It's been a month since I've been in my statistics class.
Getting into the class was drama enough. I tend to do things in my own time, so when I tried to register, the class was closed. You mean I have to be one of those poor souls crowding the teacher at break time, begging for an add card?
First day of class: The teacher says that he will add 10 people, based on their priority number. Fortunately, the classroom is a computer lab, so I was able to get my priority number off of the school website just as the sign up sheet came to me.
Second class: The teacher calls roll, as well as the names of the people he will add. I hear the mispronunciation of my name. Relief. Now, all I have to do is bring proof of my priority number to the next class, and he would give me the add card so that can register online.
That's right. I attended 3 class sessions before I could register. And I couldn't buy a parking permit until after I had registered, which I couldn't do until I got the add number. Making sure you have enough $1 bills for parking is a little like having enough quarters for doing laundry. However, I did learn that if the machine is broken, security will give you a day pass thingy for free.
I was intending to sign up for Math 41, Statistics for Business & Social Science Majors, for which the calculus class I took is a pre-requisite. But I added into Math 44, which only requires some sort of Algebra as a pre-req. I double-checked the catalog – the days and times for all of the Math 41 and Math 44 classes are the same. Weird.
Anyway, I got an 'A' on my first test, and we are rolling along in probability. We just started doing the Normal Probability Distribution, aka the Bell Curve. The mean of the curve is 0, which happens to also be the maximum of the curve. That is to say, the slope of the tangent line at that point is zero. Or at least, that's what was running through my head as the teacher was teaching. The only reference he made to calculus was that the formula for the curve is derived via calculus. But he also said to think of the probabilities in terms of areas. I was really excited by my flicker of an almost understanding of the basics of how calculus and normal probability distribution are related. Because I'm a nerd. And that's how I roll.
Getting into the class was drama enough. I tend to do things in my own time, so when I tried to register, the class was closed. You mean I have to be one of those poor souls crowding the teacher at break time, begging for an add card?
First day of class: The teacher says that he will add 10 people, based on their priority number. Fortunately, the classroom is a computer lab, so I was able to get my priority number off of the school website just as the sign up sheet came to me.
Second class: The teacher calls roll, as well as the names of the people he will add. I hear the mispronunciation of my name. Relief. Now, all I have to do is bring proof of my priority number to the next class, and he would give me the add card so that can register online.
That's right. I attended 3 class sessions before I could register. And I couldn't buy a parking permit until after I had registered, which I couldn't do until I got the add number. Making sure you have enough $1 bills for parking is a little like having enough quarters for doing laundry. However, I did learn that if the machine is broken, security will give you a day pass thingy for free.
I was intending to sign up for Math 41, Statistics for Business & Social Science Majors, for which the calculus class I took is a pre-requisite. But I added into Math 44, which only requires some sort of Algebra as a pre-req. I double-checked the catalog – the days and times for all of the Math 41 and Math 44 classes are the same. Weird.
Anyway, I got an 'A' on my first test, and we are rolling along in probability. We just started doing the Normal Probability Distribution, aka the Bell Curve. The mean of the curve is 0, which happens to also be the maximum of the curve. That is to say, the slope of the tangent line at that point is zero. Or at least, that's what was running through my head as the teacher was teaching. The only reference he made to calculus was that the formula for the curve is derived via calculus. But he also said to think of the probabilities in terms of areas. I was really excited by my flicker of an almost understanding of the basics of how calculus and normal probability distribution are related. Because I'm a nerd. And that's how I roll.
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