behold the breadth of my geekitude!
So...in my research methods class, we're doing statistics. And I'm simultaneously amused and bored to tears. Why you ask? let's take a little trip back in time.
First semester, sophomore year. As a biology major (yes - i was a bio major), I was required to take at least one statistics class. And I ended up really liking it. I got an A. It was all good. This good grade and the fact that enjoyed the class were the beginning of a brutal masochistic path. I decided to be a stats minor. Of course, that meant taking classes about more than just standard statistics. I took...Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Survey Sampling Methods, Non-parametric Statistics, SAS programming (which probably wins me some sort of geek award - i can program a 1980s era statistics program to do basic stuff!), and regression.
Sadly...i actually kind of liked regression towards the end when it started making sense. But the other ones turned out to be MUCH harder than I thought they would be and if it weren't for the fact that everyone in the classes was doing awful...I probably wouldn't have squeaked by and gotten my minor added to the diploma.
But here in grad school for library science? It seems many have forgotten that math exists. I feel bad for the fact that there are times when I do math-y things instead of doodles in the margins of my notebook, or the fact that...I took calculus in college. And did well. And LIKED it. I mean...there are a few other people who I'm sure took math, and don't hate it passionately. But I think they (we) all work in science libraries. *sigh* Anyways, the stuff we're doing in Research Methods is really REALLY easy when you can just plug it into SPSS or something. I have painful memories of having to do it by hand - because that's what they make you do. But having to listen to people ask what a p-value is? When...it's just a number. It represents something that can be CONVERTED into something else (a measure of certainty). And that's kind of what statistics is...you have to be ok with not being completely sure. Because technically - you can never accept an experimental hypothesis as true (stats will only give you strong support for it), and in the cases where the null hypothesis is more likely, you still don't "accept the null hypothesis"...you just don't reject it. some other data set may come along one day and cause you to say..."SEE YA Ho. Be GONE!"
Oh...right. I still remember the notation. THAT's why I'm a geek.
First semester, sophomore year. As a biology major (yes - i was a bio major), I was required to take at least one statistics class. And I ended up really liking it. I got an A. It was all good. This good grade and the fact that enjoyed the class were the beginning of a brutal masochistic path. I decided to be a stats minor. Of course, that meant taking classes about more than just standard statistics. I took...Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Survey Sampling Methods, Non-parametric Statistics, SAS programming (which probably wins me some sort of geek award - i can program a 1980s era statistics program to do basic stuff!), and regression.
Sadly...i actually kind of liked regression towards the end when it started making sense. But the other ones turned out to be MUCH harder than I thought they would be and if it weren't for the fact that everyone in the classes was doing awful...I probably wouldn't have squeaked by and gotten my minor added to the diploma.
But here in grad school for library science? It seems many have forgotten that math exists. I feel bad for the fact that there are times when I do math-y things instead of doodles in the margins of my notebook, or the fact that...I took calculus in college. And did well. And LIKED it. I mean...there are a few other people who I'm sure took math, and don't hate it passionately. But I think they (we) all work in science libraries. *sigh* Anyways, the stuff we're doing in Research Methods is really REALLY easy when you can just plug it into SPSS or something. I have painful memories of having to do it by hand - because that's what they make you do. But having to listen to people ask what a p-value is? When...it's just a number. It represents something that can be CONVERTED into something else (a measure of certainty). And that's kind of what statistics is...you have to be ok with not being completely sure. Because technically - you can never accept an experimental hypothesis as true (stats will only give you strong support for it), and in the cases where the null hypothesis is more likely, you still don't "accept the null hypothesis"...you just don't reject it. some other data set may come along one day and cause you to say..."SEE YA Ho. Be GONE!"
Oh...right. I still remember the notation. THAT's why I'm a geek.