Palestine University Faculty

of Commerce

An Introduction to Statistics Course

Instructor : Dr. Nafez M. Barakat

Course objectives:

Statistics is the science of obtaining, analyzing and interpreting data

and has applications in almost every field. As such, it is a part of the
daily life of every informed person and an absolutely essential tool for
researchers of almost all disciplines. The goals of this course are to
provide you with an understanding of the basic concepts in statistics
and ways of thinking statistically. I hope that this course will help
you to evaluate numerical arguments critically and to appreciate the
impact of statistical ideas on your academic discipline. In your text, this
covers chapters 1, 3, 6-12.

Required text:

Business Statistics, A First Course, 2010, Fifth edition, Levine, D. M.,

Krehbiel, T. C., & Berenson, M. L. Prentice Hall , New Jersey.

Advice:

I will expect students to attend and participate in all lectures and

recitations and to read and understand the book and work text
problems. I cannot overemphasize the importance of both reading
and practicing over the course of the entire semester! Start reading and
working problems from day 1. The book is written well enough so that you
can read it on your own. You will be expected to know the material even if
we don't cover it in class.

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Note:
Some people suffer from "math anxiety." A common symptom of this is
paralysis when faced with a math problem, and a reluctance to put
anything down on paper lest it be wrong. The solution to this is practice,
and resolution in making mistakes. Write down all the solutions you can
think of, and then examine them to find the errors. Waste lots of paper!
Some people find themselves studying for a long time without
making progress. This can be counterproductive. If this sounds like you
then either set a time limit for yourself or study until you feel that
additional time will not be productive. Then stop. I repeat: just stop. Don't
feel bad about it. I have the same experience. I can only work at a problem
for so long before I have to stop. Come back to the problem later. If you
still can't make progress, come see me. Perhaps we can say the right thing
to get you going again.

Exams:

There will be midterm exam plus a final exam. The formula sheet will be
given for each exam. Review sessions will be held prior to each exam. The
tentative dates will be announced later. Please check your schedules for
possible conflicts.

Midterm To be announced

Final Exam To be announced

Grading:

Your grade will be determined by your Exams as shown and described

below:

Homework 20%

Midterm 20%

Final Exam 60%

Attendance:

Students are expected to attend all classes. It is your responsibility to keep

informed of any announcements; e.g., exams dates, syllabus adjustments
or policy changes made during scheduled classes.

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Tentative Schedule:

Note that this is a tentative schedule and is subject to changes.

Chapter Topic Week

1 Introduction and Data Collection

3 Numerical Descriptive Measures

6 The Normal Distribution

7 Sampling and Sampling Distributions

8 Confidence Interval Estimation

Practice for MIDTERM

9 Fundamentals of Hypothesis Testing: One-Sample Tests

10 Two-Sample Tests

11 Chi-Square Tests

12 Simple Linear Regression

Practice for the FINAL Exam

Have a nice semester