FALL 2017 M358K (APPLIED STATISTICS)

TUTH 9.30-11. COURSE SYLLABUS

INSTRUCTOR: PROF. NGOC M TRAN

Essential information.
Lectures: Tuesday, Thursday, 9:30 to 11:00AM, CPE 2.212
Instructor: Prof. Ngoc Mai Tran
Teaching Assistant: Prateek Srivastava
Office hours: Tuesday, Thursday, 1PM to 2PM, RLM 11.124
Official class site: Canvas.
Official communication method: Piazza. Link embedded in
Canvas under Modules
piazza.com/utexas/fall2017/m358k/home
Signup link to Piazzas class site:
piazza.com/utexas/fall2017/m358k
Official course name on Piazza: m358k
Course description: Exploratory data analysis, correlation and
regression, data collection, sampling distributions, confidence
intervals, and hypothesis testing. Introduction to the statistical
software R.
This course carries the Quantitative Reasoning flag. Quanti-
tative Reasoning courses are designed to equip you with skills
that are necessary for understanding the types of quantitative
arguments you will regularly encounter in your adult and pro-
fessional life. You should therefore expect a substantial portion
of your grade to come from your use of quantitative skills to
analyze real-world problems.
Prerequisite: Mathematics 362K with a grade of at least C-.
Software requirement: R (free). For installation instructions:
https://cran.r-project.org/
Textbook requirement: OpenIntro Statistics, 3rd edition. (Re-
ferred in class as OS3).
This textbook is free, see https://www.openintro.org/stat/.

Date: posted on: August 29th, 2017.

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2 INSTRUCTOR: PROF. NGOC M TRAN

Assessments. Homework: 70%. Final project: 30%

Homework sets appear every two weeks. All homework will be up-
loaded on the Canvas class site and due two weeks after.
There will be six homework sets. The lowest score will be dropped, so
each homework set that is counted will contributes 14% to the total
grade. Tentatively, the homework set schedule is
September 12th
September 26th
October 10th
October 24th
November 7th
November 21st (due December 5th as usual)
The homework sets generally involve some computations with R, an-
alyzing a dataset, analyzing some results, writing a report, and critizing
the data and methods used.
The final project is a big homework set that involves a student ana-
lyze an assigned dataset using R, write a report, and critically comment
on the data and methods used. It will be posted on October 31st, and
is due December 12th.

How to submit your homework sets and projects.

For all homework sets and the final project, you must submit your re-
port and R source code to CANVAS by the specified deadlines. Printed
homework sets are NOT accepted.

Collaboration policy Homework set and final project discussions

are especially encouraged on Piazza. However, students must write all
reports and R codes on their own. There is no joint project in this
class.
Tentative schedule by week (subject to change depending on
class pace).
(1) Weeks 1-4: discussions on various datasets and introduction to
R
(2) Week 5: data exploration
(3) Week 6-7: hypothesis testing
(4) Week 8-9: regression
(5) Week 10-11: sampling and sampling error
(6) Week 12: Bayesian statistics
(7) Week 13-14: Revisions.
FALL 2017 M358K (APPLIED STATISTICS) TUTH 9.30-11. COURSE SYLLABUS3

What the Professor will do.

Upload lecture summary and reference relevant sections in the
textbook
Upload datasets and R codes used in lectures
Check-in on Piazza once a day to answer questions
Be available for in-person questions during office hours

What the Teaching Assistant will do.

Check-in on Piazza regularly to answer questions
Be available for in-person questions during office hours

Tips on how to succeed.

Be attentive in lectures. Participate in discussions.
Always go to Piazza first when you have questions - be it lec-
ture, homework, final project or R. This is the fastest way to
get help!
Get R installed on your computer as soon as possible, and seek
help if you have troubles.
Go through the lecture R codes, make sure that you understand
all the commands, and when you run them, you produce the
same output as the professor.
Get comfortable with R. The homework will help you with this.
There are also many free online resources.

Tips on writing reports and answering written questions.

Keep it short (a couple of paragraphs per question at most).
Do NOT write giant essays.
Answer the questions directly. Dont ramble when you are con-
fused. If you do not understand the question, seek help.
For a writing guide, I strongly recommend the TINY book El-
ements of Style, Strunk and White.

Policies
Add/drop dates. Please take note of the add/drop deadlines at the
university calendar. There are no provisions to adjust scores due to
late enrolment. If you realize you want to drop a class after the 12th
class day, youll need to execute a Q drop before the Q-drop deadline,
which typically occurs near the middle of the semester. See https:
//ugs.utexas.edu/vick/academic/adddrop/qdrop.
4 INSTRUCTOR: PROF. NGOC M TRAN

Numerical to letter grades. Numerical grades convert to letter grades

as follows. A = 94-100, A- = 90-93, B+ = 87-89, B = 84-86, B- =
80-83, C+ = 77-79, C = 74-76, C- = 70-73, D+ = 67-69, D = 64-66,
D- = 60-63, F= 0-60.
All numbers are absolute, and will not be rounded up or down at any
stage. Thus a B- will be inclusive of all scores of 80.000 through 83.999.
The University does not recognize the grade of A+. Final grades might
be curved upwards but do not count on it.

Make-ups. No late homework sets or project will be accepted for ANY

reasons. Should you have serious medical problem or genuine emer-
gency, please obtain a written or electronic letter from the Student
Emergency Serivces. Under exceptional circumstances, I will give par-
tial grade, provided you have a C average on previous coursework.

Services for students with disabilities. The University of Texas at Austin

provides upon request appropriate academic accommodations for quali-
fied stu- dents with disabilities. For more information, contact Services
for Students with Disabilities at 471-6259 (voice) or 232-2937 (video
phone). Please request a meeting as soon as possible to discuss any
accommodations.

Religious Holy Days. By UT Austin policy, you must notify me of your

pending absence at least fourteen days prior to the date of observance
of a religious holy day. If you must miss a class, an examination, a
work homework set, or a project in order to observe a religious holy
day, I will give you an opportunity to complete the missed work within
a reasonable time after the absence.

Academic Integrity. By being enrolled in the class, you have agreed to

adhere to the student honor code and the university code of conduct.
Violations will be treated as required by the university policy. See the
UT Honor Code at http://catalog.utexas.edu/general-information/
the-university/.

University Resources for Students. The university has numerous

resources for students to provide assistance and support for your learn-
ing. Here are some resources
The Sanger Learning Center: http://www.utexas.edu/ugs/
slc
The University Writing Center: http://uwc.utexas.edu/
Counseling and Mental Health Center : http://cmhc.utexas.
edu/
FALL 2017 M358K (APPLIED STATISTICS) TUTH 9.30-11. COURSE SYLLABUS5

Student Emergency Services: http://deanofstudents.utexas.

edu/emergency/
ITS (technology help) http://www.utexas.edu/its/
Libraries: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/
Safety. Important Safety Information from BCAL: If you have concerns
about the safety or behavior of fellow students, TAs or Professors, call
BCAL (the Behavior Concerns Advice Line): 512-232- 5050. Your call
can be anonymous. If something doesnt feel right it probably isnt.
Trust your instincts and share your concerns.
Campus safety. See http://www.utexas.edu/safety/ for more infor-
mation from emergency evacuation provided by the Office of Campus
Safety and Security, 512-471-5767.