The two courses, M384C and M384D, are two of the four statistics courses required for a Master of Science in Statistics at UT Austin. They are not introductory courses in statistics. The best preparation for M384C is an undergraduate course in mathematical statistics, which had an undergraduate course in probability as a prerequisite. At UT, those courses are M362K , Probability I, and M378K, Introduction to Mathematical Statistics. The prerequisite for the probability course is calculus.
However, students come to this program with a variety of academic backgrounds. Some of these students have had other combinations of undergraduate courses and been successful in M384C and M384D. The purpose of the further discussion here is to help students understand whether their background is minimally adequate to begin M384C and, if not, what to do to prepare for it.
I will be happy to discuss the course and the prerequisite with any prospective student by email, telephone, or in person. (If you want to talk by telephone or in person, start with email to set up a time.)
Overview |
| Calculus skills | Probability
Skills | Statistics Skills |
Computer Software Skills | Prerequisite for M384D | Other
MS courses
In order to succeed in M384C, every student must have strong current knowledge of calculus. Many homework problems require calculus and the calculus techniques will not generally be discussed in class.
In addition, a student should have done some reasonable amount of probability (in which calculus was used) and should have had at least one upper-division statistics course.
If a student has had substantial applied statistics (usually more than one course) and feels confident with that material, but not much probability, it is possible that he/she may be able to handle M384C and M384D. Such a student should be prepared to do extra reading and background work from an undergraduate probability and mathematical statistics text. Suggestions will be provided. The topic lists given here for probability and statistics are a good place to start.
If a student has had a probability course but no statistics, this is a more serious problem. In M384C/M384D, we do not go into detail about elementary statistics topics or applied statistics topics and so a student will not get a very balanced view of the field of statistics from these courses. If the student is taking other statistics courses concurrently with M384C/M384D, and is willing to do some guided outside reading in an elementary statistics text and a mathematical statistics text, then it is possible that he/she could succeed in M384C/M384D. The topic list given here for statistics is a good place to start.
In a modern calculus class (or precalculus class) students should have had some exposure to using technology to graph a function, find a maximum or minimum value, and solve an equation. Students may have done that on anything from graphing calculators to a sophisticated computer algebra system such as Mathematica. In M384C/D. I will assume that you can graph a function, find a maximum or minimum value, and solve an equation numerically. I'll illustrate that using a spreadsheet, such as Excel, but it is fine to use more sophisticated tools.
In a modern statistics class, students should have had some exposure to using statistical software to do some applied statistics problems, such as t-tests and regression. Some students will also have used that software to do some simulations in their previous courses, such as simulations illustrating the Central Limit Theorem. In M384C/D, we will use software to do several simulations. This requires that the software allow you to randomly sample from various types of distributions. If you don't have statistics software that will do that, you can wait until you start the course to begin.
This preliminary assignment will allow you to explore your software and improve your skills with it.
The best preparation for M384D is having just successfully completed M384C. Some students who have just completed a graduate probability course in one of the engineering departments have been able to handle M384D, but only with a substantial amount of outside work on the topics that were not covered in their other course. Those students also had substantial knowledge of mathematical statistics from other courses.
There are two other specific required courses in the Master of Science in Statistics program at UT Austin. These are Regression and Analysis of Variance. These courses cover both theory and applications in those subjects. For that reason, the courses M384C and M384D do not cover the topics of regression and analysis of variance.
Last updated May 13, 2004 . Mary Parker