INSTRUCTOR

Paul D. Allison 276 McNeil 898-6717,  allison@ssc.upenn.edu     http://www.ssc.upenn.edu/~allison

Ofc. Hours: Tues, Wed. 1:30-2:30 or by appointment

TEACHING ASSISTANT:  Adair Crosley

LECTURES. Tues. and Thurs. 12-1:30

CONTENT. This is the first semester of a two-semester sequence. It is essentially an introductory statistics course covering descriptive statistics, probability, random variables, estimation, sampling, hypothesis testing, and chi-square tests. The second semester stresses multiple regression and its extensions to simultaneous equations.

TEXTS. Moore and McCabe, Introduction to the Practice of Statistics (at Penn bookstore)

              Allison, lecture notes (at Campus Copy).
 

EXAMS. A midterm and a final exam. Dates will be announced at least two weeks in advance

RECITATION SECTIONS.  Sessions will typically include review and further explanation of lecture material, return of assignments, explanation of difficult homework problems, and responses to students' questions on any of the course material.

PROBLEMS SETS. There will be several problem sets assigned at irregular intervals throughout the semester. They will be graded as either acceptable or unacceptable. Unacceptable work must be redone.

GRADING. Final grades will be almost entirely determined by exam performance, with the midterm accounting for 40 percent and the final accounting for 60 percent. Failure to turn in acceptable problem sets can detract from your grade, however.

PREREQUISITES. Competence in high school algebra and some familiarity with social science data and research. No previous statistical training is presumed.