Creative Maths, including Statistics Learning Centre brings you
How to study statistics, 5 tips to help you learn.
Hi, I'm Dr Nic from Creative Maths,
and this is my YouTube channel, Dr Nic's Maths and Stats
I have taught statistics to all sorts of people for many years.
I know that it can be difficult to learn statistics.
Here are some ideas that will help you. Let me tell you now - you CAN learn statistics.
You may find that your textbook or your teacher explains things in a way that you do not understand.
But there are so many wonderful resources on the web, including Dr Nic's Maths and Stats,
that will help you.
The first thing is that statistics is learned
by doing - correctly. The more time you put into learning a subject, the more you will learn.
Some people will find things quite difficult to start with,
but if you put in the time and effort, you can learn.
To start with you can read your lecture notes and the textbook.
Write down ideas and questions as you go. Watch videos, such as the ones on this channel.
Make sure you pause to think and answer questions. Do practice exercises from your textbook or
course, and check your answers. Which brings me to point number two
Understanding comes with doing. Statistics is not a spectator sport.
Every time I do another analysis I learn more about statistics.
Do not wait until you understand fully what you are doing to get started.
You may be beginning to understand, and then do some analysis or exercises.
You may get things right or wrong, but either way,
reflect on your efforts, which will grow your understanding.
Then do some more analysis. Keep doing statistics!
Point number 3. The BIG picture helps some people
Some people would rather just learn a little bit at a time and put it together at the end.
Other people like to see the big picture.
Here is one way of looking at the subject of statistics, that may help you.
The statistical process is the whole purpose for the subject.
The statistical process involves having a question or hypothesis,
collecting data, analysing and reporting it.
As part of the analysis you may do descriptive
statistics, finding summary values and displaying data using tables and graphs.
You may use computer packages or Excel to explore the data.
If you have taken a sample and wish to draw conclusions about a larger population of people
or things, then you will use inferential statistics. The two main techniques within statistical
inference are confidence intervals and hypothesis tests.
In most modern statistics courses you use computer packages or Excel to perform those.
Some teachers or courses require you to calculate things by hand.
You may find a combination of both helps your understanding.
There are mathematical underpinnings to statistics,
but you do not need to understand the mathematics of everything you do in order to perform a
sound statistical analysis. Much inferential statistics is built on probability
theory and uses probability distributions such as the normal distribution.
Certain types of analysis are based on the Central Limit Theorem.
Depending on the curriculum you may need to learn more about these.
But if you do have feelings of inadequacy about mathematics, do not worry too much.
Statistics is very much about critical thinking and communication.
It is possible to have a good non-mathematical understanding of statistics.
Point number 4 is to make technology your friend.
There are many excellent apps on-line to help you learn, understand and apply statistics.
Even if you are required to calculate results by hand, use a computer package to explore
your data as well. It is so quick to make graphs using a spreadsheet,
that drawing graphs by hand is not sensible use of time.
Exploring using technology can really help your understanding.
Point number 5 is that this YouTube channel can help you.
I will give you a quick overview now of some of the videos available.
Check in the description below the video for
up-to-date links and information. This is true for all the videos.
You can see the videos organised at the link below.
These videos introduce the statistical process. Some videos give you the chance to reinforce
your learning. Some videos are available to channel members only
You can see here a range of videos about inference,
Some include quizzes. Some use Excel, but are still useful even if you are not using Excel.
The videos about the p-value are very popular. You may wish to watch them several times.
And there are also videos about probability and probability distributions.
Let me know in the comments for this video
or in the channel comments if you would like a video on a topic you think is missing.
I am always keen to make new videos to help you.
This video was brought to you by Creative Maths. Please Like it, subscribe and consider
supporting our work by becoming a channel member.
Becoming a channel member will also give you access to all of the videos listed.
Help the channel grow and help me help more
and more people like you. I am truly grateful for my channel members
who help make these videos possible.