Statistics - A Whole New Animal

[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.