Professors Praveen K. Kopalle, Koen H. Pauwels
There are four homework assignments. The class schedule lists the dates when they are due. The assignments will be provided to you a week in advance. They should be handed in at the beginning of the class session on due dates. In order to maximize your learning of statistics and its application to business, it is imperative that you work through these assignments individually, and as we discuss the topics in class, not just on the day before they are due. Selected problems from these assignments will be graded and are indicated by an asterisk. The non-graded problems should also be considered required work. We will provide full solutions along with your graded homework so that you can study them and correct your mistakes.
A quiz is scheduled on Friday, September 18th from 3:00 to 5:00pm. It will be based on the material covered through September 17th.
A final exam is scheduled on Tuesday, October 6th from 9:00 am to noon. It will cover the material after the quiz. However, as you will see, the topics we cover later in the course build on those covered earlier. It is therefore imperative that you have a good understanding of the first half to do well in the second half.
Review Sessions
An optional review session will be held every afternoon on class days. The purpose of these sessions is to provide an opportunity for you to listen to other students' questions as well as to give you a chance to air your own. No new material will be introduced, and you should certainly not feel obliged to attend if you do not feel the need. Teaching Assistant will hold these joint review sessions for all the sections. There is also a required SPSS tutorial on Monday, September 21st from 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm in Cook Auditorium. The review and tutorial session schedule is as follows:
Tues., Sept. 8th (Review 1) 5:00 to 6:30 pm Shapiro
Thurs., Sept. 10th (Review 2) 5:00 to 6:30 pm Shapiro
Sat., Sept. 12th (Review 3) 2:30 to 4:00 pm Shapiro
Mon., Sept. 14th (Review 4) 4:00 to 5:30 pm Shapiro
Tues., Sept. 15th (Review 5) 4:00 to 5:30 pm Shapiro
Wed., Sept. 16th (Review 5) 2:30 to 4:00 pm Shapiro
Thurs., Sept. 17th (Midterm Review) 4:00 to 5:30 pm Cook
Mon., Sept. 21st (SPSS Tutorial) 1:00 to 2:00 pm Cook (Required)
Mon., Sept. 21st (Review 6) 2:30 to 4:00 pm Shapiro
Wed., Sept. 23rd (Review 7) 2:30 to 4:00 pm Shapiro
Fri., Sept. 25th (Review 8) 3:00 to 4:30 pm Shapiro
Mon., Sept. 28th (Review 9) 2:30 to 4:00 pm Shapiro
Wed., Sept. 30th (Review 10) 2:30 to 4:00 pm Shapiro
Fri., Oct. 2nd (Final Review) 1:00 to 2:30 pm Cook
Studying for the Course
The textbook is quite easy to read and covers a lot of ground. However, some of the topics are not covered in depth. Class discussions, handouts, and the other references will fill these gaps. We expect you to read through the assigned chapters and familiarize yourself with the content before class. The class discussion will be aimed at providing a good understanding of the concepts and their application to business. To maximize your learning, you should work on parts of the homework assignments throughout the week, as we cover the relevant topics in class.
Computer Usage
You may use EXCEL in the first half of the course. In the second half of the course, you will use a statistical software package called SPSS for Windows. All the software tools have already been installed on your laptop computers. They are also available on the Tuck network. We will provide you with handouts containing instructions for their use.
Honor Code
We expect and encourage you to help one another in the learning process. However, we mean help and be helped without guile. Please work on each homework individually before you meet with your study group. You may make changes in your answers as a result of the study group discussion but only if you understand the changes and why they are being made. Your name on the assignment that you write/type and turn in for grading will indicate that it is your current understanding of the work, not your study group’s solution. Also, please note that it is a violation of the honor code to use any course materials such as homework assignments, exams, etc. from previous years, unless we provide them to you ourselves. Both the quiz and the final exam are open book, open notes (yours only) and individual assignments with no help from the internet.
Attendance and Laptop Policy
Attendance and on-time arrival at all class sessions is expected and you are responsible for knowing what transpired in every class. Except in an unforeseen emergency, we expect to be informed beforehand if you need to miss a class. There will be a grade penalty above and beyond the impact on class participation for more than one absence.
We also want to remind you of Tuck’s laptop policy. Computer use is not necessary during class. If you prefer to take notes on your computers, of course, you are free to do so. However, you are not allowed to use the computer for e-mail, internet access, electronic commerce, trades, etc. while in class. In our view, doing so is worse than not attending class at all.
Course Packet Contents
Course Syllabus (this document)
Note: Statistical Analysis Using Excel
Note: Skewness
Note: Reasons for Dividing by (n-1) for Sample Variance
Note: Covariance and Correlation
Note: Confidence Intervals and Sample Size
Note: Hypothesis Tests and p-Values
Note: Hypothesis Test for the Difference Between Two Means
Note: Using SPSS for Windows
Statistics for Managers: Primis Custom Publication of Applied Statistics for Business and Economics: An Essentials Version, Third Edition (1998), by Allen L. Webster
Materials
Required Text:
Statistics for Managers: Primis Custom Publication of the text, Applied Statistics for Business and Economics: An Essentials Version, Third Edition (1998), by Allen L. Webster
Supplementary Texts:
Berenson, Mark L., and David M. Levine (1996), Basic Business Statistics: Concepts and
Applications, Sixth Edition, Prentice Hall.
Lapin, L. (1994), Statistics for Modern Business Decisions, Sixth Edition, Harcourt
Brace Jovanovich.
Mendenhall & Sinich (1993), A Second Course in Business Statistics: Regression Analysis,
Fourth Edition, Dellen Publishing Company.
Newbold, Paul (1994), Statistics For Business and Economics, Fourth Edition, Prentice-Hall.
These texts are also on reserve at the Feldberg Library.
Grading
Your final grade will be determined as follows:
Final 40%
Midterm Quiz 25%
Homework Assignments 25%
Class Participation 10%
Schedule
09/08/2009
Overview - Chebyshev's Theorem - Normal Distribution
Chapters 1 through 3
Chapter 5, p121-130
Handout: Statistical Analysis Using Excel
Handout: Skewness
Handout: Reasons for Dividing by (n-1) for Sample Variance
Optional: Tuesday, September 8th (Review 1) 5:00 to 6:30 pm Shapiro
09/10/2009
Covariance & Correlation, Variance of a Combination of Variables
Handout: Covariance and Correlation
Optional: Thursday, September 10th (Review 2) 5:00 to 6:30 pm Shapiro
09/12/2009
Estimation: Sampling Distributions, Central Limit Theorem
Chapter 6, p141-154
Homework 1 due
Optional: Saturday, September 12th (Review 3) 2:30 to 4:00 pm Shapiro
09/14/2009
Estimation: Confidence Intervals
Chapter 7
Handout: Confidence Interval & Sample Size
Optional: Monday, September 14th (Review 4) 4:00 to 5:30 pm Shapiro
09/15/2009
Estimation: p-Values and Hypothesis Testing - TIME: 1:15 – 2:45 pm
COMBINED SECTIONS
Sect. 1&3 Georgiopoulos -
Sect. 2&4 Cook
Chapter 8, p193-200, 206-211
Handout: Hypothesis Tests & p-values
Optional: Tuesday, September 15th (Review 5) 4:00 to 5:30 pm Shapiro
09/16/2009
Estimation: Hypothesis Testing of Two Means
Chapter 9, p225-229
Handout: Hypothesis Test for the Difference Between Two Means
Homework 2 due.
Optional: Wednesday, September 16th (Review 6) 2:30 to 4:00 pm Shapiro
09/17/2009
Stats Review Session
Optional: Statistics quiz review session on Thursday September 17th, 4:00 to 5:30 pm
Statistics quiz on Friday, September 18th, 3:00 to 5:00 pm
09/17/2009
Stats Quiz
Statistics quiz on Friday, September 18th, 3:00 to 5:00 pm
09/21/2009
Introduction and Statistical Inference in Bivariate Regression
Chapter 11, p315-326, 332-343
Handout: Using SPSS for Windows
Required: Monday, September 21st (SPSS Tutorial) 1:00 to 2:00 pm Cook
Optional: Monday, September 21st (Review 7) 2:30 to 4:00 pm Shapiro
09/23/2009
Prediction in Bivariate Regression
Chapter 11, p343, 345-349
Optional: Wednesday, September 23rd (Review 8) 2:30 to 4:00 pm Shapiro
09/25/2009
Multiple Regression
Chapter 12, p363-374, 381-382
Optional: Friday, September 25th (Review 9) 2:30 to 4:00 pm Shapiro
Homework 3 due.
09/28/2009
Inferences in Multiple Regression
Chapter 12, p377-381
Optional: Monday, September 28th (Review 10) 2:30 to 4:00 pm Shapiro
09/30/2009
Dummy Variables in Multiple Regression
Chapter 12, p383-387
Optional: Wednesday, September 30th (Review 11) 2:30 to 4:00 pm Shapiro
10/02/2009
Dummy Variables in Multiple Regression (cont)
Homework 4 due.
Optional: Friday, October 2nd (Final Review) 1:00 to 2:30 pm Cook
Final Exam on Tuesday, October 6th, 9:00 to noon
10/06/2009
Stats Final Exam
Final Exam on Tuesday, October 6th, 9:00 to noon
