C459 Intro to Probability and Statistics

Posted by C.T. Gray on May 23, 2019 · 2 min read

Credits: 3

Time to Complete: 7 days

This was a difficult class. I did ok on the statistics piece but some of the material for probability was lacking. The Acrobatiq material was confusing and didn’t explain alot of detail. There are pre-recorded cohorts for the modules so I watched those (a few more than once). I also watched a few Khan Academy videos, particularly the ones about dependence/independence and conditional probabilities.

About 4 days in, I took the PA. I passed, but only barely (like 67%). The coaching report indicated I needed to review, surprise, theoretical/empirical probability and conditional probability and independence. I rewatched the cohort videos for modules 10, 11, and 12, then a couple days later, retook the PA. This time, I scored exemplary and decided to schedule the OA for later that night.

Passed the OA at about 83%. The OA lined up pretty much with the PA but there were some new questions that required careful reading and thinking. Funny enough, when I submitted the exam, I was on the fence whether or not I had passed. I breathed a sigh of relief when I got the notification that I had.

The Acrobatiq material goes over all 11 of the probability rules (module 11), but there are only about 5 that are required (6 actually, but you can combine 2 of them). I found building two way tables and probability trees helped a lot on the exam. Also, you are allowed to use a calculator on the exam, but the math is light. A scientific calculator is overkill for this one.

Takeaway

Don’t spend a lot of time in the Acrobatiq material. It’s not well organized. Watch the pre-recorded cohorts (URL found in the Pacing Guide), then search for additional materials online, namely Khan Academy Statistics. Some reddit posts talked about the Statistics Crash Course videos on YouTube, which I checked out, but I didn’t find much detail in them. I thought they were too general and didn’t provide anything useful for the exam.

PS. Pay close attention to the color wheel question on the exam.