Statistics 515 - Syllabus                

Instructor:

Roumen Vesselinov, Ph.D.
Office: 200-C LeConte
E-mail: roumen@sc.edu
Office phone: 777-5074
Meeting Times: MW 4:00PM- 5:15PM, LC 210A
Office Hours: Mon 1:30pm-3:30pm & Wed 2:30pm-3:30pm and by appointment

           Website: http://www.stat.sc.edu/~vesselin/STAT515.html
Bulletin Description: STAT 515 —Statistical Methods I. (3) (Prereq: a grade of C or higher in MATH 111 or equivalent) Applications and principles of descriptive statistics, elementary probability, sampling distributions, estimation, and hypothesis testing. Inferences for means, variances, proportions, simple linear regression, and contingency tables. Statistical packages such as SAS.
Notes:
  • No previous statistics course is required
  • STAT 515 should not be taken if STAT 509 has or will be taken
Purpose of Course: To familiarize students in a variety of fields with modern statistical methods, including the general areas of data description, elementary probability, and statistical inference. To prepare the students to further their study in statistical topics such as quality control, design of experiments, nonparametrics, time series, and sampling.
Expectations:

All students are expected to:

  • Attend class regularly, asking questions when clarification is needed and participating in any in-class activities
  • Read the material listed on the board before the next class meeting
  • Attempt all of the assigned homework problems and turn them in at the start of the class in which they are due
  • Use the resource of their fellow students and their instructor to seek answers to questions that arise in class, in the readings, and on the homework
Required Text: Statistics (10th Edition), by J.T.McClave and T. Sincich, Prentice Hall, 2006.

Additional materials are on the course website.
Computers
and Calculators:

This course will use the software package SAS. You will have an account on the CSM Windows-NT domain. Currently the computers in LC 124, LC 303A and PSC 102 have SAS. Student copies of SAS for home use are also available for purchase from the university's computer service division.


NO PREVIOUS KNOWLEDGE OF SAS IS ASSUMED.


SAS is the de facto standard statistical package in a number of industries, and experience with SAS is a prerequisite for many jobs in statistics and in fields that use statistics. While we will only scratch the surface of SAS's capabilities, it should provide a useful introduction into the more standard routines, and a jumping off point for future experience with it.


A basic calculator may be used on the exams.
Exams and
Topics Covered:

There will be three exams and the final. The topics covered in the exams will generally follow the chapters of the text listed above. However, the exams may also cover material which was solely presented in class, and that is not contained in the text.


The first exam will be held in class. It will focus on the subjects related to chapters 1-5 of the text, including: graphical methods, measures of center and variability, basic rules of probability, probability distributions, the binomial random variable and counting rules, the normal distribution, and the normal approximation of the binomial distribution.


The second exam will be held in class. It will focus on the material related to chapters 6-9, including the central limit theorem, sampling distributions, and estimation and inference for one and two populations for means, variances, and proportions.


The third exam will be held in class. It will focus on the material related to sections 10.1-10.2 and chapter 11 of the text, including one-way analysis of variance and linear regression.


The final exam will be held in class. It will be cumulative, covering both the material from the previous three exams and the material on contingency tables in chapter 13.


Make up exams will be given only in extreme circumstances, and only when accompanied by appropriate documentation.

Incidence of cheating and academic dishonesty will be punished to the full extent allowed by university regulations.
Homework and Project:

Homework is due at the beginning of the class period it was assigned for.
Late homework is not accepted.


Homework will be assigned at least one week in advance in class, and will also be posted on the class website. If the homework is on a handout, that handout will be available in class and during office hours.


The writing on the homework must be legible, the work used to obtain the answers must be shown and correct, and the final answers must be clearly indicated in order to receive full credit.

Extra points may be deducted for violating any of the following:

  • Multiple pages must be stapled together. No clips.
  • Copies of the SAS code must be included with any homework requiring SAS.
  • Extraneous pages of SAS output should not be turned in.
You MAY work on the homework assignments with other students, but each student must write it up individually. (i.e., no photocopies of another student's work.)

There will also be a project involving collecting and analyzing a data set using the techniques learned in the course. The details of the project will be given later.
Grades:

The grade is determined by the scores on the homework, project  and examinations as follows:

     Homework - 10%
Project  - 10%
Exam 1 - 20%
Exam 2 - 20%
Exam 3- 20%
      Final exam - 20%

with the letter grade determined by the percentage of points obtained.

Letter

Minimum

Grade

Percent

A

90

B+

87

B

80

C+

77

C

70

D+

67

D

60

F

 <60

Any questions involving the grading of a homework assignment or exam must be raised by the class period following the one in which it was returned.
The homework with the lowest grade will be dropped from the calculations.


There is no "extra credit".


Any deviations from the above grading scheme will be to the benefit of the students.
Graduate
Credit:		 Students taking the course for graduate credit will be required to complete extra homework problems throughout the semester as a portion of their homework grade.
Complaints
and
Comments:		 While there are end of semester evaluation forms, they come far too late to resolve any difficulties experienced in the class. All complaints should be raised by either speaking with me directly, or by anonymously leaving a message in my mailbox in 216 LeConte.