CAS MA 213:  Basic Statistics & Probability
 Fall 2009

Instructor: Dr. Surajit Ray
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
MCS 222, 111 Cummington Street, Boston, MA 02215
Phone: (617) 353-5209, Fax: (617) 353-8100

Lecture: Tue,Thu 12:30pm-2:00pm (Class Room: CAS 313)
Office Hours: Tuesday 2:00pm-3:00pm, Monday 1pm-2pm

Courseinfo Login ( BU Students)

Course Description:
This course serves as an introduction to basic concepts and tools in probability and statistics. We begin with how to describe data. Then we study the elements of probability theory. Finally, we combine data description and probability theory into an approach to statistical inference. Students should emerge from this course with the ability to incorporate a variety of skills in analyzing and reasoning from data.


Topics

    Week 1 1 Lecture
    		 Introduction, overview of statistics.
    Week 2 2 Lectures Statistical data- types and methods of description.
    Week 3 2 Lectures Summarizing data- mean, standard deviation, five-point summary.
    Week 4 2 Lectures Introduction to Probability.
    Week 5 2 Lecture Solving problems involving probability
    Week 6 1 Lecture Discrete random variables Midterm 1 (Oct 8)
    Week 7 1 Lecture Continuous random variables. The Uniform distribution.
    Week 8 2 Lectures Continuous random variables. The Normal distribution. Z-tables.
    Week 9 2 Lectures Sampling Distribution and the Central Limit Theorem. 
    Week 10 1 Lecture Confidence Interval estimation of the population mean and proportion. Midterm 2 (Nov 5).
    Week 11 2 Lectures Confidence Interval estimation of the population mean and proportion
    Week 12 2 Lectures Hypothesis Testing. Large-sample test about a population mean.
    Week 13
    		 1 Lectures Hypothesis testing for the population mean. 
    (Thursday (Nov 26) HOLIDAY )
    Week 14
    		 2 Lectures Hypothesis testing for the population proportion.
    Week 15
    		 2 Lectures Two sample inference (Time permitting)


Text Book:

View larger cover

 Statistics, 11/E
James T. McClave
Terry Sincich
William Mendenhall

ISBN-10: 0132069512
ISBN-13: 9780132069519

Publisher: Prentice Hall
Buy from myPearsonStore
Exams:
There will be two midterms and one final (cumulative). Policy regarding the exams will be announced later. All exams are required and there will be no make up exam. Exams will take place according to the following schedule:
        Midterm I: Thursday, October 8 
        Midterm II: Thursday, November 5
        Final: TBA
Grading:
Homework(Quiz) 30%, Midterm I 20%, Midterm II 20%, Final Exam 30%.
Software
We will primarily use the statistical software R (or its commercial predecessor, S-Plus) for computing in this course. The software is now becoming a standard for users both in and outside of statistics, particularly those that need to do programming of new methods. The software is free and compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux/Unix. It may be downloaded from cran.us.r-project.org. The main website for the R project is www.r-project.org. For those that do not wish to install R on their own machines, it can be accessed in a command-line version on the ACS machines and, for those students in the department, on the machines in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics.

It is expected that all students will be responsible for getting up to speed on the basics of the R package on their own within the second week or so.  There are some excellent resources on the web e.g the official manuals and the R Primer . During the course of the semester I will list more resources.

Please Note:
You are responsible for knowing, and abiding by, the provisions of the GRS Academic Conduct Code, which is posted at http://www.bu.edu/grs/academics/resources/adp.html .
Violations of the code are punishable by sanctions including expulsion from the University.