Prepare for Elementary Statistics

What is statistics?

Statistics is the science of getting information from data.

Statistics is not mainly computing numbers. Of course, you must compute some numbers and make some graphs. Mostly, however, you must interpret the numbers and the graphs, usually in the context of a real-world problem. Students in these classes vary quite a lot in how much attention they have paid to discussions of getting information from data. This website is a first step in providing all the students in the class with some common background as they begin the course.

What do you need in your "mental toolkit" to be prepared for this class?

Answer: You need

• • some skills from your previous math classes

  • some ideas about how to discuss data