Learning Statistics for the Social Sciences 101 paperlessly
June 8, 2013 1:41 PM Subscribe
I'm running into trouble with my statistics course. I'm just getting up to t statistics for independent measures research design. My problems are:
1. I'm going through a lot of paper
2. I need to keep all my calculations better organized as a do them
3. I'm flipping back and forth between my book, an online version of the book, and another screen so that I can reference as much material as possible at once. I'm thinking some kind of basic statistics calculator spreadsheet (or any other format) would be in order. Can anybody direct me towards one?
While there are tons online, most do all the work for you. Plug in a few numbers into a table and BAM! it's done. While that may be convenient, it won't help me learn the material. I tried to make one of my own in excel but its time consuming and not really working out great.
So basically I'd like to still do the math by hand, just off of the paper page. I'd like a template that asks me to plug all the numbers directly into the formula and walk me through the entire process. Replace the symbols directly with the respective numbers that belong in their place. I don't care if it calculates the basic arithmetic. All this is really basic textbook material.
Something that looks exactly like the formulas like below.
t=(M1-M2)-(μ2-μ1)/s(m1-m2) - {I know this is not exactly how this formula should look. No subscripts in Metafilter. You get the idea.}
If something like this exists I'd prefer it were free or really inexpensive.
Thank you Ask Metafilter!
While there are tons online, most do all the work for you. Plug in a few numbers into a table and BAM! it's done. While that may be convenient, it won't help me learn the material. I tried to make one of my own in excel but its time consuming and not really working out great.
So basically I'd like to still do the math by hand, just off of the paper page. I'd like a template that asks me to plug all the numbers directly into the formula and walk me through the entire process. Replace the symbols directly with the respective numbers that belong in their place. I don't care if it calculates the basic arithmetic. All this is really basic textbook material.
Something that looks exactly like the formulas like below.
t=(M1-M2)-(μ2-μ1)/s(m1-m2) - {I know this is not exactly how this formula should look. No subscripts in Metafilter. You get the idea.}
If something like this exists I'd prefer it were free or really inexpensive.
Thank you Ask Metafilter!
Paper is pretty cheap and I often find it is easier to learn things on paper than using a computer. I think I would have had a much harder time learning statistics if I had tried to do it with a worksheet instead of on paper.
Also, I'm having trouble understanding what you're looking for—something that will do most of the work for you but not all of it? Would you have difficulty setting up a spreadsheet to calculate t=(M1-M2)-(μ2-μ1)/s(m1-m2)? You'll probably learn more if you do it yourself as well, and it really shouldn't be time-consuming if you're doing it right.
No subscripts in Metafilter
"μ<sub>1</sub>" gives you "μ1".
posted by grouse at 2:21 PM on June 8, 2013 [1 favorite]
Also, I'm having trouble understanding what you're looking for—something that will do most of the work for you but not all of it? Would you have difficulty setting up a spreadsheet to calculate t=(M1-M2)-(μ2-μ1)/s(m1-m2)? You'll probably learn more if you do it yourself as well, and it really shouldn't be time-consuming if you're doing it right.
No subscripts in Metafilter
"μ<sub>1</sub>" gives you "μ1".
posted by grouse at 2:21 PM on June 8, 2013 [1 favorite]
I don't know about a worksheet or anything like that. But I've learned a lot of math on my own, and here are a few insights:
1. You need to do it yourself, by hand, in order to really understand it. For me it's always better to use pen and paper; there's something about writing by hand that makes things stick better. I think it's the fact that you can't write faster than you can think. So writing by hand makes you slow down to think about what you're doing. I know this isn't quite what you asked, but you can be organized about doing calculations by hand, and I have found that this is much more effective than any other method.
2. It sounds like your attention is divided: two versions of the textbook, plus another screen? Too much. Stick with one source (preferably your physical textbook, unless there is some reason the online one is better).
3. Assuming you're using the physical textbook, go to a (large) table where you have plenty of space to work and no distractions (computer, phone, music, etc).
4. Get a stack of one-sided paper - I just take it out of the recycling bin in the copy room of my department, or use the back sides of junk mail that gets sent to me, etc. One-sided means you don't have to flip things over. Since you're at a large table, you can spread three or four sheets out in front of you at once.
5. You need to be organized about how you do things. I number the pages of my scratch work, even if I won't keep it later. At the top I write the date, and a note about what I'm trying to do. e.g. "What the heck are t-statistics?" That way if I'm looking back at stuff, I'll know what I was doing, instead of having to figure it out from the symbols.
6. Write some of the relevant info at the top - the definitions, any comments your professor made (when is the t-statistic useful?).
7. Now work the problems! Be organized, and if you have any questions/get stuck, write that down too! If you forget how to calculate standard deviation, look it up, and then write it on the page in a little box in the margin, or wherever it fits.
8. This is a lot of steps now. But one last thing: do it over and over and over until you can do it. There is no shorter method to learning math than just sitting down and working through problems.
Good luck!!
posted by number9dream at 2:24 PM on June 8, 2013 [3 favorites]
1. You need to do it yourself, by hand, in order to really understand it. For me it's always better to use pen and paper; there's something about writing by hand that makes things stick better. I think it's the fact that you can't write faster than you can think. So writing by hand makes you slow down to think about what you're doing. I know this isn't quite what you asked, but you can be organized about doing calculations by hand, and I have found that this is much more effective than any other method.
2. It sounds like your attention is divided: two versions of the textbook, plus another screen? Too much. Stick with one source (preferably your physical textbook, unless there is some reason the online one is better).
3. Assuming you're using the physical textbook, go to a (large) table where you have plenty of space to work and no distractions (computer, phone, music, etc).
4. Get a stack of one-sided paper - I just take it out of the recycling bin in the copy room of my department, or use the back sides of junk mail that gets sent to me, etc. One-sided means you don't have to flip things over. Since you're at a large table, you can spread three or four sheets out in front of you at once.
5. You need to be organized about how you do things. I number the pages of my scratch work, even if I won't keep it later. At the top I write the date, and a note about what I'm trying to do. e.g. "What the heck are t-statistics?" That way if I'm looking back at stuff, I'll know what I was doing, instead of having to figure it out from the symbols.
6. Write some of the relevant info at the top - the definitions, any comments your professor made (when is the t-statistic useful?).
7. Now work the problems! Be organized, and if you have any questions/get stuck, write that down too! If you forget how to calculate standard deviation, look it up, and then write it on the page in a little box in the margin, or wherever it fits.
8. This is a lot of steps now. But one last thing: do it over and over and over until you can do it. There is no shorter method to learning math than just sitting down and working through problems.
Good luck!!
posted by number9dream at 2:24 PM on June 8, 2013 [3 favorites]
Can't you just type all the formulas into a spreadsheet if you want a spreadsheet?
Sorry if I am not understanding your question.
posted by dfriedman at 2:40 PM on June 8, 2013
Sorry if I am not understanding your question.
posted by dfriedman at 2:40 PM on June 8, 2013
Do you mean you're tired of writing out the basic formula for the t-stat and you just want something that you can type numbers into, but that's still sort of visual enough to remind you of the formula?
I still think a spreadsheet program is pretty good for that. I'd set up a spreadsheet with the fields you need arranged visually to resemble your formula (turning off the grid betwen cells, drawing solid lies to indicate fractions, whatever), and then just have an output cell that reads the values you typed in and applied the correct operations.
Also, it's not clear what benefit you might be deriving from having multiple versions of the book open to multiple pages. If you are doing repetitive exercises, at some point you should no longer need to refer to earlier material. Sometimes general-purpose tips for successful studying actually start getting in the way of actually getting the work done.
posted by Nomyte at 6:23 PM on June 8, 2013
I still think a spreadsheet program is pretty good for that. I'd set up a spreadsheet with the fields you need arranged visually to resemble your formula (turning off the grid betwen cells, drawing solid lies to indicate fractions, whatever), and then just have an output cell that reads the values you typed in and applied the correct operations.
Also, it's not clear what benefit you might be deriving from having multiple versions of the book open to multiple pages. If you are doing repetitive exercises, at some point you should no longer need to refer to earlier material. Sometimes general-purpose tips for successful studying actually start getting in the way of actually getting the work done.
posted by Nomyte at 6:23 PM on June 8, 2013
do you want to know how to do a t-test, or do you want to be able to use it so you can learn new things? i think you're trying to ask the second question.
excel/libre office has it's own t-test function, but you can roll your own.i think what you need to do is make a spreadsheet that makes the INPUTS to the formula you need. that will save a lot of time, but you'll still understand what's going on.
posted by cupcake1337 at 9:43 PM on June 8, 2013
excel/libre office has it's own t-test function, but you can roll your own.i think what you need to do is make a spreadsheet that makes the INPUTS to the formula you need. that will save a lot of time, but you'll still understand what's going on.
posted by cupcake1337 at 9:43 PM on June 8, 2013
A spread sheet for each of the sub calculations will help. Writing the routines will help you to learn and the final product will take some of the slog out of assignments.
posted by BenPens at 5:36 AM on June 9, 2013
posted by BenPens at 5:36 AM on June 9, 2013
Response by poster: I had the books open in order to read the practice questions, another electronic version open to go back and look over the new materials and still had to jump to the appendix to review the answers.
I decided to just make a spreadsheet that makes no calculations. This way I have tables to keep my work organized and the formulas on the same page for reference. I'm taking the advice to do as much by hand on scratch paper. This is working well and has really been helpful. Thanks all!
posted by Che boludo! at 4:18 PM on June 11, 2013
I decided to just make a spreadsheet that makes no calculations. This way I have tables to keep my work organized and the formulas on the same page for reference. I'm taking the advice to do as much by hand on scratch paper. This is working well and has really been helpful. Thanks all!
posted by Che boludo! at 4:18 PM on June 11, 2013
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posted by Che boludo! at 2:07 PM on June 8, 2013