Statistics - A Whole New Animal

[barcotta]

After maintaining a fairly brisk testing pace since February, I slowed to a crawl in June. Actually, I stopped. I studied off and on for Statistics and was reading my American Government Cliff Notes on occassion and was hoping that through my busy summer I would at least be able to take those two exams before starting Accounting II at the local community college. Well, let me tell you, Statistics is a whole new animal compared to the various Psych, Computer and Management/Marketing exams.

I know several on the site have been looking at this exam in recent months. Steelers was quite discouraged after attempting the paper version and appears to have disappeared altogether. Jeremy gave it a go and missed it by two points. I think Johann is gearing up for it as well.

I decided that I would use only InstantCert and any other free resources I could find to prepare. That has taken some extra time. Had I to do this one over again, I think I would've gotten a book. This is one test where not knowing the types of questions well is concerning me. There is some great feedback in the feedback section and I'm using all of it, but this is no fun.

I've spent most of today studying and restudying. I'm hopeful that the first three sections from the fact sheet (Descriptive Statistics, Correlation and Regression and Probability) really do make up 70-75% of the exam. If so, and I can get this probability thing down in the next three days, I think I have a chance. I looked at chi square and decided that I won't spend too much time there!

I told the testing center that I'm bringing a calculator that conforms with the DSST standards so I'm hoping I don't get a hard time from them. Other than that, I'm just taking a break from studying and I'm now going to dive back into Probability to see if it starts clicking. The combination of no book, few practice tests and foreign subject matter makes this a lot different than my previous experiences. Even though I only used a book on a few other tests--none of them covered learning and applying mathematical processes. Traditional learning where you absorb a concept and practice on problems would've been real good for this!

Oddly enough, I feel like I know more about Statistics now than I did about many of the other tests I took. I'm just not sure I can translate my knowledge to answer questions with which I'm unfamiliar and may approach the material from different perspectives. I'm also not crazy about the idea that I expect this test to be a minefield of ALMOST correct answers--so if I know everything except, for example, if the answer should be positive or negative, or if, when determining percentiles, I get confused about where I should add or subtract a one--I'm sure all those answers will be there too!

I test this coming Wednesday at 1:00 p.m. I'm hopeful that those who have fallen before me have sufficiently beaten down the curve for me to pass.

[Matymus]

After maintaining a fairly brisk testing pace since February, I slowed to a crawl in June. Actually, I stopped. I studied off and on for Statistics and was reading my American Government Cliff Notes on occassion and was hoping that through my busy summer I would at least be able to take those two exams before starting Accounting II at the local community college. Well, let me tell you, Statistics is a whole new animal compared to the various Psych, Computer and Management/Marketing exams.

I know several on the site have been looking at this exam in recent months. Steelers was quite discouraged after attempting the paper version and appears to have disappeared altogether. Jeremy gave it a go and missed it by two points. I think Johann is gearing up for it as well.

I decided that I would use only InstantCert and any other free resources I could find to prepare. That has taken some extra time. Had I to do this one over again, I think I would've gotten a book. This is one test where not knowing the types of questions well is concerning me. There is some great feedback in the feedback section and I'm using all of it, but this is no fun.

I've spent most of today studying and restudying. I'm hopeful that the first three sections from the fact sheet (Descriptive Statistics, Correlation and Regression and Probability) really do make up 70-75% of the exam. If so, and I can get this probability thing down in the next three days, I think I have a chance. I looked at chi square and decided that I won't spend too much time there!

I told the testing center that I'm bringing a calculator that conforms with the DSST standards so I'm hoping I don't get a hard time from them. Other than that, I'm just taking a break from studying and I'm now going to dive back into Probability to see if it starts clicking. The combination of no book, few practice tests and foreign subject matter makes this a lot different than my previous experiences. Even though I only used a book on a few other tests--none of them covered learning and applying mathematical processes. Traditional learning where you absorb a concept and practice on problems would've been real good for this!

Oddly enough, I feel like I know more about Statistics now than I did about many of the other tests I took. I'm just not sure I can translate my knowledge to answer questions with which I'm unfamiliar and may approach the material from different perspectives. I'm also not crazy about the idea that I expect this test to be a minefield of ALMOST correct answers--so if I know everything except, for example, if the answer should be positive or negative, or if, when determining percentiles, I get confused about where I should add or subtract a one--I'm sure all those answers will be there too!

I test this coming Wednesday at 1:00 p.m. I'm hopeful that those who have fallen before me have sufficiently beaten down the curve for me to pass.

You'll definitely be my prayers for this exam! I took this one back in June, I believe. I passed with a 53 or a 55, I believe. I used the book Idiot's Guide to Statistics. It was extremely helpful for me. I also used the Idiot's Guide to Algebra for my College Algebra CLEP. Keep us posted on how you do.

[4dkids]

and holding my breath for your results...[SIZE="5"]GOOD LUCK!!![/SIZE]

[CDM]

someone told me that you need to get the standard deviation thing down to pass this test. do not[B][/B] feel badly about finally coming to a crawl with your testing pace! same thing happened to me!! I was doing so well until I ran into the biology... and the accounting... and... yep. think it's going to be like this for a while.....

[Kiwi Lover]

I'm hopeful that those who have fallen before me have sufficiently beaten down the curve for me to pass.

Mike,

I know it's hard (after all...we are talking about statistics here ), but try not to get too discouraged, okay? The curve will most definitely be your "friend" on this exam...probably more than any other exam out there.

Also, I think if you heed Snazzlefrag's advice in the following post, it will help you to not feel so overwhelmed with your studying:

Posted by Snazzlefrag:

But on certain exams, such as Accounting, Statistics, Principles of Finance, Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, etc., I just found myself getting SO overwhelmed by some of the more advanced topics that it was hurting my self-confidence and causing me to get confused by even the basic stuff. So in the end, for these exams particularly, I focused the vast majority of my time and energy on truly MASTERING the BASICS.

When it came time to take the exam, I found that I could answer almost every single easy and average difficulty question. Any question I came across that was too hard, I simply guessed and moved on.

If you can do that, you can afford to miss most of the really hard questions, and still do well. Also, since these are multiple choice exams, you have a 20-25% chance of getting even the MOST diffficult questions right simply by guessing.

With that in mind, I would recommend that you make sure you will be able to get every single "easy" question right, almost all of the "average" questions right, and hopefully pick up one or two bonus points by guessing on the extremely hard questions.

YOU CAN DO IT MIKE!! We're all rooting for you!

Hang in there,
JoAnne

[CDM]

^^^^^^^^^^^^
so true!!!! Thanks for that reminder.

[Basket Weaver]

Mike,
It sounds as though you've prepared well and are ready. It is easy to talk yourself out of going for it, I'm glad to see you have made the appointment and are seeing it through. Let us know how it went because we're rooting for you. Good Luck and God Speed! Lee

[Johanna]

Barcotta,
I feel your pain . . . I was scheduled to take it in late July but chickened out and haven't rescheduled yet - I am shooting for late September but I have never spent so much time/anxiety/worry etc. on any exam. This is one where I will be praying for even a C and think I will be flying high if I can pull that off. If there was a quick course I could take that was sufficient to satisfy the psych requirement I would have gladly paid for it but I haven't found one that will fit into my time frame. I will be thinking about you on Wednesday - are you taking a computer version? Keep us posted on your experiences - I will be especially eager to hear how you did on this one. Steelers disappearing after taking Stat didn't help my confidence any, that's for sure:o
Here's pulling for you!

[barcotta]

someone told me that you need to get the standard deviation thing down to pass this test. do not[B][/B] feel badly about finally coming to a crawl with your testing pace! same thing happened to me!! I was doing so well until I ran into the biology... and the accounting... and... yep. think it's going to be like this for a while.....

Yeh--I decided that I didn't want to save all the tough ones for last and forced myself to stick with Stats. Thanks for the encouragement. The good news is that I'm very comfortable with standard deviation and z-scores etc. A test full of that stuff would be just fine with me!

[barcotta]

Also, I think if you heed Snazzlefrag's advice in the following post, it will help you to not feel so overwhelmed with your studying:

YOU CAN DO IT MIKE!! We're all rooting for you!

Hang in there,
JoAnne

Yep--and that's exactly what I'm doing. That's why I threw the Chi square out the window! I figured if I spend the time I would've spent to (not) figure out that mess on some of the stuff I do mostly understand, I might get another couple of probability or line regression problems correct. Thanks for the encouragement and reminder!