Spring 1988

A copy of this syllabus and eventually other documents related to the class will be posted in this web page. The URL is:

Weekly homework and other important notices will be posted to the b-board. You should subscribe to this b-board and check it regularly. The name of the b-board is:

This is a course in statistics and probability designed for the students in the Business Administration program. No background on probability or statistics is assumed.

This is not a math-intensive course. However, a working knowledge of elementary calculus is assumed. Calculus will be used when we cover probability theory. The calculus-based probability that you will learn in this class will be used in several courses that you will be taking later in the curriculum.

Data analysis in the Lab sessions will be performed using Minitab and MS-Excel. No previous knowledge of these packages is required. However, students are expected to be familiar with the Andrew System and Mac clusters on campus.

This course covers material that is very important to managers and plays a fundamental role in the BA curriculum. The topics include:

• Descriptive Statistics - collection, analysis and interpretation of data with focus on making business decisions.
• Probability theory - to quantify uncertainty, variability and risk.
• Statistical Inference - to fit models to data and then using those models to aid in the decision process.

This is an applied rather than a theoretical class. While mathematical material will be covered, the major goal is for the students to develop a set of skills and tools which will be important in their management careers and in other CMU courses.

This class provides a basis for the course on regression and forecasting (36-208 or 70-208) that most BA students will take for the econometrics sequence (73-260, 73-360). In addition, the material covered in this course will be used extensively in classes on finance, production, marketing and econometrics.

The course will cover Chapters 1-9 and the beginning of Chapter 10 of the textbook. Chapters 10-18 will be covered in the course 70-208). In addition to the textbook, a module of calculus-based probability will be distributed to augment Chapters 6 and 7.

The goal of the homework assignments is to develop problem solving skills, to emphasize concepts covered in the lecture, to monitor your understanding of the material covered in the course, and to provide feedback to you.

Homework assignments will be given in class on every Wednesday at the end of the lecture. It is your responsibility to make sure that you get the homework assignment before leaving the class. If you are unable to get the homework assignment at the end of the class, it is your responsibility to look for the assigned problems posted on the b-board.

All homework assignments will be due at the beginning of the class on Wednesday. You will not be allowed to hand in your assignment any later than 5 minutes after the class has started. This policy will be strictly enforced. Solutions to the homework assignment will be distributed at the end of the class. Graded homeworks will be distributed a week after you handed it in at the end of the Wednesday lecture.

No student should ask for or offer assistance to any other student on any problem until the students needing help has made a serious effort to solve that problem. After such an effort has been made, the student should seek help from the instructor, teaching assistant or a fellow student. Collaboration of this type is acceptable in this course. All work handed in for credit must be written up individually. This includes computer output when used in the homework.

If you believe that your homework has not been graded correctly, you may contact the grader. Please note that any homework resubmitted for grading will be graded all over again. This may, at times, result in a reduction of your grade if some errors are detected. Any changes made by you after the homework has been picked up and before submitted for regrading will constitute cheating and the cheating policy will be strictly enforced. In all cases decision of the grader will be final.

An important component of this course is the computer laboratory exercise. Computer lab exercises will be individual and other will be completed by a group of 2 students. You are free to choose your own partner. It is expected that both partners in a group will contribute equally to the completion of a laboratory exercise. Attending the laboratory period is mandatory. If you cannot, for some reason attend, you must inform the TA or the instructor in advance. Failure to attend the laboratory period without permission can result in an R grade.

Most of the laboratory exercises will use Minitab. There will be a lab assignment to be handed-in at the end of each session.

Class participation is very important. It provides a mechanism to give immediate feedback on your understanding of the material. Moreover, examples from other students enrich the content of the class making it more interesting.

3 in-class 12-minute quiz will be given at the end of chapters 2, 6 and 8. The first quiz will include material from chapters 1 and 2, the second quiz will include material from chapters 5 and 6 and the third quiz will include material from chapter 8 exclusively. The purpose of these quizzes is to provide early feedback on your understanding of the material before the exams.

The two one-hour in-class exams are tentatively schedule for:

The final exam will be administered during the period assigned by the resgistar’s office.

No makeup exams are planned. Students who must miss an exam for a health or familiar emergency or some circumstance beyond his or her control should contact the instructor before the exam is given and provide an excuse from a physician or a CMU official such as the Dean of Students. An adjustment in the grading scheme will be made for such exceptions.

The final grade will be determined by an absolute method of grading. This is done to allow you to obtain a grade on your own individual performance without having to compete with each other. Under this scheme, it is possible for the whole class to get an A grade or in the extreme case for the whole class to get an R grade. We, of course, hope that you will work hard to get an A. The following criteria will be used to assign mid term and final grades:

Any student caught cheating in this course will receive an R and the facts of the case will be reported to the Dean of Students Affairs. Students are encouraged to discuss homework and laboratory projects but the submitted solutions must involve only an individual’s effort, or a team effort in the case of the computer labs. Any student who copies from someone else’s homework, quiz, test or exam solutions, or any student who willingly allows another student to copy his or her work, or any student who submits someone else’s work as his or her own, will be deemed guilty of cheating.