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Statistics Class Reflection

The statistics class this year was different than what I thought it might be, it challenged
me in a different way than previous mathematics classes. Throughout this year, we covered
material that I can actually see myself using in the future; in some other math classes the
material I learned would only be used again on that chapter test. Overall, this statistics class
was different than what I originally thought it to be. Stats challenged me in different ways and
provided me, in my opinion, with more useful materials than some of the other classes I have
taken.
One of the most difficult topics, in my opinion, covered this year was probability. Having
to read over multiple situations to decide if the events were independant, dependant, or
compound events, and then to match those events up with the correct equation was confusing.
In addition, I always had trouble determining if events were mutually exclusive. In other math
classes I have taken, the numbers are given to you, then you perform your calculations to get
your final answer, and then you have to interpret them. For this particular lesson, you were
given the numbers, had to interpret them, and then find the final numbers. Interpreting these
numbers, that were not apart of the answer, was the most difficult section of this class for me,
but is also one piece that I will be able to take away from this class.
This class was different than what I was expecting. Stats required the student to
understand where wall numbers were coming from and how they were related to the problem.
For example, in stats you might be given the standard deviation, population mean, and average
of a data set. In order to perform the proper calculations, the student has to understand exactly
what those numbers mean. Other classes might require the student to perform calculations with
a set of numbers without knowing the significance of those numbers. This stats class was also
different than what I thought it was going to be, because all of the material could be related back
to practical real life application. In other math classes I have taken, the material covered would
not be used outside of that class. After considering these points the class was better than I
expected, I found the material to be more interesting as I could see myself using this material
later in life.
I found almost all of the material covered in this class to be valuable for future work. For
example, being able to find the frequency, cumulative frequency, and relative frequency of a
data set might come in handy not only in future college classes, but the future in general.
Determining if a data set as any correlation to another data set might also be useful for the
general future. I am undecided with exactly what I want to do in the future, but being able to
understand basic statistical principles like mean, frequency, average, standard deviation, and
probability all seem like valuable lessons to know in the future as they can involve almost any
kind of data set.