Elementary STA309 Business Statistics
Unique Number 03815/03825
PROFESSOR Bin Gu Hours: Monday/Wednesday 2:00 3:30 pm Phone: [phone] Office: CBA 5.252 E-mail: [e-mail] TEACHING ASSISTANT Wenjing Duan Hours: TBD Phone: [phone] Office: CBA 1.306A Email: [e-mail] TEXTS The Practice of Business Statistics, Using Data for Decisions, First Edition, by David Moore, George McCabe, William Duckworth, and Stanley Sclove, W.H. Freeman and Company, 2003. CPSRF response pad and registration. The response pad can be obtained at the University Coop and the registration is obtained at http://www.einstruction.com. Recommended: Upgrade Study Pack to accompany The Practice of Business Statistics GRADING Class participation Homework Projects Test 1 Test 2 Final Exam 5% 5% 15% 20% 25% 30%
The grade on one test may be replaced with your final exam grade. The course grading scale: A 90-100, B 80-89, C 70-79, D 60-69, F below 60. COURSE OBJECTIVE This course concentrates on the practice of statistics as a tool for learning about the real world. Upon completion of the course you should be able to think critically about data, use graphical and numerical summaries, apply standard statistical inference procedures, and draw conclusions from such analyses. WEB PAGE http://courses.utexas.edu
This course will use a password-protected class web site. Syllabi, notes, videos, assignments, and other resources will be available within this site. Site activities will include submission of homework assignments and posting of grades. Students who do not want their names included in the electronic class roster must restrict their directory information in the Office of the Registrar, Main Building, Room 1. For information on restricting directory information see: http://www.utexas.edu/student/registrar/catalogs/gi00-01/app/appc09.html. Students who have restricted their directory information must see the professor to identify him or herself. Login to the course website using your UT EID. You should be able to use the website on computers running Windows, Internet Explorer, Excel and the Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you have difficulty, you may be able to get help from the ACITS Help Desk (475-9400). Alternatively, you may need to work in the CBA labs. HOMEWORK Statistics is a cumulative subject that requires frequent practice. If one topic is confusing, the next is likely to be more so. To address this, it is necessary for you to practice statistics on a frequent basis. The homework assignments are designed to keep you current in the course. The assignments are available online on the course web page. It is recommended that students work on assignments independently. You may open an assignment (and even print it out) several times before submitting your answers. Click on the Submit button (at the bottom) when you are done. Assignments must be completed by midnight on Friday. It is recommended that you do not wait until the last minute to complete assignments. This will allow for any unexpected difficulties (with the material, website, etc.). Each assignment is worth 1 point. The final grade for homework assignments is calculated by summing the grades of the top 5 home assignments you completed. Once the deadline has past, you will be able see how you did on an assignment. Click on Tools and then Grades and then the automatically generated grade for the assignment to see the correct answers. Ignore these HW grades. Your TA will assign grades after each assignment is due. Working the assigned problems is not sufficient to guarantee an A in the course. Your proficiency with statistics will improve with active practice; i.e., working problems and explaining your results. The textbook has about 100 problems per chapter for additional practice. Answers to all odd numbered problems are given in the back of the textbook. Detailed solutions to these problems are available in the Student Solutions Manual found in the Upgrade Study Pack. CLASS PARTICIPATION You are expected to obtain a CPSRF response pad and to bring it to class every day. You will need to register the pad at http://www.einstruction.com. Your class participation grade will be determined from the responses that you provide in class.
EXAMS Mid-semester exams for this semester are scheduled in class for Wednesday, February 22 and Wednesday, April 5. The final exam will be given at the time specified in the official course schedule. You may bring one 8.5 by 11 page (both sides) of notes to the first two tests, two pages to the second test, and three pages to the final exam. Necessary distributional tables will be provided with the test; no formulas will be provided. You may bring a calculator to the exams. The final exam will be cumulative. There will be no make-up tests. Your final exam grade can replace one lower test grade. must You inform the professor in advance if you are going to miss a test due to observance of a religious holiday or an official university activity. PROJECTS There will be three projects to be completed for this class. The projects are examples of real problems from the field of finance. The projects are designed to give you practical experience analyzing real-world data that you will obtain yourself. You will apply statistical concepts that you learn in this class. Projects are due by midnight on their due dates (Sundays). COMPUTING The practice of statistics requires a fair amount of numerical calculations. We will use Microsoft Excel for statistical computations and graphics. It is also useful to have a calculator that does two-variable statistics, that is, which calculates not only mean and standard deviation, but also the correlation and the least-squares regression line from keyed-in data. Two-variable calculators are available for $25 or less. A graphing calculator is not required for this course. The McCombs School of Business has 2 computer labs with Dell computers: CBA 5.304/5.325(MOD Lab) and CBA 5.322(Millennium Lab). Lab hours are extensive both in the CBA labs and the SMF. You must have an ITS computer account to use the labs. The datasets to individual homework assignments are available as you work. GETTING HELP Your professor and TAs are eager to help you during office hours. Questions can also be posted on the class bulletin board. The TA and professor will check (and respond to these questions) at least once/day Sunday through Friday. Students may also respond to questions on the bulletin board. If you prefer a private tutor, the UT Learning Center (phone [phone]) in Jester A332A can arrange one for you for a reasonable charge. The UT Learning Center also has a series of videotapes and computer programs to help you with material in this class.
SCHOLASTIC DISHONESTY The McCombs School of Business has no tolerance for acts of scholastic dishonesty. The responsibilities of both students and faculty with regard to scholastic dishonesty are described in detail in the Policy Statement on Scholastic Dishonesty for the McCombs School of Business. By teaching this course, I have agreed to observe all of the faculty responsibilities described in that document. By enrolling in this class, you have agreed to observe all of the student responsibilities described in that document. If the application of that Policy Statement to this class and its assignments is unclear in any way, it is your responsibility to ask me for clarification. Policy on Scholastic Dishonesty: Students who violate University rules on scholastic dishonesty are subject to disciplinary penalties, including the possibility of failure in the course and/or dismissal from the University. Since dishonesty harms the individual, all students, and the integrity of the University, policies on sc...