Why is Statistics So Scary?
September 26, 2007 Posted by Rachel Graham
I have been completely immersed in the world of statistics for the last three and a half years. I have had the privaledge of teaching for most of that time as well. What I am amazed to see over and over again is that there are hundreds of people out there who are afraid of statistics and don’t know why!
My first question when someone says, “I hate statistics,” is always, “Why?”
The most common answers I get are:
“I am really bad at math.”
“My friend said it was hard, and I have to take it.”
“I hated that class.”
My response to the first one is that statistics uses some basic math but really its the art of understanding information.
To the second I usually say nothing because no one can get through college on what other people do in their classes.
The third is the one that interests me the most because usually a bad instructor was to blame. I don’t ever want to be one of those. Now, you have to know that the reason that I ask why is because as an eductator I want to know things that I can do to improve my students’ experience with statistics.
What I need is the nitty gritty. Why didn’t/don’t you like your statistics class? Is it because the examples didn’t apply to you? Is it because the instructor couldn’t answer your questions? Is it because it was all words and not enough graphics? Is it because you had a bad attitude going into it so the class never stood a chance in your mind? I am looking for people’s specific comments on the question, “Why is statistics so scary?”
Technorati Tags: classes, scary, statistics, teaching
October 19, 2007 at 4:54 am
You raise an interesting question. I have responded in my Oct-17-2007 posting, ” Statistics: Why Do So Many Hate It?” (http://abbottanalytics.blogspot.com/2007/10/statistics-why-do-so-many-hate-it.html) on the Web log I co-author with Dean Abbot, “Data Mining and Predictive Analytics” (http://abbottanalytics.blogspot.com/).
October 19, 2007 at 7:50 am
I think Stats can be scary for some students is because all the greek letters and profs not making connection to real life examples.
November 8, 2007 at 2:09 pm
“I hate statistics”.
I hate they way statistics is taught. It is too broad of a topic for a specific course, and should rather be integrated (no pun intended) with other courses. For example, while learning integration in a calculus course, there could be a small aside involving the normal distribution (since the normal dist. integrated from -inf to inf equals 1). One of the few parts of statistics that I don’t see able to be merged into another course is probability, which could easily be fit into a ~3 month course.
I also dislike the inconsistent notation used with statistics. It’s like everything BUT statistics uses a nice, standard notation.
One last complaint; I absolutely HATE the reliance on numbers (this ties into the way it is taught). There is so much that could be done symbolically, but is instead done using brute-force methods such as using random numbers.
Hopefully I can avoid any more statistics courses until I’m done with my schooling
November 29, 2007 at 2:10 pm
I’ve been relearning statistics lately. I’m not a mathematician, but i generally enjoy math and i use it often in my job. I find statistics slightly intimidating because it’s difficult sometimes to figure out if you have the right answer (we’re talking about a field that’s defined two different ways to be wrong). Even if you apply the methods correctly, you can get bad answers if you assume an incorrect model for your data; and often you don’t arrive at a firm answer, but rather some confidence interval or likelihood.
Finally, i think that statistics as an academic domain is confused with statistics as a tool of persuasion (in the sense of “lies, damned lies, and statistics”). I think this has given the layman the impression that statistics is not so much a rigorous branch of mathematics, but rather a means of selecting the best data to support your own view.
January 23, 2008 at 2:19 pm
I agree with you when you say statistics is used as a “as a tool of persuasion.” The misuses of statistics in our daily lives are unbelievable. I have my students bring in an example of an unfounded statistic for a take-home assignment. They never seem to have any problem finding one and I have never had a repeat. They bring me things from the radio, television, and all kinds of print. It is amazing to me.