI remember on the first day of my first statistics my professor telling the class that we had to constantly do practice questions to keep up, and I\u2019m not going to lie: I scoffed. DO THEY UNDERESTIMATE MY ABILITY TO SUCCESSFULLY CRAM INFORMATION INTO MY HEAD THE NIGHT BEFORE? No. No they did not. It took me a full three-day library session at Robart\u2019s to actually catch up with the small amount of material I nonchalantly didn\u2019t do.\r\n\r\n<strong>2. There\u2019s a Statistics Aid Center!!!\u00a0<\/strong>\r\n\r\nIt didn\u2019t know about the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.utstat.toronto.edu\/wordpress\/?page_id=154\">Statistics Aid Centre<\/a> until after I took statistics, dropped the course and then finally buckled down and took it the second time. They have people on hand to help you and it\u2019s an amazing resource to make use of!\r\n\r\n<strong>3. Finding statistics software\u00a0 <\/strong>\r\n\r\nMy stats course included assignments and homework that were done on statistical software, and I found out that <a href=\"http:\/\/data.library.utoronto.ca\/node\/35\">Robart's Library has computers with statistical software<\/a> installed on them! There\u2019s also a computer lab at Sidney Smith with computers as well! I designated a weekly time to use the computer labs, so not only was I saving money on purchasing the software, I was also making myself have <em>at least<\/em> a few hours of stats practice each week.\r\n\r\n<figure id=\"attachment_22991\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-22991\" style=\"width: 237px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2015\/01\/Photo-on-15-01-22-at-6.43-PM-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-22991\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2015\/01\/Photo-on-15-01-22-at-6.43-PM-2.jpg\" alt=\"Api giving a thumbs up \" width=\"237\" height=\"158\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2015\/01\/Photo-on-15-01-22-at-6.43-PM-2.jpg 1080w, https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2015\/01\/Photo-on-15-01-22-at-6.43-PM-2-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2015\/01\/Photo-on-15-01-22-at-6.43-PM-2-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2015\/01\/Photo-on-15-01-22-at-6.43-PM-2-450x300.jpg 450w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 237px) 100vw, 237px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-22991\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">GOD SPEED, MY FRIENDS<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\nSo there you have it folks. That was my statistics game plan, and I\u2019m hoping it\u2019s going to work again this semester. Good luck everyone!\r\n\r\nIf you have any other tips, let me know down in the comments or on Twitter at @Api_UofT!","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-summary\">\n<div class=\"entry-summary\">\nThroughout all the trials and tribulations of university, whether it be cramming for 5 midterms in one week, or starting a 3000 word essay the night before, there is only one thing that actually, genuinely terrifies me: Statistics.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the&hellip;\n<\/div><div class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2015\/01\/23\/a-beginners-guide-to-almost-kind-of-surviving-statistics\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;A Beginners Guide to (almost, kind of) Surviving Statistics&rdquo;<\/span>&hellip;<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div><div class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2015\/01\/23\/a-beginners-guide-to-almost-kind-of-surviving-statistics\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;A Beginners Guide to (almost, kind of) Surviving Statistics&rdquo;<\/span>&hellip;<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"author":228,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7204,6669,1,68],"tags":[78,405,176,138,286,172,85,25506,25507,89,48,696,441,1837],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22988"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/228"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22988"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23003,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22988\/revisions\/23003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}