STA 611: Introduction to Statistical Methods

Lectures: Tue-Thu 3:05-4.20pm in 130 Physics Building

	Instructor:	Grader:	Grader:	Grader:
	Dr. Jenny Brynjarsdottir	Jianyu Wang	Silvia Montagna	Yuan Xue
E-mail:	jennyb at stat.duke.edu	jw163 at duke.edu	silvia.montagna at duke.edu	yx40 at duke.edu
Office:	Old Chemistry building 223C	Old Chemistry building 211a	Old Chemistry building 211a	Old Chemistry building 211a
Office Hour:	Tuesdays 1:00-2:00pm	Tuesdays 5:00-6:00pm	Mondays 6:00-9:00pm	Wednesdays 7:00 - 9:00 pm

Information about the Final Exam

When: December 11, 2:00 - 5:00 pm
Where: 130 Physics building (our classroom)
What: Chapters 1 - 9 (except the sections I said you could skip - see lecture notes)
The exam is closed book and closed notes
You may bring two "cheat sheets", letter size.
Bring a calculator - one that does not connect to internet or mobile network (That is, no phones, Ipods etc)
Tables (normal, t, chi-square, F) will be provided

You can come by my office to pick up your homework on Thursday December 6 11am-1pm or Friday December 7 10am-3pm.

Syllabus

The syllabus can be found here.

Statistical Education Center (SEC)

The SEC offers help sessions from 4pm to 9pm Sunday through Thursday in Old Chemistry 211A. A team of teaching assistants are available for students to ask questions on material from undergraduate and graduate courses taught by the Statistics department.

Our TA's hold their office hours in that room. In addition, most Graduate student TAs would be able to help you with the material in STA 611.

The Schedule of the SEC can be found here

Homework assignments

After the homework has been graded the solutions will be posted here (in Sakai).

Homework 1 - due Sep 6: Problems not in the book: HW1extra.pdf 1.4: 1, 6, 8 1.5: 3, 4, 8, 10, 14 1.6: 1, 6 1.7: 4, 5, 6 1.8: 2, 3, 4, 12	Homework 2 - due Sep 13: 2.1: 4, 14 2.2: 2, 12 2.3: 5, 6 3.1: 9, 10 3.2: 4, 8	Homework 3 - due Sep 20: 3.3: 4, 6, 15 3.4: 2, 4 3.5: 7, 8 3.6: 2, 12 3.8: 2, 6, 8 3.9: 6, 7 4.1: 4, 6 4.2: 3, 8
Homework 4 - due Sep 27: 4.3: 2, 4, 6 4.4: 8, 10 4.5: 2, 6 4.6: 5, 7, 12, 18 4.7: 7 5.2: 6, 9, 10, 11 5.4: 9, 10, 15	Homework 5 - due Oct 4: 5.5: 2 5.6: 4, 6, 10, 14, 22 5.7: 1, 6, 10, 22 5.10: 1, 2, 4, 5, 11	Homework 6 - due Oct 11 6.2: 2, 6, 8 6.3: 3, 10, 13 7.2: 2, 4, 6
Homework 7 - due Oct 18 7.3: 5, 10, 12, 15, 22 7.4: 5, 6, 7, 9 7.5: 5, 9, 11 7.6: 2, 5, 22	Homework 8 - due Nov 1 8.1: 2, 4 8.2: 1, 4, 9 8.3: 1, 7, 8 8.4: 2, 6 This homework has been canceled. New homework will be posted as soon as possible (will be due on Nov 8) I suggest you still work through the above exercises - it's good practice	Homework 8 - due Nov 8 Homework 8
Homework 9 - ~~due Nov 15~~ due Nov 19 at 10 am Homework 9	Homework 10 - ~~due Nov 29~~ due Monday Dec 3 at 10 am Homework 10 - part I Homework 10 - part II	No more homework problems. Remember that out of the 10 homeworks assigned, the one with the lowest grade will not count in your grade.

Tentative schedule and Lecture notes

The table below will contain lecture slides and will be updated periodically.

Date	Lecture Slides	Chapter
Aug 28	Introduction to probability Lecture 1	1.1-1.4
Aug 30	Conditional probability Lecture 2	1.5-1.9 and 2.1-2.3
Sep 4	Random Variables and distributions Lecture 3	3.1-3.3
Sep 6	Random Variables and distributions Lecture 4	3.4-3.7
Sep 11	Random Variables and distributions Lecture 5	3.8-3.9
Sep 13	Expectation Lecture 6	4.1-4.4
Sep 18	Expectation Lecture 7	4.5-4.7
Sep 20	Special Distributions Lecture 8	5.1-5.5
Sep 25	Special Distributions Lecture 9	5.6-5.10
Sep 27	Special Distributions We will finish Lecture 9 today and maybe start Lecture 10	5-6
Oct 2	Law of Large Numbers and the Central Limit Theorem We will pick up where we left of in Lecture 10 (same lecture as above)	6.1-6.3
Oct 4	Estimation Lecture 11	7.1-7.2
Oct 9	Estimation Lecture 12	7.3-7.4
Oct 11	Estimation Lecture 13	7.5-7.7
Oct 16	Fall Break	No Class
Oct 18	Sampling Distributions Lecture 14	8.1-8.4
Oct 23	Review Template Midterm	1-7
Oct 25	Midterm	1-7
Oct 30	Sampling Distributions Lecture 15	8.5
Nov 1	Sampling Distributions Lecture 16	8.6
Nov 6	Sampling Distributions Lecture 17	8.7
Nov 8	Hypothesis Testing Lecture 18	9.1
Nov 13	Hypothesis Testing Lecture 19	9.1
Nov 15	Hypothesis Testing Lecture 20	9.5 - 9.7
Nov 20	Hypothesis Testing Lecture 21	9.8 - 9.9
Nov 22	Thanksgiving	No class
Nov 27	Miscellaneous Topics Simpsons Paradox
Nov 29	Review Review Final Review	1-9

Mathematical Background

Familiarity to the following concepts is essential for your success in this course:
Function, limit, continuity, differentiation (e.g. product rule, quotient rule and chain rule), integration, integration techniques such as integration by parts and by substitution, function of two variables, double integrals, ifinite series, maxima and minima of functions.

Take this quiz by yourself, preferably before classes start and no later than by our second class (Thursday August 30) to help you determine whether you have the necessary math- ematical background. It should take no more than an hour. Do not look at the solutions beforehand!

A Math Quiz and the Solutions