AB1202 STATISTICS & ANALYSIS (3.0 AU)

AY 20/21 S1
Lecturer: Chen Chien-Ming
Tutor: Tan Chor Hoong
Expected Grade: A
Actual Grade: A+

This is a highly quantitative module, essentially made up of two parts – understanding basic statistics and knowing how to use R. For the former, JC students will have it much easier because it is largely H2 Math’s statistics, but repeated all over again. For the latter part, basic familiarity with programming (if, else, for loops and being acquainted with R syntax) will stand one in good stead to score well.

When I took it, it was 10% Quiz 1, 25% Quiz 2, 25% Quiz 3, 10% Class Participation, 10% Group Project, 20% LAMS (only completion, no accuracy) – so quiz performance is key to scoring well. Echoing what the other reviewers have said, quiz questions are slightly more challenging than practice questions (which are more challenging than tutorial/seminar questions). Since it is an open book quiz, the way to score is to 1. prepare templates, functions or packages, 2. be familiar with R syntax, 3. attempt all practice questions so you’ll be able to solve questions in time. To prevent cheating, no backtracking was allowed for the online quizzes, so it’s essential to know your stuff and what you’re good at.

Workload and content will be easy if you have had experience with statistics, but Prof Chen’s teaching were pretty decent – 9/10, but Ms Tan’s teaching could be confusing at times as she’s teaching statistics (and by extension, coding) in a manner that would be targeted at weaker students, which may not be in line with programming conventions.

Much easier for JC students as starting is similar to H2 math. However, there is definitely additional content later on. Quizzes are pretty hard as most qns will not even be quite like the tutorial and extra questions. Sometimes making me wonder why I tried so hard. Considering how traumatised I was by the last quiz, I was pleased with my results. However, bellcurve q steep.

Stats is a commonly feared module but we should be thankful that we are using R instead of having to do mathematics manually. R honestly made the module much more manageable. R may seem intimidating and tough at first but with practice, it should get a lot simpler. The lecture and tutorials were closely linked and effectively reinforces learning. Quizzes are manageable as long as you put in the effort to understand the materials i.e lecture notes and tutorial answers.

Took this mod during AY20/21 Sem 1. I was taught by Prof Juan, a PHD student. Prof Juan is good at teaching and he is also very friendly and approachable so it’ll definitely be good to have a prof like him. He also gives out a lot of opportunity for class participation. However, he does not provide much additional practice so you should approach your other classmates for supplementary questions for each quizzes which some other profs will give out.

In terms of content, this mod is definitely the hardest out of all the Group B mods. If you are from poly, you will definitely struggle because the stats taught in NTU is much tougher and has way more depth. I remembered struggling all the way throughout the mods, and barely understanding most of the concepts. However, one good thing is that stats is done using R programming, so its easier than calculating through formulas.

In terms of assessment, the first quiz is probably the hardest for me as it focuses on probability. However, for JC students, most tend to do well in the first quiz. The second quiz was a little easier while the final quiz was also pretty difficult as it tested us on simulation analysis. The simulation questions require a lot of nested ifs in the coding which is really difficult to understand and even as someone who is relatively good at python, I struggle at this part. The biggest problem with the quizzes is that they are so different from the tutorial and supplementary questions so even practising will not help you much. Also, cheating is quite rampant since the quizzes are online. So, most students would collaborate and attempt the quizzes with their friends. Keep in mind that the numbers in the questions are all jumbled up so your answers will be different, the questions are also not in order, and you cannot traceback to previous questions. Do anything but just don’t get caught.

Interestingly, 20% of the grade is actually assessed based on your completion of the LAMS , but the penalty for late submission is high, so please be on time if you want to score well. For the group project, it was just a short video presentation so this one was very chill and most groups start doing this a few days before the submission as everything can be done within a day or two.

Lastly, since the content and the quizzes are extremely difficult, this also means that the bell curve god will be extremely kind to you. I barely passed quiz 1 and scored about median for quiz 2. Quiz 3 results were not released but I could not do quite a lot of questions. Despite that, I still managed to get an A-. So, just try your best and pray for the best. Jiayou fellow NBS student!

Prof: Dr Gan Chui Goh
Course taken in: ACC Year 1 Sem 2
Textbook: NA
Required: Download R Studio / R Application on laptop
Assessments: Class participation + 3 quizzes + 1 project work

This mod is a killer in the sense that the quizzes manage to ask questions that boggle your minds. Tutorial questions are manageable and depending on your prof, lessons can be relatively enjoyable. However, the clone questions (aka further practice questions) as well as test revision questions (released in packages closer to test dates) absolutely do not give you the breadth and depth to hone your skills necessary for the quizzes! Most of the time when I took the quizzes, I was astounded how students were supposed to answer the questions when we had never encountered such problems before. Furthermore, with each semester feeling like you’re travelling on a bullet train, the relatively short interval between each of the 3 quizzes will be arduous, so good luck.

Although R was new to me, I found that most of the functions and codes were understandable as they mean what they say. If you are taking AB0403 Programming at the same time, then these 2 mods go quite hand-in-hand. The codes learnt in AB0403 will somewhat aid your learning in this mod although I got confused sometimes, such as the for-loop which is written slightly differently in the 2 mods. I found that I didn’t really use R for the 1st quiz, although quiz 2 and 3 really requires one to make use of R. That being said, the functions for quiz 3 was quite difficult for me to understand as there contained many nested functions (inner function executed before outer function executed). But it felt like for solving problems using R, you either get it or you don’t. Reflecting back, I should have just skipped quiz questions which I didn’t know how to solve because eventually I didn’t get the answers anyway.

However, aside from the quizzes, I enjoyed lessons with Dr Gan and she is truly one of a kind. She manages to explain concepts tremendously *better* than the lecture videos and also puts in a lot of effort to understand the problems her students are facing. A warm-hearted motherly figure. Although class participation is a chore for most modules, it did not feel this way to me with Dr Gan. She manages to entice students to think deeper about the concepts and answers questions in layman terms so that anyone can understand her explanations. Her hearing is excellent btw, as she can pick up even whispers from across the room. So people who feel shy about class participation don’t need to worry too much about class participation.

Lastly, the group project. It was also manageable. From what I know, this mod’s group project is always due during the study break, so some groups chiong it during those few days and I heard of one group who even completed it in 1 day. However, do note that not only does a group have to create slides, but video themselves, and also maybe do some editing. So preferably don’t leave the project until the very last minute?

Overall, this mod was very tiring and draining on one’s soul, so good luck and all the best (•̀ᴗ•́)و ̑̑