This is a compulsory module for all Statistics majors. This module mainly focuses on teaching students how to use three programs to perform statistical procedures: SAS, R and SPSS. Topics of the procedures taught include descriptive statistics, robust statistics, categorical data analysis, one and two sample tests, one-way ANOVA, simulation, bootstrapping, numerical methods and regression analysis.
Lecture attendance is not compulsory but tutorial attendance is. Homework is not issued at all. There is a quiz in the second half of the semester, which is conducted during one of the tutorials. The project involved 4-5 students, who together are required to produce a statistical report, using the concepts learnt earlier in the semester (the project is issued in around week 11). The requirements of the project included analysing a dataset of mutual funds, and conducting a simulation study on various estimators.
This module is probably one of the easiest statistics modules in NUS. The statistical procedures taught were generally not deeply explored as the focus was on knowing how to use the statistical programs. Almost all of the procedures are spoonfed by Dr. Chan in lectures, thus one did not need to spend much time figuring out the steps needed to execute a certain task. Dr. Chan displays good proficiency in statistics, but his lecturers are considerably dry due to content taught and his fast talking, thus lecture attendances are generally low. The lack of pauses in his lectures made it difficult to digest the concepts he just taught. The tutor was not particularly helpful – he was unable to answer me when I would like to clarify the rationale behind a statistical concept, and was generally unconfident and unable to carry out tutorials smoothly.
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