These handouts were used in the four Workshop sessions. Answers to exercises are included so you should be able to work through them on your own. Contact the Maths Learning Service if you have any queries via the menu bar at the bottom of this page.
Use the menu bar at the end of the page to return or to contact the Maths Learning Service.
Statistics works with numbers so you need to know how to manipulate numbers in calculations, how to use formulas and calculate the results. Occasionally you may need to re-arrange a formula.
These notes revise the necessary skills and include some calculations you will see during the course.
• Working with numbers: order of operations, signed numbers, decimals,
fractions, percentages, square roots.
• Algebra: formulas, solving equations.
Straight line graphs play a role in the course so you need to know the equation of a line and how to interpret its slope.
• Straight line models: equation of a straight line, lines of best fit.
• Other models: logarithmic transformations.
• More working with numbers: absolute value (modulus), intervals.
These are some assumed knowledge topics in statistics. Statistical Practice I (Life Sciences) will revise them quite quickly so it's useful to have a look at them now.
• Visual summaries of data: stem-and-leaf plot, frequency tables,
histograms.
• Numerical summaries of data: average - mean, median, spread - interquartile
range, standard deviation.
• Appendix: box-and-whisker plots.
Download
handout (276 KB)
This is not assumed knowledge but the concepts and mathematical formulas involved are quite tricky. The subject co-ordinator thought it would be useful to explore this topic in a Workshop.
• Counting things: factorials, binomial coefficient.
• The Binomial Distribution
• Appendices: the binomial coefficient on a calculator, multiplication
rule of probability, applications and pitfalls.
Download
handout (136 KB)