I love stats.
Taking 5 minutes from work for a little brainstorm. I really like my graduate stats course this semester.
What I love about statistics is its application to experiments. Well... what else is statistics about if not that? Statistics is exciting because it reveals all the possibilities of raw data. It is amazing how much information can be extrapolated, with confidence, from a large enough data set. Where before I could only see means and compare their differences, I can now calculate treatment effects, interactions, significance of treatment differences, power and adequacy. Does my data fit assumptions of normality? Which statistical test is better and why is it better? These are things I could only hint at, now I can report information with confidence--and if I am challenged I can back it up with math.
I'm only like a month in. Who knows what I'll know by the Spring... or with a few more courses?
I have never really been a mathematics person. I'm pretty average when it came to standardized tests and required courses. I struggled with basic applied calculus. I failed my first physics course (less about the math and more about my hating the professor, but eh). I still get lost easily in my stats courses when we start deriving. I can't help but love it, though. My statistics coursework often makes my biology coursework seem like trivial in comparison. Mathematical statistics is new and challenging and sexy.
Back to work.
What I love about statistics is its application to experiments. Well... what else is statistics about if not that? Statistics is exciting because it reveals all the possibilities of raw data. It is amazing how much information can be extrapolated, with confidence, from a large enough data set. Where before I could only see means and compare their differences, I can now calculate treatment effects, interactions, significance of treatment differences, power and adequacy. Does my data fit assumptions of normality? Which statistical test is better and why is it better? These are things I could only hint at, now I can report information with confidence--and if I am challenged I can back it up with math.
I'm only like a month in. Who knows what I'll know by the Spring... or with a few more courses?
I have never really been a mathematics person. I'm pretty average when it came to standardized tests and required courses. I struggled with basic applied calculus. I failed my first physics course (less about the math and more about my hating the professor, but eh). I still get lost easily in my stats courses when we start deriving. I can't help but love it, though. My statistics coursework often makes my biology coursework seem like trivial in comparison. Mathematical statistics is new and challenging and sexy.
Back to work.