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Old 01-27-2013, 10:23 AM
 
Location: Limbo
6,514 posts, read 7,507,444 times
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I agree with all those who already posted. Statistics is (it is hard to put it in words) different than math. A basic understanding of math concepts should be enough to do well in a statistics course.
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Old 01-27-2013, 03:54 PM
 
Location: Orange County, CA
6 posts, read 14,606 times
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I am happy to pipe in on this post. I was terrified of math for years and could never pass the simplest of algebra in either high school or college. I thought that I would never get the Bachelor degree because there was math required. Eventually, about the 4th or 5th time in community college, I finally passed algebra I and II, and then moved on to statistics. At first I was scared, but I actually found the course a lot easier than Algebra II. There is not much math involved at all. Just plugging in numbers into simple formulas and doing some calculations. It is really simple. I passed Stats with a high A (about 94%) and that is something I thought I could never accomplish in a math course. Take confidence. You can do it. Get a tutor, like everyone else said, hang out in the math lab, pick a good instructor and go for it.

Best of luck.
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Old 01-27-2013, 07:30 PM
 
Location: San Marcos, TX
2,570 posts, read 7,709,488 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Momma_bear View Post
I think Algebra is easier than Liberal Arts math. The problem with Liberal Arts math is a mishmash of a bunch of different subjects and that can be difficult for people who struggle with different mathematical concepts. You never really get a chance to master anything and then you are off to the next subject.

College Algebra is not much different from the Algebra that high school students take. It just moves along at a faster clip than it did in high school.

Statistics is fairly easy but you need to understand Algebra in order to take it. I am sure that is why College Algebra is required for that class. It doesn't mean that Statistics is some ridiculously difficult class.

See, I had an easier time taking Liberal Arts Math than I have ever had with anything algebra related (even "pre").

Thanks for your post; I keep hearing everyone yell about how statistics is brutally difficult!

Quote:
Originally Posted by toobusytoday View Post
My daughter just got her Masters and has said how helpful stats would have been as an undergrad. She said that it should have been required for her sociology major. She took two classes in it in Grad school, enjoyed them and got A's in both classes. I understand that stats for non-math majors is easier and probably more interesting.

You know you need those classes. Get the best teacher you can and plan on using a tutor. You CAN do it!
Thanks. I am hopefully going to be able to get into some special program for people with "math difficulties' that will help me make sure I get that darn college algebra credit that is hurting me. I am determined not to let this keep me from getting my degree, that would be a huge waste of time, but I have severe issues with algebra.

Quote:
Originally Posted by K-Luv View Post
Statistics focuses more on proof and conjecture (which, ironically, will probably make more sense to a Liberal Arts major than a math major) and how to gather, organize, and analyze data. Very little math is used, some will even argue that statistics is not math, what whether you want to call it math or not, any $12 scientific calculator has more statistical functions built-in than you will ever use. Depending on the data sets used, the amount of information, some problems can take a long time to work through. It can become extremely monotonous, but not too difficult.

You do not need any background in math to take a 100 or 200-Level introductory course in statistics, although these courses will have pre-recs (the pre-rec for stats at my university was/is calc I, which is rather silly considering the stats course was rather remedial as far as math goes; although there was one lower-level stats course offered... and two upper-division calculus-based stats courses). You will spend most of your time learning the vocabulary, how to properly collect data, how to eliminate, er...lessen, bias, and so on. You will also use Excel, StatCrunch, or the like as well. StatCrunch is similar to Excel, but watered down, and to be honest Excel (or StatCrunch) is going to be the hardest part of the course.
So hopefully, based on this info, when I get through with the college algebra and move on to the statistics I should be through the worst of it!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jarrett0708 View Post
I am happy to pipe in on this post. I was terrified of math for years and could never pass the simplest of algebra in either high school or college. I thought that I would never get the Bachelor degree because there was math required. Eventually, about the 4th or 5th time in community college, I finally passed algebra I and II, and then moved on to statistics. At first I was scared, but I actually found the course a lot easier than Algebra II. There is not much math involved at all. Just plugging in numbers into simple formulas and doing some calculations. It is really simple. I passed Stats with a high A (about 94%) and that is something I thought I could never accomplish in a math course. Take confidence. You can do it. Get a tutor, like everyone else said, hang out in the math lab, pick a good instructor and go for it.

Best of luck.
Yes this is me! I have been stuck in remedial math for my entire college career up to this point and moving on to college algebra is my final "hurdle".

To clarify, it is not just these 2 courses that I need for my degree. There are others but they are all reasonable for me to handle. My major is psychology with a minor in sociology; I've made A's in every single psych and sociology class so far, both lower and upper level, and don't anticipate problems with the remaining courses of that nature. They just require the college algebra and statistics as part of the psych degree. I am just working on my "plan of attack" and wondered what I am up against, considering my ridiculous difficulty in understanding anything beyond pre-algebra.

Thanks to everyone for the feedback on this.
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Old 01-27-2013, 07:33 PM
 
Location: Staten Island, NY
6,476 posts, read 7,292,335 times
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Don't feel too bad about yourself.

FACT: Five out of four people don't understand statistics.
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Old 02-01-2013, 01:37 PM
Status: "I'm turquoise happy!" (set 20 days ago)
 
Location: The New England part of Ohio
23,864 posts, read 32,125,181 times
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The sad fact is that in all probability the OP does deserve a college degree and can not "just do it". This is not a Nike ad and it is not a matter of laziness or a lack if desire to achieve and succeed. I am certain that the OP has these desires. Having achieved what he/she has already - completing almost a four year degree including the requisite upper division courses in the OP's major, are proof enough.
The truth is that some people can not learn Math at all. Generally they are fine even good at arithmetic, they are able to balance a check book, add and subtract. Many can master the multiplication tables and do fine with division.

Problems begin with Algebra. Other associated problems include difficulty or inability to read music,and to learn a foreign language.

The disorder is seldom correctly diagnosed and can ruin and limit peoples academic and professional careers. Yet is needn't get in the way of a for year college degree or higher. In fact I personally know a tenured Professor of English literature at a Seven Sisters school who suffers from this, She is an Ivy League Graduate. She is not a slacker.

The disorder is known as dyscalculia. It is recognized under thee American's With Disabilities Act. The web site is dyscalculia.org It does not seem to be appearing as a hyperlink so just put in into a search engine and it will appear.

I wish the OP the best of luck in all endeavors.
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Old 02-02-2013, 10:35 AM
 
Location: Foot of the Rockies
90,316 posts, read 120,147,178 times
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There isn't really any evidence that the OP has "dyscalcula". She is math-averse, afraid of it, but that's not the same. The reason colleges have courses like "Liberal Arts Math" is because so many people are afraid of math. There is a thread on the general education forum about how to get people to understand math and science.

I think the suggestion of a tutor is a good idea. I took stats at a community college after more than a decade since my last math class, which was college algerbra b/c I am not great at math either. I found stats very easy. Is there a possibility, OP, that you could take these classes at a CC? They won't be easier, but the class is likely to be smaller, and the teacher more interested in teaching rather than weeding out students for some higher level.

My "just do it" advice was predicated on the assumption that the OP is at least of normal intelligence, and is capable of passing these courses. Presumably she passed high school algebra, and probably also geometry, since these are standard "college prep" math courses. I certainly did not refer to her as a slacker.
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Old 02-02-2013, 10:44 AM
 
Location: Florida
861 posts, read 1,448,457 times
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A friend of mine told me statistics was easy and is useful in real life but most of Algebra on the other hand was much more difficult and largely useless.
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Old 02-02-2013, 10:48 AM
 
Location: Foot of the Rockies
90,316 posts, read 120,147,178 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CountryFisher View Post
A friend of mine told me statistics was easy and is useful in real life but most of Algebra on the other hand was much more difficult and largely useless.
We do have to solve for X in calculating doses at work. For ex: the dr. orders 750 mg of a med that comes in a 1000 mg powder, to be mixed with 2.1 ml sterile saline. How much do you give? Or: the baby needs 15mg/kilo of a drug that is 100 mg per ml. These are common calculations in our office.
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Old 02-02-2013, 12:15 PM
 
Location: West Lafayette
67 posts, read 241,492 times
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Intro stats? No calculus or algebra necessary (unless you're at MIT), just some arithmetic. Some data arrangement and such, but I didn't have to do any math in my intro class beyond mean, variance, and standard deviation (which are all easy to follow and require a $2 calculator).

If you can tell if a stat test value of "x" is more or less than the z, t, F, X, or p value (in charts, you'll see), then you are good to go. We learned x > y in 2nd grade, don't sweat it.

If you are having problems in class, do make use of professors' office hours and any free math/stat tutoring that almost every university has. When I taught at a community college, I think 2 students made use of my office hours; that was frustrating when so many students had issues.
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Old 02-02-2013, 01:29 PM
 
16,235 posts, read 25,071,093 times
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I am a math challenged person. I grew up in the old days, 1950's-70's so when I went to college in my 40's, in the 1990's and I had to take Sociological Stats and Research Methods.
Stats almost ate me up.

I had to work twice as hard as everyone else, and I do not do well in study groups because I didn't feel there was enough studying going on.
The folks in my class mostly were younger, some right out of H.S. math/algebra. They would give each other the answers...but for me I needed to know how to do the problems.

I struggled because I had no algebra background. I cannot get logic out of Algebra. And, I believe it really would help you if you had the basics of Algebra understood for a back ground. There are those study sheets you can buy that list all the basics and rules which you can reference to help.

I had so many struggles. I had 4 children, and at times by the time I could get to my homework it was late evening, and I would have already lost what I thought I knew from class that day.
When I took my first semester, I got a failing grade on my first stats test, I was traumatized, at the last semester of my degree, and never had lower than A's.

To make matters worse, my class was being used as guinea pigs, we were in stats for a week, then research methods the next....by the time we got back to stats, I couldn't even get a timely way to know if my work was right, or how to correct it and we were onto the next assignment...I had to study alot. The other decision made was that each semester was cumulative, fail one, fail the whole year.

Our Prof, a middle eastern gentleman, who was quiet, and very, very smart was teaching us like Grad students, and I had to ask so many questions that I felt like the proverbial dumb blonde...Thank goodness my fellow students and I had a good rapport, so when I had to repeatedly humiliate myself asking questions that others obviously got, I didn't let it get me down. Our Prof was determined that we were getting through the whole book... we also each had to teach a whole chapter to the class. It was a total nightmare for me, but I did it.

A funny story...Fear, for me...is obviously a great motivator. I studied so much, I almost felt like I was jeopardizing my other course work.
Finally, finals test, I went to campus to collect my grades on finals..A fellow student told me that our Stats Prof was looking for me. I was terrified, I figured..Lord, there goes my degree, I flunked again.

This Prof happened by just as I was trying to sneak out of the building...He made me go to his office w/ him....He stood there, looking all stern...and started saying that he's been going over the records...Then he said.."You got the only A on the final! I was like Kazi...Give me a hug! It was exceptional!

So, it can be done. You would be at an advantage if you could take a prep course covering Algebra not for a grade. You might check on campus for tutors now, get some extra help now and know what you are getting into. You might even see about monitoring a class, just to help yourself prep. Also there are plenty of websites now that help for free. I've listed a few below.

I wish I'd had that...I struggled a lot, and I've promised that one day I will be able to do polynomials!!

Here are a few inks for free help. There are many links online, some cost money. If I were doing it over, I'd get into one of these ahead of my registering in class. Good luck on this, JanND

http://get.addonreviews.com/lp/homework_simplified/for_students.php?p=^AGL^xdm032&source=msnhttp://www.algebra.com/
Free Algebra Homework Help

Last edited by JanND; 02-02-2013 at 01:36 PM.. Reason: edit text, added links
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